News notes from around the interweb:
- Expedia expected to get a $1 billion private equity investment but don’t expect them to use the funds to make Expedia not awful. Remember that when you book with Expedia you’re not the customer, you’re the product.
Let’s Hope Private Equity Comes in the Form of a Payroll Protection Loan For the Expedia Dancers Flickr: Juggernautco - South Korean state banks bail out Star Alliance airline Asiana
- LAX Airport board game you can print from home (HT: Johnny Jet)
- An Alaska Airlines flight attendant photographing travel during the pandemic
- When you’re assigned to work a flight these days, you’ve got nothing to do but dance.
This DCA-based @AmericanAir crew decided to try Something New while waiting for their next flight at @LASairport. ✈️ pic.twitter.com/rMwaP8j0Ks
— Reagan Airport (@Reagan_Airport) April 21, 2020
Why wasn’t D Parker dancing in the video so so sad
I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised by the AA crew dancing skills. Alas, I wish I’d never clicked on that.
They’ve already got a Bailout Dance?
Totally agree, still can’t get a refund, they’re just giving credits even though my flights have been cancelled on mainline airlines (Non-US)
Finally after two months I got a refund from Expedia ( Chase rewards) apparently someone took charge and now you can simply click on your reservation on the Chase Rewards site, select cancel and within 15 minutes points are back in your account. Finally. since Expedia took over booking Chase Rewards I have taken to simply transferring points. Much easier and less stressful
I have been calling and emailing Expedia for three days to get a price match refund. The hotel that I have booked had been listed at a lower rate than I paid for the last 3 days. But because my reservation isn’t within 72 hrs the recording tells me that I can’t be helped and it disconnects. I have lost 10% of my pay and now I and down to only work 32 hrs a week, my employer is trying to find ways to save money. At this point every penny I need to save so getting the refund is important to me. But Expedia has dismissed its customers without a care. I will never use them again.
Expedia is a horrible, horrible company that thrives to screw the customers, every SINGLE time they can. They hide behind incompetent agents in the Phillippines and then there is the onimous transactions processing team. They are worse than Hitler. Google who else they own before you take your business elsewhere. (Hotels.com, Travelocity, hotwire, VRBO, etc…
https://www.expediagroup.com/expedia-brands/
Gotta ask:
“. . . and then there is the onimous transactions processing team”
I’m not familiar with this, probably because I’ve never booked with Expedia.
Normally, when I cancel a hotels.com reservation, it’s refunded to my credit card in 2–3 days. But due to COVID-19, I’m still waiting for a refund of a hotel I cancelled ~April 7!
However, I like Hotels.com ‘s B10G1 free program for independent hotels where I would otherwise earn nothing (except CSR points.) Plus 2% Topcashback.
Hotels.com is not great but I’ve used them a lot when I need to stay at a specific property that isn’t tied to a loyalty program and it’s fine. Premium rooms are always upcharged more though…but the ostensible 10% rebate is great when staying at $300/nt rooms (like La Valencia in La Jolla, CA)
B1BomberVB – I had same experience with Hotels.com. I booked and change my mind and cancelled a reservation an hour later. This normally results in a pending charge that never even goes through to your credit card as it is cancelled before the charge posts. In this case, charge went through but it took a full three weeks to get the refund. Can’t help but think this is intentional, to hold onto cash flow for a while. If this is somehow related to backlog (I would think this type or online cancellation doesn’t even require any manual intervention so I don’t see how COVID-related cancellations would affect it) I can live with waiting a few weeks for the refund. But the fact that you cannot even call, chat or e-mail them in any way unless that booking is within 72 hours is frustrating and obnoxious.
Hotels.com have changed. I used them for a bunch of reservations in Scandinavia last fall and had the usual good luck plus 9% back; if I had to call, I got a person and was able to work things out. Plus the “free” nights posted quickly and were usable within the month trip on which I earned them. Usually took about 4 or 5 days for the nights to post.
This winter we spent 7 weeks in South America and, again, I used Hotels.com for anything not Hyatt. Then, just before our flights from Santiago to Hanga Roa, I tried to call in re my booking on the island. No person, not a chance. I got a dead end phone tree, completely different than past experience. Then I discovered that my recent stay in Cordoba (Hyatts in both Mendoza and Santiago) would take 30 days to post; my rewards were “frozen”. So, after having to bail on March 16 and head home before they closed the whole damn thing down, I now have a few “free nights” that I am worried about ever using.
I’ve been a fan of Hotels.com for many years, use them for anything that is not Hyatt. The 9% return (do the math) was nice and there was always someone on the other end of the phone to help out. Of course they were Filipinos, but so what? They got stuff done. Now not so much. I have never used Expedia (except via Hotels.com) but now it seems the cultures have bled into each other. Need a new model, should I ever get my wings back.
@Ken Adams. Correction. Only chump is worse than hitler.
I am experiencing complete and utter incompetence with Expedia and with their subsidiary Travelocity. Absolutely abysmal customer service even with reservations at closed hotels, and refusal to refund cancelled flights.
I agree with Ken but I have found it’s hit and miss with most of this online garbage. I hate this new world of you’re on your own. Eight billion people and we cant hire a real person.