CheapOair
reviews and complaints

Do not book using this site. It is by far worthwhile and less of a headache to spend more money on a more reliable booking agency or going directly through an airline themselves. I purchased my ticket in feb, and when it came time for my trip in june, I received an email 3 days before saying there were changes to my itinerary. No big deal, that happens all the time... I'm a seasoned traveler so I get it, # happens.

Anyway, I was told to contact them between specific hours. The first time I called, I was on hold for 55 minutes. Never got to speak to anyone. I decided to try again later, after all, the voice on the hold line did say it was a high call volume. It also informed me that I could speak directly electronically with a customer service rep directly on their contact us site. I checked it while I was on hold. I never saw such a thing. I'm a very tech-savvy person, so this seemed pretty obvious there was no such thing on their contact us site.

Next, I sent an email to them, at the email that was suggested, that I was trying to resolve my itinerary issues. I was told again I would get a call back in a couple hours. I did not.

The next day I tried again, early, like 8 am. I was on hold for more than 25 minutes and had to let it go due to errands I had to complete. Tried again in another 15 minutes. Gave up again. Decided to wait til later again. Here I was, on hold for more than 130 minutes total and never got to speak to one person. Just annoying mocking hold voice.

Then later that afternoon, 24 hrs til my travel time, I decide to call us airways directly, who I know i'm flying through. I got the customer service rep on the phone right away and was able to confirm my flights through them. I felt relieved and my customer service faith was renewed... Then a couple hours later, I received an email that said cheapoair had been trying to contact me via email and phone unsuccessfully. Hmmm, interesting... I only have one phone (My mobile) and it hadn't rang all day... Finally I called the customer service line and after 25 more minutes of the annoying hold music, I got someone. I was told my flights were confirmed (The same ones the us air person told me, sigh, thank goodness) and then I was told my return flights weren't because there wasn't enough time between my connections to get through customs. So, I had to book for a later flight, 2 more days of travel, coming home. Which sucks. Why allow me to book a flight that was going to be considered invalid by the airline because there wasn't enough time to get through customs in between my connection? Lame. Anyway, I know others have had worse experiences, but I still think this is a bad enough experience to not want to use this booking agency again.

I work in customer service so I have a very high tolerance for bad customer service in small company or non-profit situations, because I understand how it is when you are one of 3-5 people working in it. However, I also have extremely high standards when it comes to a large corporations and for-profits. I think it's unprofessional, unacceptable and plain rude to do this to a paying customer. I know that the tickets are cheap, but they weren't cheap to me! I worked 2 jobs for a year to be able to take this vacation and visit my best friend who I hadn't seen in a year and I expected to be treated like it was my hard earned money! I expect if it had been a different agency or directly through the airline, even though i'd have paid more, I would have been treated as such.

That's my two cents.

Bought tickets last June 16 on CheapOair website after receiving a newsflash airfare for and LAX-BCN flight. Booked for 3, got confirmation and booking numbers (+Spanair booking code) but was assured that ticket numbers would follow. Gave my credit card number and all's done. Well, after 3 days we got this email from CheapoAir stating to call their CS number if we haven't recieved our ticket numbers. Here when it all goes downhill:
1. Whenever you call their customer service numbers, aside from the minimum hold time of 30 mins, every agent has no clue of what your case is all about. They just keep telling you they'll look into it, but then you'll need to keep calling to follow up on it.
2. They actually tolfd us that our flight never existed! What? They're selling flights that do not exist? Then they come back at you with, "well, it does but at triple your purchase price"? Isn't this illegal?
3. Website, phone message while on hold and previous interviews from media sites states that they have "real time" confirmation...another issue with false advertising because after we got confirmations from their website, it wasn't honored after 3 days?

CheapoAir, my patience is running thin and to this day, we are still in limbo with your company. It's been a week and still the message I get is "we're working on it" as I still have my booking on your site but have no seats on the plane. Yes, I checked on Spanair and the code I got from you for Spanair is useless! I will be forced to take legal action unless this is resolved accordingly and fairly.

I will never book my tickets again with cheapoair.I have booked tickets for my parents travelling from India to US.After the tickets were booked any call you make to their call center is a pain.The wait time is more than 20 mins.

I was supposed to fly from STL to ATH Greece in July 2010 but the riots made us cancel our trip. Cheap o Air said it wouldn't be a problem as long as we rescheduled within a year of our purchase date. Needless to say but they still have my $ and I have no trip! My friend purchased the same trip through travelocity and had no problems re-scheduling. Cheap-o-Air at first claimed I could only travel from STL to ATH; then changed their mind later on that it would be okay to go from DEN to Florence with a $500 added cost. NO thank you. I am not giving them any more money. They claim the ticket is more expensive. Too bad the ticket is actually cheaper and they are lying!

I recently purchased tickets through Cheapoair.com. This is what their website said:

Travel Insurance (Recommended) Coverage includes:
Trip cancellation, trip interruption, trip delay, baggage delay, accidental death and dismemberment. Receive benefits up to $100, 000. 24 hour EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE SERVICE is included with Insurance purchase. Yes, add insurance to my flight order.

What it didn't say, is that trip cancellation is only covered under medical emergencies. I have purchased insurance through delta, aa, airtran, sw air, and never had a problem. Not to mention, insurance through most of those is $15 to $20, I paid $30 for insurance through cheapoair.com and got less coverage. When I called them to speak about it, cheapoair blamed it all on the "3rd party insurance" I'm here to tell you that if you sell a product, you have some responsibility for it. To me this is false advertising, and a very shady business practice. I have filed complaints with the BBB.org, and the Federal Trade Commission. I hope you do the same with your complaints.

I've booked my tickets through cheapoair and needed to change my flight date and they have given me a additional charge of $345.00 US which was penalty, difference in fare and fees. When I checked with my actual airlines which was emirates they've told me the penalty charges for my changes should only be $139 instead. I was annoyed and tried to solve this issue with cheapoair agency and they were rude and then put me on hold and then pretended that they couldn't hear me on the phone. I feel that this agency has taken advantage of me and everything was handled unfairly.

Company Phone
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Incident
Buying air tickets. Final total price displayed - about $1660. I checked "accept terms and conditions" and "proceed". Suddenly new screen appears stating "this fare not available" and a new price, about $1690. Three options given - Accept, Cancel, or change. Cancel button is inoperable unless you check a box authorizing $25 per ticket in fees to be charged to your credit card. I groaned and just accepted the higher price. My bank declined the payment, but not before a $20 "travel assist" fee had been processed under a different company name, not "CheapoAir". My Bank Visa center was unable to specify why a security hold was placed when the attempt was made to charge the larger amount.

Damage Resulting
Waste of time, now and when I have to try to have Visa nullify the $20 when it appears on my statement. Ongoing risk that CheapoAir will try to use my credit card information.

I bought a flight from my hometown to SLC. This was only my second time flying, so I was rather inexperienced in this field. 24 hours before my flight I called American Airlines to check in. They said that Cheap-o-Air had canceled my flight not even a day after I had purchased it!

I called COA to figure out what went wrong with hope they would get me on the flight. They said American Airlines had canceled the flight and for more money I could get on a different one. After being tugged around by COA I finally demanded my money back.

They first told me that my ticket was non-refundable, but after a little nagging, I finally got COA to work with me. After many futile attempts, I finally got COA to tell me I should get my refund in 8-12 weeks. Seeing as I would have to pay for it in 4 weeks, that just won't work for me. This is a disaster!

I am beyond baffled on how a company endorsed by priceline can get away with such poor "business" tactics. They lied to me, shamed me, and are attempting to steal from me. They ruined the only vacation that I have had in years.

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...

Booked a flight through Cheapoair for my son flying back from Finland. It only took them a day to bill my credit card but I have waited three months for a refund. Do to the volcano in Iceland my son's flight was cancelled. I called Cheapoair days prior to the flight to request a refund and was advised that my credit card would be credited by the next billing cycle (May). I gave it a few weeks & attempted to call to no avail so I emailed them only to be told 2 weeks later that I had to wait a few more weeks. Well another month has gone by and my emails still go unanswered. The customer service is dispicable do not use this company.

I booked a trip without checking them out first. The departure flight was never booked, although on emailed itinerary. Departure flight airline did not have my booking, but the return airline did. I cancelled my credit card immediately--good thing because three days later, I still had no departing flight! And one day later Cheapoair emailed me: "because of technical difficulties, we have to charge $100 extra." You cannot reach this people EVER. You are cut off even after someone from India forwards your call. I got a message on cell from Cheapoair about "my credit card company declining the charge" but when I repeatedly called the number they left, I was always disconnected. Today, 4 days later, I got an email telling me they canceled my flight. If I had not cancelled my card, I would have been booked $100 extra, and not had a departure flight. And if I ever got through to them, would no doubt paid more money for the rebooking of the outbound flight. They are based in NYC.

I bought their flight insurance! What a scam this is, they work together so you can not collect a dime. Some airlines will not give you flight cancellation documentation, which you need for to make a claim, on top of a long list of other documents you need. After 6 hours of getting no where I am writing this. DO NOT USE CHEAPO OR BUY THEIR INSURANCE.

I have read all of the complaints about Cheapoair.com, and regrettably they are all valid complaints. To make matters worse, this company is owned by the same umbrella company that owns Onetravel.com and Fareportal.com. The owners of this company do not believe that it is necessary to provide customer service to its clients. There is simply no profit in doing the right thing, so it is discouraged. I should know, I am a former employee of this company. As an agent, I was expected/pressured to answer 60 calls in a typical 8 hour day. No matter how much I generated in commissions or fees, no matter what extraordinary lengths I went to in helping out a client solve a problem, if I didn't answer 60 calls a day, I didn't do my job as far as they were concerned. The preferred response to a customer problem is to give them an 800# (usually to the airline they're flying with) and tell them "only they can solve your problem, there's nothing more we can do", and rush them off the phone. It is no wonder that there are so many service issues and complaints with this company. It was such a horrible experience I used to tell people I was unemployed rather than admit I worked for such a miserable organization. The last day I was employed there I got physically sick because I dreaded going to work. Is this sour grapes? Hardly...two weeks after I quit working here, I started a new job which gave me a $5 an hour raise, better benefits, and managed to unlearn in 2 days all of the bad business practices Cheapoair.com forced on me. I also sleep better, I look forward to going to work again, and I can smile knowing that I am free of that nightmare.

1st CheapOair told me a flight price will be $168 more than their advertised price of $337; a lame excuse was given for the price hike, but I agreed & gave credit card information..., because I fell for the line that "only one seat was available & that I wouldn't find a cheaper rate elsewhere."

To satisfy my curiousity, I then called the airline directly and was told several seats were available on the identical flight and the price would be $78 less than CheapOair's price. I then called CheapO... to give the update; they explained that "prices change by the minute", and I could now have it for $45 less than their last quote, "because of the timing of my call." I agreed to the discount.

But curiosity motivated me to call the airline directly again, and lo and behold, I found out "prices" don't "change by the minute"; their price remained the same & still cheaper than CheapO...

I then called CheapO... and said "match the price I was quoted by the airline or I want to cancel the flight." They said they can't match the price, and there will be a $24 service fee if I cancel. I said "OK let's cancel", since $24 + the airline direct price was still cheaper than CheapO...

CheapO... then said "what if another $7 is taken off the price", which would be the break even point to me going with the airline directly combined with paying the $24 cancelation charge paid to CheapO...

I wanted to get this over with, so I agreed to not cancel on that call, since I figured I'm losing $24 either way.

After we hung up, I was thinking how little trust I had in CheapO..., so I checked them out in the Better Business Bureau website, & what I read about them scared the bleep out of me.

I then called CheapO... and said I want to cancel the flight, & when they asked why, I felt great pleasure in saying "because I never want to do business with you guys..."

Then they said the "service" fee for canceling would be $50. As irritated as I was with Cheapo..., I actually laughed thinking about all their price changes, & said "I was told the fee would be $24, why is it now $50?" I was put on hold & then told "OK, $24 is correct."

Oh, and I was told the refund will take 7 to 10 business days by one rep, 20 to 25 business days by another rep, and the last I heard is that it may take up to 12 weeks!

So, they are charging my credit card the full price of $500+ and will "refund" all but $24 of it some day.

All the above happened within a few hours, and I immediately called the credit card company to dispute the charge... Fortunately, the credit card company said the worst that will happen is that I'll lose the $24.

I'm lucky to only be potentially losing $24; it could have been a lot worse in dealing with CheapOair.com . I learned my lesson...

Check the Better Business Bureau website before deciding whether to deal with a company name that begins with "CheapO".

Cheapoair has the worst customer service agents ever. No one speaks correct english or understand the basic knowledge of taking a reservation. They over charged me for booking the reservation in the amount of $1360.20, which it shold have been $864.80. I've called multiple times and no one answers. I have to file a police report and file out a fraud report with my bank and all 3 credit bureaus. Thank God my bank is handling this issue and is going after Cheapoair on behalf of me. My bank will guarantee my money back in full. I had to close my account, get new checks and bank cards. What a mess? I'm surpised that this company still exsist will all the multiple fraud alerts, scams and issues in general. I learned a valuable lesson.

These folks made an error. Didn't contact me until almost 1 year later. Instead of calling and stating the problem, their representative phoned me Xmas Eve and launched into a diatribe about how wrong I was. I was phoned and before I hung up they sent an email also. I replied that I would get copies of my credit card statement and with Xmas being that Friday, I didn't call for copies until the following Monday, when their rep. called me and launched into another tirade about how much money I owed them. I said not to call again until I had time to get the info. and hung up. He called me back over and over and over again (approx. 10 times as fast as I hung up he called back!) I will never use these folks again. Save yourself. . .use anyone but Cheapo Air!

I purchased a ticket with CheapOAir in December 2008. I was unable to use the ticket due to a death and had to cancel my travel plans. Upon trying to make a new reservation (willing to pay penalty) I was told the ticket was not valid.

After calling customer service for two days (on hold for one and one half hours the first day) and talking to two customer service representatives: Angelo and Travis who sounded suspeciously the same, I was told by Angelo the reservation did not exist. Travis told me that I couldn't speak to a manager because they were busy with other customers. This I attributed to their training and desire to get rid of me.

I can truly say, CheapOAir has lost a great customer as I will direct my friends, family, and associates to airlines directly or other airline search engines due to CheapOAir not handling customer concerns in a business-like manner.

If you don't like how a company treats you...treat them to a new reality of you being someone else's customer.

I book an international ticket on Cheapoair abouth 5 months ago. When I had to cancel my flight, after HOURS of being on the phone, I was able to get a credit for an amount of $2k. My original ticket paid was over $2.3K. Not only did they charge me a $50 cancellation fee, they also did not refund part of the ticket b/c they claimed it was the "tax" portion and cannot be refunded back to me.

Today when I did my rebooking with my $2K credit, they told me I have to paid $200 in penalty fee as well as the fare differnce. Turns out that the fare difference is over $300. How is that possible when the exact flight online on Kayak is only $1.5K. That means they are OVER CHARGING me $800 on this transaction. I had to accept the fee b/c I have a credit on it and want to use it so that I do not have to deal with this company ever again. Their corporate structure is very mal-aligned. PLEASE AVOID.