DXBtoDOH

Yes or no?

Round trip to Spain from Doha is quoted at 5,000 QAR. Same flight on Expedia (Iberia codeshare) is 4,000 QAR.

Never booked with Expedia and always direct with airlines before. But 1,000 is a lot of change.

Anyone with experiences with Expedia? Or avoid at all cost?

Dorothy

Expedia is ok. But check Skyscanner too. I usually find better prices on that site.

weasel decentral

Is it exactly the same flight? Not some kind of jumble of one way tickets and sprinting to connections, the difference seems large. Other than that Expedia are trustworthy with your hard earned.

fezzer

Have used Expedia a few times over the last year when the main airline claim no more seats are available. No hassles at all and you can still claim frequent flyer points etc. Just watch out on airlines that charge for checked luggage as its not always clear whats included through their site.

DXBtoDOH

Exact same flight. The difference is that it's booked via Iberian (via Expedia) instead of direct with QA.

The peculiarity is that although Iberian codeshares with QA now, their website doesn't bring up bookings originating in Doha. Who knows why. But it's legit.

I've heard horror stories of booking via Expedia because if the s*** hits the fan the airline has no obligation to you. Your point of contact is Expedia and apparently it's a disaster if something goes wrong.

So I suppose it's pay the extra 1,000 for peace of mind by booking directly with QA. Or take the risk and book directly with Expedia. It helps it's a straightforward non-stop to Madrid and return. No layovers.

nonthaburi

and that's exactly it in a nutshell. An ex colleague of mine used them all the time, and quite a few times was stranded overnight somewhere.

the more complicated the route, the more that can go wrong, so a straight flight will probably be fine.

scrubbedexpat141

1,000 riyals or quid? I'm assuming the former. At times like this just pretend you never found the second price and stick with the first - i'm assuming you were happy to pay the higher amount and it wouldn't stop you going?

DXBtoDOH

True. It mainly pisses me off that you can get the same flight for a much cheaper price. Why can't they all be the same? I get the algorithm that changes the prices depending on availability but why would QA sell for X amount and allow Iberian to sell the same seat for X - Y?

scrubbedexpat141

Clear your cookies and search again?

I agree btw. Bastards.

Millhouse

Airlines price against capacity and willingness to pay, not their cost.

DXBtoDOH

Update.

After prevaricating for a day I finally bit the bullet and booked the ticket on expedia. Paid for it and received the email from expedia with the flight details, including a booking reference.

A few minutes later went to the QA website, typed in the reference and last name, and boom, there's the booking as if I'd booked it originally on QA.

Saved £208.

scrubbedexpat141

What you gonna spend it on? Ibis instead of Holiday Inn in Spain?

DXBtoDOH

I do like Ibis. Very good value.

But no, in Spain it's AirBnb flats all the way. Fantastic value. Lovely flats in historic centres.

flood2

I booked with an travel agent from skyscanner a few years ago. Got it a fair bit cheaper and flew from Ad to UK with no problems.

Day before i was due to fly back to AD I realised i had not got a check in online email.... Looked at my booking and realised i had messed up return flight. I had booked wrong day and wrong month! must have been drunk when booking flights!

I had no ability to change flight details as had not booked with airline direct. Probably cost me about £500 for flight back which was about 10 times what i had saved!

I always book direct now as you can pay to move flight if you mess up or have to reschedule for another reason

jam25mack

Used Expedia loads of times, never had an issue.