Expedia Was Not Helpful in Puerto Rico

This is how the Slate article by David Lindorff in early October begin,

“The Trump administration is not the only entity that has been missing in inaction in Puerto Rico in the wake of the island-wide destruction caused by back-to-back direct hits from two major hurricanes. The island’s many ‘corporate citizens’ have thus far been looking to their own interests during this crisis.”

He details all the companies with offices on the island who have not gone out of the way to help. I would add to his list the many hotels that closed down and left tourists stranded. The airlines were not bold or willing to think outside the box to help those stranded in Puerto Rico. The industries which make billions off of tourism did not put much of their reputation or provide much assistance into helping after the disaster.

I was most disappointed with Expedia who must have told me a hundred times that they could not help in a time of crisis in Puerto Rico. They could have set themselves apart and earned some kudos in the media for going the extra mile to help.  Instead, their staff sat helpless, saying that there was nothing that they could do.  The thing is that there was nothing we could do on the island and there was a lot that they could do.  They were sitting in an air conditioned offices with power and working telephones.  Expedia employees had the power of the internet, and its customers had none of that.  With climate change and natural disasters becoming more frequent and more severe, they better revamp their business model when there is a natural disaster or they are going to be overtaken by a company that cares.  We booked both our flight and hotel through Expedia and wound up trapped on the island for an extra week and their Customer Service staff were less than helpful.  We were kicked out of our hotel; had to spend two days in the disaster center, and our flights kept getting cancelled and the Expedia staff just kept saying, “I’m sorry, there is nothing we can do.”

Here are a few articles on companies that gave money, but not much on companies that excelled in responding to this crisis.  

• Money Magazine detailed some funds given in September
• Vice Story compared Harvey relief vs. Maria assistance.  
• Fortune detailed assistance from Facebook, Google and Tesla  

We were in Puerto Rico for our 25^th wedding anniversary.  We had booked our honeymoon trip 25 years ago through a local travel agent who would have helped us if we had been trapped in Hawaii.  She would have felt some obligation to help us.  She would have done all she could to get us back home.  Expedia failed its customers and had zero suggestions.  I understand that this was one of the worst disasters ever, but a huge corporation should have some protocols in place for these type of situations.  Expedia comes off as a horrible travel agent with a new motto “Sorry, we can’t help.” 

We booked a trip back in early August for Puerto Rico for September 16 to September 23. We were not aware of Hurricane Maria until September 17 and it was too late to leave.  We were not that worried since what are the chances that a second hurricane would hit the Island in two weeks?  We rode out the Hurricane at the CIQALA which had a generator and had a kitchen.  The initial damage was that it knocked out the air conditioner and our room flooded, but we were not complaining.  We saw the damage and heard from the staff how bad things were around the island so our small inconveniences were nothing. We considered ourselves lucky that we had found a hotel that had a generator, and hoped that we could get the earliest flight out. 

For those not familiar very few of the 3.5 million people on the island had access to cell service or any power, and we were one of the few that were staying in a hotel that had electricity.  We used the hotel’s telephone to call and confirm our flight out for Saturday September 23, and the Expedia representative had no information, but thought the flight would still leave. We found on Friday that only one humanitarian flight was leaving the airport on Saturday, and so we needed to find a place to stay.  We called the Expedia numbers and Customer Service staff was not helpful.  They were willing to charge $1,100 for changing to a different airline for September 27 which we could not afford, and seemed like they were taking advantage of us during a crisis.   

They booked a flight for Saturday September 30, and were able to provide notification to our daughter in Florida of any changes since our cell service was not working.  We tried to stay in the hotel, but they were booked for Saturday.  We tried to find a place on the island to move to, but there were only 4 rooms on the Expedia site.  We realized that 2 were in flood zones so probably had not updated their status.  We booked another hotel and spent our precious cash to get to this location by cab.  When we got there they were shutting down and sending all their customers to other hotels because they had some rooms flooded; they no water and no electricity.  At this point we on the streets without a cell phone, little cash, and no place to stay.  We walked around Old San Juan with all our bags in the 90 degree heat until a hotel put us up for 2 nights because we were desperate.  This place had no water or electricity, but we were happy to have a bed. 

Our family back in the mainland called and tried to get us a place to stay through Expedia, and their staff had no suggestions.  We stayed at the airport on Monday September 25 to try to get a flight off the island.  The earliest we could get was October 6.  We had no where to sleep on Monday September 25 and so we stayed in the Convention Center on a cot.  Our family tried and tried to find a place for us.  We had a Good Samaritan drive us around to hotels which we found to be closed or full.  All the relationships that Expedia has with local hotels and the power of a huge corporation, it seems that they could have done something; anything.  The Expedia staff had access to the internet and power that we did not have.  Expedia staff offered us nothing and stranded us in the Disaster Center.  Those resources should have been used for native Puerto Ricans who were suffering.  We spent two days at the Disaster Center because Expedia could not help us and had no suggestions.  Then our Saturday September 30 flight was cancelled, and again they offered no help.  The ATMs were not working and so we had to use our precious cash to hire cabs to try to find a place to live. We were rescued from the Disaster Center only because I made signs and a public stink.  We only got off the island with a flight because of our efforts. 

I know that this was a highly unusual situation, but it is hard to imagine that Expedia has not dealt with similar disasters with tourists trapped in New Orleans or Mexico or the Virgin Islands or the Bahamas who needed to be rescued.  I think that Expedia could have chartered a plane to fly into one of the private airports.  Expedia could have assigned us a staff person to work on finding us a place to stay. This way when we did get to a working phone, we would not have start from scratch.   Expedia could have partnered with a cruise line to send a ship to rescue their customers.  They could have partnered with a local hotel chain to get it operational with a generator and tentative repairs to make it a temporary respite for Expedia customers.   They could have done something, but instead they did nothing.  Expedia could have set themselves apart from the other corporations, but did not use their corporate strength to intervene at all.  They left their customers on their own without power, cell service, or any currency to survive.  Expedia could have come out as a hero by trying to help their clients, instead they look like a greedy corporation which does not care. 

I got a call from Expedia staff after I filed a written complaint, who toed the company line, which was “I am sorry, but there was nothing we could do.”

We regret the limits faced by travel agencies during times of crisis such as this one. When hotels have no availability and airlines experience delays, travel agencies do not have special resources to secure alternative lodging and flights; all travel agencies and travel suppliers are working to rebook thousands of travelers from the save inventory, and suppliers provide services on a first-come, first served basis in terms of availability. It was, regrettably, not possible for our representative to make any guarantees to you regarding your travel.

This customer service representative from Expedia said that we should have taken out travel insurance and everything her staff did seemed to follow company policies.  She went further in angering us by indicating that we should have pushed her customer service staff to help us find a place, but we did not do that.  By the time we realized that we did not have a place to stay, we also did not have a cell phone either.  Our daughter was calling, crying, pleading for help but got nothing.  We would have appreciated any help or any attempt to go above and beyond. Expedia failed, and did not go out of the way to help their customers.  We will be using other companies for our travel assistance.

by Brian Davis