Expedia Honeymoon Nightmare-Expedia will not allow a Simple Name Change Bellevue Washington

First, let me say that it does suck that you are out the cost of the flight, but I don't think that it is really Expedia's fault in this case. When you use any on-line booking site like Orbitz, Hotwire, or Expedia you are presented with a page during the booking process that asks you to carefully review your information before confirming because after that point, changed cannot be made. And think of it this way, if you booked a flight and somehow your email box or personal information was compromised, anyone could call Expedia and ask to change the name from yours to theirs and show up at the airport's electronic check-in with their info and get in your seat that you paid for. I bet if you would have cancelled and then re-booked with them, you could have at least gotten a credit for the amount to use on a later flight. I don't think this is really a rip-off, rather it is just an unfortunate (and costly) oversight on your part and a common security aspect that everyone deals with when flying.

Particularly with third party online sites. I'm guessing that you bought low fare, non-refundable tickets. If you purchase full fare tickets, you can change names, flights, etc... without problems.

The reason there are restrictions on non-refundable bargain tickets is that inventive entrepenuers (or online travel sites) would buy up all of the bargain seats, then resell those seats at a later date by doing a name change (much like concert ticket scalpers). As you probably know, the price for a seat goes up as the departure date nears. By making the name change difficult on their bargain seats, the airlines are actually preserving your ability to buy cheap seats.

I understand your dilemma, but unfortunately, when you act as your own travel agent, you're responsible for your own mistakes. If you booked through a real travel agent, the agent would have to eat the cost of mistakes on the name and would have likely caught the last name issue in the first place (they do this everyday).

Personally, I agree that the policy sucks, but I also understand why it is implemented.

Sorry Patrick, but not allowing name changes is not an Expedia policy - most airline policies do not allow name changes, even name corrections can be difficult.  And they all have somewhat different ways of handling a correction -  some require that a new booking be made in the correct name, which means the same booking class as the original ticket has to be available. Often it is not, which means you have to buy a new ticket.