When everything else fails, call headquarters

How many times have you booked a flight, rented a car or hotel room only to discover out later on that what you were promised is not what you got?  Perhaps they are trying to charge you more, or give you different hotel room or deny that free car upgrade you got online. If you call the customer service department of any of those online reservation sites most likely you would get nowhere. Most front line customer care staffs have very little authority to issue a refund, or get your problem solved. So what is the alternative? Contact the company corporate office if everything else fails.

Big companies hate bad publicity, and they know that it only takes a dissatisfied customer to post something negative on a blog or a forum to create an avalanche or negative press.

But the problem with contacting any corporate office is that it is hard to find their phone number. Many times their own front line staff doesn’t know it or are not allowed to give it to customers. Your other alternative is search it online, or discovered it buried in some obscure web page in the company’s website.

I have compiled a list of the 4 most popular online travel sites (Expedia, Travelocity, Price Line and Orbitz) corporate contact information (actually the number is even higher considering that Expedia owns Hotel.com, Trip Advisor, and Hotwire) When possible I provide the top executive phone numbers or email address.

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