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Airfare.com Complaints 30

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6:46 pm EDT
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Airfare.com Unprofessional and Poor Service: My Experience with Airfare.com

I wouldn't recommend using Airfare.com for your travel needs. Their service is unprofessional and poor, and they don't seem to care about their customers. I had a terrible experience with them when I tried to change my ticket. They put me on hold for a long time and then never picked up again. I called them four days in a row, and each time they promised me that a change was coming, but it never happened. It was really frustrating and disappointing. I felt like I was dealing with a scam site, not a legitimate travel company. So, if you want to avoid headaches and stress, stay away from Airfare.com. There are plenty of other travel companies out there that will treat you better and provide better service.

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4:48 pm EDT
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Airfare.com Avoid Airfare.com and Kayak for Airline Bookings - Costly Mistakes and Poor Customer Service

Airfare.com ain't no good, folks. I done booked my ticket through Kayak and they done passed me off to this here site. I paid $863 for my ticket, which was a little cheaper than buying straight from the airline, but wouldn't you know it, I went and made a typo. Now they want me to cough up over $350 more just to fix it. Don't use either of these companies, y'all. It ain't worth the hassle.

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3:23 pm EDT
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Airfare.com Airfare.com Review: Misleading Cancellation Policy and Terrible Customer Service

price. The customer service is terrible, they don't answer the phone or respond to emails. It's like they don't care about their customers at all.

I had a terrible experience with Airfare.com. I was looking for a cheap flight and found their website. The prices were really low, so I decided to book a ticket. I chose a specific airline and paid for it, but when I received my confirmation email, I saw that they had switched my reservation to a cheaper, lower rated airline. I was really upset because I had specifically chosen that airline for a reason.

Airfare.com advertises FREE cancellations in big print, but once you buy the ticket, you learn that you only have less than 2 hours after booking to cancel. If you try to cancel after that, they charge you upfront $500 per ticket to cancel. I tried to cancel my ticket, but I was told that I had missed the cancellation window. I was really frustrated because I had only booked the ticket a few hours ago.

The worst part of my experience was the customer service. I tried calling them several times, but no one answered the phone. I also sent them several emails, but I never received a response. It was like they didn't care about their customers at all.

Overall, I would not recommend Airfare.com to anyone. They lure you in with low prices, but then they switch your reservation to a cheaper, lower rated airline. They also have misleading information about their cancellation policy and terrible customer service. Save yourself the hassle and book your flights elsewhere.

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Is Airfare.com Legit?

Airfare.com earns a trustworthiness rating of 87%

Highly reliable. Use their services with confidence, yet trust but verify.

Our conclusion: ComplaintsBoard rates Airfare.com highly, which means their services are pretty reliable. Despite this, their 33% complaint resolution rate raises questions. We recommend users check reviews and complaints about Airfare.com to understand what to expect from them.

We found clear and detailed contact information for Airfare.com. The company provides a physical address, 2 phone numbers, and 2 emails, as well as 3 social media accounts. This demonstrates a commitment to customer service and transparency, which is a positive sign for building trust with customers.

Airfare.com has claimed the domain name for airfare.com for a long time, which suggests that the website is established and has a history of being in operation. This is a positive sign, as it indicates that the website has been around for a while and may have a reputation to maintain.

However ComplaintsBoard has detected that:

  • Airfare.com has been found to only resolve 33% of 0 negative reviews, indicating a lack of commitment to addressing customer concerns. Many customers have experienced long wait times for responses or resolutions, unhelpful or inaccurate answers to their questions, and a lack of follow-up or updates on the status of their issues.
  • We detected that airfare.com is missing an SSL certificate, which is a cause for concern. Without an SSL certificate, the website may not be taking adequate steps to protect users' sensitive information. This can increase the risk of intercepted data being used for malicious purposes.
  • The website belonging to Airfare.com has a low number of visitors, which could be a red flag for users. However, it's important to conduct additional research to fully evaluate the website's legitimacy and trustworthiness.
  • We conducted a search on social media and found several negative reviews related to Airfare.com. These reviews may indicate issues with the company's products, services, or customer support. It is important to thoroughly research the company and its offerings before making any purchases to avoid any potential risks.
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Airfare.com Airfare.com Tried to Scam Me During COVID-19 Pandemic - A Warning to Others

I recently bought a roundtrip flight from JFK to Rio through Airfare.com for August 2020. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and government restrictions, the flights were cancelled. I was very disappointed, but what made it worse was that Airfare.com tried to scam me out of $350 for a change fee. I couldn't believe it! I mean, come on, we're in the middle of a pandemic and they're trying to take advantage of people like this? It's just not right.

Luckily, I didn't fall for their scam. Instead, I contacted the airline directly and was pleasantly surprised to find out that they had no change fee due to the COVID-19 situation. I was able to reschedule my flight directly with the airline and didn't have to pay a penny extra. It was a huge relief.

I have to say, I was very disappointed with Airfare.com. They are a very unethical company and I would not recommend them to anyone. They are clearly just trying to make a quick buck off of people's misfortunes during this difficult time. It's just not right. I would advise anyone looking to book a flight to stay far away from Airfare.com. They are nothing but scam artists.

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Airfare.com Terrible Experience with Airfare.com: Poor Customer Service and Hidden Fees

I recently used airfare.com to purchase tickets for my family and I to fly with Alaska Air. I was pleased to find that I could get the exact dates and times that I wanted, which I couldn't find on the Alaska Air website. However, unfortunately, my son passed away and Alaska Air kindly offered to refund his ticket and that of his girlfriend. They requested that I obtain an "OSI" from the vendor, airfare.com, to validate that I had paid for the tickets. I tried emailing them, but never received a response. I then had to spend endless amounts of time on the phone with their customer service team, who had bad English accents and didn't seem to understand what an OSI was. To make matters worse, they wanted to charge me $200 to complete the transaction.

On top of this frustrating experience, their printed itineraries were terrible. I strongly advise others to stay away from airfare.com. Trust me, it's not worth the hassle.

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Airfare.com Airfare.com: Shady Business Practices and Refusal to Refund

I gotta say, I ain't too happy with my experience with Airfare.com. I bought a ticket from them back in November for a flight in December, but some real important stuff came up and I couldn't go on that trip. So I asked for a refund, but they straight up refused to give me my money back. I mean, come on now, I cancelled the ticket before the flight and everything.

But that ain't even the worst part. In March, they went and charged me the same amount again for no dang reason. And get this, they still ain't given me my initial refund and it's been three whole months since I disputed it with them. It's like they just straight up stole my money, not once but twice.

I ain't gonna stand for this kind of shady business. I'm gonna call up my lawyer and make sure they pay me back what they owe me. And let me tell you, I ain't never gonna buy any services from Airfare.com again. You best believe that.

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Airfare.com Terrible Customer Service: My Experience with Airfare.com and Their Insurance Policy

Me and my partner bought two round trip tickets from airfare.com, and we also got the insurance just in case something happened. Unfortunately, we had a medical emergency and had to change one of the flights. We called customer service multiple times, but they didn't do anything to help us out. They just said we could change the ticket, but we would still have to wait 30 days for the flight. They claimed there weren't any flights available sooner, but that was a total lie. I found multiple flights available within the next 24 hours. It was really frustrating dealing with them, and I don't think I'll ever use airfare.com again. I just want to warn other customers that they're terrible to work with if something goes wrong. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

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Airfare.com Airfare.com Review: Cheap Tickets with Some Hassles

Airfare.com is a website that sells plane tickets. I used it to buy a ticket to visit my grandma in Florida. It was pretty easy to use, but I did have some trouble with the website. Sometimes it would take a long time to load and I had to refresh the page a few times. But eventually I was able to find a good deal on a ticket.

The ticket was pretty cheap, but I did have to pay extra for things like choosing my seat and bringing a carry-on bag. I also had to pay a fee to change my flight when my plans changed. But overall, I still saved money compared to buying a ticket directly from the airline.

When I got to the airport, I had some trouble checking in because the airline didn't have my reservation. I had to call Airfare.com and wait on hold for a long time before they were able to fix the problem. It was pretty frustrating, but eventually everything worked out and I was able to board my flight.

Overall, I would recommend Airfare.com if you're looking for a cheap plane ticket. Just be prepared for some extra fees and potential issues with your reservation. But if you're willing to deal with those things, you can save a lot of money on your travel.

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Airfare.com Warning: Terrible Customer Support and Loss of $1400 on Airfare.com via Kayak Redirect

I gotta say, I ain't too pleased with my experience on Airfare.com. I was tryna book a flight on Kayak, but they sent me over to this site instead. I didn't know what I was gettin' myself into until I had to call up their customer support. Let me tell ya, it was one of the worst experiences of my life. They were shoutin' at me left and right, makin' it impossible to change or cancel my ticket. I mean, I get it, they probably deal with a lot of angry customers, but that ain't no excuse to be treatin' people like that.

I just wanna warn all my fellow travelers out there - don't buy tickets from Kayak if they redirect you to Airfare.com. It's just not worth it. And the worst part? Kayak don't even wanna take responsibility for it. I ended up losin' $1400, and I ain't never gonna book my tickets from any site other than the airline's own site, even if it means payin' a couple hundred more. It's just not worth the headache and heartache.

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Airfare.com Terrible Customer Service Experience with Airfare.com - Avoid at All Costs!

Airfare.com is the worst experience I ever had with booking a ticket. I bought a ticket from Miami to Zurich for July 2, 2014. Unfortunately, I had jury duty on July 3, 2014, and I provided documentation to Airfare.com. However, they denied my request. I called Swiss Air, the airline I was booked on, and they said I could cancel, but I had to go through Airfare.com. I called Airfare.com and was put on hold for 63 minutes. I hung up and called the 1-800 hoping to get through faster. Finally, I got a hold of an agent, but he was not only rude, but he also hung up on me!

I called my credit card company, and they along with a Swiss Air representative talked with an Airfare.com representative. The Airfare.com representative was rude and condescending to all of us (credit card rep., Swiss Air rep, and myself). I will follow up with fighting the charge through my credit card company and also file a complaint through BBB.

I am extremely disappointed with Airfare.com's customer service. It is unacceptable to be put on hold for such a long time and then be treated rudely by their agents. I hope they improve their customer service in the future.

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12:16 am EST
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Airfare.com Airfare refund - [protected]

I bought 2 airfare ticket manila - auckland worth $1, 432 NZ dollar, upon succesfully paying my booking. It pop up that visit my email to check my itinerary. An hour after there were no itinerary from bravo fly. So i called their customer service. And to my surprise the customer service asst are angry with me and telling that they havent booked with the air asia. An hour after i called again i called again and telling me that i need to pay another $99 because the airfare increase. So i browse the review of bravi fly and found out that they have poor reviews and most of them are negative.

I decided to call again and request to cancelled my booking since they havent yet booked with air company. They told me that it took 24hrs to get my refund.

And the money i payed according to them "When taking payment, we use a secure standard procedure called “temporary credit limit” where the amount the customer should pay upon booking is simply 'frozen' and not withdrawn from the customer's available funds."

But upon checking with my bank, they have told me that the money was automatically transmitted with their bank and it was not frozen on my bank.

I called the customer service and telling me that it tooked 3 working days to get my refund and change to 3-15 days. I do not know if i can get my money back again. But hoping that this company has a heart that my hard earned money will be back to my account.

This bravo company is totally a scam. Please do returned and process my money back to my account. According to my bank it will only take 3 days to refund the money if bravo fly will only processing my refund.

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5:43 pm EST
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Airfare.com Terrible service and false info

TERRIBLE SERVICE & false information about discounted airfare

I cannot begin to warn you about the HORRENDOUS SERVICE provided by this company! Here are the details:
Booked a flight through Kayak.com, not aware it was a third party doing the booking (1st problem and unacceptable practice from Kayak) - The booking company turned out to be Airfare.com
The fare was a little better than others, but not much, and definitely not worth the aggravation and excess charges.
Change fees are $350 DOLLARS, when the airline only charges $200.00, but they claim its the airline. So they are charging $150 dollars above the airline fees for themselves.
It is an absolute nightmare to make any changes, since they are incredibly inefficient. Unfortunately, you are forced to go through them for any issues with your ticket.
I needed to make a change to my outbound flight, so I sent a request through their site.
24 hours later I had no reply or confirmation of receipt, so I called their "customer service"
The agent that answered spoke broken English and sounded like he was eating while on the call with me.
He informed me my record showed no change request, so advised me to send a follow-up email.
This time I sent it directly through my Outlook, so that I would have proof of my communications.
30 hours after that, still having received no reply, not even an acknowledgment of having received by change request, I called in again.
I asked to speak with a supervisor, who turned out to be even worse than a regular agent, if that's even possible. Aside from taking 15 minutes to come to the phone, "supervisor" Robert ID # 308 was incredibly rude and provided false information, as follows:
He claimed requests are answered within 24 to 48 hours. My request was placed 56 hours ago and still no reply or acknowledgment of receipt.
When I pointed this out, he said that my matter was not urgent so they would take longer? This is Christmas time so it is urgent.
When I complained that I had not even received an acknowledgement my request was received by them, he threatened to hang up on me!
When I commented on the extra $150 dollar change fee above what the airline charges, he said I didn't know that, but I actually do, because I am a trained travel agent and work as an outside sales agent. But when I said that he countered asking me why had I booked through them then...actually that is a good question, the answer is the fare was a little lower than what I could get, but mostly that I was fooled into thinking I was booking through Kayak, not this joke of a company.
I ended up accomplishing nothing other than aggravation, although I did have the pleasure of hanging up on him.
I'm considering purchasing a whole new ticket, just to avoid paying them any change fees.
If you care about your money, time, and most importantly your peace of mind, don't use this company ever. I'll be sending an official complaint the BBB and to Kayak.com, because it makes them look very bad having this kind of rip-off company associated with them.

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Airfare.com Refund Not As Promised in Email

Booked flights via Airfare.com. Later cancelled and requested refund. In an email from Airfare.com was told that for $1200 would receive a full refund within 6 to 8 weeks. Although charge and conditions seemed out of line, thought it was the only recourse since the tickets were not refundable. After 9 weeks received a partial refund and the balance was never received resulting only a minimal refund given the extra 1200 charge. Did not receive a response to further contact via email and previous phone conversations were not fruitful. Suggest going directly to the airlines to attempt refunds vs. trying to work with this less-than-ethical firm.

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3:01 pm EST
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Airfare.com Airfare.com: Fraudulent; Atrocious “Customer Service”

On February 26, 2014 I booked a flight on Penair through Airfare.com. This was the first time I had heard of Airfare.com, and the first and LAST time I will ever “do business, ” if you can even call it that, with them. I was lied to, I was interrupted on the phone, I was hung up on, and I was left with no choice but to file complaints in as many places as possible.

After purchasing my ticket online, I received a confirmation email, which included my confirmation number and booked flights. Buried within the body of the email was the phrase “reservation waitlisted”. What does this even mean? I called Airfare.com and spoke with a representative who was nearly unintelligible and extremely rude. I explained that I had just purchased a ticket and received the email I described above. After being put on hold for about 10 minutes, I was told that “the airline was unable to confirm my reservation”. When I asked for additional details of what exactly this meant and whether or not I would be confirmed a flight, as well as whether or not my credit card was or would be charged, I was only told that I would need to “make another reservation”. Throughout this conversation, I was repeatedly interrupted, so I really didn’t get a chance to fully ask my questions. Eventually, because I was getting nowhere with this person who was becoming more and more difficult to understand, I asked to talk with someone else.

Usually, when you ask to talk with “someone else” you get someone who is more helpful and more knowledgeable than the previous person. This was not the case. This individual, while somewhat easier to understand, was even more ill-mannered than the previous, interrupting me more and providing false information. To begin with, he said that I first received a confirmation email, followed by an email saying that the airline cancelled the flights I had booked. For starters, this is not the correspondence I received from them. Secondly, I was now being provided a different explanation for my supposed reservation that was patently false. The airline still offered the flights (I later booked with them directly).

By this point, I explained that I wanted to have something in writing from Airfare.com stating that my reservation was cancelled and that my credit card would not be charged. I had to talk over the representative to make my point: I want to be sure you are going to charge me for something I don’t have. “Fine, I’ll do it now, ” he said. But when I got the email, I was shocked to see that all he said – word for word – was: “Unable to confirm by the airline, and you card is [sic] not been charged yet.” The key word here is “yet” … my card has not been charged “yet”. When I pointed this out, all he said was, “You need to make another reservation.”

With that, I called Penair directly, and explained what had just happened. The woman I talked to was as helpful as she could be, given that the reservation wasn’t initiated directly with them. She did say that she could see my name in the system, but that a seat hadn’t been assigned, and that it would be up to Airfare.com to initiate that request. She also confirmed that both flights were active – that is, that they were not cancelled – and that seats were available. She also added that similar complaints had been made by others who had made reservations through Airfare.com … every detail. I asked if she would be able to cancel my reservation for good and confirm that, but again, she could not because it was not initiated directly through Penair.

With that I called Airfare.com again, and spoke with who was now the third representative that I had to deal with. And another unintelligible one. But this one was even more offensive, and provided more lies. He said that I had received yet another email – one an hour after I booked the flights – saying that my “reservation was cancelled” and that I would “need to make another reservation”. When I explained that I did not receive such an email, even in my spam folder (which is perhaps where all Airfare.com emails belong), he again said, “You need to make another reservation!” and hung up on me.

Immediately, I called American Express. I told the woman who took my call what had happened, and with great sympathy she said that she would put a note in my account that any charges from Airfare.com are not to be processed; only a charge directly from the airline. At least now I could be assured that Airfare.com would not commit credit card fraud against me by charging my credit card for something I did not actually buy.

I am not the first to voice a complaint such as mine … just Google “Airfare.com Complaints” and wade through grievance after grievance on website after website about people’s experiences with Airfare.com. I didn’t just have a fluke experience with a couple of bad apple employees. Airfare.com’s modus operandi is to provide its “customers” with false information, impolite and disrespectful representatives, and worry and wasted time over the trip they are trying to arrange. If they are trying to get themselves fined by the Better Business Bureau and to be put out of business, they are well on their way, and I am willingly going to help them to that end.

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Airfare.com False claim of unavailable return flight

Airfare.com claimed that they were NOT able to find me an available return flight after I changed my retun date and paid a change fee of $350. I personally looked the availability of flights in the airline involved and found that, contrary to arfare.com's claim, there were many seats still availble on the requested return date. I am trying to ask for a refund of the change fee since I no longer intend to use the retrun ticket I originally bought from airfare. I did not realize how bad this agency was until this experieince. I hope people will read all the complaints about airfare and will not use this agency.

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Airfare.com Don't ever book tickets through www.airfare.com

This website sucks! I booked the tickets and tried to cancel it. The agent asked me to be with them and told me that there was no cancellation fee if I stay with them. I booked a new ticket and was told everything was settled. 5 minutes later, I got a call from that agent and she said that I need to pay $500 of cancellation fee. It's like I was fooled.

I tried to talk to the superviser Charles and he had very bad attitude. His attitude was as bad as hell. He was like whatever, you need to pay the fee. It's not a attitude to a customer.

Don't book any tickets with them ever!

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Airfare.com double charge

On August 3, 2011, I purchased a round trip ticket to the Philippines using my credit, then I was told by the customer service, his name is Peter, that the credit card did not go through (refused by the bank according to him). I called the bank regarding the issue and was told that there was no attempt or request for such a transaction so how could they deny it. Then I called back Peter and told him what the credit card customer service had just told me. To make the long story short, I decided to use my debit card(which was a mistake) so I can finish the transaction that morning. Later that day, I received a confirmation of my itinerary from Airfare. After a couple of days, I went online to manage my flight reservation but could not access it, so I called up Cathay Pacific customer service regarding the issue and was told that I have a reservation but the eticket number that was emailed to me is not the same ticket number on their file. I called back Airfare and spoke with Peter J (I think this is the initial he gave me when I asked him on his email address). He was very polite to tell me that there was a mistake and gave me a different eticket number which was later confirmed by Cathay Pacific as the same eticket number they have on file. I was assured by the Cathay Pacific customer service that I am confirmed with my flight as far as they are concerned. But the story did not end there, while the transaction happened on August 3rd, my debit card was not charged not until August 8th as shown on the transaction record of the bank. Since I was not sure what happened (usually my debit card is charged right away at the time of the transaction), I decided to call my credit card bank and was told that my credit card was charged the same amount charged to my debit card.
I called up Peter last week and faxed him a copy of the credit card statement for the month. He said I should not be charged with my credit, in fact he verified the last four digit of my debit card as being charged. He said he will email me on any update. A few days later, I emailed Peter to follow up but as of today, Sept. 8, I did not hear anything from him. I tried to reach him this morning and after a long wait, a customer service said he will transfer me to him. I waited for awhile but did not get Peter on the phone. I hope the operations manager can follow up this matter right away and also want to make sure that the eticket I paid through my debit card is valid. The flight I am referring to is for CX845 leaving JFK 12/17/2011.Thank you. Nestor

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1:47 am EDT
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Airfare.com Fraud Air Fares

This company is a DEFINITE FRAUD.
I booked a reservation and proceeded to pay and after I pressed book now. It brought me to another window with a booking number that said:
Transaction Error
Please don't refresh this page We hold your booking because of some errors in transactions
Please call us now with your booking reference number to fix your problem
Your booking reference number :
To speak to a live agent now Call
1-800-AIR-FARE(247-3273) Or [protected]
Call Center Hours Open 24 Hours / 365 Day

Then I called and ended up wasting 2 hours of my time, I spoke to several people and none of the representatives were able to answer the simple question -What this message meant? or able to honor the price and flight I was trying to book! They put me on long holds, hung up on me, twisted and manipulated every word I said, claimed there was no manager available and/or the representatives then claimed to be a “manager“. They proved to be completely UNPROFESSIONAL AND INCOMPETENT PEOPLE who just play with your head when you call about any problem.

The message their website generated said "NOT to refresh the page, my booking would be held and to call them and they would fix the problem" in order to complete my transaction. The representatives told me my transaction was cancelled and to close that window and start a new booking. By the time all this was done and over with the prices had dramatically increased and I was not able to purchase a ticket to see my family. This price and flights never existed they just sucker you to get your personal info including my credit card number. THEIR FARES ARE THE BIGGEST SCAM. They also claimed to be a legit company in business for more than 30yrs. I am documenting my problem so that other people do not get scammed! I will continue to report it and hopefully this FRAUD COMPANY WILL EVENTUALLY BE SHUT DOWM. ( I reported my credit card stoles right away)!

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Update by Total SCAMMERS
Sep 08, 2011 1:47 am EDT

This company is a DEFINITE FRAUD.
I booked a reservation and proceeded to pay and after I pressed book now. It brought me to another window with a booking number that said:
Transaction Error
Please don't refresh this page We hold your booking because of some errors in transactions
Please call us now with your booking reference number to fix your problem
Your booking reference number :
To speak to a live agent now Call
1-800-AIR-FARE(247-3273) Or [protected]
Call Center Hours Open 24 Hours / 365 Day

Then I called and ended up wasting 2 hours of my time, I spoke to several people and none of the representatives were able to answer the simple question -What this message meant? or able to honor the price and flight I was trying to book! They put me on long holds, hung up on me, twisted and manipulated every word I said, claimed there was no manager available and/or the representatives then claimed to be a “manager“. They proved to be completely UNPROFESSIONAL AND INCOMPETENT PEOPLE who just play with your head when you call about any problem.

The message their website generated said "NOT to refresh the page, my booking would be held and to call them and they would fix the problem" in order to complete my transaction. The representatives told me my transaction was cancelled and to close that window and start a new booking. By the time all this was done and over with the prices had dramatically increased and I was not able to purchase a ticket to see my family. This price and flights never existed they just sucker you to get your personal info including my credit card number. THEIR FARES ARE THE BIGGEST SCAM. They also claimed to be a legit company in business for more than 30yrs. I am documenting my problem so that other people do not get scammed! I will continue to report it and hopefully this FRAUD COMPANY WILL EVENTUALLY BE SHUT DOWM.

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Airfare.com Bad service

I purchased a too good to be true fare. My cc declined as a fraud flag. I still went through some fraud process with another card. They took my money and issued one of their tickets. Surprise to me the airline did not see me on their list. After being ousted back and forth I sent a pointed email pushing for my ticket to be issued. The email chain below is how it was handled. Beware. It is actually funny.

Adrian, This was always about the ticket being issued, not about payment. You got paid almost 3 months ago. The airline never confirmed the ticket until 3 days ago... I still do not think Chris will ever get this. I will be happy to share your response in defense of your company. But at this point I am going to post all correspondence on every website possible to show any one who cares to know exactly how much your company cares about and treats it's customers. I work in the service industry. I know a good employee when I see one. You took a bad situation and made it better. I am glad you are the manager. It appears you will be okay here. Thank you for your time. If you or your manager would like to call to discuss I would be happy to share best practices. 
      
Sent from my iPad

On Aug 10, 2011, at 8:23 AM, wrote:

Next time, try using a credit card that works.  That will save you some time.  Also, your sarcasm is not lost to me and I see no humour in it.  Please do not blame me for your inability to follow instructions.  I did not tell you to use a faulty credit card.  That was your decision.  Whether your buying candy or airline tickets, if you use an invalid credit card, you will be required to use a different one.  Is this lost to you? We could not take your money and therefore no tickets were issued.  The tickets were issued after your payment problem was fixed.

Let me break it down for you nice and simple:

Invalid card, no money.  No money, no ticket.  Resolution of payment problem, access to money.  Receipt of money, issuance of ticket. 

Please note that the resolution to the problem above is primarily up to you and any time or effort wasted during this process is up to you.  Perhaps you are suggesting I reach into your wallet and submit a new card myself?  While this would certainly make the process go faster, I feel uncomfortable doing so and respectfully decline.  Hopefully you will be able to sate your hunger for candy bars on your own without my holding your hand.  Hopefully.

As a member of the legal team, I do understand the simplicity of your claim.  I do not understand however, why you fail to see your hand in the problem.

Again, I would like to reiterate for good measure, because, well, it just seems necessary given your refusal to understand the basic concepts of the situation.

We didn't have your money.  We couldn't issue your tickets.  We now have your money, you now have your tickets.  Did you think we would issue the tickets on credit? I apologize, but we don't work that way. 

Did that work?  I certainly hope so.

I am now considering this matter closed and require no further correspondence from you. 

Did you think this was harsh?  I have already submitted a complaint about myself to my manager.  You know him as Adrian.  I thought I'd save you some time.

By the way, you probably used Airfare.com's confirmation number with the airline.  This leads to obvious issues and if you don't understand the ramifications of supplying the wrong confirmation number (it is a little bit like submitting an invalid credit card ---something that seems to be lost to you), please contact a customer service representative and they will be happy to assist you.
Chris
Legal & Policy Analyst
1-800-Airfare x211

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [FWD: Re: Urgent regarding your booking with airfare.com]
Date: Tue, August 09, 2011 9:05 pm
To: ""
Cc: [protected]@yahoo.com

Very nice Chris. Your focus on the cc auth coming from a company my bank flagged and declined matter not. 
- the hoops I had to jump through to make payment were certainly an inconvenience but I chalked that up to airfare.com perhaps being a start up company. Later on I discovered you have been in business for quite a while. 

But the heart of the matter was missed (and as a legal team member perhaps you would understand the simplicity of my claim). My apologies if I had not made it clear enough so I shall repeat it again. The inconvenience was the time is spent going back and forth like a ping pong ball between you and the airline. You said it was the airline. The airline said it was you. If the tickets were indeed purchased, why did the airline have no record. Any one can take some ones money and issue a 'ticket'. 
- I bought tickets from you, a travel agency or what ever your company represents itself as. 
- while your company said the ticket was purchased and confirmed, the airline had nothing. No record of purchase was found when we gave them the confirmation number you gave me.  and obviously because of this, no ticket, confirmation, or seat assignment. 
- any other time I have purchased tickets online this has never happened. Normally I get the ticket, the airline shows record of me, confirms, and has a seat issued. 

Lets break this down even further; when we buy something from an online vendor (let's simply say you sold me a Hershey bar). You are going to take my money, pay Hershey and they give me the hershey.  So I call the company (Hershey's) and they say they have no record of any purchase thus no candy bar for me. 
So where is my candy bar Chris? Pray tell. You have my money. I have no candy. 
It makes no sense. 

Thankfully, a customer service representative Adrian responded before you did and smoothed things over. The airline has confirmed there is a ticket and I am somewhat happy with your company's response and actions taken to make a bad situation better. Your response, well, your potential customers will come to their own conclusions. 

I am sorry I was backed into a corner and thankful some one else handled this before you. I hope your company can use this as a coaching, counseling and training tool in the future to better serve your customers. Every one deserves this opportunity. 

I just wanted my chocolate bar Chris. Nothing more. 

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 9, 2011, at 9:09 AM, wrote:

Please excuse me but I just received your case and can not quite understand what the issue is here.  You seem to be particularly belligerent for reasons that escape me.  From what I can glean based on the notes attached to your booking, you provided a card that was rejected by the airline multiple times, either through declination or simply due to the fact that they do not accept the type of card you presented.  As such, we ran a verification process for another card you provided in order to ensure your identity in relation to the card.  This method is employed by many internet merchants across the world (including financial institutions, such as PayPal), and any complaints regarding this process will fail to ring any alarms.

In order to help you I will need to understand just exactly what your complaint is.  Are your accusations based on the fact that we inconvenienced you?  Please keep in mind that instead of voiding your reservation and sending you on your way, we made upwards of five (5) attempts at working through the situation with you.  Inconvenience seems to be a 2-way street, here. Or is it the fact that your tickets were never issued (when they actually were)? 

If you wish to work through this situation to find a solution, I will be happy to help facilitating matters.  If, however, you wish to dispute the charges, I will respond to them with the facts. Your bank will agree that we in no way infringed upon your rights, and that we only did what was necessary given the situation that you presented to us.  

We will not bow to the oppressive nature of your thinly veiled accusations regarding allegedly criminal behaviour and threats of complaints.  We offered the best service we could for you and have full confidence in our defense.  

I repeat: your tickets were issued and they are currently still open.  If you wish to fight us I can not stop you.  But I still do not see what the issue is.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to working with you;

Chris
Legal & Policy Analyst
1-800-Airfare x211

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Urgent regarding your booking with airfare.com
Date: Sun, August 07, 2011 6:59 am
To: "Airfare.com"
Cc: "[protected]@yahoo.com"

Actually I will make this easier. After several reviews and a consumer report about your company i pasted below this will need resolution by end of day Monday 8/8/2011 or I will simply dispute the charge as there have been no services rendered for my payment. I will also be happy to add to the lengthy list of negative reviews about your company and share my experiences with other travel professionals. I do not have time for these games and questionable business practices. By taking my money you have become my travel agent. Travel agencies are responsible for getting the ticket. I pay you. You pay them. They give you ticket to give to me. Very simple and not worth the effort I have gone through. Shame on you for taking up my time and energy over one of the most simple processes in business. 

/link removed/

Sent from my iPad

On May 28, 2011, at 1:35 PM, Airfare.com wrote:

Flights, Hotels & Much more.
Dear Customer,

Regarding Booking Number: YQCENE

As part of the authorization process to verify your identity as the cardholder, and to help us protect you from credit card/ or identity theft, we will attempt to contact your credit card company. Since this is sometimes unsuccessful, you can speed up the process by participating in our quick verification process. We ran a random amount on your card (under $5). Once either you or we verify identity of the card holder, your reservation will be complete. Please call your card issuer and find out the exact amount of this small pending charge and let us know that amount.
Please click here to enter the amount.
P.S. : Please note that this process is for verification purposes only and the amount will not be charged to your card.
Thank you,
Airfare.com customer service

To speak to a live agent
1-800-AIR-FARE(247-3273) 
Or [protected]
Call Center Hours  Open 24 Hours / 365 Day (Site ID: ADR99)
Company Address
5110 ridgefield rd, Suite 409, Bethesda, MD 20816.
 Visit Us Now  Airfare.com  | Contact Us  | Send Feedback  
About Airfare Since 1979 we have been focusing on discount airline consolidation. Airfare.com's premier travel reservation system uses a "real time" system to give you discounts to over 700 Airlines, 30, 000 Hotels, 25 car companies and now INTRODUCING AIR & HOTEL COMBO PACKAGES! 
Copyrights [protected] © Airfare.com . All Rights Reserved

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j.hill22
US
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Aug 11, 2011 3:37 pm EDT

pullingmyfunds, give it a rest. you're making it increasingly obvious that you're the OP in disguise. also, unless you have a JD and are a member of a bar association in any single state within the united states, you can't really speak on behalf of lawyers, can you?

lawyers' jobs are to make their clients happy. not the opposition. in this case, matt hittleman is the opposition. perhaps he bit off more than he could chew when he engaged the company with threats? you should stay within the realm of your understanding.

besides, it seems as though the customer service representatives did all that they could, but there really is a limit to what you can do when facing a customer who clearly thinks he's too clever to approach the matter with civility. judging by the context of these emails, chris seems to have been sent in for a sort of cavalry effect. in that sense, he did what he was supposed to do. as a company, would you prefer a legal team that fights fire with fire, or one that bends over backwards for a hostile customer? i'd personally prefer one that fights fire with fire. bending over backwards? you have managers/administrators for that. the legal field is not a "people field". stop comparing apples to oranges. it makes you sound even more clueless.

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concerned biz student
US
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Aug 11, 2011 3:36 pm EDT

**pullingmyfunds - no one is making jabs at you directly, it is just being refuted that "the customer is always right" because the customer is not always right. Walk down to the white house and demand them to show you what your good tax dollars are being used on? As a customer you have the right to know right? Negative. However, with what your saying customers service is the key to any business relationship, people come and go like a revolving door because of how they were treated, but when looking at chris title, he is from the legal department, they are in place to defend the company, when a customer gets hostile and starts to threaten the company it has to be handled approperiately. There has got to be a reson that it was responded in such a manner, companys just dont come off the handle for no reason, and from your statement about the manager adrian it seems you had a pleasent converstation with him, so you cant put the act of a company on the hardest department of a company. As you say a lawyer would never talk to a customer like this, well if i was paying you thousands of dollars to be my lawyer then of course that is your customer but if you were on the stand going against the other lawyer then he is going to make you pee in your pants because he is trying to refute everything your saying. it goes both ways - treat people the way you want to be treated point blank - im not going to say yes ma'me no sir to a person who is threating me - espeically having worked customer service at many retail stores durning major holiday season - people get ugly no matter how nice you are sometimes you have to lay down the law for people to listen - honestly because people are jerks - im not in no way saying you were a jerk but honestly there had to be a reason for the "legal department" to get involed...and per the email the guy that was responding to you even complained to his manager himself about this for you, i mean what is the point of this anyway? the fact that the legal depart does not act like customer service reps? or the customer is "suppose to be" always right?
Face to face customer service, retail, valet parking, bag packing at a grociery store, bellhopping at a hotel, being a waiter, yea unless you want to get into a fight with a customer, get written up or a compaint then customer is always right - but try pulling something like that with a major airline carrier, major credit card company, they will never tell you what you want to hear that is just fact.

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pullingmyfunds
Ocean View, US
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Aug 11, 2011 3:18 pm EDT
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Er I'm not clueless, I have just worked in the "people field" my entire adult life, and "the customer is always right" doesn't mean you cave in to every complaint. What it DOES mean is that you treat your customer with respect in every situation, you have to know how to "de-escalate" a situation with class, respect, and kindness. Sometimes kindness and empathy will stop a bad situation from getting worse or downright just make it go away, "sorry" goes very far in these situations, even if it's "sorry, I understand your anger - I would feel quite the same, please understand that this is what occurred:..." I was a manager/administrator in a few jobs in which a large part of my job was exactly to de-escalate situations - and I was successful every single time because I know how to talk to people, the way "Chris" talked to him was wrong, period. Even a lawyer knows better than to talk to a customer the way he did, that kind of response only escalates, causes more enmity and often does result in the word of mouth, posting on internet, starting a lawsuit, or, worse case scenario (and very rare, obviously) someone walking into the place with a gun.

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Jkoe1978
US
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Aug 11, 2011 3:10 pm EDT
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I agree completely with j.hill22. Working in any customer service field, you come across customers who are completely clueless and irrational. What Chris said is exactly what customer service people want to say to customers like the OP, but typically choose not to.

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j.hill22
US
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Aug 11, 2011 2:57 pm EDT

i just realized chris from airfare.com wasn't a customer service representative but a member of their legal team. i'm going to assume they sent him due to your threats of disputing the charges. legal departments don't exist to treat you with exceptional service, they're there to protect the company's interests.

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concerned biz student
US
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Aug 11, 2011 2:56 pm EDT

you know anyone taking business classes in ethics or orginzational behaivor will tell you that "the customer is always right" statement is a lie. This was said or made up to make customers think that they have the power and contorl when it comes down to a situation. honestly do you really think that there would be fortune 500 companies existing today if the customer was always right? do you really think gas prices would be so high if the customer was always right? do you really think there would be a need for walfare or social security if the customer was always right? this is just an urban myth because everyone has problems and situations there is always an upset customer no matter what busniess it is. If you walk into wal-mart with a bad credit card you leave empty handed, but if you go to the same wal-mart purchase a non-returnable item ( which would be an open box product ) and say it is faulty then the company is wrong for selling that item? No, you were provided a serivce that you requested and you accepted responsiblity over such service. So, if the customer is always right how can a true business actually turn a profit? just a thought from a concerned business student.

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j.hill22
US
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Aug 11, 2011 2:43 pm EDT

i don't necessarily agree with the way chris handled your situation, but you seem to have prompted such a response with your condescending language. i would not have reacted the way chris did, but i also would not have been happy if you talked to me that way. disrespect runs both ways here, and it seems like you're the one who prompted the responses. the only way you're in the right is because you're the customer, which can only carry you so far.

while i have never used airfare.com and cannot comment on the quality of the company itself, i can't say i have anything against their "no bs" attitude. you should have tried being nicer to them from the beginning? i don't see what's so wrong about running a verification process if you were submitting faulty credit cards. a business cannot run properly without protecting itself from the rampant fraud that seems to be occurring around the internet these days.

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pullingmyfunds
Ocean View, US
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Aug 11, 2011 5:49 am EDT
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wow, regardless of who was at fault or miscommunicating - I would not use their services for ANYTHING based simply upon their belligerent, sarcastic, openly hostile responses to you. "The customer is always right" seems to be lost on today's businesses...and the only thing that will teach them differently is the massive loss of business.

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Airfare.com Fraud company!!!!

Be aware! Do not buy tickets from Airfare.com! Their customer service is basically non-existent, you will spend hours and will not be able to do anything about the tickets that you bought. After hours of waiting, they will tell you that you cannot do absolutely anything with those cheap tickets and you're stuck. They book you on non-connecting flights (where you need to get your luggage out at every stop-over) with not enough time to reconnect, they book flights (on the same ticket) withough telling you that one of the flights is ariving on one and leaving from a different airport, etc. Finally, they simply charge you twice for the same ticket and you cannot do anything because these are their terms. Credit companies will not be able to help you with it, so DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY - YOU WILL SAVE YOURSELF A LOT OF ANGST AND AGGREVATION.

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Simon 123
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Nov 03, 2011 6:59 am EDT

I had similar experience with this company. I am a frequent traveller: North of 1 million miles flown with American Airline and at least an equal amount flown with united plus affiliates. I dealt with practically every airline and nearly 100 different travel agents on line and traditional and in many countries over the years. Airfare.com is by far the worst booking agency of all of them. I did some checking of complaints about them and found that there are thousands of complaints and they all repeat the same issues. This agency is a scam and should be shut down.

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Overview of Airfare.com complaint handling

Airfare.com reviews first appeared on Complaints Board on Oct 15, 2008. The latest review Unprofessional and Poor Service: My Experience with Airfare.com was posted on Jun 23, 2023. The latest complaint Terrible service and false info was resolved on Dec 10, 2014. Airfare.com has an average consumer rating of 2 stars from 30 reviews. Airfare.com has resolved 10 complaints.
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