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CheapOair review: overcharge and poor customer service! 34

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12:00 am EST
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My complaint is with the level of service offered by CheapoAir.com. For years I have used the internet to book flights, however this is the first time I used CheapoAir.com. The chain of events is as follows:

· I booked a flight on October 2 to fly to my home town San Antonio, TX

· I received confirmation for October 20 on AirTran Flt. 123 departing at 11:19AM EST from Atlanta with a connecting Flight on American Airlines #1612 leaving DFW at 2:10PM CST.

· I received a call about a week later from a CheapoAir representative informing me that AirTran Flt 123 had been canceled and I was now on Flt. 124 departing at 12:11PM EST from Atlanta. No change was indicated for the connecting AA flight out of DFW. At this time I requested a new itinerary and was told I would receive one. I never did.

· I sent two E-mails to CheapoAir.com requesting a new Itinerary to confirm this change if flight status.

· I finally received a reply from a manager named Maurice. – SEE E-mail traffic note below:

· I arrive at the airport only to find out that I had indeed been placed on Airtran Flight #124 and that #123 had indeed been canceled.

· I was now in a bind to make the connecting AA Flight out of DFW due to the change in terminal on arrival.

· To make matter worse the incoming Flt 124 was late on arrival – while this is no fault of CheapoAir- it could have be averted by my being properly informed so I could have made changes to the connecting flight from DFW.

· After a late departure from Atlanta I find that I’m still in the air when the connecting AA flight out of DFW departs Dallas.

· I contacted CheapoAir.com and all they could tell me was to quote “get a note from AirTran telling AA that their flight was late” so AA could get me on another flight immediately at no cost!

· Of course AirTran reps would not do that and when I approached the AA counter the rep informed me a note would not have done me any good. I was noted as a “No Show” by AA and I would have to buy another ticket for $240 if I wanted to leave DFW!

· No amount of conversation with CheapoAir served to resolve the situation – Fiona the CheapoAir rep kept telling me that her supervisor Maurice was telling her I had to get a note from AirTran.

· Needless to say their level of customer service leaves much to be desired – as I and those I’ve told this to will no use CheapoAir. All have used other internet sites without any problems.

· So a flight that ordinarily would have cost $420 now cost me $660.

People beware!

Oct 29, 2007 8:19 am EDT
CheapOair customer support contacts
Address

c/o Fareportal Inc., 135 West 50th Street, Suite 500, New York, NY, 10020, US

File a complaint Write a review
Dear Susan,

I am sorry for the long phone conversation that took place, you do not mention what the concern is that you had that transpired this "posting". If there is something that I can assist you with please feel free to email me at: randrews@cheapoair.com.

Cheapoair is committed to making your experience a pleasant and helpful one!
Oct 29, 2007 8:26 am EDT
CheapOair customer support contacts
Address

c/o Fareportal Inc., 135 West 50th Street, Suite 500, New York, NY, 10020, US

File a complaint Write a review
Dear Gramps,

I am sorry that the error that was made on our website has cost you more than you expected. The airlines determine the cost for each flight, it appears that the new flight time you needed was at an additional cost, once tickets are confirmed the airlines charge a fee for all changes, that is determined and regulated by the airlines. I am not quite sure how the other travel sites are allowed to make changes and not collect the appropriate airfare, and fees, or they were nearly satisfying your concern.

If you need further assistance please feel free to email me at: randrews@cheapoair.com
Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer's satisfaction.

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34 comments
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Loulith
, US
Nov 04, 2023 8:06 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

May I get an itemized invoice for my refunded tickets on Turkish Air?

I understand it is $2,529.27 for each ticket. I am looking for something that will itemize the refund by flight segment

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Binnu
Vancouver, CA
Oct 12, 2023 5:34 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Made reservations and paid for trips

Had to cancel my trip did not get any money back

Multiple bookings

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Ralph Raffoul
chicago, US
Jul 22, 2023 10:07 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

they charged me twice for the same flight because the first one I did not receive a confirmation e-mail, so i went and bought a second one. and now they are refusing to refund, stating the airline refused to refund them...

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Harry Rai
, US
Jul 05, 2023 11:25 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I was trying to change my flight departure date and could not get a live person to speak to. In the chat, the person was unable to get my flight changed. Tried several times, with different customer support rep.

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Angyl
Frisco, US
Apr 09, 2023 9:37 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Booked my flight yesterday, 3/31/23 - NOT even 24 hours ago and they want another $300.00 to change return date! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE AND UNETHICAL PRACTICES! There is a 24 hour grace period!

Horrific customer service skills with -0- professionalism, did not even attempt to resolve on any level.

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Barbara Adams
, US
Apr 02, 2023 8:37 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

flights booking number [protected] and [protected] I can't get my passport in time to fly .The trip was booked by male customer service and I was never informed of your no refund policy. Barbara Adams [protected]

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Angyl
Frisco, US
Apr 01, 2023 5:48 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I will absolutely file a formal complaint with the State against them and the Better Business Bureau for their unethical business practices!

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Bishoy Antowan
, US
Mar 19, 2023 11:11 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

i booked a ticket 4 month ago with 2 checked bag and now when i tied to check in online before the flight its show its only one bag and when i reached to their supervisor nothing have change all they said contact the airline maybe the changed the bags even when I searched for the same exact flight and date it showed 2 bag on their booking website!

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Jim Northup
Schoolcraft, US
Mar 13, 2023 10:32 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Agents could barely speak English.

Tried to cancel flight because they made departure time changes that would not work for me. Blamed the airlines.

Then only would refund a portion of the cost. Then why did I buy their insurance for? I will never purchase through them again. Joke

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Imese
Maryland hts, US
Jan 15, 2023 3:48 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

6/29/22-6/30/22 Stl-abv and abv -Stl

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Nirajan Acharya
, US
Nov 19, 2022 8:56 am EST

Can I use only return ticket from my two way ticket as I have travelled overseas already. My booking number is [protected].

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JT Blanco
, US
Oct 15, 2022 12:50 pm EDT

This is by far the worst company to deal with. I was lied to when it came to travel insurance. I will never go to this site again. I lost 3000K.

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Kenneth Knight
, US
May 13, 2020 9:29 pm EDT

I received an email on 04/26/2020 advising me of a credit for $193.15 which I haven't received. My booking ID is [protected] which I booked on 01/25/2020

The credit was due because I was unable to fly due to the Corona virus.

The email advised me to contact you if I hadn't received the refunds as stipulated

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Suanne Powell
, US
May 06, 2020 3:00 am EDT

Please cancel $58.00 charge posted on February 16, 2020 on my Master Card, as I never booked a flight; therefore I do not have a booking number.`

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lpchuah1
, MY
Dec 11, 2019 7:36 pm EST

I am at the Price details screen and unable to find the "gift card". I have requested many many times via email, however Cheapoair officer is unable to furnish me the screen shot where is the "Gift Card" section to update the gift card number.
Cheapoair really a scam scam company.

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Sheila Smitz
, US
Oct 27, 2019 10:47 pm EDT

Full refund ASAP
O-58W88754P19736709
Cancel this order

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Latina 4128
, US
Aug 12, 2019 8:03 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I Web on Sunday to pick up my car that I going to for August 4th to August 7th when I went there they cancel that my car they have no other carb for me available and the lady that I talk to as the August 4th she mis interpreted 8 say August 3rd and I was very upset and I would like my refund backup the car

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Latina 4128
, US
Aug 06, 2019 10:02 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I want my refund

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Amy richert
, US
Jun 23, 2019 12:12 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

My ex husband was able to change a flight that I booked with out my permission taking away 5 days off my sons visit and changed contact info without my permission

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mlm-hdg
, US
Sep 01, 2018 6:49 pm EDT

The company changed the departure date without our knowledge. They would not let me hear the recorded conversation when I made the booking over the phone. They deny any fault, but would not let me give me a copy of the conversation.

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Davyd
, US
Sep 01, 2018 4:49 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

There is no need to go into the details about experience with CheapOair: just avoid this company. It is very easy to buy anything via other sites either for the same price or for much less and not to deal with an amazingly badly run business of stupidity and cruelty.

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Ellie Pattison
, US
Apr 22, 2016 3:20 am EDT

CheapO air is the worst! They charged me 3 times for errors they made and now my ticket went from $289 to $633! I've been waiting for 4 days to speak to a customer service supervisor. Complete sham!

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CheapOair
New York, US
Feb 21, 2017 8:34 am EST

Ellie, I am with CheapOair, please email us at sm@cheapoair.com your 8 digit booking number so that we can assist you. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

CheapOair

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EVC1974
, US
Dec 05, 2015 7:24 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

CheapOair is a total scam company. As with Leigh above, the amount they charged my credit card was over $200 more than the amount I agreed to pay on the bill. I complained and was told this was a "service charge" (it was $104 per ticket!). This "service charge" was NEVER DISCLOSED to me and did NOT appear anywhere on the original bill when I purchased my tickets. In addition, the airline I purchased tickets with went bankrupt and my flight was cancelled. I am out over $800--no tickets, no refund, nothing. And that bogus "service charge" just adds insult to injury. How is that even legal?

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Leigh Grant
, US
Nov 17, 2015 7:53 am EST

Good Morning Sam, My name is Leigh Grant, I am a customer of CheapoAir in Alice Springs Northern Territory Australia. I am a very pissed customer! I am sorry if this comes across as rude but I have been on the phone numerous to your customer service line. I have been promised call backs on several occasions and never get them. I have been on hold with your company for 2 hours and counting so far today (times this by more than 8 times for previous calls). I rang to get a quote for travel between Alice Springs and Brisbane (all in Australia) I was quoted $533.38. I agreed to this and gave my credit card details. upon receiving my credit card statement I found that your company had charged me $736.00 I have now spent over 2 weeks waiting on an explanation as to why this has occurred and am now at the point of extreme anger. While I have now received a refund of the difference I am still waiting on an explanation. Once again I apologise if this seems rude but I am just fed up with being messed around Kind Regards Leigh Grant

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Galex_CORNAH
Toronto, CA
Apr 17, 2011 1:06 am EDT

It's true that Cheapoair.com is a company with a bad reputation and terrible customer service. I had an extremely frustrating and painful experience with them. I won't recommend it to my worst enemy.

Recently I booked a round trip ticket from Toronto, Canada to Chisinau, Moldova.
My flight was Toronto-Frankfurt-Vienna-Chisinau. After arriving to Frankfurt, I learned quickly that I couldn't go through the security to take my next flight. The reason of denied boarding was a schengen visa to pass through Frankfurt to Vienna. Asking multiple questions at their Frankfurt's police station, I learned as well, that I had to go back to Canada to get my shengen visa and that it wasn't possible to get it at the airport.
So if I had the visa requirements to TRANSIT the EU then why I was not informed about it while booking the ticket? It looks like that you are the best client in the world (because you are paying for Cheapoair.com's services of course!), they talk to you very sweet, but when you try to reach them day after day having the questions, they promise to call you back and to pass your message to their manager, but no one does it. My wife and I weren't able to reach anyone since then.

I would like to have the full refund of my flight, since I haven't seen my parents, my old granmother and my daughter who were waiting for me at the airport in Chisinau for almost 6 hours without any idea what might had happened to me.

Now I can't reach anyone at Cheapoair.com at all. My wife and I keep calling, spending up to 2 hours each time with no luck.

Does anyone have the emails or other contact information I can use to contact a real person in Cheapoair.com? Also any organizations and customer protection structures will do as well.

Never use Cheapoair.com!

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navneet1
Carbondale, US
Jan 24, 2010 2:26 pm EST

Hi,
Worst online site, Very bad experience. Recently I booked a round trip ticket from chicago to new delhi.
I boarded flight # AA 292 from Chicago to new delhi on 13th dec 09. While coming back on 17th Jan10 from Delhi to Vienna-brussels-Chicago. I reached new delhi airport on time but I was denied boarding by austrian airlines crew member Flight # AI6034. The reason of denied boarding was my two stops at europe. They said I need a schengen visa to pass through Vienna and Brussels.
My question is if I had the visa requirements of India as well as US then why I was denied boarding. I was not informed about the visa requirements while booking the ticket as well as when I boarded the flight from chicago to new delhi.
There is no more trust left in cheapoair and this has been a painful experience. I would like to have the full refund of my new delhi to chicago flight.

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jooel
Buffalo, US
Dec 18, 2008 3:41 pm EST

Yes. CheapOAir.com is a scam. They sure made me waste my time completely and also lose $850 dollars. Their customer service does suck tremendiously. I made many calls yesterday and ALL besides one call, that was made today, dropped. According to them, it wasnt their fault that it dropped. They put me on hold, EVERY single time, and each time it dropped. The funny part is, that today when i had the only decent costumer representative agent, he did tell me about EACH single time that where the call was dropped. They even said they CALLED my home number, and there is NO received calls whatsoever.
I have traveled a lot in my life, and this is certainly the first time i have to deal with this hustle! I can honestly say they are VERY professional THIEVES! That's all they are. I finally started reading around after all this frustration and I can see that I have not been the only one affected bad by this unprofessional company. It's NOT always nice to pick on the people and take their money.
I will certainly keep blogging EVERYWHERE I see anything about this company. Companies like CheapOAir.com needs to disapear. Money doesnt come easy, specially nowadays with this horrible economy. But for them, it sure is easy to come up with BS stuff to keep your money or give you the run around to steal your money.
I can't imagine how many other people that have deal with bad situations with this company. But, If you have and after you read this... trust me, best tools to spread this out... YOU TUBE, MySpace, FaceBook, and similar sites as this where students and middle class like us will be looking at this type of site.

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Eryn Patton
,
Oct 28, 2008 12:23 pm EDT

I have had a terrible experience with Cheapoair.com. I recently booked a flight for October 16-21st. When I recieved my confirmation e-mail it had me booked for October 21-28th. I immediately called to report the error and they informed me that they could make the change, but it would cost me and additional $460. I already paid $252 for my original ticket. I offered to pay for the $100 airline fee, but refused to pay the extra money for an additional ticket because of an error on their end. They insisted that I had made the mistake of booking the wrong dates, which was impossible, those dates were based off a specific event planned in advance. The customer service rep informed me that my best chance would be to buy a separate one-way ticket, and use my return flight from the original, incorrect ticket, so I did. When the vacation ended and I was checking bags for the return flight back home, the airline told me that since I didn't use the outbound flight to get there, I forfeited my return flight. That left me having to, again, buy ANOTHER ticket. I now see that other people have had that problem too, recieving wrong itineraries and then having Cheapoair claim it's the customers fault in order to charge us more money. I also noticed that the FAQ on Cheapoair's website lists two separate questions: 1. "How do I change the date of my flight ticket?" and 2. "The flight confirmation page shows the wrong date on my itinerary, How can I change it?" Clearly, this is not a new problem to them. Please avoid Cheapoair.com, you'll lose money and endure only a tremendous hassle with their awful customer service. This trip should have costed me the original $252, instead it has cost me over $800 and has caused me to miss well over a week of work. Spread the word.

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KayLee
,
May 02, 2008 11:03 am EDT

My husband booked a one-way ticket home from Salt Lake City to Rochester for April 19th on January 11th. One week later, the airlines informed cheapoair that the itinerary they sold no longer existed. They did nothing to inform us of any change that needed to be made in the schedule until April 14th, and even then they CALLED instead of emailing us (or doing both) so we naturally were out of town. When we showed up at the airport and found no flight to take him home, we called the customer service and they put us on perma-hold and then the agent would do nothing but tell us he had to wait until the next flight. Well, that was booked since it was the end of spring break. I got a supervisor on, and he too read from his little script and would not help my husband get home: no change to an airline that HAD seats, no upgrade to first class to fly on a full flight, no reimbursement for more charges on another airline etc. Basically, they were OK with doing nothing and letting him sit in Las Vegas for 2 days until another flight with seats available left. Finally, they said they would get us a refund, but then we had to pay $540 for a one-way on Jet Blue to get him to Buffalo, not even Rochester. Since then, I have spent more than 2 hours on hold trying to actually get the promised refund, but each new person says something different. I hate the way we were treated, from the fraudulent selling of non-existent tickets to poor communication to non-existent customer service! They should be penalized and fined.

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jeff
,
Jan 12, 2008 5:24 pm EST

Cheapoair advertises fares that do not include the fuel surcharge. This is illegal under DOT rules, but they do it anyway. Avoid this company at all costs.

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Jeff Berry
,
Nov 25, 2007 4:52 pm EST

CheapOAir is a rip off. They claim to have a low price guarantee and I trusted them. Big mistake. Not only did I immediately find the exact same flight for $40 cheaper on Expedia, but CheapOAir refused to honor their low price guarantee. What they do is give you a low fare and then load it up with a excessively high fees right before you checkout. Total scam!

Their customer service is based in India and they can barely speak English. They are completely incapable and unable to make any decision on their own. We spent over an hour on the phone with them just to finally hang up in total frustration.

Please don't make the mistake we did; avoid this worthless company at all costs!

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Susan
,
Oct 14, 2007 7:09 am EDT

Was on the phone for over an hour yesterday and got absolutely nowhere. This company has no integrity and are in the business of ripping people off.

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gramps
,
Oct 12, 2007 6:04 pm EDT

My mother made a reservation through this company. She selected a 520am flight instead of a 527pm flight. We call immediately after receiving the confirmation but were told it would cost $125 to make a change. Talked with Orbitz, CheapTickets and Expedia. All said they would make the change for free. If you choose to use CheapOair, prepare to get screwed. I have advised all my military buddies to stay away from this company and an in the process of logging a complaint with the travel gurus at DoD.

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juan munoz
,
Jul 11, 2007 3:03 pm EDT

I canceled a ticket from cheapoair.com and i pay the cancellation fee and i still haven't got my money back and its been more than 3 months ago. Everytime i call they tell me that there is a manager on my case and that i'll get a call from them. I get put on hold then they hang up and i'm tired of all the bs I just want my $1,055.40 back. I'm willing to take this case to court and sue them for wasting my time and their poor customer service.