Expedia revealed as dues-paying member of ALEC

[Newsjock]

Source: The Guardian

Expedia, the world’s largest online travel company, has declined to follow the lead of other big internet firms, instead choosing to remain a member of a controversial rightwing lobby group that works against climate change legislation.

The travel company pays dues to the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), a secretive lobby group that shapes and promotes legislation at state level across the US. Sources close to the organisation said it is part of Alec’s tax and fiscal policy taskforce, and has paid thousands in dues.

Expedia, whose membership of Alec has not previously been disclosed, declined to comment.

... “Expedia has taken a huge gamble with its reputation by joining Alec, especially now when there is so much activism around climate change. No group does more to block action on climate change than Alec, and with so many competitors to Expedia in its own market, informed consumers may choose to look elsewhere online to book their next hotel room because of this,” said Nick Surgey, Director of Research at the Center for Media and Democracy.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/26/expedia-membership-rightwing-lobby-group-alec

[geek tragedy]

1. Shit. No more booking through them. Assholes. nt

[Live and Learn]

2. Noooo, I use Expedia all the time. I guess I should have said

did use Expedia all the time. Going to have to change that and tell them why. ARGGGh.

[Live and Learn]

3. Per the article, Expedia also owns Hotels.com and Hotwire.com.

The company, which also owns Hotels.com and Hotwire.com, has in the past championed sustainability and promotes carbon offsets for passengers worried about the climate impact of their travel.

[herding cats]

4. Off my list they go.

Anyone know if Tripadvisor is OK?

[BrotherIvan]

6. I thought Trip Advisor just booked through the other sites

What about Orbitz? I travel quite a bit and will not use Expedia again.

[herding cats]

8. They may I don't know, but I thought they used to be associated with Expedia.

I could well be wrong on this, though. I have used both in the past and don't want to use either again if they're still related.

[ucrdem]

9. Orbitz has better prices than Expedia or Travelocity.

Changing a flight is hellacious once you've bought the tickets, and if you don't buy their waste-of-money trip insurance you're SOL (not really, but they really make you scramble). But if you're looking for a bargain flight and/or hotel, Orbitz is the way to go.


p.s. dunno about their politics . . .

[BrotherIvan]

14. Thanks, I will definitely watch out

Planning a trip now, NOT on Expedia.

[Historic NY]

5. Done with them..

[BlueJazz]

7. Expedia...you just lost my business.

[WillowTree]

10. Why do people book through them anyway?

The flight for a trip I'm taking in December was about $850 through Expedia and on Orbitz it was a little over $700. Instead I booked the same flight on the same airline for $645 on the airline's own site. Can't figure why so many people book through those sites.

[ucrdem]

11. You get a huge discount on the hotel when you buy a package.

That's good advice and I've done it after finding a flight in Orbiz that went away when I tried to pay for it (that's one of their little tricks I've found). But if you need a hotel and book it through Orbitz at the same time you get the flight, the hotel works out to a few dollars more per day than the flight alone, whereas if you booked a room separately, say in the conference hotel if you're attending a conference, it could run to several hundred per night, depending on the hotel and town. Fine if you're getting fully reimbursed but that's not always the case.

[Live and Learn]

13. I check it every which way for big trips

but for a simple hotel the differences aren't huge and I have been using Expedia since it was one of the only around. Even after their stupid page design, I stuck with them but this of course will end it.

Another thing that is ticking me off right now is that even to file a complaint I have to sign in. Of course, you can purchase a hotel without signing in but complain, no.


So now, I have a multitude of things to complain about.

And who the heck knew they owned Hotels.com and Hotwire too. What a waste of time I have spent searching all of them. Gheeze! Is there no company you can trust anymore???

[SunSeeker]

12. K & R for exposure. nt

[silvershadow]

15. Thanks. I just deleted their app. Anybody have a list yet? I guess it's time to start checking my

apps and favorites.

[Uncle Joe]

16. Kicked and recommended for exposure.

Thanks for the thread, Newsjock.

[Live and Learn]

17. Here is the answer I received back from my inquiry to Expedia:

Let's hope the high volume is due to inquiries about their ALEC membership.

Dear Expedia Customer,

Thank you for contacting us about your feedback on Expedia.com

We apologize for the delay in answering your e-mail. We are currently experiencing an extremely high volume of e-mail requests, preventing us from responding within our normal standards.

We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you and we would like you to know that Expedia has your best interests at heart.

Rest assured that we will forward this comments/feedback to the appropriate department.

Your feedback is important to the decisions we make to improve our travel services. We will share your comments with the appropriate members of our management team as well.

If this does not answer your question or solve your problem, feel free to reply to this message or call us at 1-800-EXPEDIA (1-800-397-3342) or 1-404-728-8787 (for callers outside U.S. and Canada) and reference case ID: M-8484061.

Thank you for choosing Expedia.


Chester
Expedia Customer Service Team