Airfare.com
Reviews and Complaints

So, I recently booked a flight with kayak and they sent me to airfare.com. I had to change my flight because of an accident, but let me tell you, I will NEVER call them again. Here's why:

First off, I had to make over a dozen phone calls to get through to airfare.com. The people I spoke to before that were liars and tried to charge me an extra $350 for the change. When I finally got through to airfare.com, they told me that they had listed me as a no call no show, even though I had emailed them before the deadline like one of their agents had told me to do.

Secondly, the airline people were so rude and dishonest. They tried to scam me with all sorts of stories and excuses. It was a nightmare.

And thirdly, you can't even talk to a real person from airfare.com who will answer your questions honestly. The supervisor I spoke to was so rude and offensive.

This whole situation is still ongoing, but I'm planning on taking legal action to get back the well over $1500 in scammed fees. I would not recommend airfare.com to anyone.

Me and my fam bought plane tickets from airfare.com for a trip in June but then we had to cancel the trip do to serious medical reasons (found out in April). We talked to the doctor and they told us that as long as we showed them a letter and diagnose to the company they would refund our tickets. We put in the request in April and have not heard anything until I called in may. They stated that they were waiting to hear back from the airline and supposedly emailed them various times. I called the airline and was told that all the company had to do was process the refund on their and it could be done in 5 minutes. I then had to call airfare.com back to tell them what the airline said and the representative told me that is not how it works and I needed to wait. Reading other complaints, this is not uncommon for the business to be like this. I just warn whoever is reading this, that it is a gamble using this company. It's really frustrating when you're trying to get your money back and they're not helping you out. I wouldn't recommend using airfare.com if you're looking for a reliable company. They don't seem to care about their customers and they're not very helpful when it comes to refunds. It's a shame because I was really looking forward to my trip, but now I'm just disappointed and frustrated. I hope this review helps someone else avoid the same situation.

So, I had a pretty bad experience with Airfare.com. I was trying to add insurance to my flight, and I accidentally called them thinking they were Expedia because of a wrong phone number on Google. The agent on the phone pretended to be from Expedia, which was pretty misleading. When I asked about adding insurance, he told me I had to cancel my flight and make a new reservation. I agreed to this, but then I was hit with a $75 service charge and an additional $100 for the new reservation. All in all, I ended up losing almost $200 because of these sneaky, dishonest people.

I don't even want to call them back to cancel my flight because I'm afraid they'll charge me even more. It's really frustrating because Expedia actually allows you to add insurance up to 24 hours after booking, so the Airfare.com representative lied to me. It's just not right.

I did some research and found out that Airfare.com has a policy where if you notice any mistakes in your itinerary, you have to contact them within three hours of booking. If you don't, they assume that everything is okay and won't take any responsibility for any problems that arise later on. That seems pretty unfair to me, especially since they were the ones who misled me in the first place.

Overall, I would definitely not recommend Airfare.com. They're not trustworthy and they'll try to take advantage of you if they can. Save yourself the trouble and book your flights somewhere else.

I recently had an experience with Airfare.com that left me feeling frustrated and disappointed. Over the course of two weeks, I encountered some serious issues with their customer service and booking process. While I typically prefer to focus on positive experiences and give credit where it's due, I feel compelled to share my story in order to protect others from similar experiences.

One day, my husband and I made the difficult decision to cancel our flight, which came with a $700 fee. However, we soon received a confirmation for a change to our tickets that we did not authorize, adding an additional $1938 to our original airfare. When I called to inquire about this, I was given a new confirmation number, which I discovered was marked as "cancelled" when I looked it up online. After calling the company multiple times, I was given conflicting information about the status of our booking and the dates and times of our flights.

Throughout this frustrating experience, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of service Airfare.com was providing. I was left feeling like I had to fight for justice and ensure that I wasn't being taken advantage of. While I understand that mistakes can happen, the lack of communication and clarity from the company made the situation much worse than it needed to be.

Overall, I would caution anyone considering using Airfare.com to be very careful and do their research before booking. While I hope that my experience was an isolated incident, I can't help but feel that others may have had similar issues. It's important to protect yourself and your travel plans, and unfortunately, I don't feel that Airfare.com provided the level of service and support that I needed.

Airfare.com is a company that you should definitely avoid if you want to save yourself from a lot of trouble. Although their prices may seem cheap, the experience that you will have with them is not worth it. I had a terrible experience with them and ended up paying twice the initial cost of my tickets just to get back home after a 36-hour nightmare trip. When I was stuck, they promised to help me once I got back home, but when I did, they denied ever saying that. They also ignored my emails and phone calls, and when they did respond, they were extremely rude. They practically told me to go screw myself in plain English, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I was shocked to find out that there are so many bad reviews about Airfare.com on the internet, yet they are still in business. They should be pulled out of business for their terrible service. I am warning others about them so that no one else has to go through what I went through.

Please spread the word and avoid Airfare.com at all costs. These guys are practically thieves. Don't take my word for it, check out the multiple review links out there about them.

I recently booked a couple of round-trip tickets from LGA NY to Toronto through airfare.com, which I found via kayak.com. Usually, I do my research before booking with a company, especially if I'm not familiar with them. But this time, I did the opposite. And boy, am I glad I did! If I had read all the bad reviews first, I would have been scared off. The reviews for this company are terrible. But I decided to take a chance and booked my tickets anyway.

I must admit, I was a bit nervous about it, so I called their customer service before the midnight cutoff. And to my surprise, they had 24-hour customer service! I spoke to a supervisor who was well aware of the bad reviews and was able to put my fears to rest. After we hung up, I checked out a few more sites and realized that most of the bad reviews were from inexperienced travelers who didn't do their homework beforehand (one person didn't even know they needed a travel visa!). Others were from people who wanted to change a discounted, non-refundable ticket without paying fees. I mean, come on, what planet are they from?!

Anyway, I booked my tickets and received my confirmation email right away. Within 24 hours, I received my ticket numbers from the airline. The only thing I would suggest for improvement is that they should let the customer know that they will need to confirm the charges even after receiving the confirmation email. But overall, I would still give them 5 stars and recommend them to others. They had the lowest price, and our trip went off without a hitch.

I wanted to write this review to add a little balance to all the negative ones out there. Most people only write reviews after a bad experience, but mine was great! So if you're thinking about booking with airfare.com, don't let the bad reviews scare you off. Just make sure you do your homework beforehand and you should be fine.

I just had an experience with airfare.com that I wouldn't wish on anyone. I was looking for a flight to London and found a good deal on kayak.com. The price was comparable to other sites and even $100 cheaper than American Airlines. So, I went ahead and booked my ticket through KAYAK. However, things started to go downhill from there.

After purchasing the ticket, I received an email from airfare.com, which was apparently the service that KAYAK used to book my ticket. The email stated that my ticket was not fully refundable and that there would be a $350 change fee and a $450 cancellation fee if I needed to make any changes to my ticket. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my trip and contacted British Airways to do so. However, they told me that they couldn't cancel my ticket because it had been issued through an agent, which they identified as International Travel Consolidators. I had no idea who they were or how to contact them.

After some digging, I remembered the airfare.com email and decided to give them a call. To my dismay, they informed me that there would be a $450 cancellation fee, which would only net me a $110 refund. And to add insult to injury, I would have to pay the $450 cancellation fee upfront and wait 3 to 6 weeks to receive my refund. I was shocked and frustrated. If I couldn't even get a portion of my original payment back, why would I send them more money?

I tried to reach out to KAYAK for help, but they told me that they were only a search site and had no responsibility or control over the ticket agent. I was on my own. Based on airfare.com's change and cancellation policy, which I believe is a scam, I would strongly advise against using them. Instead, go directly to the airline or a reputable travel agent like Expedia, who you can contact for service issues.

In conclusion, my experience with airfare.com was a nightmare. Their policies are not customer-friendly, and their customer service is lacking. I hope that others can learn from my mistake and avoid using them at all costs.

I was looking for a good deal on international flights for my upcoming trip to Australia, so I decided to check out Airfare.com. They claim to offer up to 70% savings compared to other ticketing and booking companies like cheaptickets.com. I entered my information and was pleasantly surprised to find a deal that would save me $200-$300 compared to other companies.

Excited to book my flight, I decided to do some research on Airfare.com before making any final decisions. Unfortunately, my findings were not good. The Better Business Bureau gave them a grade F, which is the kind of grade that would get you grounded and in summer school if you'd been sent home to Mom and Dad with it. I also checked out other review sites and found that only a few reviews were favorable. In some cases, the company didn't even respond to BBB complaints or inquiries.

The main problems with Airfare.com seem to be hidden charges showing up on your credit card, improperly issued or missing e-tickets, and rude customer service. Some people even had to close their bank accounts to stop unauthorized charges. While I did manage to get through to a representative promptly, negative reviews suggest that many customers get the runaround and are hung up on multiple times.

In light of these findings, I would advise anyone looking for a good deal on flights to steer clear of Airfare.com. Stick with companies like cheaptickets.com, which I've used three times without any problems at all.

This company is a complete joke. I mean, seriously, they are just out to scam people. I booked a flight with them from NYC to Paris, and they cancelled it right after booking it. Then they tried to book me on a different flight with all sorts of weird conditions, like stops and long connections, even though I had booked a direct flight. I mean, what kind of nonsense is that?

I went to American Airlines to check on my flight, and they showed me the voided flights. Then they called Airfare.com on my behalf, and let me tell you, their customer service is a complete joke. They were threatening me with voiding my flights if I didn't confirm my identity, even though I knew my flights had already been cancelled. I mean, seriously, what kind of scam is that?

And then they say they'll refund you, but of course they won't. I mean, it's just ridiculous. The only thing you can do is ask them to cancel your flight and dispute the payment with your bank. If you're lucky, you might be able to cancel the flights with the operating airline company, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

If you're thinking of booking a flight with them, be warned. They'll send you all sorts of emails asking you to verify your credit card, and if you don't do it within 8 hours, they'll cancel your reservation and refund your money. And then they'll try to get you to rebook with them, even though they've already scammed you once. I mean, it's just ridiculous.

So, in conclusion, if you're thinking of booking a flight with Airfare.com, don't. Just don't. They're a complete scam, and you'll end up regretting it.

This company is the worst! Let me tell you all about it:
So, I booked a flight through Kayak.com, thinking it was all good, but turns out it was a third party booking company called Airfare.com. Not cool, Kayak, not cool. Anyway, the fare was a bit cheaper than other options, but it was not worth the hassle and extra charges.
Their change fees are $350 DOLLARS, when the airline only charges $200.00. They claim it's the airline's fee, but I don't believe them. They're just trying to make an extra $150 for themselves. It's a total rip-off.
Making any changes to your flight is a nightmare. They're so inefficient and it's impossible to get anything done without going through them. I needed to change my outbound flight, so I sent a request through their website. 24 hours later, I still hadn't received any confirmation, so I called their "customer service."
The person who answered the phone had a really thick accent and was eating while talking to me. It was really unprofessional. He told me that they had no record of my change request, so I sent another email directly from my Outlook. Still no response after 30 hours, so I called again.
This time, I asked to speak with a supervisor, but he was even worse than the first guy. He was really rude and provided false information. He said that requests are answered within 24 to 48 hours, but it had been 56 hours and I still hadn't heard anything. When I complained, he said that my matter wasn't urgent, even though it was Christmas time and I needed to make changes ASAP. He even threatened to hang up on me! When I mentioned the extra $150 fee, he acted like I didn't know what I was talking about, even though I'm a trained travel agent. He asked me why I booked through them if I knew so much, but the truth is, I was tricked into thinking I was booking through Kayak.
Long story short, I didn't get anything accomplished and I was left feeling really frustrated. I'm thinking about just buying a whole new ticket to avoid paying their ridiculous fees. If you value your time and money, don't use this company. I'm definitely going to complain to the BBB and Kayak.com. It's not cool that they're associated with such a terrible company.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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)!

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! 
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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.