Q: I booked a flight for my father on Expedia, but when he went to the airport, there was no such flight.<\/p>\n
The reservation was from Beirut to Frankfurt on Lufthansa, connecting to a United flight to Austin. Lufthansa wasn\u2019t even operating flights from Beirut at the time, but Expedia sold me the ticket anyway.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been trying for more than three months to get my money back. Expedia keeps telling me the refund is \u201csubject to airline approval,\u201d while United insists the ticket is nonrefundable. I paid $1,459 for a flight that never existed. Can you help me get my money back?<\/p>\n
\u2014 Mansour Abado, Dubai<\/p>\n
A: You should have never been allowed to buy that ticket. Expedia sold you a phantom flight \u2014 a route Lufthansa had already suspended. When your father showed up at the airport and discovered there was no flight, the online travel agency should have immediately refunded your fare. Instead, it hid behind airline approval requirements and passed the buck to United.<\/p>\n
Your paper trail tells the story: months of emails, phone calls, and chats with no resolution. Expedia kept resubmitting requests, while United sent you a form denial, citing its \u201cnonrefundable\u201d policy. That policy doesn\u2019t apply when the airline isn\u2019t flying the route at all.<\/p>\n
Your father could have avoided some trouble by checking in for his flight early. If he\u2019d done that, he might have been able to find a suitable replacement through Expedia and received a fast refund on his original ticket. This case is a good reminder to keep an eye on flight schedules, particularly when geopolitical events might cause a flight cancellation. If you\u2019re flying out of an area that\u2019s prone to cancellations, assume nothing. And if you ever find yourself with a ticket to nowhere, remember: You\u2019re entitled to a full refund, no matter what the airline or online agency says.<\/p>\n
When your online agency refuses to help, you can always escalate your problem. I publish the name, number and email address of the Expedia executives on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org<\/a>. A brief, polite email to one of them might have resulted in a quick refund.<\/p>\n I reached out to Expedia on your behalf. A representative admitted there had been a \u201csystem error\u201d that prevented your refund from being processed. Expedia issued a full refund.<\/p>\n Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy<\/a>, a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org<\/a> or get help by contacting him on his site.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: I booked a flight for my father on Expedia, but when he went to the airport, there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[61225,132,134,133,910,27594,952,69,6208,87894],"class_list":{"0":"post-227029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-advice","9":"tag-austin","10":"tag-austin-headlines","11":"tag-austin-news","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-coffee-break","14":"tag-retail","15":"tag-things-to-do","16":"tag-travel","17":"tag-travel-columnists"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}