Expedia Hit with Lawsuit for Refusing Refunds During Pandemic
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Expedia in California, claiming that the travel booking services has denied refunds for flights cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. The lawsuit was filed by Daniel Mahoney who says that Expedia denied him a number refunds for cancelled flights during the coronavirus outbreak. By refusing to refund the price of their airline tickets, the company violated the Washington Consumer Protection Act, Mahoney says.
This is just the latest case filed against travel booking services, airlines and hotels since the coronavirus pandemic decimated travel demand in the US and abroad. Thousands of flights were cancelled early on and travel is still far away from normal. Airlines are holding billions in refunds that are owed to customers due to these cancellations, even though the Department of Transportation has clarified twice this summer that they are required to offer customers refunds for canceled flights.
Mahoney reportedly purchased a round-trip airline ticket through Expedia in December 2019, to travel from San Francisco to Milan, Italy on July 19 via TAP Air Portugal. He says that he paid $905.08 for the flights. This was well before the pandemic was an issue and there was no cause for concern.
On May 24, Mahoney allegedly got a notice from Expedia saying the flight had been cancelled and advising him to respond immediately with his preference for how to proceed. The only option listed in the e-mail was to request a full refund, he said. But, during an online chat with an Expedia agent the next day, he was told he would receive an American Airlines voucher instead and that “the airline would not provide a refund.” When asked again for a refund, the agent ended the chat. A second attempt with a different online agent ended the same way, Mahoney claims.
Mahoney then called Expedia and was able to reach a supervisor who said he would check into the refund and contact him later. But the response was the same, just a voucher and no refund from Expedia.
Case Details
Mahoney and the proposed Class Members are represented by Daniel F. Johnson, Breskin Johnson and Townsend PLLC.
The Expedia Refund Class Action Lawsuit is Daniel Mahoney, et al. v. Expedia Inc., Case No. 2:20-cv-01296-TSZ, in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Washington at Seattle.
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I have a problem with Chase. Booked a flight on LH and they cancelled the return. Will only give me a voucher through the end of the year rather than points back.
Expedia tried to pull this stunt with me with my TAP tickets. Flights were cancelled by the airline but Expedia refused to give me a refund and wanted to issue me a voucher. They were doing this because they wouldn’t be clawed back their commission.
I filed a charge back with my credit card company and they provided a refund when I provided them with the cancellation notice from TAP.
Do you have a link on how to join the class action? I’m not sure how to handle this, because I used UR points through my Sapphire card and the UR portal “powered by Expedia” to book an SAS flight to Copenhagen that was cancelled. I’m not sure I can do a charge back, because no money was charged to my account. I’ve contacted UR once a month for the last four months, and they say they can’t do anything until SAS gives THEM their money back
I had the same issue with TAP and got my points back a few weeks ago. Be RELENTLESS with Chase and you will get a refund. Eventually. PM me if you want more details.
Anytime people go with an online travel agency they take a risk. Sorry but NEVER use Expedia, Cheap Flights, Book It, etc. your options are limited and likely won’t fight for you.
Frankly I don’t expect this guy to win since I’m sure the contract he agreed to (whether he read it or not) limits Expedia to what is actually refunded by the airline. In this case if they didn’t get a refund he isn’t due one. Sorry dude go after the airline
Expedia also blew it with not refunding Chase URs for some cancels.
Expedia gave me the run-around for months on a refund I was due because Fiji canceled all flights. I emailed, phoned and online chatted with them and Fiji numerous times, filed two complaints with the DoT and eventually contacted my credit card company to reverse the charge before I finally heard from them on Aug 31 that the refund had been processed. That was 4 1/2 mos after the flights had been canceled, 3 mos after the flights were to be flown, and the credit still hasn’t hit my account 9-10 days later. So I’m going to say that lawsuit has merit.