South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Why you might want to be wary of booking through a third-party site
Travelers have come to rely on the convenience and savings of bundling packages at online travel agencies like Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline.
This year, these thirdparty websites have been hit by the same wave of airline flight changes and cancellations that are broadly disrupting travel.
Flight deal analyst Gunnar Olson of Thrifty Traveler, a travel education website, said he has observed more challenges for online travel agency customers who are negotiating changes during the pandemic, so he advises travelers to book directly through airlines.
“The problem with booking with these third-party sites is, while they can offer some savings ... if anything goes wrong, you’re stuck dealing with a middle man,” Olson said.
Sherry Parker of Minneapolis used to book travel on third-party sites. This year, after flight changes and cancellations on trips booked on those sites, she’ll use them only for research.
Parker had a flight cancellation earlier this year for an American Airlines flight that she booked through Travelocity. She quickly received a refund from American.
But she haggled with Expedia for months to refund her $795 airfare after each leg of a round trip in April for her family was changed by carrier Volotea by five hours.
She tried to change the flights, but that didn’t work. Volotea then agreed to the refund because the changes were more than two hours each way. But she then spent hours going back and forth between the airline and Expedia to process the refund. After a reporter contacted Expedia for this story, the online travel agency emailed Parker confirming her refund.