When borders opened up in early 2022, Alihan Asan, along with his mother and sister, were excited to book a long-awaited trip home to Turkey to see his dying grandfather and attend his uncle’s wedding.
Using Expedia, Asan booked three round-trip flights from Auckland to Istanbul for June 27, 2022, in April.
However, between May 3 and 25, Asan received several emails notifying him of changes to the Expedia itinerary.
“The emails stated that Expedia can provide two options - ‘we can help you find an alternative flight’ or ‘you can cancel for a credit’,” Asan explained. Given the nature of the trip, they did not want to cancel.
The issue was, Asan said he could not get in touch with Expedia to discuss changing the flights. Emails went unanswered and phone calls were directed to an automated bot that said “we cannot help you” and hung up after he keyed in his itinerary number.
However, the itineraries showed up as “valid” on the Expedia mobile app. Since the purpose of the app was to keep consumers informed and Asan had “exhausted both avenues of response” suggested in the email, he assumed the bookings were valid.
Missing flights and conflicting information
As he would discover on June 27, standing at the Malaysian Airlines check-in desk on June 27 with his mother and sister, they were not.
“I showed the itinerary to the Malaysian Airlines check-in staff, they advised they could not find my flights,” he said. After learning he had booked with Expedia, the staff allegedly said he would not be the first customer to be “screwed by Expedia” and suggested he try the platform’s virtual chat feature.
At noon, an Expedia chat agent told Asan his flights were valid. After calling Malaysian Airlines, they agreed the flight was valid but its departure time had changed.
Returning to the chat feature, Asan was eventually informed that Expedia had cancelled the entire itinerary because Turkish Airlines (who covered the Kuala Lumpur to Istanbul leg) could not deliver their service.
“At this point, I had spent almost five hours sitting at the airport online with your chat service to try to resolve this nonsense with my elderly mother and sister waiting patiently and nervously,” Asan wrote in a letter to Expedia.
Last-minute plans add up
“My family and I were going to miss out on travelling to Istanbul to see my grandfather on his deathbed and also attend my uncle’s wedding,” Asan explained. So, he hired a car from Auckland Airport to drive to Flight Centre in Manukau to rebook flights with additional overnight stops and apply for a credit card to pay the increased flight costs.
After tallying up all the receipts and invoices, he was out of pocket $20,202.78.
Expedia New Zealand later offered Alihan Asan a refund minus $250.00 booking charges, which he received 10 days later.
Since this was nowhere near the actual costs Asan ended up having to pay, he sent a 1000-word letter of complaint to Expedia NZ’s board of directors on October 30, 2022.
“I have suffered major losses from your company’s breach of services, actions (and their lack of) from your staff and their inability to render my initial travel plans,” Asan wrote.
Despite receiving no response to the letter, Asan was confident Expedia New Zealand Ltd breached the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and should cover his costs.
Taking Expedia to court
He lodged a claim with the New Zealand’s Disputes Tribunal for $12,299.93, which included the cost of new flights, a credit card, Auckland car hire and hotel rooms for layovers, minus the refund already paid.
The court had two questions to answer: did Expedia New Zealand Ltd provide its services with reasonable care and skill (which is mandatory under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993) and could Asan claim consequential losses of $12,299.93?
Expedia did not attend the hearing or provide any reason for nonattendance but, as the court noted in a letter stating the judgment, this does not prevent a hearing from going ahead.
“Despite making every attempt to verify his flights Alihan Asan received conflicting and incorrect information from Expedia New Zealand,” the court document stated, noting it took Asan three hours at the airport to try and ascertain whether there were flights.
As a result, the court concluded: “Expedia New Zealand Ltd breached the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and did not provide its services with reasonable care and skill”.
After examining proof of Asan’s additional costs, the court judged they were necessary and the fault of Expedia.
“Alihan Asan would not have incurred those costs if Expedia New Zealand Ltd had dealt with the matter effectively, kept their systems up to date and responded to their emails,” the court wrote.
“Expedia New Zealand Ltd owes Alihan Asan $12,299.93,” it concluded.
Expedia New Zealand declined to comment.
