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How to Change or Cancel Travel with OTAs like Expedia, Priceline, and More

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We've been covering the updates of airlines waiving change and cancellation fees during the coronavirus outbreak. Hotels and even Airbnb are doing the same.

But what if, instead of booking directly with the airline, you booked with an Online Travel Agency? OTAs like Expedia, Kayak, and many more have also been bombarded with customer service calls this week as travel options rapidly change.

The good news is that OTAs are generally deferring to – and honoring – each airline or hotel's policies. That means you may be eligible for a voucher or fee-free change, but it's up to whatever the airline you're flying or hotel you're staying with is offering. Read our guides to airline and hotel change and cancellation policies.

 

 

But because you booked with an OTA, there's another layer of complexity – and often, worse customer service. You need to go through whatever travel agency you booked with in order to change or cancel your trip. 

This is why we recommend booking directly with the airline instead; saving a few bucks isn't usually worth the hassle when plans change.

If you booked with an OTA for upcoming travel, here's a look at how some major OTAs are approaching requests to change or cancel.

 

Expedia

Expedia is perhaps the best-known online travel agency and is the parent company to other smaller OTAs like Orbitz, HotWire, CheapTickets, and more. They are following the policies of their airline and hotel partners for each booking. Navigating change and cancellation requests with Expedia is relatively straight-forward.

If you are traveling within the next seven days, you may be able to change or cancel many reservations from within your account without any additional fees. For hotels, flights, car rentals, and activities, here's how:

  • Use your account, itinerary number, or confirmation number to locate your trip under My Trips and see if Change or Cancel buttons are shown in your trip details.
  • If you cannot change or cancel your flight in your My Trips account but the airline you'd be flying is offering free changes and cancellations, use the Chat button to chat with an Expedia agent

 

Kayak

Kayak, similarly, is deferring to airlines' individual policies for customer bookings. However, they aren't offering as many options to resolve change or cancel requests on their end.

Since Kayak is more of a search engine than a travel agency itself, if you searched through Kayak but were redirected to the airline's site to book, you'll need to contact your airline instead.

If you booked directly with Kayak rather than the airline, you can go to your Bookings to seek support from a customer service representative. If you're not sure, you can look at your Bookings page or credit card statement to see which processed your booking.

Find more information on Kayak's statement.

 

Priceline

If you booked travel with Priceline and have travel coming up within three days, you can log into My Trips to view your itinerary and see if a cancellation option is available.

This will depend on whether the airline you're flying with is allowing cancellations or credits for future travel. If the airline does allow changes or cancellations, the fastest option is to work directly with the airline.

If you have any issues seeing your options on your My Trips page, you can contact Priceline at 1-800-774-2354.

 

What About Other Smaller OTAs?

There are other smaller online travel agencies like TravelMerry, JustFly, and hundreds more. Ultimately, you'll want to reach out to their customer service to see what their policy is, but just know that smaller OTAs are a bit notorious for slow (or nonexistent) customer support.

In this case, you may want to also contact the airline (or hotel) you're traveling with to understand your options. Some may allow you to process a change or cancellation directly.

 

Bottom Line

The good news is that you're not stuck holding the bag if you booked with an OTA. They're deferring to the cancellation policies of each airline or hotel.

But you'll have to go through whichever middleman you booked with. And in that case, it can make changing your travel more difficult.

Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

Disclaimer: The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

4 Responses

  • Not that easy…was supposed to fly out of MIA on Turkish to eastern europe 10 days ago with a ticket I bought through KAYAK. They use Vayama…Impossible to reach as the hold would disconnect after 1 hr. No response to online messages. Turkish couldn’t help as the tix was thru a 3rd party which was forbidding them to make any changes. My only options according to turkish phone cs to go in-person to the turkish sales office in MIA or hope the flight would be cancelled…I live in the midwest…imagine the nighmare of losing over $1,300 as no one was responding despite US shutting down travel from EU. I ended up contacting a friend who lives in Tampa and she drove to MIA. The agent at the airport made the change to a summer flight immediately, no questions asked. Such a strange and frustrating experience but lesson learned…never buy an international flight from OTAs, especially KAYAK!

    • Hi Giovanna! You can find our articles on Croatia under “Destination Guides”. Every season is beautiful in Croatia. Summer is the most tourist-heavy. If you’re wondering most about weather, we recommend looking at Wikipedia climate data for the cities you plan to visit.

  • Is Expedia accommodating?
    We bought round trip tickets for July but instead we need change it for Texas the same time.

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