CheapOair review: is there some sort of meltdown going on! 118

Thanks for getting back to me. I was beginning to wonder if I would get a response back. In response to your statement regarding your Director of Operations, please be advised, you stand to be correct. Your Director of Operations has NOT emailed me requesting me to "provide us with the city pairs and dates of travel". I have actually had to follow up with her twice with no response, the lastest being on Monday 11/3/2008 at 8:56 am. To date, I have NOT heard back from her. I would be more than happy to post the emails I have back and forth from her. If you are going to try to put people out there and defend this travel site, you may want to get your facts correct first.

What I also find interesting is how come your taxes and fees are more than triple the other company we booked with?

Thanks for your response

Cheap O Air is a disaster! They advertise great ticket prices which are false! My friends and I were looking to travel to Boston. We found one way tickets that were $25 with $10 off if we booked right away. So we booked the 3 tickets and went to put the CC info in until we looked at the grand total. The grand total for the 3 one way tickets was $315! They were charging us each $90 in fees! When I called to speak with customer service, they were rude and speaking over me. When I asked to speak with a manager, I was sent to some random voicemail where my call has NEVER been returned! I decided to email customer service and they did respond. However, they told me they were comparable to other airlines and that they charged $15-$25 in service fees. When I questioned them on why we were being charged $90 each, I never got a response back. Some times if it is too good to be true, it really is. This company is all about false advertising and ripping consumers off!

I'm glad I searched before buying. I am currently looking for an international flight, and cheapoair.com was the lowest prive by $130 per ticket.

There are a few posters who had no issues, and randrews@cheapoair.com seems to be responsive to complaints ... but complaints should not occur at such a high rate.

I found this info here: http://search.newyork.bbb.org/reports.aspx?pid=44&page=1&id=89212

Consumers have issued a range of complaints with the BBB against Fareportal d.b.a. CheapOAir.com. Consumers report that upon finding the tickets they want to purchase they enter all of their personal information including credit card numbers and are informed that the flight they want to purchase has gone up in price by over $500. Consumers state that they attempt to find cheaper flights on the website but are told the same thing and each time a consumer attempts to purchase a flight their credit card is checked for funds and some consumers’ cards are even charged multiple times. Obtaining a refund can take up to 5 weeks. Consumers also allege that customer service is rude and unprofessional and consumers have been placed on hold for up to an hour and a half. Some consumer who purchase flights on CheapOAir.com find that either all or a portion of their flights have not been confirmed with the airline resulting in flight cancellations. Consumers then have to pay a second time for their plane reservations.

Based on BBB files, this business has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau, because there is a pattern of complaints, and the business has not corrected the underlying reason for the complaints.

The company's size, volume of business, and number of transactions may have a bearing on the number of complaints received by the BBB. The number of complaints filed against a company may not be as important as the type of complaints, and how the company handled them. The BBB generally does not pass judgment on the validity of complaints filed.

I will hold off on purchasing until I do further research.

Thanks to all for sharing their experiences.

I purchased a tix yesterday (one way) from Indy to L.A. I paid $297 for this tix last night @ 10:52pm. I received a confirmation for the tix, and also received an email with my booking and confirm #. Well today I was going thru my emails and I received one from Cheapoair @ 4am, that said the price of my ticket had changed (increased) and that they would not be able to honor the price that I was previously quoted, and had a CONFIRMATION of. I called them and received an answer from their outsourced customer service. After arguing with the lady that I barely understood and coming to no resolution except to cancel the whole damn thing, I asked her for the address to legal correspondence to. Well I guess in their "English for dummies" class they didn't teach her that phrase, so she did not understand me when I asked her the address to forward legal correspondence (I told them I am going to sue them for telling me one thing, which I have proof of, and not honoring it). So she puts the phone down and ask her boss some questions because of the language barrier we were having, and then she just hung up on me. I fly a lot, and cheapoair SEEMS like they are a bargain, but they truly are too good to be true. They don't honor those cheap prices they advertise, they do things like allow u to input your payment information, give you a confirmation number, and then 6 or so hours later, tell you the price increased, after telling you your tix was booked and confirmed. After reading all of the various blogs on the different websites, I am seriously going to pursue a class action lawsuit against this company.

Don't use CheapoAir unless you don't mind being bilked out of money. I spent hours online trying to book a return flight from Cyprus to Montreal this summer. They kept comfirming, charging my credit card, then telling me that flight wasn't available, then confirming a new itineray, with a higher price, then charging my credit card again. This went on and on. In the end, I got the flights but they overcharged me by 118 dollars. I sent many e-mails, with my credit card bill showing the extra charges, to the regular e-mail address and to the special feedback e-mail address. They have not answered any of my requests for a refund. Besides that, on my return flight I found that the last leg of it was not completely booked properly and in London I was forced to pick up my luggage at one terminal and transport it to another terminal to check it onto the next part of the journey. All because cheapoair had screwed up the booking. I am reporting this company to the New York State Attorney General's office for fraud as well as the Better Business Bureau of New York. They should be run out of business. Olga Glykis

I have had a very bad experience with this reseller. I wanted to make a change to a ticket and they advised me to cancel the ticket I had and book a new ticket. That cost $175 --fine I wanted to make the change. When they issued the new ticket, they issued it with the first name on the credit card instyead of the first name of the passenegr, which they were supposed to get from the cancelled record.

I have tried to have the problem resolve --to no avail. Every time I call, I come across a customer service rep who doesn't speak english well enough to carry a conversation. I asked the last one I spoke with to cancel the ticket so I could get a credit from the airline. The conversation quickly evolved to something resembling the skit "who is on first", except for the laughs: I was trying to ask the guy when the ticket would be cancelled and he kept telling me to call the airlines to re-book. Then he just hang up on me. The next call, I asked for a supervisor, and was put on hold for long periods before being disconnected. Two weeks later, I am still trying to get a hold of someone who can communicate.

I know some of you have had fair experiences with this company. I assure you that you are playing with fire. I've booked my own travel for a very long time and often use discount providers. i have never come across such a "slick" outfit. So do yourself a favor and avoid them. Most airlines offer the same rates on their website or have lowest fare guarantees

After reading all the complaints on the web about this company, I am convinced they should be shut down. here is what happened to me and what I intend to do about it:

I wanted to make a change to a ticket and they advised me to cancel the ticket I had and book a new ticket. That cost $175 --fine I wanted to make the change. When they issued the new ticket, they issued it with the first name on the credit card instyead of the first name of the passenegr, which they were supposed to get from the cancelled record.

I have tried to have the problem resolve --to no avail. Every time I call, I come across a customer service rep who doesn't speak english well enough to carry a conversation. I asked the last one I spoke with to cancel the ticket so I could get a credit from the airline. The conversation quickly evolved to something resembling the skit "who is on first", except for the laughs: I was trying to ask the guy when the ticket would be cancelled and he kept telling me to call the airlines to re-book. Then he just hang up on me. The next call, I asked for a supervisor, and was put on hold for long periods before being disconnected. Two weeks later, I am still trying to get a hold of someone who can communicate.

I know some of you have had fair experiences with this company. I assure you that you are playing with fire. I've booked my own travel for a very long time and often use discount providers. i have never come across such a "slick" outfit. So do yourself a favor and avoid them. Most airlines offer the same rates on their website or have lowest fare guarantees

Thanks for your comments. I considered using Cheapo for a trip to cancun from chicago over new years. Their advertised rates are significantly cheaper. The duration of the trip is too long and the bad experiences and customer service fiascos listed here prevent me from booking.
Thanks

I have a similar problem. I cancelled a flight for my daughter and her friend and received confirmation from Cheapo. I thought I had a credit of $720 but when I attempted to re-book another flight with Cheapo they told me to call the airline directly. When I did the airline said the flight was never cancelled and no credit was due. Still no response from two e-mails to Cheapo . Calling them is even more frustrating . This is the worst run agency that I've seen. Does anyone have any additional e-mail addresses or postal addresses that I can contact. Or any govt agencies where I can file a formal complaint.

I have found that every add that I get is a false add. The best bargains are only a gimick to get me to buy from them.

sadley enough I to have a complante with cheapoair.com i origionaly purchased a one way ticket to england in oct of 07 to leave in dec of 07 for resaons i had to cancle the ticket. i was informed that i would have a credit applied to my oringional conf # and that i could use it directly with the airline itself, or with cheapoair when the time came to rebook my flight. three weeks ago i wanted to book a new ticket to england and apply my credit from my previous ticket to a new round trip ticket. a simple solution one would think but that is not the case, i called and was infromed that i could not use my credit like they had stated in my cancleation terms with the airline directly but i would have to go through them. Fine not a problem, but yet it was, i spent three day straight 9am EST to 9pm EST getting the runaround. i was told that i couldnt apply a credit from a one way ticket to a round trip, they said that it was the airlines terms and conditiona with that ticket, i contacted the airline and was informed that this was not the case and like many of these other stories they couldnt do anything for me becaues it was bought through a consolidation company. once again i got the run around for about 4 days untill someone was able to give me some results. after more time waiting i asked for my money back . i was told by one woman that i could then she turned around and told me that i would have to pay a $200 fee for a $400 refund? now where is the f***ing sense in that? At this point my patiance has worn down to a nub and the stress of this situation is setting in. Finally i got someone to apply my credit to a roundtrip and you could only imagine the reliefe that came over me! but wait there is more, its not that easyly fixed, unreal right? well i went to pay with my boyfriends credit car who is from the uk and im told that they do not take overseas cards! i was stunned all this work and yet another set back, seeing as this was my means of paying the difference applied after my credit. and you can be assure that some one told me other wise, yes two different stories from cheapoair employees, get use to it.I was informed by one that there is no way you could accept this. and then i did some of my own research and found a concent form on there web sight that allows you to do this! shocking! but yet at the end of the day i had to pay on a different card and all was well in my world, all this hard work and stress gone, all i needed was my ticket from them. it is now a week before i am scheduled to leave and there still "working" on the problem which according to the airline and my own research does not exist. but according to cheapoair does and that i am being told wrong infromation from the airline and that the more peole i get involved the more chance "something could go wrong" and this might not work out. i was told by the airline that all they had to do was make a 5 min phone call and everythin would be fixed? now who am i to believe? this is the most stressful traveling experience i have ever had to deal with but according to cheapoair, a week before you leave is to early to stress out about not having a ticket! I URGE YOU TO NEVER USE THIS COMPANY EVER THIS IS NOT A GOOD DEAL WHAT SO EVER, YOU ARE BETTER OFF PAYING THE EXTRA $80 ON OTHER SIGHTS THEN DEALING WITH THIS COMPANY, YOU WILL SPEND MORE TIME AND EFFORT THEN NEEDED BY ANYONE WHO IS SUPOSE TO BE RECIEVING A SERVICE.

Cheapoair is a scam! I got screwed over for 5k. Did anyone do anything to get hteir money back, take them court, anthing?

After reading the complaints below, mine is very minor. None the less, I will be telling everyone I know to stay away from Cheapoair.. aka Cheapo-false-advertising, Cheapo-customer-service, and Cheapo-business-ethics...

My issue is that they posted a super cheap flight on www.cheapflights.com, but when I went to purchase the tickets at www.cheapoair.com, they were at least DOUBLE. The ad said it was updated just 6 hours ago, yet when I called customer service I was told the price was no longer available.

The more realistic explanation is that 6 hours ago CHEAPOAIR posted a low ticket price they could not commit to in order to get people to their site. My other guess is that Cheapoair will not update the low price on www.cheaptickets.com for at least a few more hours/days to see how many other unsuspecting consumers they can reel in with their cheapo-bait-and-switch advertising.

I’m surprised that people have had such a bad experience on CheapoAir.com. I’ve used them about twenty times over the past five years and have always had a great experience.

When I heard about sites like Orbitz.com and Expedia, I immediately started comparing them to Cheapo. Cheapo’s flights were typically about $5-$30 cheaper than the other sites.

Also, I’ve never had a problem with my reservation, either. They just send you something called an e-ticket and you bring that to the terminal for automatic check-in. So much easier than when I used to have to go to travel agents!

I haven’t tried their rental car or hotels yet, so I’m not really qualified to comment on that portion of the business. But based on the reliable service I’ve gotten booking flights, I would imagine the same with hotels.

For those who are skeptical, here are a few deals I’ve gotten with CheapoAir.com:

Las Vegas $59
Miami $49
Scottsdale $115

I will admit, as a mother of three, I’m not the most internet savvy person. I think if I can book online, anyone can. It’s pretty simple: you just put in your travel info and find the cheapest flight. After you select the flight, just fill out your credit card info and CheapoAir.com will mail you your flight.

I also booked flights from Buffalo to Corpus Christi and while they appeared cheaper than Cheap Tickets they ended up to be more because of the fees! I think I paid $80 more per ticket for my family of four then I could have got on Cheap Tickets!

I have been trying to book a flight that they say is available but is not, I have been doing this for 3 days now and am very disappointed. I really think if they are going to have a flight ternary on the web site it should be available or get if off the site. Very disappointed in Az. Guess I'll search elsewhere.

Do not even try to search with CheapOAir.
They charge you $1 for every attempt.

I booked flights with Cheapo & everything was just great. I'm sorry people have had bad experiences, but I'm very satisfied. Thank you CheapO

I've used cheapoair.com about five times and have never had a problem.

The common complaint about sites like orbitz and cheapo is that the flights get changed, and I guess that's the risk you run when you book with any travel company, but I've never had a problem. thanks for the tip!

Cheapoair sucks! I called customer service and spoke to two amazingly rude and obnoxious people who kept cutting me off mid-sentence (one was supposedly a manager who actually sighed in frustration when he finally got on the phone). They charged me twice for airline taxes and fees and then told me that it was because I chose supplemental insurance. Not true - they wouldn't even consider letting me send them back the email confirmation that says $0 for insurance.

STAY AWAY!
- truly horrific customer service
- no 800 number so you'll be charged for the 20 minutes they put you on hold
- they make up for the cheap fares by cheating you, the customer.

I would rant and rave about this company if i had the energy but after being on hold for over 10 hours, being hung up on 5 times, not being able to understand their reps due to bad phone connection (they are on a VOIP telephone line that is terrible) and 7 credit card charges for their time (airline fees and taxes they call them...) i just don't have the energy to say anything more than simply do not deal with this company.

Interesting posts. I've used them twice and never had any problems. I always find that I only go to forums to complain, but I'm now trying to be more of an optimist :)

I can't really say that there was anything overwhelming wonderful about the company, but they did everything I would expect. They took the reservation, booked it, and sent a confirmation, and I got the cheapest flight I could find.

Sorry to hear about your problems and hope it all worked out.

I never even got to the completed booking stage. They offered very competitive fares but each time I tried to book it told me that ticket was sold out. Again and again and again. Well why SHOW that far in the search list if it cannot be booked? What a waste of time.

On February 21st of this year I purchased two round trip international tickets. However before my friend and I could embark on our travel plans together unforeseen events caused my friend to have to cancel the trip. I immediately contacted CheapoO Air and was told that a refund of the unused ticket would not be a problem as long as I didn’t mind paying a service charge. Such service charges are standard so I had no problem accepting this. I was charged the fee within 48 hours but after waiting 4 months I still have not been refunded to ticket price! I have made numerous calls and emails. All of my calls are responded to with the story that my refund is “being processed” or “I will check and call you back.” All of my emails are responded with a generic form letter that doesn’t address my problem at all! I strongly suggest that you DO NOT you this travel agency when booking any tickets!

cheapo air .com is exactly what your paying for cheap prices = cheap service and a cheap product! i know i got burned $3400.00 dollars buy them and their bull when i booked a trip ot greece with my wife and two kids to find out that two days before our trip that the cheap air fairs were not avalible any more and our tickets were cancelled by the airline of coures?.i was put in the position by them that after months of plannig booking hotels and contacting family ,that the chance of us not going had become real. this story did not end well so for the people at cheapo air .com untl the federal goverment can doe something to make sure companys like yours follow consumer laws i would stay far away from this service you have a 50% chance of getting what you payed for! just remeber this you get what you pay for! spend the xtra money and enjoy your trip peace of mind is worth more than any savings ,

I also had a problem with cheap-0-air do not book with these people. I work for an airline and have seen plenty of customers stuck without a ticket. I am with a lady right now who has been on the phone with them for two hours, been hung up on three times and currently has no ticket. She booked a flight to HNL with a month old infant and a six year old. When she got to the airport she was not ticketed. The airline called first and they hung up on us but apparently looked at her reservation and saw they had not ticketed her and refunded the money (minus a service charge)back to her account. They have told her it will appear back in her account in six days and while she is at the airport she can make her own travel arrangements. At this point they have refused to allow her to speak to a supervisor or manager. The cheapest ticket she can buy is $400 more and she does not have her original $1,200 back in her account yet. Do not book through these people.

I have some thing positive to say about about Cheapoair, I used them 3 times for my flights to the UK and Germany. All the times the fares were at least 30% cheaper than Expedia and Travelocity. I purchased the tickets and got my confirmation immediately. I never made any changes so can not speak about their customer service.

The airfares were great, the confirmation was immediate, the Booking was instant. I loved to use them and will continue using them. Just my 2 cents.

Roger.

I have been trying to contact cheapoair for the past week by phone, left messages, and no return call. I think this company or person (1) needs to get off this planet earth...

Customer service sucks...

I also booked 4 tickets with cheapo air.com from Orlando to Frankfurt> After booking on the so called secured websided the next morning I had 10.400 dollars in airline charges on my credit card which my credit company can verify. They called they next morning to verify the charges, which they thank god did not clear. A few hours later cheapo air called concerned because their charge was not cleared. Foolishly I gave them my cc and paid for the four tickets. We waited 2 weeks for the tickets. My daughter unfortunately decided to fly earlier. So we called cheapo air to change the ticket after a 1 hour hold i finally spoke with Sandra who changed the date and told me that I had to return my daughters ticket via Fed Ex within 2 days once she received the ticket, which they signed for may 22nd, I would receive a new ticked in the mail right away, I spoke with 4 agents since then which all promised to help and tell me the ticket is in the mail, well it is june 5th and the departure is coming closer without a ticket.

Unfortunately I can also tell a story about cheapoair. I booked a flight from Los Angeles to Munich. After a long discussion about my credit card and if I can use an international card they agreed to book the flight. One week before the flight date I had to cancel the flight. On the phone I was assured that for the case of cancellation I would hold the credit on a United airlines flight. I requested a confirmation E-Mail but never got one. So I called again, but couldn't get a hold of anybody. I now tried it for three months. Once in a while I have the chance to talk to a representative who then tells me that he has to check that and will then call me back. Of course no one ever called back. So I started to write E-Mails. Some were not answered at all, some said I do hold the credit, some that I can use it till December and other ones that I would have had to use it within one week. Now that I am trying to call them again, because I want to use the credit nobody can tell me if the credit still exists. And of course they found another restriction for me. Now they say I have to use the credit, if it exists, what they can`t tell me right now, for a flight between the same two cities. I guess the next time I'll have to use the same plane as originally planned. I feel as if there were playing a game or are just disqualified. About the reachability I don`t even want to say a word. Did anyone ever have such an experience and how did you handle this situation. I am thinking about getting a lawyer. What do you think?

The saga continues: Received a nice reply email from Sourav a little too late.

Meantime however, I called the company once more. At this time I had spent a total of 5 hrs on the phone with these people getting a run around.

Still no e-ticket so I called back. They had confirmed the e-ticket was in process, that the CC was fine and I'd receive everything within another hour. It was all BS.I waited and had to call back.

Finally I threatened the young woman who finally spoke English decent enough to be understood that there'd be hell to pay if I got disconnected again, passed to someone else or told it was being process but with more charges. I am put on hold while she looks into it only to come back and tell me that the CC did not go through.

Well, no wonder, the person taking the CC info would hardly speak English in the first place. Now, why was this not told to us 16 hrs earlier instead of being given excuses and adding more charges to the flight price?

A lot of trouble could have been avoided and I could have had time to get a decent company to deal with instead of with a company who's people are surrounded with so much noise that nothing can be heard and everything needed to be repeated 20 times over.

Although, I do have to say that one of their staff members " Mabel" was a sweetheart, however, it was a little too late for her to fix everything. As you can see, I never got to fly out since we had run out of time for me to leave in the first place. I thank GOD they had the wrong CC info and my day was totally shot spent on the phone.

My thanks further go to United airlines. I called them twice over the frustration which probably costs them more trouble and time spent on customer service. If not for them confirming that no tickets was purchased I would have waited till the 7th hour to get upset enough to demand answers.

This experience begs the question, why do Airline companies still allow companies like Cheapoair to book their flights when so many people has been taken to the cleaners on bad procedures, ethics and customer service? They should be banned immediately.

So buyer beware to stay away because the first indications should be "You get what you pay for" - No toll free number, huge language barriers, noisy Call Center, terrible Customer Service, bad CC handling and over-charges (from others experiences) = Complete Misrepresentation of all Online ticket agents and Airline companies.

Dear Sourav, I have been getting the run around and being charged more for a flight I booked yesterday. I was confirmed 897.40 for a return flight with insurance and taxes and fees included. It took them forever to do a 3rd party CC confirmation.

I called back since I couldn't get my eticket but was told that I would have it in 2-3 hours then I was charged $ 70.00 more. This is ridiculous... 3.5 hours later, still no e-ticket and I leave in a few hours to get to Vermont to catch my flight.

I am LIVID because I called again and was told that nothing was in the system and someone would call me in 15 minutes. NO ONE has called.

Can you please fix this ASAP? I found your email on a complaints board. PS, please make sure that there better not be any over charges as others complained.I am really worried about Cheapoair and your services.

Hope to hear from you soon.

CheapoAir.com has the absolute worst customer service of any company I have ever dealt with. They took all the fun out of booking a vacation. They changed up my flights after I submitted my credit card. They charged my card 300.00 more than I had agreed to pay. They do not answer calls, they do not return messages, they do not respond to customer complaints. When I did finally reach someone (in India I think) she hung up on me- stay away... book elsewhere...

Cheapoair is just that a company that runs a cheap on its customer by giving one rate but when you get the bill it's a totally extreme overpriced rate. I declined insurance for the flight but I was charged insurance rates on the tickets I purchased. The customer service line is always busy so you never get a chance to speak to a person to discuss the problem. I even did an email inquiry and simple received a message that I agreed to pay these outlandish rates. If you want cheap tickets save yourself a lot of money and don't waste time or money with CHEAPOAIR.COM

I have some complaints about CheopoAir, and I never even got a ticket!

I tried to book a flight to Spain, and amazingly, they were offering flights for just $800 after taxes, when everyone else was over $1100. The flight times and connections looked right, so I typed in my personal information and debit card number and pushed book. Instead of booking a flight, a message popped up saying that in rare instances, the flight requested is overbooked and no longer available, so I'd need to try again with another flight. Never mind that that same flight kept coming up as an available flight.

So I tried again with a different flight. Same result. Again. Same result. In total, I tried 8 different times. Eventually I called customer service and asked them. After 45 minutes with a very rude representative, he said he found a flight... the original one! When I asked how he would be able to book it when it was oversold, he ignored the question and kept asking for my credit card number. I don't give out my debit card number over the phone, so I said I was no longer interested. He kept talking, trying to convince me, right until I hung up.

A few days after that, I checked my account balance, and I had been billed $1 eight separate times-- "Airline Taxes." They charged me $1 for each of the eight times I unsuccessfully tried to book a flight! I called customer service AGAIN, and they told me they could reimburse me...if I'd send them my last bank statement with my account number. NO THANK YOU! I probably said some four-letter word, then hung up. I decided to take the $8 charge instead of handing out my bank account number to someone halfway across the world.

I completely agree with the complaints. Here is my story with them:

I would like to share my experience with this company to warn you never to make the mistake and book a flight with that company. It all started yesterday morning when I learned that my grandmother had deceased and I was looking for a reasonable ticket to fly to attend the funeral on Saturday.

I checked the internet for bereavement fares and also called some airlines, but $1000 was the best they could do. So I checked online and stumbled across the website. I found a flight with United Airlines for incredible $600. When I clicked to confirm the price, at the bottom of the page I could enter my credit card info and traveler's info. So I did that and hit the book button. After 10 seconds the confirmation window popped up and I had my first close heart attack: instead of my chosen United flight a Delta flight for $1700 was confirmed on totally different dates. That flight wasn't even an option on the search results page. Right away I called their hotline. After 10 minutes I was redirected to an answering machine where I left a message. I also sent an online inquiry to their customer service. I checked my credit card which had a temp authorization of the outrageous amount. I called Bank of America but they told me they cannot dispute a charge until it becomes a charge, also Delta, who supposedly was my airline, knew nothing of the charge. After 130 minutes on the phone (there goes 130 minutes of free minutes for March), they finally called back. The woman didn't say sorry but agreed on changing the flight. The $600 couldn't be found, so we agreed on a flight for $772, which should have left today at 2pm for Frankfurt. It took one hour to clarify what she needs to make these changes. During the phone call we exchanged emails. Hubbie and I printed out what she needed (cancellation of expensive flight, cc auth for new flight) and faxed it to the number she asked us to. She said after an 1 or 2 we will receive via email the confirmation and e-ticket number as well as that the charges were taken off the cc.

After 90 minutes I sent her an email if the flight was confirmed, and she answered YES. I felt uneasy about it while I packed and started to call their hotline again. After 2.5 hours trying to reach someone (hubbie on his phone, me on mine) my mother in law simultaneously tried to call them from CA. Their hotline closes at 9pm. It was 8:50pm when she got through and helped us to talk to them. After quite some time, 20 minutes on the phone, my MIL learned that the ticket never was confirmed. The airline only issues paper tickets if the ticket is booked less than 48 hours prior to departure, and obviously there is no time to get the ticket to us on time, and that is why it never was confirmed. The person on the phone assured MIL that the temp authorization was taken back.

After that we still called around but couldn't find any acceptable fare.

I checked my cc online and the temp auth is still there. 10 minutes ago the woman who "sold" us the ticket yesterday called me that she had the ticket now and I could fly. After asking her if this is true, the flight she has turned out to be tomorrow (which is too late since I would arrive after the funeral), and after I said that it was too late, the flight she offered me suddenly would leave tonight at 7pm. I said I don't want to fly anymore and don't appreciate getting my hopes up, and I really hope the charges on my cc will disappear.

I really feel very sad and angry, since they knew right from the beginning that I was purchasing a bereavement fare. I spent so much time on the phone just to be lied at and still no money refund. I am very anxious about that.

Please never ever book through that company, it will just give you grief.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS TRAVEL AGENCY!

I have had all of the above problems + more.

I booked a discounted, yet still expensive, $3K biz class ticket abroad. When calling the airline to confirm and get a seat assignment, was told it was only an economy seat. After many days calling and emailing, this was finally corrected-- most quickly corrected when I tried to file a complaint on their positive-remarks-only customer comments board! (The comment wasn't posted, but I got the problem corrected). Then, I was double-charged the $3K on my credit card -- no reply from CheapoAir yet on that, but I have filed a dispute with my credit card company.

Lastly and unfortunately, due to a family medical emergency, I now have to cancel the trip. When I call the airline for policies (as directed to do on my e-ticket), the airline will not discuss it and only send me back to CheapoAir. Have been trying to reach someone at CheapoAir for over one week, with no luck.

I just wanted to say that I am also having trouble with them. In short, they double-booked my flight and haven't reimbursed me for $1400 dollars.