British Airways- Expedia Scheduled us with a bankrupt Air Carrier, made us buy additional tickets from another airline and are not refunding us. East Elmhurst New York

I purchased two round trip tickets to Sardinia, Italy through Expedia in October 2007, with travels commencing in December of 2007.

We were routed from Raleigh to London to Venice to Cagliary, Sardinia.

Before departing we were told that the original connection flight from Venice to Cagliari got changed and we needed to stay the night in Venice to wait for the next available flight with Alpi Eagles the following day and Expedia arranged for a hotel.

Arriving in Venice I checked in to confirm our flight the next day to be told that there is no such airline as Alpi Eagles. After hours of searching for answers with no luck, I resolved to purchasing other tickets with Alitalia to travel on to our end destination.
I was told by Expedia that they are not responsible and they refered me to British Air.

They now want the paper tickets to consider a refund. We faxed them one and the other one had been thrown out. British Airways wants to charge me 70 dollars per lost paper tickets to consider refunding our money.
I have not mentioned the amazing amount of time I have spend on the phone with both Expedia and British Airways.
Why am I being punished for their problem?
They have all the documentation of this transaction.

Andrea
Southern Pines, North Carolina
U.S.A.