Suck it, Expedia

Expedia is a piss-off.

So I was all excited when I found my overseas flights on expedia for about $1063. Several hundred cheaper than buying directly from the airlines. I've never used expedia before but other people tell me they've never had a problem with it. Maybe they've never tried to do the kind of trip I'm trying to do.......

So then I go to book, and I can't get e-tickets because it is two different airlines. That means an extra 20 bucks for paper tickets that I just have to worry about not losing for 45 days across 10 cities, lines to wait in, blahblahblah.

Then I can't even pick any kind of seat for the Rome to Boston return trip. Nine hours (after what's going to be an exhausting 45-day trip) sitting in a seat I'm not comfortable with (I prefer aisle seats especially on these big planes where there are only two seats there anyway)???? I don't think so. So I try calling expedia to see what's up and after waiting like almost a half hour I get a woman who must be in India or something and pretty much can't speak English. She puts me on hold about 10 times (ok more like 5 but still) and she tells me that Alitalia just doesn't provide them the seating charts so I can just get my seat the day I travel upon check-in. I'm like.... WHAT? That's not good enough for me. maybe some people are, but I am not ok with the prospect of showing up to the airport, exhausted and looking forward to getting home to the States for them to tell me I am stuck in between 5 people in the last row right by the bathrooms and drink carts. NO thanks.

So I'm getting to the point where for the extra money I would feel better about paying more just to buy directly from the airlines. The weird thing is, I'm not even sure how much more. Alitalia has two sites. a general one and one for the US. on the General site, it is like, much cheaper for the same flight, they charge in Euros but even with the current exchange rate it's like $150 less for the exact same flight. Would they even let an American buy tickets on their generic international flight?

But my thrifty self is having a problem with the thought of paying an extra $275 or something just to avoid these annoyances.

OY VEY.