Skip to main content
Contributor ⭐
October 13, 2026

Travel Center powered buy Expedia disappointment

My husband and I had used the AARP travel center several years ago for a complicated 3 destination trip. We had a fantastic service rep on the phone who found us great deals on flights and hotels, and clearly explained all aspects. Tonight we tried to book a 1destination trip needing flight, hotel, and car it took over 3 hours, multiple website fails, multiple phone calls to representatives who were unable to do much in the way actual assistance. After the 2nd fail we called and the rep who said the system was undergoing maintenance, this was around 5:30 PST (why didn’t the website have a notice about this vs letting customers waste their time??), and that he couldn’t assist us either. 45 min later, tried again, at that point the hotel was $200 more. Husband tried again and it seemed successful only to find out after purchase that the flight was NOT the one he’d chosen. He’d been trying to book a non-stop Delta flight leaving at early in the morning, looking at the itinerary it said we were on an 1-stop American airline flight arriving later. We called the travel center - the phone rep she said she couldn’t change anything but she could cancel the flight so that we could re-book it, or we could cancel everything but the hotel would still charge us a cancelation fee. This rep did not seem to understand the question: Since this was a ‘Bundle’ would canceling the Flight affect the price of the Hotel and Car since it was originally bought in a ‘bundle’. She never really wrapped her head around this question and continued to say she could cancel the flight - we decided to keep that longer w/layover flight because we didn’t want to jeopardize the hotel&car pricing since the Rep couldn’t help. I understand that service reps can only do what they’re allowed, and I'm guessing that the workers oversees in these centers are making a lot less money than the folks who used to do this job in the states; That seems to be the issue: that AARP has outsourced their once fantastic travel center, that stood out for it’s personalized care for AARP members, to an overseas call center that doesn’t seem to have any interest in people getting the help they need. Also there didn’t seem to be any way to share the Itinerary. My husband had wanted to email this to me so I too had it in an easy to find way vs being stuck trying to sign into the website.  

2 replies

DarrylL35959
Community Manager
October 13, 2026

Hi ​@ln68329246 

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. I can certainly understand your frustration, especially after spending several hours trying to complete a booking and encountering multiple issues along the way.

Because your concerns involve specific booking details, website functionality, pricing changes, and the assistance you received from the Travel Center, we'd recommend contacting AARP Member Services directly. A representative can create a case on your behalf so the appropriate team can investigate what occurred, review your concerns in detail, and determine whether any follow-up is needed.

You can contact AARP Member Services here:

How To Contact AARP

When you reach out, it may be helpful to provide the booking date, confirmation number, and a summary of the issues you experienced so they can include all relevant details in the case.

We appreciate you bringing this to our attention and apologize for the frustration this experience has caused.

AARP Darryl
SereneSeagull
Community Champion ⭐⭐⭐
October 13, 2026

I will only book vacations directly myself.  No middle.  Directly through airlines, hotel, car companies.  Cheaper rates and no probs.  Did you contact AARP customer service to complain, ​@ln68329246 ?