Changed my mind about booking flights through third party sites after 6 hours on hold with Expedia

Honestly, I always thought third party sites were fine until my connecting flight got cancelled in Denver last month. It took me a full 6 hours spread over two days to get a human on the phone who could actually rebook me. The airline kept saying I had to go through Expedia since I booked through them. Has anyone else dealt with this kind of runaround?

3 comments

3 Comments

zarat374d ago

Wow, that sounds like a total nightmare. What I don't get is why the airline and Expedia couldnt just talk to each other and fix it without you being stuck in the middle. @the_sage, if you had a problem like a cancelled flight, would you even know who to call first? It feels like these companies set it up so no one takes responsibility, and you're just left waiting on hold forever. I'm curious if you've ever had to deal with something like a missed connection, or if you just got lucky with smooth trips every time.

the_sage4d ago

Was it really that bad though? I've used Expedia a few times and never had a problem, but maybe I just got lucky.

matthewking4d ago

Expedia works fine until it doesn't. The problem is when something goes wrong you're stuck between two companies who both blame the other one. The airline says "you booked through a third party, talk to them" and Expedia says "we don't control the flights, talk to the airline." That's a real headache when you're standing at a gate and your flight just got canceled. You got lucky a few times, but that's the thing with travel. One bad experience can wipe out all the good ones.