A customer had booked a flight for his father on Expedia, but there was no flight from Beirut to Frankfurt, a route Lufthansa had already suspended. Expedia should have immediately refunded the ticket, but instead passed the responsibility to United Airlines. The airline refused to process the refund, citing its "nonrefundable" policy. Christopher Elliott, founder of the nonprofit organization Elliott's advocacy site, published the name, number and email address of Expedia executives on his website, and confirmed that a system error prevented the refund from being processed.