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Willem P

1 reviews | Active since Oct 2017

07 Oct 2017, 15:24

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Having the need to book flights from Melbourne to Johannesburg, i did a search for flights with Expedia, being a "Gold" member. Found flights for 2 people and Expedia clearly indicated that there was only 4 seats left on that specific flights. We needed to be on the same flights, to assist my elderly Mother who came to visit us. We paid AUD$1 384.71 for her flights.

So seeing that there were only 4 seats available, that the flights were nearly sold out, we had to make the booking at a cost of AUD$4 037.62 When they charged our card, they took AUD$8 075.24 , so exactly double. I did not expect this to happen, it left me very red faced because my bank account suddenly went into overdraft without my knowledge - for the very first time in my life. This was very embarrassing and i still don't have the confidence to walk back into my local bank branch were the staff know me, going to a counter and face people that will know that my bank account went into an overdraft. Expedia put me in a very bad situation and i am still suffering because of that.

My 2 kids wanted to see if they could get 2 seats on those same flights today, the same time, same flight numbers etc. and the cost right now is AUD$3 149.22 And off course there are also only just 4 seats available today!!!

I did contact Expedia, querying the huge price difference within a couple of days and was told it is due to the fluctuating nature of the airline industries. There is something really wrong here - in my opinion i was mislead by the fact that Expedia stated that there was only 4 seats available, this put pressure on me to book the flights or we would have missed the flights. And yet today there is only 4 seats left......this after i book two of them?

I will check Expedia every week until our flights are due and take more screen shots, to keep as evidence of what they are doing to consumers. And off course I will not be surprised to see that there are only 4 seats available on those flights every week as well.

I hope this complaint might help someone out there, high light what Expedia does - be very aware on how you book your flights with Expedia. In the media it seems that they are a good company, will price match other advertised prices but from my own personal experience, from seeing AUD$886.00 difference within days on their own website and the fact that they refuse to match that, i have lost all faith and trust in Expedia.

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Replies (1)
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Willem P's update15 Oct 2017, 05:31
Reviewer Update
As expected and checked on Expedia, there are "only 4 seats" available today again, just as there were only 4 seats available +- 2 weeks ago (when i bought 2 seats) and 4 seats available last week. You might think that i am just a winger, i have sat down and asked myself the same thing, why am i so uptight about this and came to a conclusion - it is the betrayal that just gets to me. We have been booking flights, accommodation etc. through Expedia for many years and this has never happened before, it is just such a big let down! As for the double charging, they have returned the money to my account. The first guy at Expedia i spoke to regarding the double charge, flat out blamed the Airline. The next guy i spoke to a few days later, flat out blamed my bank. It seems it is everybody else fault but Expedia's, yet the only people i gave my card details to was Expedia. So since no one at Expedia wants to honour price matching, i will use Expedia in future but in a different way - check for their specials, then contact the resorts directly and ask if they will match prices on Expedia or have any other sites like booking.com that are willing to match it and then book through that site. We have just done it today. So even though i won't get my price matching money back from Expedia, i will get some kind of justice in time. I have asked my kids to do the same and will forward my experience with Expedia to my friends and they can keep it in mind for future holidays.