This all started because I wanted to change my arrival time by 1.5 hours. See my email to cheapoair and by the way, I still don't have my refund yet. I was told on 7/12 that I would be charged a $100 cancellation fee since I was changing my arrival time on my flight within 24 hours. At cheapoair's request I canceled the booking #502367 and re booked with the correct time. I was then asked to send an email to [protected]@cheapoair.com requesting the cancellation and acknowledging the $100 fee which I did at 10:17pm on 7/12.
I've been trying to get a status on my refund for booking #502367 since 7/17/07 (More than 6 weeks). I've emailed twice 7/17/07 and 7/19/07 - no response) and called numerous times including 8/14, 8/15, 8/22). I was placed on hold forever (Once for over an hour) and disconnected several times. When I did reach someone I was always told that my refund was being processed, but it would take up to 6 weeks to get it back. I was even told by perry that it may take until the end of august which would be 8 weeks although cheapoair's website states approx. 4-6 weeks.
6 weeks later and now i'm being told that it will take an additional 3 weeks due to some internal errors at cheapair and that I had not sent back my canceled ticket. Well no one ever told me that I needed to send the ticket back which I would have done immediately. Again, i've been in communication with your company for weeks and wasn't until I talked to philip on 8/22 that I was ever told to send the ticket back.
On 8/22/07, I overnighted the ticket back to cheapoair and received confirmation that it was received on 8/23.
On 8/23 after the receipt of my ticket I was then told by philip that the airline would deduct $200 from my refund for the cancellation which no one at cheapoair ever told me. They only told me about the $100 cancellation fee from cheapoair. Again, I was only changing my flight time not canceling my trip. By now i'm very frustrated and disappointed with your company and it's service with the exception of philip how has tried to help. I would have never changed by flight time if I had known it would have cost me an additional $300. Sorry, but getting into milan 1.5 hours earlier would not have been worth it. Philp said that he would try to get the some of the $200 refunded from my current booking, but the key word was 'try' which he didn't even mention in his email to me.
I do not feel I should be charged a fee at all especially one that I was never made aware of or approved. Again, i've been in dealing with cheapoair for over 6 weeks! At this point the following people will be contacted and will be made aware of this horrendous service (Again with the exception of philip); ram peddinit (Head of call center), steve lanzalotto (Director of operations), werner kunz (Chief strategy officer) and sam jain (Ceo). I'm also contacting consumer affairs.
This is the first and last time I will ever use our site and I will make all of my friends, families and associates aware of how I was treated. It's a simple refund and should not have been this time consuming and stressful to take care of.
As of 12/3/07, Cheapoair still has not provided my complete refund. Alitalia refunded my ticket, but Cheapoair owes me $100. They are now saying that Alitailia is responsible for this refund which could take up to 6 months, per Renee Andrews at Cheapoair. However, in their written response to the Better Business Bureau they acknowledge fault and claim that my refund will be coming from THEIR accounting department. Still nothing!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer's satisfaction.
I tried booking a flight on cheapo and re-did my flight information several times to see about different dates in order to get the lowest fairs. A lower fair came up for a certian date and I booked it. When I looked at the ticket the return data had been changed to a month or two later than I had entered. Did I make a mistake or did their software default to another date? I'll never know but I paid the $100 fee to cancell and then went directly to the airlines site and even considering the loss due to cancelling, I found the flight I wanted for several hundred dollars less than cheapo.
Just wondering... has anyone else experienced "dates changing?"
MY COMPLAINT has 3 parts:
1. Cheapoair did not notify me of any changes about my reservations for four to Hawaii scheduled for June 28, 2008. I booked trip on 1/4/08. It was only on June 25 that I found out Air Tran Airlines had filed bankruptcy on April 3, 2008. No e mail or telephone call was received by me. I have searched my deleted and junk mail but found nothing from them.
2. On further inquiry with CSA Travel Protection Insurance, I found that Cheapoair had canceled my insurance on April 29, 2008 without my knowledge or notification.
3. Although Cheapoair did put back a portion of the fare, No notice was sent to me about what they were doing or why. I did not pick up this info until calling the Credit card co. The only solution they presented to me was to make a new travel arrangement for an additional cost of $7, ooo. I believe my insurance claim would have picked up any cost for the tickets.
My sister bought a tickets to LA for her and her family at a great (false) price. two hours after booking and printing the receipt they called her to say that fare is no longer available and it was more than double. She's since spent over 5 hours on the phone trying to resolve this nightmare. They have not resolved it nor honored her fare and it's become a huge time consuming disaster. Apparently they have done this repeatedly! They try to lure you with the cheap fare then call you to get you to rebook and cancel your flight. They need to be investigated by the government.
I found Cheapoair to be a total rip off. After American Air canceled our flight to Dallas, they immediately refunded the total cost of the tickets to Cheapoair. After over nine months of requests for a refund, "noel@cheapoair.com" said that Cheapoair would only refund $30.00. Further they said:
Dear XXX,
As per our terms and conditions, all service fees are non refundable. As advised previously, the $30.00 refund that was processed in your case was an exception and a courtesy. We will not process any further refunds, this issue is closed.
Thank You,
Billing Department
Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: 50686
Department: Billing
Priority: Medium
Recommend all people avoid cheapoair!
We had a HORRIBLE experience with Cheapo Air. Once you book your ticket at their quoted price, leaving your credit card number with them online, they send you an email 3 DAYS LATER telling you that the original price has increased by HUNDREDS of dollars. Your only choice is to purchase the plane ticket at this new RIDICULOUS price, or charge you a cancellation fee.
Cheapo Air has absolutely NO work ethic, I am highly disturbed and disgusted by their lack of respect for customers, and I highly recommend any reader of this complaint to NEVER do business with Cheapo Air.
i bought a ticket to italy with cheap o air, the airline change the itenerary, so i asked for a refund, cheap o air charged to my account after the refund 3 time to my credit card and said it was taxes, and now the wont even respond to my calls, they are no good. its criminal to charge without letting you know.
I bought a ticket to italy, the airlines changed the itenerary so i had to cancell, you never gave me full refund, plus charged 3 times after the fact to my credit card without telling me and said it was taxes, i want my taxes back how dare you charge to my account for a flight i never took, its criminal to continue to abuse someone credit card!
I am currently dealing with an issue myself. Just spent over 2 hours on-again off-again hold. And was told by Nigel, a customer service supervisor that I was an idiot. I sure was for booking with Cheapoair.com. I WILL NEVER book a flight with them again.
Cannot Recommend...Purchased ticket, found other competitive sites, very Poor service was on hold for :40 min then disconnected...Major problem was other travel sites offered same flight itinerary A $154.00 less than CheapOair...CheapOair never answered phone, sent e-mail CheapOair finally responded and would not match the competitive published fare...More expensive...Shop before you purchase..
Cheap o air, Is the worst company to deal with. They have no understanding to customers. And they charged us twice for a ticket that we could never use at all because of pass port problems. They would not refund the first money then charged our credit card again for the same flight or ticket. The customer service mgr. was very rude and took our problem personal. She even started yelling over the phone at me and would not give me the phone number of the owner of the company. I will never recommend anyone to use this company at anytime because if you have a problem they will refuse you any type of a refund and they will charge your account twice like they did us.
Cheapoair might be cheap but has the worst customer service! Because of that I wont fly with them. I would rather spend an extra $100 an fly with someone that acutally wants to help. And TRUST ME, the travel insurance doesnt help. So save your money
Dear Sir/Madam, it sounds like you are in need of assistance. I would certainly be glad to look into what ever your concern maybe. I would also like to mention that we are not an airline, but a travel agency, so if you had a problem with airline service that is something other than service provided by CheapOair.com. As for the insurance, that is separate also from our company, Travel Guard is a leading travel insurance provider, and the details of the policy are listed on our website on what they cover and don't cover, again, that is a separate issue from CheapOair.com. Please forward me your 7 digit booking number to randrews@cheapoair.com, with blog posting in the subject line, and I will see what I can do for you.
Cheapoair charged me for auto rental insurance for budget rental car in Panama!. Budget does not accept insurance issued out of the country in Panama?. As a travel advisory company selling insurance on auto rentals, they should know this and refrain from selling insurance/. It is a fraud upon the customer?. Do not patronize the services of this company, .
cheapoair Refused to refund monies when I complained and made request for refund". amex no help either!. the company has not responded to any request for explanation or refund of monies I wascharged for auto rental insurance
that was not accepted by Budget rental agency in Panama.
We are flying out of Detriot early in the morning to get to Orlando . We wanted to book a hotel to stay over night so no rush to get the plane in the morning. We called CheapOair and I specifically asked for a hotel package with park and jet included ( I mentioned that 4 times during our coverstaion). He said he had one for $115 cdn (for 2 rooms). The day after booking I called the actual hotel to make sure all was right. Well the park and jet service was NOT included in our booking. It is an xtra $45 charge. So I called them back to ask why. First off the wait times to actually talk to somone is always excessive as in atleast 30 minutes or so. I finally got in touch with the booking agent and informed him of what I had found out. He said all his computer shows him is that its an available service. I said well why didnt you tell me that when I specifically asked for that to be included. He just repeated himself 3 times over. So then he replied that I can cancel and receive all the funds back except $1. I then said no I still need a hotel So i'd like to keep the booking for now. The next dayI receive an e mail from them saving I cancelled my booking and will be refunded $19 usd with in 14 days. So I called back, again waiting for over 30 minutes, to talk to the billings agent. Told her the whole story then she puts me on hold. After waiting for 45 minutes I gave up and hung up.
Bottem line HORRIBLE service with agents that either dont listen or try to sell you something that notexactaly what you wanted.
Booked 4 flights with British Air through CheapOair thinking we'd get a discount. Flights were cancelled due to BA strike. CheapOair first refused to refund our money even thought we rebooked the flights with them throught Air Lingus fo a lot more money as it was under 14 days. Then they agreed to refund our cancelled fares and sent us emails outlining our refund for each of the four round trip tickets on British Air. They refunded three but now are refusing to refund our fourth identical ticket for reasons unknown to us. We have multiple emails confirming refund but they dont seem to think that matters much. They are willing to reimburse us at the rate of 40 cents on the dollar... can't figure out why that seems they best they can do. Taking them to small claims court and will definitely win and it wil cost them lots more than the cost of the refund...attorney fees and all.. One piece of advice.. go straight to the airlines and you could book for even less than Cheapoair advertises. They are bad for the industry...
This company does not have adequate staffing to answer queries regarding credit card billing. Twice today i called and was directed to "accounting" the first time, and after 27 minutes, the line disconnected. This evening, after 23 minutes without a live person, a voice came on the phone and said "fred", followed by an answering machine. Very unprofessional, and I do not know whether the charge on my credit card is legitimate or not.
I bought a fare to Hawaii for two through Cheapoair and they offered a $50 discount. They immediately hemmed and hawed and said, "No you misread it; it was a $10 per person discount up to 5 people."
That was only the first problem. I called back within 24 hours to change the reservation. They were going to add a bunch of fees onto it--even though it was within 24 hours. So I told them to cancel the reservation. She said she would and said I would be refunded within 48-72 hours.
Nine days later the tickets have still not been refunded. I used the chat feature, waited for about 15 minutes, and was finally told that someone would call me. They never did. I tried again. Still no one contacted me.
Finally tonight I decided to stay on the phone until I got some answers. I was on the phone for over an hour. The first representative asked me if I wanted to confirm my reservation. I said, "No, I cancelled it over a week ago." He said that it was still active. When I told him that simply was not true, he hung up on me. I called back and asked to speak to s supervisor. All of the representatives I spoke to at Cheapoair overspoke me, would not listen, kept talking over me and not letting me talk.
I asked to be transferred to a supervisor, and was told that the next person was one. I had to go through everything again. He admitted that it showed that I had cancelled the reservation within 24 hours, but that the tickets were not cancelled with the airlines. He said I could get a credit. I told her I didn't want a credit; I needed a refund. He said it wasn't possible because it was beyond 24 hours.
I asked him if he was a supervisor. He said no. I told him I had asked to speak to a supervisor. He said that I would have to hold. I did for another 5 minutes or so and finally got someone who said he was a supervisor. We kept on back and forth and he said he would TRY to "help" me. I told him no, that he needed to fix the mistake that Cheapoair made. He refused to acknowledge any mistake on Cheapoair's part. He refused to send me an email stating that I had cancelled the reservation within 24 hours. He kept saying that they would TRY to help me. Finally he said he would "research" it and get back to me within 5 days (by next Monday or Tuesday). I protested until the end of the conversation, but he wouldn't budge.
All of the representatives I dealt with kept talking over me and not allowing me to finish a thought. And now I may have lost about $1400 because of their mistake that they are refusing to acknowledge.
I got two airline reservations to Puerto Vallarta thru CheapOAir. When I made the reservation I was getting concerned that I wasn't being asked for my seat assignments. After they took my credit card into I was offered the chance to make seat assignments for a charge of $11.50 per reservation ($23 total). I declined, made the reservation and went to the US
Airways website and made our seat assignments for every leg of the trip (for free). Also on the US Airways site I discovered that CheapO was charging $28 to make the reservation. I
called CheapO's customer service and complained. The rep said that that was for taxes. After I pointed out that the tax figure CheapO quoted was $28 more than the airline, he admitted
the reservation fee, but only offered to cancel my reservations. Take my advice, use CheapO to only find out about cheap airfares. Go the airline's website to make the reservation and seat assignments for $51 cheaper.
I just booked a flight with the and they charged me in USD instead of CAD. I ended up paying more that what I would have paid if I booked direct from theairline. This company is a scam!
westjet.com had a flight for $1117 CAD, which was what they had advertised on cheapoair.com. When I got my bill they charged the exact amount in USD. so after the conversion I ended up paying $50 more that what I would have paid with westjet. Called customer service but they obviously don't know what custoner service is. Stay away from this company!
Today is 3/22/2012 and I received terrible customer service with CheapOair.. i was also told i needed to pay another $150 to rebook my flight.. after I agreed to do so because I need to get home ASAP... she then started to constantly ask me if i wanted to save $10 on my flight by booking a car.. we went back and forth over and over how i live in DC and have my own car.. she then STILL tried to get me to rent the car and than said but its saving you money... finally I told her to cancel my flight and i was going to go with another flight... over $70 more with one of there competitors... doesn't matter who but I will NEVER use them again!
Paid Cheapo Air in advance for airfare and hotel. When we arrived at the hotel, the desk clerk said that the hotel payment had been refused y the third-party discounter, Travel Web. Cheapo Air is a consolidator of these third-party discounters, but they should be more careful about who they contract with. The hotel had to talk with the Cheapo Air billing department to get the payment corrected. Cheapo, indeed. I won't deal with them again.
Expecting a refund of £24 due to incorrectly charging me. After several phone calls I was told on 6th Jan 2014 that refund has been processed, its been 4 weeks since then but no refund is reflected in my account. On calling the company, the agent advises me to check my statement and I confirm to him that I have checked it and I also checked with my banking team that there are no pending transactions on my card but he thought I was being stupid. Absolutely poor service, you are better paying off few extra bucks as Cheapoair will scam and con you in charges you wouldn't be expecting. AVOID BOOKING THROUGH CHEAPOAIR
I booked to Scotland two tickets. Times were changed. It took me four hours on the phone but I got it cancelled with full refund. I have to say because of comments on these complaint sites I thought it would be a fight and months to get my $2700 back. In 8 days I have my full refund . No complaints I'm happy and satisfied with the service
I purchased a ticket from Cheapoair to fly overseas to see my 90+ year old mother well in advance of my travel date. I received an e-mail confirmation followed by another confirmation containing a booking number and an e-ticket number. For some reason I could never find my trip listed anywhere except on Cheapoair's website. I checked with the airline ~ no such booking found. I checked on "checkmytrip.com" ~ once again no such booking found. I called Cheapoair several times during the period prior to my departure only to be advised that there were no changes and that my trip was indeed confirmed and no problems were found. Be aware that Cheapoair's customer service (or lack of service) is out of India. If the agent you are speaking to doesn't like what you're saying they put you on hold forever hoping you will hang up. Against my better judgement I took the chance of going to the airport on the scheduled departure date. At the check in counter I was advised that the booking number was bogus, did not exist. The airline's booking numbers are totally different to the one I was given. The e-ticket number also did not exist. The agent even called to see if it could be fixed as it was obvious that my ticket had been paid for but nothing could be done to fix it. As my trip was going to be out of the country I decided that the best thing to do was to go back home and contact Cheapoair to try and get my money back. This proved to be an exercise in futility. Seven agents later, with ultra long hold times in the hopes that I would hang up, I finally handed the phone to my husband. My husband managed to get through to a supervisor but this took about 45 minutes. Remember at this stage both of us had already spent well over 2 hours trying to get something accomplished. We'd been put on hold, agent checking in with clicks from time to time on the phone to see if we'd hung up yet. In the meantime I called my bank's fraud department and had them lodge an investigation into the charge. My husband at this point was still on the line with the supervisor and was eventually told that they would provide a refund but that it could take 2-3 billing cycles to appear. 2-3 billing cycles would be the equivalent of 90+ days, or maybe never. This is totally unacceptable and the equivalent of stealing in my book. My brother had a similar experience with Cheapoair earlier this year but was fortunate enough to be in a city where a physical travel agent could fix the problem prior to his departure. Cheapoair is owned and operated by Hahn Air out of Belgium. They apparently have many online booking sites including Cheaptravel, cheaptickets etc. Too many to mention. Oh I forgot to mention that when you get your e-mail with your so called e-ticket it has a link to reserve your seat. I clicked on this link (silly me) and was then told that I couldn't reserve a seat for this flight but my credit card was charged. I have yet to see the refund that's supposed to be credited to my account and this has been ongoing for well in excess of 60 days. I recommend anyone considering booking with Cheapoair, Hahn Air, or any of its subsiduary companies to read about my experience and think about whether it's worth your time, effort and possible theft of your hard earned money. My bank has an ongoing fraud investigation against this company. No one should have to go through this type of experience.
Worse company ever... I booked a trip for my kids and my best friend, and her grandson. I did not have the correct spelling of my friend grandson name and I wasn't sure if I had his birthday right. So the agent told me to call back within 24 hours to correct the information simple right? I asked the agent would anything change when I called back with the corrected information he assured me that it wouldn't (HAHAHAHA) first I called back within 10 hours to correct the information they said that it will be a $50.00 dollar fee just to edit the information so I felt like ok since I didn't have the correct information when I first called it's my fault, but here is where you need to put on your financial seatbelt... I was told that the tickets with insurance at the amount of about $2880.30 would now cost about $ 120.00 more per person then the already agreed to price. It is six people going on the trip mind you. Do the math $140*6=$840.00+ $2880.30=$3720.30+50.00=$3770.30 . The reason why ...is when you edit a name they go in and change your whole flight plan, which changes your schedule, which cost more just to edit a name are you with me now... So after not understanding what happened to the seats that I had already paid for and the agent giving me this you gotta pay more or not go attitude. I asked to speak to the manager again the agent proceed to tell me that this is how it works. I then explained that the previous agent assured me that nothing would change but yet and still it did. I decided to ask for my money back. I would like to say thank you CHEAPOAIR for making an hard situation worser. The trip was to take my mom ashes to my sister so she could have my mother with her, my mom died June 3, 2015 our trip was scheduled for July 2, 2015 I was my mother care taker and I am still emotional about her death she was given 3 months to live March 1, 2015 she came home to my house with me I watched my mother past and I wasn't ready for that and my sister couldn't be here with my mom when she passed so this was going to be a time for us to grieve together, and CHEAPOAIR made it more depressing then it already was, they are rude and heartless I would tell everyone I know DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY...
Worst experience i could have had.
I booked ticket to India for me and me wife. While booking tickets with cheapoair i asked in call 3 times that i may need to cancel the ticket later as i am still waiting on my wife's visa approval.
Associate at cheapoair mentioned that there will be a penalty and the amount will be refunded back.
NOWHERE on the call even after booking the ticket associate mentioned that this ticket is non-refundable completely.
And as i was worrying for i was required to cancel her ticket. I called cheapoair and thats the first time they told me that ticket is non-refundable. They listened to the call recordings and clearly heard me screaming 3-4 times on call that i may need to cancel the ticket later, but they were just busy selling tickets. Even on call they mentioned to me that there will be airline fee deduction and rest amount will be given back to you for cancellation.
I am still going in circles and have called them several times, have been on holds for 2-3 hours total, and still no refund back. This was a big blow to me, given they are just busy at selling tickets and not listening to the customer requirements.
No customer courtsey also, why will i book ticket if i knew its non-refundable and even when i asked multiple times while and after getting tickets booked. Highly disappointed! :(