May be the end for EX EU tickets with Expedia - but isn't.

Booked two flights on Saturday BRU-LON-MCO-LON . got the confirmation through from Expedia, went on the VA website with my booking number and chose the seats. Just had a call from Expedia saying VA wont ticket this!! and are offering me BA flights. Where do I stand with this will Expedia have to ticket it?

Any advice would be helpful,

Steve

edit to thread title by mod following development of information in thread....Nick

Expedia sent me two emails the first said the booking was being processed and had no booking numbers etc. The second said it was confirmed and had all the airline reference numbers on it that allowed me to reserve seats etc. Can I enforce the booking with Expedia in anyway?

That's a tad worrying! Could loads be an issue? What dates were your traveling?

We are travelling 27/4/2016 - 14/5/2016 Expedia are desperate for me to change to another airline but i have refused, they are going to raise it a level and speak with someone else. I am hopeful I can enforce the first booking as I have a confirmation from Expedia saying the flights were booked and confirmed and no changes are allowed

I think the first thing you need to know is why VS refused to ticket the booking, and then work from there. It's a bit odd.

Interesting, hopefully you will find out the reasoning.

Hmm worrying indeed
I to would say why are virgin not wanting to ticket this?

Saying this is the end of Ex-EU on Expedia because of one ticketing issue is an exaggeration.

Issues like this happen all the time and doesn't indicate much. It could be for all sorts of reasons.

Remember booking ex-EU is not illegal.

Following a two hour phone conversation with Expedia trying to get me change to BA/Delta/Lufthansa and United and me saying no to all of them they said they would call me back. One hour later they called back and finally agreed that as they have already confirmed the reservation, they would honor our original flights. There was a fault on their system and they booked our final flight back to BRU with Brussels Airlines. Apparently since 31st July VA do not have an agreement with them,and they would not ticket the flight unless another £800 was paid, which was why Expedia wanted us to change, to be fair to them they have paid it as it was their fault as, they had not updated the booking system. So all in all we are very happy two UC flights all ticketed and confirmed for less than 2.5K

So as Tontybear said there was no issue with the EX EU it was just the way Expedia booked it

Steve

Apparently since 31st July VA do not have an agreement with them,and they would not ticket the flight unless another £800 was paid, which was why Expedia wanted us to change, to be fair to them they have paid it as it was their fault as, they had not updated the booking system.

So as Tontybear said there was no issue with the EX EU it was just the way Expedia booked it. Steve

Steve those two statements are a bit confusing. I prefer not to do this kind of booking but I know some friends who do.
So are you saying then that Virgin Atlantic are not 'working' with Expedia anymore since 31st July?

So are you saying then that Virgin Atlantic are not 'working' with Expedia anymore since 31st July?

I think OP means VS does not have a cross-ticketing arrangement with SN.

The thing to remember is that Ex-EU fares are totally legitimate tickets aimed at the hundreds of millions of continental Europeans. From a British perspective it might look like a scam to take a positioning flight in order to take advantage of the fare, but it really isn't in any way. The only grey area with regard to ticket validity is to do with pax who drop sectors. And much has been written on that here and elsewhere.

But the two things (the ticket itself and the act of dropping sectors) should not be confused with one another. They are often conflated when people talk about ex-EU, and I think it can cause misunderstandings. The actual standard ex-EU-via-LON four-sector ticket is 100% legal and valid.

Ex-EU-via-LON is clearly an attractive market to airlines, otherwise it would cease to exist.

With regard to potential losses incurred by airlines over dropped sectors, there is the other half of that equation. How many of these pax who drop sectors (a tiny percentage of all those who fly ex-EU is my guess) have been 'lured' to buy ex-EU in J, whereas they were previously looking only at Y direct (J direct being too expensive) - i.e. encouraged to spend more with the airlines than they would have done?

Apologies for the confusion, I mean Expedia said vs don't do cross ticketing with SN from 31st July, but Expedia had not updated their system to reflect this, hence they took our booking

The thing to remember is that Ex-EU fares are totally legitimate tickets aimed at the hundreds of millions of continental Europeans. From a British perspective it might look like a scam to take a positioning flight in order to take advantage of the fare, but it really isn't in any way. The only grey area with regard to ticket validity is to do with pax who drop sectors. And much has been written on that here and elsewhere.

I saw some friends in the Netherlands over the weekend. Both asked me about my trip to New York. They knew I had started in DUB and wanted to know why - thinking I'd lost the plot.

Mind they thought I'd lost it by getting the train to Amsterdam rather than just flying but that's a different story!

They were equally as stunned as people are in the UK about these ex-EU fares and how much I had saved.

Except for them the fares aren't really ex-EU as they are in AMS anyway!

It is just that they look for direct flights from AMS to XXX and would rather have the convenience of a direct flight. i.e. like millions of Brits or Germans or French or Italians ...

Neither had thought of looking at a via LHR flight that started in AMS

But they are now!

Would imagine that sectors dropped are re-sold in at least some cases? Aren't there often people on standby, waiting for a flight? If I'm right, then surely airlines win all round????

[honey lamb]

Aren't there often people on standby, waiting for a flight?

Not really. The most people who use standby tickets are airline personnel. Remember that airlines generally oversell seats on an aircraft because they do know that people regularly don't turn up for flights for a variety of reasons; they get stuck in traffic, they decide not to travel, they don't take the last leg of an ex-EU flight, they forget they were due to travel and so on.... An even if the seat is not re-sold, remember it has already been paid for.