Iberia Blamed Expedia for Bumping a Passenger, Then Admitted It Was Oversold

A passenger booked through Expedia was denied boarding on an Iberia flight from Milan Malpensa to Madrid on September 7, and the airline’s first explanation did not hold up. According to an account published October 6, a check-in agent told the Australian YouTuber Kym Illman that “Expedia needs to pay Iberia, and this time didn’t.” Weeks later, Iberia wrote that the denied boarding was actually because the flight was fully booked.

The traveler arrived about two and a half hours before departure. Left without a seat, he bought a replacement routing on ITA Airways from Milan Linate to Brussels, then Brussels Airlines to Madrid, at a cost of hundreds of dollars, and arrived roughly six hours late. Expedia, for its part, told him the airline had confirmed the issue was not payment-related and that the flight was oversold. The Milan check-in staff were reportedly contract workers.

Iberia eventually issued a full refund and compensation under EC261, the European Union’s passenger-rights regulation covering denied boarding. It declined, however, to reimburse a taxi between the two Milan airports because the receipt was dated before the incident. The compensation amount was not stated in the report.

The episode is a reminder for anyone who books through an online agency: if you are told a payment problem caused your denial, ask the airline for the reason in writing. Under EC261, denied boarding because of overbooking carries set compensation, so the stated cause matters to what you are owed.

Sources: One Mile at a Time, One Mile at a Time Weekly Review