Olympic Air and Expedia - BLACKLIST

A couple of companies have just made it to my blacklist again. Following the recent volcanic ash fiasco over Europe, many travel companies are getting the hit from flight/accommodation rebooking and cancellations.

We had our share of travel problems especially with my family coming up to London to visit us. The original flight booked with SIA for my parents was cancelled and changed for them to fly into Athens. Despite an obvious rush for seats on flights coming into Europe, SIA was able to accommodate my sister to be on the same flight with them. So kudos to SIA! Day four into our Europe trip and we are on the beautiful Greek island of Mykonos, struggling to amend our flight back to Athens. We were supposed to depart tomorrow night with Olympic Air at 1135pm. Seeing the late hour, I managed to find some cheaper earlier flights on Expedia (our original travel agent and another entrant to the blacklist). I spent a good 3-4 hours on paid calls to Expedia (10p per min!) without any success. However I was able to get through to their Sales within a minute and each time was told that they couldn't help me and Customer Service, which is the only department that can help, is not able to assist me. This came despite commitment on their website to reply within 24 hours. I have not even received a reply on my first email sent 21 April.

With Expedia not helping, I turned directly to Olympic Air. And that showed me a significant difference between a major airline - SIA - and a floundering one. I was told that my tickets were the "cheap" tickets and not allowed for changes. My only option is to buy another new set priced at EUR100 per person. This is despite my original flight priced higher than the earlier flight - see below.



On any given day, I would have screamed at that Oly Air lady on the other side of the call who could only say - "Sorry I cannot help you", "You have bought cheaper tickets". In this age, shouldn't we be more concerned about customer service and advertising by word-of-mouth? At our last destination in Santorini, we stayed at Oia Sunset Villa partly due to strong recommendation by friends from Singapore (and we would strongly recommend it too). In the cut-throat world of air travel, it is ever so important for recommendation for airlines that are hardly differentiated from the rest.

So I add another two firms to my blacklist - you have earned your last dollar from me.