Do not book with Flight Network, save yourself from being overcharged due to exchange currency fees (hidden fees).
I purchased three RT tickets through their website on September 1, 2018, from Canada to the US. I made the booking at a price of CAD $2, 099.49 ($699.83/person). However, I was charged a total of $2, 214.51 excluding the seat selection fee of CAD $51.31. I have been charged $115.02 more than the agreed listed and booking price.
The prices were displayed in Canadian currency when I made the booking. The email confirmation that I received after booking stated that my credit card statement should show one or more charges that equal the total agreed listed price of $2, 099.49 in my email confirmation. I do not understand why customers are subject to foreign currency fee when the prices were clearly displayed in CAD. Importantly, the applicable Ts&Cs are not clearly displayed or disclosed before customers actually confirm the purchase. I have booked with other Canadian travel websites, such as cheapoair. ca and expedia. ca, and whatever amount is advertised on their website is what you pay for (there are no foreign currency fees, etc). Therefore, I was under the impression that Flight Network operates the same way as the other Canadian travel websites, and the fact that the prices were displayed in CAD currency.
I decided to book with Flight Network due to its cheaper price at the time, but after seeing the actual charges I would have never booked with Flight Network. This is my first time booking with Flight Network and I feel that I have been cheated by the system and its lack of transparency. The prices were falsely advertised on their website.
According to the Customer Care representative, their system recognized that I am a Canadian citizen and the fare had gone down a bit after the purchase was made. So the system, in order to give me a better fare & no exchange rates to be applied, voided the tickets & sent the transaction back to my card account in full. However, this was not the case, exchange rates were applied when they returned the transactions back to my account; hence, I received a much lower amount. I do not understand as to why they would refund me in CAD currency when my credit card was charged in USD. I was then subsequently charged with the new fare in Canadian currency without the exchange rates. For these reasons, I believe Flight Network does not operate fairly and cheats its customer by charging incorrect amounts and making transactions that do not makes sense.
