Chatdeal review: Airline ticket

December 19, 2023

ISSUE: Faulty ticket issued by Kayak/Chatdeal, billed asTravelOutletCash on June 12, 2023, in the amount of $16,912.40 for two business class roundtrip tickets to Bali. The name was misspelled on my husband’s ticket. Copy available. I immediately contacted the vendor but the vendor ignored me or hung up and would not correct the spelling. Email of June 13, 2023, available. Thus Delta, the domestic carrier, would not issue a boarding pass per TSA regulations on the date of flight.

RESULT: My husband could not fly to Bali on that ticket and I could not go without him. I mitigated and bought tickets for the following day in order not to have to cancel the whole month’s trip. Cost: $20,186.04. Copy available.

NARRATIVE:

On June 12, 2023, I purchased two business class roundtrip tickets to Bali along with Allianz Travel Insurance with my American Express credit card. I thought I was buying tickets from Kayak, allegedly a reputable company. Suddenly I was dealing with Chatdeal, which I had never heard of. Apparently Kayak owns Chatdeal & Allianz and is in turn owned by Booking Holdings, I have now discovered. Chatdeal has a WeWork address in NYC but appears to be outsourced to, or based in Delhi, India. I was aggressively solicited to pay for seat assignments, which I refused, and the agents ignored my calls to correct the spelling of my husband’s name or hung up on me. Reference my June 13, 2023, email confirming conversation.

His name is JOSEPH NICHOLAS BARROW but the spelling of his first name was JOSSEPH on the ticket issued by Kayak/Chatdeal.

The tickets were finally issued as follows:

Flight confirmation # G7JQJN.

Ticket # [protected] (Delta-Korean Air) to JOSSEPH NICHOLAS BARROW

Chatdeal - KC58AD8

Korean Air - 33AND3

Ticket # [protected] (Delta-Korean Air) to CONSTANCE BARROW (Me. Correct spelling)

On two occasions, referenced on email, I asked Chatdeal to change the spelling. They ignored me or hung up.

On July 13, 2023, because I was getting increasingly concerned about the tickets since I could not access them on line using any of the references Chatdeal supplied, I drove to the airport (Albuquerque Sunport ABQ) to ask a Delta agent if the tickets actually existed. I took both my husband’s passport and mine along with the references Chatdeal supplied. I was assured that the tickets existed. The Delta agent, William, printed them for me, assigned seats on the Delta (domestic) legs, and reassured me that the spelling would not be an issue for my husband. So I relaxed. Verification of incident available.

On the departure date, 9/4/2023, we presented ourselves at the Delta counter for check-in. Photos of bags + copies of my Boarding Passes available. None for my husband. Refused because of TSA rule that the spelling had to be exactly the same as passport. The agent, George, refused to accept my husband’s ticket because of the misspelling. I called the Chatdeal number from the Delta counter but was rudely told I had to have contacted them at least two weeks earlier. (I had.) Meanwhile both the Delta agent and my husband were on the phone with Korean Air, and while the Korean Air agent was obliging and trying to make the necessary correction, it could not be done in time. Email and notes available.

At that time I also tried to buy another ticket for my husband from Delta so we could fly but by the time the Delta agent tried it was too late to fly. (Attempt to mitigate) We had no choice but to abandon that flight schedule and come home. We bought another two tickets to try to mitigate our losses at a cost of $22,266.36. Copy available.

9/5/2023 - I called American Express, Chatdeal and Allianz Travel Insurance to report that the Chatdeal ticket could not be honored by TSA and that Delta could not issue a boarding pass because of the misspelling by Chatdeal. I reported that I had purchased two tickets from another vendor, leaving on 9/5/2023, so we would not have to cancel all the bookings we had made in Bali as well as the arrangements to cover our pet, house and yard. As it turned out, we were only one day late arriving in Bali and, though we had to abandon the first night’s booking in Bali (The Open House, Jimbaran - $131.10) the rest of the trip went as planned.

10/1/2023 we returned from Bali having flown on the other tickets. Copies available.

Price of new tickets: $22,266.36 - less $16,912.30 for tickets that could not be used = $5,354.06 Additional

Price of 2 extra Uber trips to airport - $103.50

Price of one night at ‘The Open House, Jimbaran’ - $131.10.

TOTAL to be reimbursed - $22,501.95

When we returned home, October 1, 2023, I was advised to challenge the faulty ticket via American Express. I had paid for the ticket on my American Express card. The Vendor, Chatdeal, provided multiple pages of documentation including tiny print and at least one false statement. American Express accepted the vendor’s position, however - once, then a second time on appeal, and a third time, through arbitration. The vendor’s multiple page response is available.

I then filed a claim with Allianz Travel Insurance, also owned by Kayak and ultimately, Booking Holdings. Inc. Copy available. Allianz Global Assistance denied the claim writing, on January 17, 2024, “Your insurance program provided Trip Interruption benefits for very specific reasons. Unfortunately, not being allowed to travel by the Travel Supplier due to ticket or booking issues is not included among those reasons.” I have not appealed this decision as I doubt it would be useful to do so.

I have spent multiple hours and days on line trying to understand the interrelationships among all these multinational corporations and what rights a consumer might have. In addition I have uncovered pages and pages of complaints about Chatdeal through multiple sources. I can only conclude this organization is, to understate, shady.