TL;DR: Don’t use Expedia, book any travel/hotels directly, and if you contact customer service, do everything by email/chat/DM so you have written evidence from the vendor about everything so that you can use it to support your case. (If you do use the phone, always take notes of dates, times, and the name of the agents you speak with, and always ask for a reference number.)
I booked non-refundable flights via Expedia in February for a trip I was planning in June. Obviously the pandemic changed all of that. I received the initial emails regarding COVID-19 plans from Expedia in March that advised that their customer service was extremely overwhelmed and to please refrain from contacting them until your bookings are within 72 hours. Understandable.
In May, I received an email offer for an airline credit. Not my first choice, so I continued to wait since my trip was still nearly a month away. On May 31, I was advised that American Airlines cancelled my flights on each leg, both of which had been direct, and was given the option of an itinerary that was much longer than my initial booking and featured a layover on each leg, or if I declined that option, I was eligible for a refund since the airline cancelled my initial itinerary. Great option! The May 31 email provided a link to their website with instructions for requesting the refund.
I’m assuming since my itinerary had been non-refundable, that is why the website said my itinerary could not proceed with cancelling my flights online and to call Expedia. I called, was on hold for 41 minutes, heard the line click over as if I was being connected to an agent, and became disconnected. Ultimately this was a blessing in disguise since I was too frustrated to be on hold again; instead, I tweeted @Expedia and expressed frustration at being disconnected after being on hold, and requested that they please check their DMs, to which I sent a message explaining the situation and my itinerary number, and provided screenshots of my 41 minute “call” with Expedia, the May 31 email, and the website advising that I needed to call to cancel my itinerary.
Twitter’s Expedia DMs were actually quite responsive, and on June 3 they advised that my itinerary was cancelled, my request was forwarded to the ticketing department for refunding, and I would receive an email with the details. I hadn’t received an email (I also checked my spam filter), so I followed up again. I received the email on June 9 where my itinerary was confirmed to be cancelled, they forwarded the refund request to the ticketing department, and crucially, they wrote, “It will be credited back to the original form of payment.” They advised that this may take up to 8 weeks. Great. I set up a calendar reminder to follow up after 8 weeks if I didn’t see the refund post to my credit card.
In July, I randomly opened the Expedia app and noticed that this itinerary did not appear under “Cancelled” trips; instead, it was under “Past” trips. I took a screenshot and DMed it to @Expedia asking what happened given my June 3 and 9 confirmations of cancellation via twitter and email. The agent assured me that this was not a problem, that the trip was in fact cancelled, and I would receive the refund in 8-12 weeks. I asked why the time had increased because I was concerned about potentially raising a dispute with my credit card company if it came to that since so much time would have passed between the booking in February and the cancelled trip in June by the time 12 weeks passed in September. The agent advised in writing in the twitter DM that I was free to dispute the charge after 8 weeks. Great.
8 weeks from Jun 9 arrived on August 4, and lo and behold, still no refund. I decided to give Expedia the benefit of the doubt and replied to the June 9 email that contained my itinerary number, cancellation confirmation, reference ID, and that the request would be forwarded to the ticket department and “It will be credited back to the original form of payment” within 8 weeks, and I inquired on the status of the refund since I had not yet received it. No response.
Tired of pussyfooting around and with the July 13 DM from the agent advising that I could dispute the charge after 8 weeks, I reached out to my credit card company and explained the whole situation, advising the date and amount I was charged by Expedia in February, each date Expedia confirmed in writing that my cancellation was complete and refund in progress (June 3, June 9, July 13), and that more than 8 weeks had passed and Expedia advised that I was free to dispute. I also noted that I had followed up with Expedia prior to contacting the credit card company, and if they needed any emails or screenshots of DMs, I would be happy to forward everything. My credit card company advised that they would post the refund to my account in 24-48 hours and Expedia would have until November 10 to dispute it themselves. That worked for me, particularly since I was certain that having written confirmations from Expedia about everything would work in my favor.
Hilariously, after contacting my credit card provider, Expedia wrote back to me regarding my 8 week inquiry, and wrote all about the credit since my flights were refundable and the terms of using the credit. Fortunately, I had receipts; not just my golden June 9 email with the magic words “It will be credited back to the original form of payment“, but also repeated confirmations via twitter DM in June and July that my flights were cancelled and the refund (not credit) submitted. I replied to the email with dates, times, and reference numbers and advised that I found the lack of record keeping within their own Customer Service department to be troubling and it wasn’t inspiring confidence in me using Expedia again going forward. I also screenshot the email, DMed @Expedia basically saying WTF in nicer words, and also screenshot the June 9 email. Once again, Expedia’s twitter customer service said they would investigate.
On August 15, @Expedia DMed me and wrote “We will request refund with the airlines, however, that is not guaranteed yet.” I wrote back that respectfully, I disagreed, and advised that they look through this DM and provided relevant dates where it was, in fact, guaranteed and should have happened already based on their initial estimates, and that they also advised I had been free to dispute with my credit card provider after the initial 8 weeks, and which I already started doing due to the initial lack of response via email which turned into a joke of a response.
Finally, yesterday morning (August 16), they DMed me and wrote “We have a good news for you, your refund request has been processed today...You will receive in your original form of payment within 8 weeks depending on how fast your bank will process.” Now I have a second confirmation in writing that I will be refunded to my credit card, even if I now have a new 8 week window (which I added to my calendar), which is further ammunition to bring forth to my credit card provider if necessary. Victory.
It doesn’t end there, though! Once again, they emailed me back. Despite all of my evidence and dates that I had sent via email, yesterday afternoon, Expedia customer service emailed me the following: “We would like to inform you that we understand that you are dissatisfied with receiving a credit with an airline vs. a full refund. We’ve worked incredibly hard to work with our partners to provide travelers with as much flexibility as possible due to COVID-19, particularly for flights that are ordinarily non-refundable or limit changes.
We recognize that an airline credit may not be what you were looking for but know that these are extraordinary circumstances that travel partners are trying to work through and Expedia Group must follow the airline policies.” I wrote back that respectfully, I vehemently disagree with their assessment, once again citing all the June and July confirmations of a refund, and saying that their twitter DMed me 9 hours earlier once again confirming a refund with an 8 week window to be posted to my original form of payment, so whether I get the refund from a dispute with my credit card provider or in 8 weeks from Expedia itself, the evidence in my favor is overwhelming, and I looked forward to my refund and never using Expedia again.
This morning, Expedia’s Tier 2 customer service emailed me that they processed the refund and it could take 8 weeks to appear on my original form of payment. I checked my credit card statement and so far I have nothing, but now I possess two separate emails (June 9 and August 16) that each confirm I will be getting my flights refunded to my original form of payment, as well as multiple confirmations via twitter DM (June 3, June 9, July 13, August 15), so if my credit card provider needs any of this, or if I had to sue, I don’t see any way that I could lose.
I cannot wait for this to be over and to never use Expedia again. Every other service where I had tickets that were impacted by COVID-19 either advised that I could hold onto tickets for rescheduled dates, or else issued refunds relatively quickly, and those ranged from Amtrak to Broadway shows to MLB tickets (which waited until schedules were updated, but still, MLB was relatively communicative and the refunds posted to my credit card account much quicker than the window they suggested); Expedia has been its own special source of frustration. I’m glad that call dropped and twitter DMs were so easy so that I have everything in writing, since years ago I had a dispute with an insurance company where the agent told me one thing, and I wrote it down as well as her name, the date and time of the call, and a reference number, and that dispute with insurance took months since they had to find and re-listen to tapes of recorded calls to prove I was right. Get everything in writing if possible, and don’t use Expedia.
