Vayama
reviews and complaints

I booked a flight via www.vayama.com and then I received a message stating they need some time to confirm my credit card payment. Two days passed and I contacted them and asked what was going on. They said that they were not able to process the card so they cancelled my reservation. Well, I'm glad they did not take my money, but they were really unprofessional and never contacted me to tell that my booking was cancelled.

This was first time I used vayama to book an international flight.
I'm trying to get Refund for a cancelled reservation from past 3 weeks.
1st time when I called after initial 7-10 day Refund issue period, I was told there are no issues with the refund and refund will be issued next Monday. But no refund was made. I called 5 times in 2 weeks after that to check the refund status, every time they told that refund will be issues in 2-3 days. On 03/28/2016, I received email that refund will be issued in 1-2 billing cycles (60 days). When I contacted the customer care I got different answers from customer care representatives. One Rep. told that it's being processed and another told she is not sure when the refund will be processed. I've booked & cancelled flights earlier on other websites but never had any issues for getting refund. I would suggest please do not use Vayama to make any reservations.

Trip Advisor recommended this travel agency which is a travel company that takes your money and then with crook tricks avoids any responsibilities for providing value for money or service. Example: I booked and paid for a flight considerable cheaper than other offers. One day before the flight I received a message from Vayama that their quote was wrong, too low with the company not responsible for this mistake. I could cancel the flight or accept the new price (twice as high). I did accept the increased fare (much higher than other previous offers) as I had an important appoint on the arranged date and could not arrive later. Later, when I had to change the date of the return flight, Vayama charged me almost the price of a new ticket which I did not accept and bought a new cheaper single return flight with the same airline. When asked a restitution from Vayama as I cancelled the flight ample in time before my departure, Vayama refused to give me any restitution. Please, avoid these crooks called Vayama and shame on Trip Advisor as well for recommending this company!

I really regret booking through Vayama. After ticketing my flight, I found that I was not able to select seats on any of my flights. I went to the airline websites and also called the airlines and was told that the class of fare does not allow me to select seats till the day of the flight. The whole reason I had booked in advance was to make sure I had good seats and good flights. When I called Vayama to cancel the booking, all they did was keep telling me to call the airline (even though I repeatedly told them I had called the airline and was told I would not be able to select seats), and then wanted to charge me $50 per person to void the ticket. That was unacceptable. There was nothing in their booking process that indicated that it would not be possible to select seats. I asked to speak with a supervisor, was told that he/she was on another call and would call me back, but I never received a callback. Terrible customer service, not transparent, never booking with them again.

Vayama has the worst customer service ever - this is the third time I have called them. Twice they couldn't hear me even though my phone line was fine both times (called from 2 different places as well). Then in addition, I asked them to tell me how much they charged my credit card because the bill showed a larger charge and even though I gave them my name, my trip id # and ticket #- 2 of those directly from the ticket confirmation they provided, they were unable to help me.

They have nobody who is an expert there - if you get someone that can't answer your question, then you are screwed and they want you to then email them and wait 24 hours for a simple answer such as 'what did you bill my credit card'.

Most frustrating experience ever!

I have had the worst experience after booking my tickets through Vayama. Even though their tickets are non-refundable, nowhere in there terms and conditions is it mentioned that if you cancel the trip then the entire value of the ticket is lost. Neither do they mention their no-show policy or the fact that Vayama would not assist you in any way on the phone. Every time you call them, after making you hold for about an hour and listening to your concerns, they tell you that they will respond via email, which in my case took about 10 days. And after that I received a quote for $1900 for making a change to a ticket that I brought for $1282. I had no option, but to buy new tickets all together. What is the use of cancelling the ticket in advance, if the entire value is going to be lost. I wrote a letter to Kayak in order to share my bad experience, and I received a response from Anna (KAYAK Consumer Services Rep) giving the Vayama customer care number and asking to call them for assistance. How is this supposed to be of any help?

COPY OF LETTER

I booked my tickets on September 21st, 2014, using the Kayak website, which redirected the booking to Vayama.com. Since, I knew that Kayak was a trusted booking site, I went ahead and did the booking. The result of this trust was a waste of $1282.32, which was price of my entire ticket, and a painful and honestly the worst customer service experience of my life. What has happened has happened, but I cannot let this go without sharing my experience and I will also be sharing on public forums, so that others do not have to go through such a terrible ordeal.
The problem started, when I found out that since my trip from US to India, included two stops at Germany, I would be requiring a Schengen tourist visa. Because my H1-B visa had expired, and I was going to get my visa renewed in India, getting the Schengen visa was not possible. So, I tried to get my flight scheduled changed, as having a single stop in Germany would not require for me to have the visa. After that I called Vayama, about five times, each call lasting for more than an hour because of the long durations of waiting in between calls. First of all, no helpful information was provided via phone. Every time I called, they listened to my concerns and said that they would me sending me the quote for getting the ticket changed within two business days. After waiting for those two days, and not getting any reply, I would have to call again and they would unapologetically ask me to wait another two days. When I tried calling the main airline company, i.e. Lufthansa, they said that they could not help in any way and only the agent, which was Vayama could do that. Why was I not given this piece of information clearly, while booking the ticket?
Finally, after waiting for 8-9 days, I got an email with a quote for $1900 for making the required change. (Additional airfare - $1500, airline change penalty - $300, Vayama service fee - $100) This quote seemed like a ridiculous joke, as they were just making a change to my outgoing flight and the price was more than the cost of my entire ticket. Since, no changes were required in the return flight. So, I decided to book an altogether new one way ticket from US to India, and was hoping to use the Lufthansa ticket for the return journey. But then a new piece of information was given to me. If I do not show up for my flights from US to India, I would be considered a no-show and my entire trip ahead would be cancelled. I felt really helpless and angry at this point of time. I decided to forget about this ticket completely book new return tickets for my return trip as well.
The monetary loss is still acceptable, but the fact that I was not informed about so many things while booking the ticket, that I found out about later, such as the no-show policy, or that any changes to the ticket in future would have to be made through the agent only, makes me feel cheated. I really regret not looking up the reviews for Vayama online, before booking my tickets as they would have prevented me from making the booking. The complaints posted by other customers seem to match my experience and not surprisingly I did not come across any positive reviews at all. I will not be making any future purchases from Kayak or Vayama and advice other also to do the same.

Terribe customer service!

They kill you with conflicting stories, agents and dates - every time I called they had a new story as to why there was a delay to processing my refund. I had emergency surgery, rebooked the trip with vayama and still have not received my refund 5 months later.

They tell me it is bring process, give me a confirmation number and 2 months later send an email saying the letter from my dr. Is illegible and the refund was denied.
This is after confirming several times that the letter was received, refund was approved and I just needed to be patient.

The hope is that they will be so frustrating that you give up on the refund is what I think.
They stink.

They deserve -5 stars. They dont deserve to be a business.

The way they run their business is just counter intuitive, unethical, and shady.

Basically I had bought a ticket from them and literally an hour or so later I had to cancel it.

BUT lo and behold, I didn't cancel quick enough and I still have to pay the 90 dollar fee to cancel. It has to do with the time differences because I ordered it while in another country. So in the end they said I didn't make the window in getting a full refund. So that sucked.

But in the end they said they would refund it with the 90 dollar fee on top. And I said ok fine.

Month later I never get a refund. I call them and they said I have to verify an email regarding the refund to actually get a refund!

I dont recall the representative telling me to answer an email. When I called to get a refund I expect it to be done. I don't want to answer an email regarding something I just called about! I don't know any other airline or airline agency that does this.
Its redundant and stupid.

Its like you calling to order a pizza and you have to verify an email from the pizza company to send you a pizza. Obviously if I called, I want the freaking pizza!

vayama listen to this because you guys are idiots!

So since I didn't respond to their little email, I now have to pay an extra 25 dollars for a no show fee for the airlines because they never actually canceled anything.

I called them three times. The second call they told me the manager would call me back in an hour and he never called. So good job vayama.

Then we called back for the third time. Finally we got to talk to the manager.
They said they will check the recording to see if the rep told me that I have to check my email. So it could've been an easy mistake on my part.

But honestly, the whole verify email thing is ridiculous. Especially for me because when I ordered this ticket it was overseas and my internet access was very limited. So when I made the call, I expected everything shouldve been done right there and then.

Usually when I call airlines directly they do things right away. None of this Email verification crap.

Think about it vayama. Think! Emails are dangerous. What if they went to spam?

So LISTEN to your customers.

Obviously you guys have some issues with your business because of all the negative feedback.

You guys need to improve your rules and improve your customer service because you guys seriously suck.

WARNING FOR ANYONE OUT THERE. BE CAUTIOUS WITH VAYAMA! THEY JUST WANT YOUR MONEY. THEY DONT CARE ABOUT YOU OR YOUR SATISFACTION!

DONT LET THE CHEAP PRICES FOOL YOU! YOU WILL PAY THE CONSEQUENCES IF YOU NEED ANY ACTUAL HELP!

Never use this company! I should have know better from my past experiences. Worst customer service policies in the travel industry. I had to change a ticket on ukraine international airlines from kiev to sochi. Talked directly to the airline and got the costs (150 dollars) but was told I could not due it due to agency agreement with vayama and I had to call them. Called them and after being told I should have done this 4 days ago (wow didn't know the air canada plane would have a mechanical problem 4 days ago) I had to get them to do the change. They confirmed the 150 dollar airline fee and added 50 dollars for them. (hey when you pay a person in india a dollar a hour to do this you are making $ on change fees. So then after confirming with them on the phone and email that these fees and the changes are okay I later get an email confirmation and the changes fees billed were 550 usd. I am being asked to pay 350 dollars more because they took too long to phone the airline. Wtf did I pay the 50 dollars for.
This is not the first time I have had issues with vayama but it will be the last. You can now get all the same flights using orbitz and get better customer service and none of the problems where you can't make a change at the airline yourself. I take over 100 flighst a year and this company is the worst by such a huge amount it is amazing.

Back in November, I booked a round-trip flight for my daughter from Boston to Johannesburg for a research expedition for July-August. Months later, she got a job for next school year.. Unfortunately, the training period overlaps with my original trip dates, so I have to change them.
Why will I NEVER use Vayama again? Vayama charges $100 to change itineraries ON TOP of what the airlines charges. PLUS, even though I can go online and get the new itinerary for nearly $500 less than I paid for the original, I must pay $110 more for the "fare increase" because "the airlines won't let us book the less expensive seat class".
So. If I had gone directly through the airlines, the change would have cost $275 (and perhaps less, if they credited the airfare difference). Because I'm using Vayama, the change will cost $485. (Yes I bought travel insurance, but the "cancel for work reasons" only covers current employment, not future, and this policy did not offer "cancel for any reason" as an option. D'oh.)

Gee, thanks, Vayama. Don't worry, I will let my friends know. Friends don't let friends use Vayama.

This is the first time I've used Vayama for a flight overseas to the Philippines. I originally went with them because the price of the tickets was a little cheaper. Had I known the issues they would cause I would have run immediately. First off they change my flight twice, and getting on contact with them is a pain in the #. The last time I spoke with them I was waiting for 45 minutes on the phone. They originally change my flight time, then suddenly a "minor change" was made to my flight leaving out of Las Vegas to now suddenly leaving out of Los Angeles two weeks about before my scheduled flight. I told the Indian man on the other end, who had no concept of why this wasn't good that I needed a flight out of Vegas. He had me on line for another 5 minutes to tell me "sorry no flights out of Vegas to California until the 17th of January. Apparently no plane will ever leave Las Vegas to go to California within a month. I finally gave up and ended up having to buy a ticket to Los Angeles the night before my flight since it's too early in the morning to drive to. So all in all, I had to spend an additional $113 for something they screwed me over with and all they could say was"no, there is no other flight". I couldn't even change airlines or anything. I will NEVER use Vayama again. On that note I had two flights scheduled with them and both flights have been changed 3 times since. I'll also include that a 13 hour layover in San Francisco is ridiculous. They picked the absolute worst times for me. On my return flight I leave out of Manila at midnight. By far the worst company I've ever dealt with on customer service.

I just wanted to give a word of warning after an awful experience we had with Vayama through a deal found on a website. A website posted a deal for tickets to Thailand for three weeks through Vayama a while back and my boyfriend, a friend and I jumped at the chance to be able to afford to go. We booked our tickets back in June for about $850 and were eagerly awaiting our November 9th departure date.

I had been checking our flights regularly and at one point we did try to request to have our flights altered so we only had one stop on the way to Vancouver but this proved to be impossible through the company. A slight annoyance since in the past it's been easy to do this through airlines but we sucked it up and figured we'd deal with the 14 hour layover we had in our schedule.

Then the day before our trip, November 8th, I checked our flights. We were flying Vancouver to Shanghai with China Eastern and Shanghai to Bangkok with Sri Lankan Airlines. I noticed a change in the time of our flight to Bangkok and upon further inspection realized the flight left TWO hours before we arrived in Shanghai! We had received "Schedule Change" emails before from Vayama over just a twenty minute difference in a flight, but absolutely no contact was made to us regarding our initial flight being cancelled and a new flight now on a different day and inconveniently leaving before we arrived in Shanghai...

All three of us were on the phone with Vayama throughout the day and they were awful. The worst customer service I have ever experienced. We begged them to rebook the flights so we could grab a connection elsewhere, we asked if we could buy a one way ticket independently but were told if we were a no show for one of the flights it would cancel the rest of the flights on our way back home. The two options they gave us were either wait 45 hours in the airport for the next flight out to Bangkok or receive a refund.

I was warned by a co-worker of maybe needing a transit visa so I phoned the China embassy in Vancouver to get more information. I was informed if we were to spend 24 hours or more in China, whether in the airport or in the country, we would require a transit visa and it would take at least 48 hours to process at a cost of $400. However, our flight was leaving in less than 24 hours when we encountered this mess and originally we had a 12 hour layover. I asked what would happen if we boarded the flight anyways without the visa and the woman told me that once we would board our flight to Bangkok, officials would notice we were in China past 24 hours without the visa and according to the law would have to be sent back on the first flight out to Vancouver.

I wasn't sure if there may be an exception to this rule if we were in Shanghai and if there may be a way to work around it, but we weren't going to risk it. We had NO other option from Vayama but to get a refund.

We had already booked accommodations in Thailand and we'd be losing out on so much money if we didn't go. We luckily found a flight through a local travel agency that left at midnight that night. It'd be an extra $500 from what we originally paid but we figured we'd use most of the money from the refund we'd be getting from Vayama. BUT, we were told it would take 25-45 business days for the refund to be credited back to the original credit card. We were desperate, so we put three new tickets to Bangkok on a credit card and flew out that night.

Vayama was of no help during this entire ordeal. The three of us traveling phoned separately various times throughout the day hoping to get a different answer. We pleaded and begged to book us tickets through a different connecting city other than Shanghai and make up for this awful mistake on their part. What's horrifying to think is that we never would have seen this mistake if we didn't check our flights the day before. When we explained this to them it sounded like they couldn't care less and they offered no compensation or apologies whatsoever.

The cherry on top of all of this is we came home from our trip recently to find that only two of the three tickets were refunded on the credit card, so now we have a whole other ordeal ahead of us...

PLEASE DO NOT EVER USE VAYAMA! It was by far the worst experience I have, and probably ever will, experience in travel. I can't believe a company would be so unhelpful and unsympathetic to such a situation. If we weren't lucky enough to have a credit card to put three new tickets on we would have had our whole vacation canceled.

Vayama is aw-ful! Do not do business with them!

I purchased tickets and some how they messed up my return flight. I called right away to change it and the person (who could barely understand me) said that they would charge me a $50 cancellation. It was their error! They would return the fee if you re-buy on vayama, but the tickets had already went up $100 after the error. When my credit card company and I called them a second time, a woman there told us that there was a 24hr. Cancellation without a fee. The first person didn't honor that and told me he had to charge me even though it had just happened! Both agents didn't make any effort to help me and were basically robots on the other line. Luckily, my mastercard helped me and gave me a credit since dealing with them was useless. Avoid them at all costs!

This is a sleazy outfit based in Bengaluru (or Bangalore), India. I have nothing against companies based there, as I am from there, but I hate sleazy outfits like this one
that spoil the reputation of Indian companies in general.

Here is my experience: I booked a ticket from US to India on Vayama at a good price.
Before booking, I checked their Change policy, and they were reasonable: Small penalty
plus DIFFERENCE IN FARE BASIS. My complaint and troubles were based on how Vayama computes the DIFFERENCE IN FARE BASIS. Here it is:
1). The new flights must be EXACTLY same as the old flight (though on a different date).
2). They will use the FULL FARE for the new flights as the new FARE BASIS.

So, when I tried to change the date on my $1300 ticket, they wanted $4500 for the change.
Luckily, I was able to convince American Airlines (the ticketing airline) to change my ticket at a much lower cost. I would not try my luck again.

If there is any likelihood of you making changes to your ticket, avoid Vayama.

Vayama just stole, scam, cheated, took my money and ran., All eleven hundred dollars of it... ($1, 100) surely I made a complaint, but they got away like a white collar crime... there ought to be a law against such scammers and have to pay a penalty for their stealing cause they are just thieves on a computer. I booked tickets to China round trip for me and a few friends. the tickets were e-tickets and a three week before the trip, my a friend couldn't leave the country so vayama refunded his money. A week before the trip, another friend couldn't leave and I ask for the same refund and they gave me a voucher instead. since we many many trips overseas, It would be no problem to use those tickets withing the year. Getting within four months before the year end. My friend who cancel the ticket needed to go the same route with the same airline... Vayama didn't respond the the customer service held you up on the phone for 20 mins at a time. Can not wait, so we went to orbitz and got a ticket instead and off he went. I was to follow behind the next month and the same thing started with Vayama... no, NO customer service for 20 minutes. I book the tickets as instructed and it didn't go through. Called again and another 20 minutes. Later they said I can not use the tickets unless I paid the penalty. No problem which was half of the ticket price. After they did not book me on a flight I ask for a refund... non-refunable they added, but I can change ticketsss for the flight, but I told them that I tired that. No refund and I talked with the superviser, clerks etc. No refund, no ticket... couldn't wait so I went to ORRBIZT. Got my ticket and left the country... so I ask for a refund when I return, they refer me to China Air... I was told that they never issue the ticket anyway and that Vayama was refunded the ticket a long time ago and China Air never got paid and never held the funds. That was strange because Vayama clains that they sent the money to china Air and nothing can be done by Vayama since they have your money (lies) So still in limbo... Vayama kept my eleven hundred dollars and worked the scam by passing the buck like a hot potatoe until the weary customer is tried out to pursue them. VAYAMA STOLE

Originally I thought Vayama was fine, maybe even good until I looked at my credit card statement and realized they had charged me for making 2 phone calls to them because I was having problems with their website. I didn't ever book through them on the phone b/c the attendant told me I would be charged $15.00. It didn't matter anyway, as they turned around and charged me approximately $100.00 in fees for making 2 freaking phone calls! They are AWFUL. Do NOT use this site! It's a rip-off.

Had a disappointing experience with Vayama's customer service. So far and based on my experience solely, I think this is a good agency, if you never need their customer service, i.e. buy your ticket online, pay for it, go through your travel plans accordingly. It seems that whoever wrote their computer programs did a good job. However, if ever you need any support from their team, good luck. Note: they are in Banglore, India. My experience started when halfway through the trip, the airline forced a schedule change which forced us to change our plans. Plan change required rerouting which they refuse to do. This ticket involves multiple airlines (Air Canada & LuftHansa) and its tickets is issued by Air Canada. I started with Lufthansa which pointed me to Air Canada. Air Canada Local branch (in Middle East) pointed me to my agent (Vayama). Made a call to Vayama, spoke to a representative called "Ash". Pointed me back To Air Canada. After 1 hour being on hold, Air Canada told me since no other A. C. flights are left on the ticket, they cannot do anything about it. Back to Vayama. Spoke with Vayama (this time Sam) who tried the same story on me one more time. Did not fall for it for this time. Asked for supervisor (Vivek). Told them that I spoke with A. C. They did not believe me and dialed Air Canada on the phone. Their representative (Anne) repeated the same thing that I told Sam. They tried with LuftHansa. I think the representative felt sorry for me and decided to take care of this. I ended up calling LuftHansa on my own and now they are looking into my case. They booked my desired route and told me that they will get back to me with the associated Fare. This whole ordeal took me over 3 hours. I should not be spending this amount of time to change a ticket. It is Vayama's responsibility as I paid the fare to them. The ticket is changeable and airline is looking into it. Simply saying "The airline has denied your request to change the routing of the return flights unfortunately" is a quite irresponsible act from Vayama's side. BTW, this was the line that all Vayama representatives mentioned over and over, while it is not true. It is doable, albeit at a cost. Vayama should have done this on my behalf. This is something that Vayama has taken the responsibility of when they sold me the ticket in the first place. They should have looked into my requests and see if Airlines could do it. Not pass the buck. Even worse than that, they started by saying my desired route does not even exist. I am not sure where do they find these folks to deal with customers. I am extremely disappointed in their customer service.

Stay away from this company.
No customer services after travel tickets are bought nor do they care. There's very little human to human business interaction. Call center is in india and if you have any problem explaining your problem/issue and the agent can't handle it, there isn't any on-duty supervision to help.

Another rip off so called service company