Expedia Websites Won’t Even Sell Travel To China

by Gary Leff

As if China travel wasn’t already burdened enough by coronavirus fears, a concomitant drop in demand, and airlines cancelling flights, a major online travel agency group won’t even sell tickets in or out of China to passengers looking to buy them.

Expedia and its Orbitz and Travelocity websites are blocking the sale of all China tickets. They’re doing this by preventing searching for Chinese airports – even Beijing. This is only for Expedia’s U.S. online travel agency websites. They won’t even sell tickets to passengers trying to leave China.

I searched for Dubai – Beijing. That way we’re not getting into questions about whether or not passengers will be allowed to travel, and there are still flights operating. Initially the first page as I’m entering dates showed pricing for the flights. But when I clicked through Expedia said that Beijing wasn’t a valid airport.

Interestingly, Expedia’s non-U.S. websites will happily sell these same flights. Here’s again a search for Dubai – Beijing but this time on Expedia.es (Spain):

Priceline is still willing to sell China travel, even if Expedia’s U.S. websites won’t.

(HT: Robert D.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. This is the time where all humans on earth should pray for China. These airlines are all working hand in hand to save precious lives.

  3. I would imagine that at this point the tiny revenue created by selling those flights is not worth the enormous customer service nightmare China travel is currently causing.

  4. Trying to get to China from the U.S. for essential travel is like playing whack a mole. You book a flight only to have it cancelled within days (AA, UA, CEA, AC). I tried to book to HKG as an alternative but AA and UA just suspended those flights.

  5. They just don’t want to have to deal with the customer service headaches of cancellation, rebooking, entry restrictions based on nationality, quarantine. I think that’s reasonable.

  6. still amazes me …The USA had over 6M flu cases last year, with over 400K hospitalized and over 60,000 deaths. No border closures, no nothing!!!

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