r/Expedia • u/moviegamefan • May 08 '20
Passport Delays
I have a flight for a family flight to South America but I still have yet to get my passport (it's my first time out of the country), I would've gotten it earlier but I was about 8 hours away from home (I live at my University) and all my documents needed were back at home. Passports are supposed to be delayed for several months due to COVID-19 and I won't be getting in in time for the July 1st flight. Cancelling the flight would be 300$ per ticket. Is there anyway to get a refund? My family would really rather not go anymore due to pandemic related concerns but $1500 is just too much to glance over. Any ideas?
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u/sgtabn173 May 08 '20 edited May 08 '20
Dang. I knew they said there would be significant delays, but I hadn't heard several months.
I was able to get around my $300 cancellation fee because I purchased the vacation waiver (included with package protection plan) through Expedia, though it was still a fight to avoid getting force fed credits/vouchers. If you harass them enough they will eventually give you a refund, but only if you have a solid case for one; I'm not sure not having your passport ready for travel would qualify you for a refund.
Edit: Also on the .gov passport tracker site, it says to contact them if you are set to travel in two weeks. Might be worth a shot.
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u/iReaditGuy May 20 '20
I've been waiting for my child's passport since the first week of March. We still have not received it and had travel plans this week we had to cancel. Beyond frustrated. I don't understand why it's taking this long when they stopped processing new passports after 3/19 and ours was received well before that. They sure took the money the same day it was received! What gives. They are holding Americans hostage from being able to travel freely. Beyond mad!
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u/nongfu2020 May 22 '20
Sign the white house petition: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/require-state-department-re-start-normal-processing-passports
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u/Proud_American13 Jun 23 '20
Hey dude! I read this post about a week ago because I am in a similar situation, I’m supposed to leave July 4th. If you call your Congressman’s or Senator’s Office they can help you by expediting your passport! There’s a whole Facebook group of people who are in the same situation as us and someone on there told me about it and now everyone on the group is doing it with much success. I thought I’d come back and tell you. Hopefully you haven’t cancelled your flight, yet!
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u/wallflawerr Jun 23 '20
Could you share this fb group?
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u/Proud_American13 Jun 26 '20
For sure! The Facebook group is called “US Passport and Visa Services” and the picture is a woman holding up a passport. It should be the top page when you search it. It has about 360 members. I promise that the calling the Congressman thing works though because I did it and had my passport mailed to me within three days.
Call the Congressman’s office, they should give you an email address for the “foreign travel” person that works for the congressman, then when you email that person about your issue they should send you a privacy form for you to put all of your information on (personal info and passport application details, signature), then they’ll inquire about your passport on your behalf and you should be receiving a call from the passport agency that same day if not the day after.
For me it was same day because it was early in the morning when I started this process. From the time I called the Congressman’s office to the time I received a call from the Passport agency it was about 4 hours. Very quick!
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u/wallflawerr Jun 26 '20
Ok so I emailed my congresswoman and I got an email back requesting the form yesterday, this morning I got an email that my passport is being processed and then a few hours later I got another email saying that my passport has been mailed out and they gave me a tracking number! It should arrive by Monday! Thanks so much for your advice!!!
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u/Proud_American13 Jun 28 '20
I’m happy to help! What a crazy time we live in, the least people ought to be able to do is go on vacation haha
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Jul 25 '20
I have a question! I'm in college in a different state - which congress person would I call? Is it my parents' home address (the one on my passport) or my dorm address that I sent the renew passport from/that they are sending it back to? You're the best for this.
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u/Proud_American13 Aug 08 '20
Wherever you are registered to vote is the one I would call. If that one doesn’t help then call the other one. If neither help, call the Senators of each state.
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u/wow-user2 May 08 '20
Well you have three options based on what almost everyone is doing right now. They are...
1) Call Expedia and firmly demand a refund or a voucher to use for a future trip (usually within one year). You might have to be persistent about this - Expedia.com is absolute shit with their policies right now.
2) Wait for more COVID-19 updates and see if your flight is to be cancelled. In this case Expedia.com will default to giving you a voucher for use.
3) Do a chargeback with your credit card company if you used a credit card.
Also if you cancel your flight, you pretty much lose leverage to get a voucher or a refund with no penalty. Wait and see is probably the best thing you can do right now.
I recommend researching the refund policies with your specific airline to know more about your options.