Why You Probably Shouldn’t Book Your Flight Through a Third-Party Travel Site
Last month, scammers posing as Expedia stole thousands of dollars from travelers in hopes of confirming or modifying their phone bookings. But booking flights with real Expedia – and any other third party site like Travelocity – also carries certain (legal) risks.
If your plans change, you may not be eligible for a refund, as one Redditor recently discovered (and almost lost $ 5,000 in the process). If you’re planning to book a flight through Expedia or Kayak (a search engine that will redirect you to other booking sites), here’s our warning: Always compare stores first and read the fine print carefully before hitting the confirm button. You can save yourself huge fees and several lengthy phone calls to support.
It won’t be easy and cheap to change or cancel plans
To change plans booked through a third party, you will need to contact the customer support of that booking site; these lines often handle travel-requested changes on a case-by-case basis. (However, if you’ve booked a low-cost carrier like Frontier or Spirit, a third party site may require you to contact them directly.)
At the very least, you should expect to pay change fees for both the website and the airline. Wayama , for example, charges $ 100 for change. Airlines such as American and Delta, meanwhile, charge a cost change from $ 200. In other words, changing your flight through third-party sites will almost always cost more than if you booked directly with the airline and change plans.
However, there are exceptions. If you make changes within 24 hours of booking your reservation, you can most likely cancel or change your itinerary for free, depending on the site’s policies (a rule that also applies if you booked directly with a US airline); Expedia allows free changes / cancellations up to one day after booking. If you purchased additional insurance when placing an order on the website, you may also be insured, but this depends on the conditions of your particular type of insurance.
When it comes to canceling non-refundable tickets purchased from third parties, there is no simple answer. On Reddit, u / 1exp purchased five $ 5,000 tickets through Travelocity and found that he had booked the wrong dates; In short, after talking to the airline and another talking to Travelocity, he didn’t get a dollar back until his bank finally stepped in (and miraculously canceled all payments for unclear legal reasons).
What happens if the airline cancels your trip? Well, as Christopher Elliot writes for Mercury News , the airline must refund the fare, and your third party site must step in to provide you with a refund. Of course, this will be a headache and you won’t be able to see the refund right away until you link to the website yourself and probably follow it over and over again.
You can skip the sale or other flight options.
Airlines would prefer you to book directly to avoid commission fees from booking sites. For this reason, airlines can incentivize you to book directly by providing additional points or miles. (You can also earn more points for direct bookings by using a shared airline credit card.)
There are other major benefits as well. According to Travel and Leisure , third-party sites may not include airline ticket sales or promotional offers in their results. And when you book, you are not given the opportunity to reserve seats; Instead, you’ll have to contact your airline, which will make the overall booking process more annoying than you’d like if you just want to reserve an aisle seat and be done with it.
Before booking, always compare the route on the airline’s website with the route you found on a third-party site to see what you might be missing out on, especially points or miles. Some third party sites like Orbitz and Expedia also have their own reward programs, but they are only really worth it if you are a frequent shopper on the site.
You may not be notified of changes or updates
Here’s another factor: you may not even be notified of your route status updates. According to Points Guy , one traveler was not notified that his flight from Paris to Newark, New Jersey on a business jet had been changed to an economy class flight with little legroom and no televisions (sigh). According to the passenger, he made the reservation through a third-party site, but his contact information was not shared with the airline, so he was never informed of the change.
Obviously, booking directly with an airline has one major advantage: they have your email address or phone number and they will contact you to make changes to your itinerary. If you book your flight through a third-party website, download your airline’s app and pay attention to any news about your flight.
There are several advantages to booking through third party sites.
With everything we’ve said to convince you that booking through third-party sites isn’t a good idea, it’s not always a terrible decision. First, if you’ve found a cheap itinerary that combines flights of different airlines, and are not going to change your plans, then by all means book your tickets! It is simpler and can save you the time and effort it would take to book on different airline sites.
Always compare stores, be aware of the risks, and read the fine print of any site’s contract before booking. (In particular, you should read the change and cancellation policy.) And never book flights with a debit card – if you are requesting a refund, it may take weeks or even months for it to be reflected in your checking account . And when browsing third party sites, use sites like Skyscanner to view flight options. This is a search engine, not a booking site, so it will help you make the best decision.
And don’t forget: Some low-cost carriers like Southwest don’t show up on most major third-party booking sites, so always do your own research.