It all started when my friends and I decided to go on an overseas trip. Anyway, long story short, the trip evolved from going to Taiwan to going to Hong Kong.
So, I was on the train one day when I saw one of those hangers (I don't know what you call those) advertising Expedia, which was having an online travel fair. Me being me, I was extremely excited.
Thus, I immediately went home and searched for some travel deals on Expedia. And... I found that booking a flight and hotel on Expedia was much cheaper than I had thought; my friends and I went to a travel expo fair recently so we kind of knew the market rates.
I was super excited and encouraged my friends to book using Expedia.
As events progressed, I ended up calling Expedia to see if they could guarantee us an extra bed for one of the rooms; the no. of people we had on our flights and hotel were different, spawning this complicated booking process.
However, by this time (several days had already passed since I first checked Expedia out), the flight rates had increased (I HAD NO IDEA HOW AND WHY). But I still decided to check with an Expedia agent.
Now, the rough estimates of prices I previously calculated using Expedia's online booking was inclusive of 20kg luggage check-in.
Using online calling, I asked an Expedia agent if he could guarantee an extra bed. And what was the difference in rates if we booked the flight and hotel separately versus together.
To cut the long story short, the Expedia agent promised me a rate of $800+ for flight, saying it was inclusive of luggage check-in. I decided it was cheaper so I proceeded to ask him to book the flight (this was after approximately 1.5h of talking and waiting on the phone).
It was only after booking the flight and hotel, then did he tell me that there "seems to be a bit of a problem". I was just thinking to myself, WHAT KIND OF PROBLEM.
Turns out, he booked the flight wrongly. The dates were correct but he didn't include check-in luggage. IMAGINE MY HORROR because this would mean the actual cost of the trip would have an additional $200+ in total.
The agent didn't even apologise to me, and made it seem like it was due to a sudden rise in flight prices. When in actual fact, it was he who gave the wrong quote and booked the flight wrongly. He then transferred me to the Customer Support team, where no one picked up and the call got terminated.
I was very frustrated given that this happened at around 11pm at night (my stress levels tend to go up at night haha). I called the Customer Support team and they directed me to the flight team (they said for this case, we had to directly coordinate with the airline) and the call terminated again. I was very unhappy and irritated, especially since I was the one who pressed my friends to book via Expedia; we initially had other back-up plans to book cheap flights in order to lower costs. I felt as if the rise in costs for my friends was partially my fault.
The next day (which was the day of my PSC interview), I called Expedia again and they said I had to coordinate with the airline directly again. I was basically angry because the issue was with their booking, not the airline. They also did not have any form of back-up plan should the agent book wrongly.
Anyway, I proceeded to email both Expedia and TigerAir, asking for a cancellation of flight.
The complication comes in because TigerAir is a non-refundable airline, so I could not cancel my flight to change to a cheaper one.
TigerAir replied by saying the booking was made by Expedia, not them, so any changes should be made to Expedia. They could not offer me a fully refunded cancellation. This part kind of made sense, though I could not help but feel annoyed at their strict non-refund policy.
Expedia replied 5 days later; frankly, I was surprised that they would even reply me.
They said that they had passed on this case to the relevant department and that I should expect a reply in 3-5 working days.
So, I waited. After 5 working days passed with no updates, I emailed the person again, changing my stance from wanting a cancellation of flight to wanting a complimentary top-up of check-in baggage for all passengers. That way, the quote that the agent offered me (flight + baggage = $800+) would still hold. The person replied by saying the case has already been passed on and that I should called Customer support to check out what the progress was. After calling, a woman picked up. She proceeded to help me check out the case.
She initially said that they could not find the call log with my booking. I was shocked. All calls are supposed to be recorded right??? But apparently, there might have been a technical glitch. (Wow, what a coincidence.) I think she could tell I sounded disappointed in the phone call. She then proceeded to provide 2 options. I could:
1) Wait for the case to be approved by Management before I add on luggage
2) Add-on luggage first then wait for approval from Management to reimburse
I obviously chose option 1 because my friends and I were considering the option of sharing the check-in luggage to lower cost, should we not be able to get a complimentary top-up.
She then told me to call back after 3 working days to check on the progress of the case. I was a little disappointed about the case still being unsolved, but I said okay.
3 working days later (on my birthday!), I called Expedia. A guy picked up this time. As usual, he read up on the case. He then proceeded to talk to the Management to find out the outcome.
And.....
They said that they would be willing to refund me the amount for the baggage check-in.
I WAS ECSTATIC. (I mean, who wouldn't be?)
After so many days of waiting and going back and forth, I finally managed to get a complimentary baggage top-up. Frankly, I thought that I was never going to get it because I assumed that they would try to defend themselves and refuse to give any form of compensation. I was truly surprised and really happy (especially since this was my birthday).
Even though my booking experience was initially less than satisfactory, the outcome made up for it. There were obviously many areas for improvement but I think that I would really have to thank those individuals within Expedia who helped me to forward this case and put it up for escalation.
That being said, I have learnt my lesson not to make bookings over phone calls because it is very hard to verify that the agent has booked the correct thing for you.
Overall, I think that I was really lucky for this issue to have been resolved with the outcome that I wanted :)
With lessons learnt from my first booking experience, hopefully my next one will be one without any problems.
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