Expedia.ca [MRG] - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

burnin_vernon · 09-15-2008, 06:23 PM

Has anyone booked through them? I'm going to Cancun for a wedding but the trip looks better on expedia than the one that the newlyweds will have planned with an agent. Is there anything I have to watch out for in booking with them?

jam26 · 09-15-2008, 06:31 PM

I use Expedia all the time for business travel. Never had a problem with them at all and I find them to have the best deals.

jolinar of malkshor · 09-15-2008, 06:35 PM

I have used expedia probably 10 times. Never had a problem. I just booked some flights to Chicago. 100% safe and genuine.

ken0042 · 09-15-2008, 06:39 PM

The only issue sometimes with Expedia and Travelocity is that often when you book a hotel; you have to pre-pay for the entire trip. So that means if your trip isn't for months, you have to pay for the hotel now. And let's say you get to the hotel and it sucks, you cannot check out early without losing all of your money.

I don't think that would apply in your case, so have at it. The only thing with a friend's wedding is you might want to check with the friend. Sometimes the travel agent has busted their butt to make everything right on the special day; knowing the reward will come in all the other travel she will book. Often too the wedding party gets a discount by having X number of people book through the agent.

prarieboy · 09-15-2008, 06:41 PM

Expedia is fine. Booked with them a couple of times. I've also used Escapes.ca to book trips to mexico with great results.

Scrambler · 09-15-2008, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken0042

The only issue sometimes with Expedia and Travelocity is that often when you book a hotel; you have to pre-pay for the entire trip. So that means if your trip isn't for months, you have to pay for the hotel now. And let's say you get to the hotel and it sucks, you cannot check out early without losing all of your money.

I don't think that would apply in your case, so have at it. The only thing with a friend's wedding is you might want to check with the friend. Sometimes the travel agent has busted their butt to make everything right on the special day; knowing the reward will come in all the other travel she will book. Often too the wedding party gets a discount by having X number of people book through the agent.

Agreed. Plus it's no fun if you need to cancel. Online bookings are typically 100% non refundable, so if something comes up and you have to cancel, you can be out-of-pocket a lot of money with nothing to show for it.

Us travel agents have contracts with hotels/resorts/airlines which occaisionally allow us to cancel on your behalf for no more than the typical deposit ($200).

When it comes to simple transborder flights I don't blame people for booking online, simple stuff. When doing complicated itineraries, it's still best to contact a travel agent. Hence why I like specializing in the South Pacific/Asia/Africa!

burnin_vernon · 09-15-2008, 09:23 PM

Thanks; all good advice. The bride told me to take whatever quote I got from expedia to her agent and see if there is something they could do. Even if all they do is match it, I guess I would feel a bit more comfortable booking with an agent

Thor · 09-15-2008, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by burnin_vernon

Thanks; all good advice. The bride told me to take whatever quote I got from expedia to her agent and see if there is something they could do. Even if all they do is match it, I guess I would feel a bit more comfortable booking with an agent

Definately a good idea.

My guess is Expedia has a different non-charter airline and the agent has a charter package?

Even if not, she could be charging more, agents do have a fee for the benefits of using one.

Galakanokis · 09-15-2008, 11:14 PM

Had one major problem with these guys. I booked a return flight and hotel to Vegas with them about a year ago. Perfect flight times going and leaving.

About a month before the departure date they completely change the flight plans. Basically my Thursday 4pm departure to Monday 9am departure turned into Saturday 2am departure to Monday 5am departure. Big issues arose for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I called and said the flight changes were unacceptable and that I wanted my money back and the flights I payed for were not what I was getting. Basically I wouldn't have paid for them if that was the deal. it turned into a huge fight with me having to threaten legal action for me to get my money back. It was down right brutal. All I wanted was something remotely close to what I had originally booked!

I don't mind small changes. But to go from 4 night 3 days to barely one night and one day and still charge the same amount is magnificently bad. They couldn't figure out why I was mad???

It might just be me but I will never use them again!

jar_e · 09-15-2008, 11:43 PM

I'll chime in with everyone else and definitely would recommend them.

My one "customer service" experience was with Travelocity on a trip to Nashville...and they refunded a transfer trip to me with no questions asked. I was quite impressed.

Bill Bumface · 09-16-2008, 12:26 AM

If you have to call, you will be on hold forever. Otherwise they are great.

HOOT · 09-16-2008, 12:38 AM

Booked lots through them never a problem. Just be careful of the booking charges try to get your whole trip on one booking so you only get one charge. My buddy made that mistake and didn't realize every flight he booked had a $17(?) charge every time, so I ended up paying like $80 less...lol

Thor · 09-16-2008, 07:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galakanokis

Had one major problem with these guys. I booked a return flight and hotel to Vegas with them about a year ago. Perfect flight times going and leaving.

About a month before the departure date they completely change the flight plans. Basically my Thursday 4pm departure to Monday 9am departure turned into Saturday 2am departure to Monday 5am departure. Big issues arose for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I called and said the flight changes were unacceptable and that I wanted my money back and the flights I payed for were not what I was getting. Basically I wouldn't have paid for them if that was the deal. it turned into a huge fight with me having to threaten legal action for me to get my money back. It was down right brutal. All I wanted was something remotely close to what I had originally booked!

I don't mind small changes. But to go from 4 night 3 days to barely one night and one day and still charge the same amount is magnificently bad. They couldn't figure out why I was mad???

It might just be me but I will never use them again!

Was it the airline which changed the flight? This would happen on occasion to my clients where I'd open my queues to find this particular dreaded queue where the airline has requested I confirm a new flight for a booked flight.

Airlines can do this, and do this on occasion, albeit not terribly often. When it happened we had to accept it or try to book something the client wouldn't be too screwed with.

It was always horrible, I had a real brutal one, where I had 5 people's flight canceled, then offered the next day (actually they just re booked the flight for them automatically), soon as I saw the changes I spent 2hrs on the phone with the airline, managed to fully refund the tickets (rare in the business) and rebook my clients for roughly the same price on another airline with another stop added in (no more direct flight.)

My clients were pissed when they found out, but at least they understood as a travel agent I was not at fault and that airlines can at times be morons. Oh well they got to vegas almost the exact same hours and actually got to stay another 4hrs in vegas!

Thor · 09-16-2008, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HOOT

Booked lots through them never a problem. Just be careful of the booking charges try to get your whole trip on one booking so you only get one charge. My buddy made that mistake and didn't realize every flight he booked had a $17(?) charge every time, so I ended up paying like $80 less...lol

This is also important because if you book seperate flights, IF there are delays and you dont have 1 complete ticket you will be out on the flight you miss to connect.

If you have to connect, make sure you are not buying two tickets for each leg, or you could get royally screwed. Not to mention having your bags go through on your connector point with no need to pick them up and take them to your next flight is a big plus

socktape · 09-16-2008, 08:20 AM

One thing you might find is that if it is a larger resort that your room could be quite far from the rest of your party. One reason for the cheaper rate is the location of the rooms that the discount websites get allocated.

FanIn80 · 09-16-2008, 04:35 PM

What are some vacation planning/booking sites you guys use?

I haven't really done a lot of traveling, but I'm thinking about starting...

I've looked at Expedia, Red Tag, iTravel and Sell Off. Are there any other good ones?

prarieboy · 09-16-2008, 05:05 PM

I use Escapes.ca for checking out package prices. To find info on different areas I'm interested in I go to Tripadvisor.com and look at the reviews but find the forums especially good for getting info.

OBCT · 09-16-2008, 05:13 PM

Travelocity isn't bad. Same with Priceline.

Recently, I've had some very good experiences with Hotwire.com (though it still may be limited to U.S. residents). I don't actually know a lot about it, other than the fact my family has used it numerous times to book deeply discounted rates for the types of hotel rooms we'd normally end up reserving at full price anyways. Worth a gander maybe.

dustygoon · 09-16-2008, 06:03 PM

www.sidestep.com is a good aggregator of airline sites. so is farecaster.

Bill Bumface · 09-16-2008, 06:17 PM

hotwire is great for hotels.

For flights farechase.yahoo.com and kayak.com are great... they don't do the discount airlines though, which isn't such a bad thing especially when flying around Europe...

If you ever need to look up trains in Europe, the Swiss have by far the best site. It will find routes that no other system will. sbb.ch/en