FlightCatchers.com
Reviews and Complaints

Also trading as Polani Travel, London

Originally posted on Trustpilot (13.05.24):

After booking our flights with them I was approached on approximately 25.07.23 by a rep from Flightcatchers to see if I wanted to book seats that were together on our Air India flight to Goa via Mumbai, returning to Heathrow via Delhi; I (foolishly) said yes. They quoted me one price (around about £140) and then asked me for more money when I booked them because "the prices had gone up". This turned out to be a complete lie. They eventually charged me around £155 (for seats that were free) and took about 5 minutes to arrange. When I checked the seating positions they had actually put us in (free) seats next to the toilet on a night flight! I made them change this. I ended up paying a further £12 for seats at the front of the plane for our flight in to Dabolim (something i did myself). To add insult to injury if I had looked in to it a bit more I could have done this directly with Air India myself with the reservation code for free and the £155 they conned me out of could have been spent on buying actual seats in much better positions. Their communication was good throughout but cancelled out by their con tricks. Please use these people with caution and also wait and see how many 'positive' reviews follow this one. Every negative review is followed by half a dozen positive ones; probably not a coincidence. I didn't make too much fuss at the time because (after reading other reviews) I didn't want to give them the opportunity to stitch me up on my booking

They then replied to me

UPDATE 15.05.24: After their comment yesterday i.e.'make things right for you', they phoned me and offered me... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Do not let yourself be taken in by these people or the exteremely dodgy positive reviews. It's all just hot air from these awful people to try and make themselves look good on this review. If you don't mind being ripped off then knock yourselves out otherwise stay well clear

Please see below the situation I found myself in with this Travel Agency - Flightcatchers .

The damage has already been done - not once, but twice when they tried to SCAM me - and I had to fix it - through the airline - which Flightcatchers said could not be done - if they had got their way - they would have got another £800 out of me. I have all the proof on emails from them - if need be.

They were also very forceful on the phone to me - trying to hurry me up to pay - luckily I didn't fall for that trap - like lots of other customers. I would love to know what story they tell you - why they wanted to charge me £630! for the name change - that they said couldn't be done through the airline - This caused me a lot of stress - because if my child couldn't fly - it meant we lost our whole holiday.

The company's details in question are below along with a better explanation of what this company is doing.

Polani Travel LTD - AKA Flightcatchers:

84 Kingsley Road | Hounslow | Middlesex | TW3 1QA

Web: www.flightcatchers.com

I phoned Flightcatchers on 25/01/2024 and spoke to Faiq and asked him if I could add the letters (Jane) onto my daughters name on her ticket - he said no it can't be done because of the airlines policy - BUT! he can email them and ask - but the reply normally takes about 2 weeks - and I haven't got much time as we fly soon - he was really insistent that I let him know the same day - what I would like to do - he gave me 2 options as per his email below - He this mail was sent 5 minutes after our phone call - in which he says he has spoken to the airline - another lie. As you can see he gives me 2 options - £630 for a name change or request a REFUND. He also told me a new ticket would be £1000 at this stage.(Please ask them for the correspondence they had with the airline - where the airline said it was not possible to change the name - they probably will say they phoned them - so no email - another lie)!

This is when I phoned Ethiopian Airlines and explained the situation to them - they couldn't believe that they wanted to charge me £630 for the change - the airline charged it for me £50 - this took me 15 min. - I would have paid this to Flightcatchers - but they tried to extort me because of the situation. I am happy to take a lie detector test about this. This is how these people make their money - by SCAMMING people for these extras and charging for seats that you have already paid for - my seat invoice is also below from them - in case they say they didn't try and charge me for normal seat places - which they said I couldn't book online - and I did this on the airlines site.

The REVIEWS don't lie - my case is not the only one - I have found countless complaints about these people taking customers money/charging them extras that are not needed - and making customer holidays a nightmare - and unfortunately Skyscanners is their platform. I bet you if you ran a poll for this - the results would speak volumes. This very small company made a £4.2 mil profit last year - I hate to know where most of this profit came from. I also tried to cancel my tickets 40 min after I bought them (24/12/2023) - they said not possible - I have this email thread if needed.

They were also very forceful on the phone to me - trying to hurry me up to pay - luckily I didn't fall for that trap. I would love to know what story they tell you - why they wanted to charge me £630! for the name change - that they said couldn't be done through the airline - This caused me a lot of stress - because if my child couldn't fly - it meant we lost our whole holiday. These people need to be stopped.

Here are some sites reviews:

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/flightcatchers.com?stars=1

https://www.reviews.io/company-reviews/store/flightcatchers-com

https://www.yelp.com/biz/flightcatchers-hounslow

https://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews182438.html

https://islamcan.com/hajjratings/united-kingdom/polani-travel-limited/

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/holidays/2694191-BEWARE-OF-THESE-SCAM-TRAVEL-AGENCIES

https://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/forum/flightcatchers-com-t150170.html

https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/flightcatchers.com

I am not one to complain - but enough is enough - and I agree you have to monitor the reviews - but if you look at a lot of them - the customer is the one who is losing and getting scammed -THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT BAD SERVICE! - and they have no recourse against this company - and unfortunately - Skyscanner is giving them this platform to carry on misleading the public and profiting from it. I think there needs to be an inquiry into this company. I have also written to the airline - as they couldn't believe what these people were trying to charge me. I can't be the only one who has complained to Skyscanners about them.

These people are extorting customers and getting away with it - somewhere a stand has to be made for the little person and justice must prevail?

Paid 285 pound for allocated seating, was not delivered. Absolutely scummy sales practice. Didn't inform us of any flight changes, then charged us a extra 63 pound to change the flight to the previous day WHEN THE AIRLINE SAID IT WOULD BE FREE.

Then when the flights were reissued, our 'seats' had magically disappeared, and we were given random seats! Was told it was 'our issue'

I made one mistake in the date of return flight. The dates apparently just jumped around even when I clicked even after double-checking everything! But I had to pay nearly 750GBP for penalty for the flight change only less than 5min after booking is confirmed. Our original flights with the desired dates were as cheap as with the wrong date. Worse than that, we booked as a family with 2 little children and after we complained the agency called us to ask for another 160GBP more to arrange the seats together. In this financial crisis, going home to see my family has broken us.

I booked my flights through Flightcatchers.com to fly from London Gatwick to Sulaymaniyah via Qatar on the 8th July 2023, when i arrived in Qatar i was told my flight was canceled and i had to wait 24hrs for the next one. This was through no fault of my own and i would like to apply for a refund. I have attached pictures of my original flight schedule, the flight that was canceled was Qatar Airways QR 436 9th july 2023 at 01.05 hours.

I’d like to start this review by stating how disgusted i am with your service, you got my name wrong on my itinerary, you told me i’d have to pay an extra £550 pounds to change my flight date even though the airline policy will issue a full refund up to 48 hours before the flight.

Then 24 hours before my flight you tell me my connection flight was cancelled with no alternative. Leaving me unable to travel, from a £778 ticket i received a total of £35 as a refund, what a joke!’

When speaking on the phone your staff were extremely rude, disrespectful and less helpful than a rubber nail.

I am 100% convinced that your company is a “cowboy agency” absolutely terrible customer service, you rely on people having to change plans in order to make a profit which is absolutely disgusting.

I hope your company goes bust, i have read your reviews online and its not just me you are doing it too, you are liars, scammers and cheats, but your company will go down the toilet, no matter how many fake 5 star reviews you leave yourself.

Everyone at your company should be extremely ashamed and embarrassed, it’s saddening how you treat your “valued customers” you’re completely laughable.

I will tell every single person i know to avoid you, i will give you a terrible review on every single review sight you are on, wether that be “flight catchers” or “polani travel”

I will make it my goal to deter as many people as i can from your disgusting low life company.

I had called on the same day to make a payment for a flight to Gambia . The original who was dealing with my phone call asked that i send a confirmation email to say i received the flight details , to which i did .The phone call was cut off and i called back and was dealt with by another colleague who promptly took payment and i received receipt.

I then received a call to say that the method of payment i was given by the the second colleague was incorrect and that i will receive a refund in 4 to 5 working days . But then added if i don't make another payment today that i will have to pay the difference if the price increases .

i explained that this was not my error as i had called back and followed the instructions give by the service agent to which he agreed the person was wrong but that nether less i will still have to make another payment even though no refund had been received yet , and must be a bank transfer

i asked the agent to speak to a manager , to which he responded they have no mamagent and no way to escalate a complaint .

We booked tickets to the uae using flight catchers, we paid the higher price for the convenient flight times but they issued the tickets for the flight times that have very late arrival times. They deliberately did this by showing the cheaper price to get the business. After hours of calling we were charged £180 to amend the tickets and upon checking the amended tickets all our names were misspelt so we called again and we’re told we have to pay another £180 to amend the tickets. After reading the reviews it is obvious both these things are done deliberately to get more money from the customer as it’s happened so many other people who have used their service. They should be banned from trading online for such dishonest practices.

Rung flightcatchers on the 3 april to place a booking to Indonesian after receiving my e-tickets noticed my first name had been spelled wrong rung flightcatchers they said I had to pay £790 to change it which I did after ring them every day to see where my new ticket were they rung me on the 13 April saying it can’t be done had cancel flight very distress

Do not use! They changed our flight 4 months later by 3 days despite sending us confirmation of the original planned trip. Then made us pay an extra £300 so we could fly on the original date.

The customer service was terrible - we called up 15 times before being connected with a manager, each time we were told he was busy and would call back within an hour but it took 4 days! Once we spoke with him he asked us to pay more money and told us to cancel the incorrect flight they have changed would cost a cancellation fee - ex forcing us to pay more either way.

Very very bad customer service and they tried to cheat me. I had a typo error on my last name in the flight ticket. So I spoke to the flight catchers customer service agent and request to update my last name in the ticket as per my passport, that too its just a letter change. They checked with the airlines and shocked me saying I need to pay £250 for this change as its a airlines fee. They also threatened me to cancel or pay £250, otherwise I can't board the flight. Luckily I spoke with the airlines people directly, initially they insisted me to speak with the travel agent (flight catchers) to resolve it as it has been booked through them but I explained them saying flight catchers asking me to pay £250 fee for the changes stating airlines fee, even airlines people were shocked and told me there is no fee to change the name that too just a letter change in my case, so they took the request and asked me to send my passport copy, with in 5 minutes they updated the name and sent me the e-ticket. So please avoid Flight catchers while booking your ticket.

My parent's ticket was booked for 13th February 2023 0925 from Islamabad to Doha - Doha to Manchester. This has caused tremendous stress and anxiety to both my parents. We were NOT informed of the delayed flight. We have spoken to the British Airline and they have said, they contacted [protected]@flightcatcher to inform of the delayed flight. We have heard absolutely nothing. My parents are both elderly and my father who is wheelchair bound and disabled really struggle to get to the airport in the first place, only to be told his flight had been delayed. I am sorry to say I and very disappointed with flightcatcher, and will be taking further action.

On booking a flight last night I received a confirmation with my wife’s name wrong and my date of birth! They had put my name down twice and not my wife’s name! Plus my dob was a month out! I spotted there mistake and rang up straight away only to be told I had to pay £150 to change it! I have rang back and forth all day with no avail! It’s making me bad as I have recently had a stroke through stress! Nobody is budging and they are insisting on payment or a cancellation fee! None of this was my going

Please avoid this company regardless of how cheap it looks.

I booked my flight with my family going to Bangladesh, at that time it looked like a reasonable price therefore booked it with them in March 2022 to travel for December 31st 2022.

Coming nearer to the time in November they emailed me saying that the flight date was cancelled by airline and changed therefore for me to bring back the return date to an earlier date I had to pay £350, I was vulnerable and I had payed it.

After couple of weeks received another email saying that the time had changed and for me to pay another for admin fee of £170 and after a lengthy conversation saying I won’t be able to pay they said to pay them £100 at a discount cost.

In that time length my wife was expecting and after my son was born I had called them to add him on the tickets we had booked, they advised me that he didn’t need a ticket as he is an infant and the mothers ticket would cover him, therefore I believed them and that’s that.

Prior to my departure 3 days before my flight called them to confirm my timings as it changed several times, I found out that they had not added my infant and I should pay a further £400 just to add my infant as he was not added at the time and made it seem like it was all my fault as I did not mention it to them to issue my new born a ticket, which was another lie.

After I was furious I called Turkish airlines to ask if they can add the infant to our flights which they did and I avoided paying them another £400, that’s literally like an adult ticket which they nearly scammed off me, therefore in total they would have taken over £1000 from me.

Luckily my relative got in contact with the Airlines and told me that I could add my infant directly through them and to avoid paying these scammers an extra £400, which I did and was so conveniently done by Turkish airlines.

This is a vicious scam agent who are ripping vulnerable people off left right and centre. They are Pakistani and are giving bad reputation to the Muslims. this company Polani travels needs to be shutdown ASAP as they are operating from Pakistan which they admitted over the phone to me.

It’s absolutely appalling and action needs to be taken.

Avoid at all cost, I thought cheap and cheerful but payed a hefty price.

My advice to holiday goers, go direct and book with Airlines do not involve 3rd parties.

Please be alert at all times when booking your holidays with these kind of companies.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY..

They will take your money with nothing in return.. i booked 2 flights in july to antalya only for a few weeks later my flights had been cancelled.. i rang the direct airline and the flights had been cancelled by flightcatchers themselves so they could try to charge me £50 pp to rebook the flights.. when i rang for a refund as soon as i said my name they was constantly putting the phone down and ignoring my calls.. 4 months on i am still no closer to getting my money back.. i have emails saying they will only give me £120 back due to fees.. they have told me they are waiting for the refund off the airline when another over email is telling me they already have my money..

They are scams! And they want to keep my money like they have 100s of other people..

They cancelled my flights so why did i not recieve my refund straight away.. no instead they are trying to keep my money for themselves..

I purchased a ticket from Flightcatcher and within the hour, before I called them to bring my date forward by a week which was in fact cheaper (by £36) than the date i had originally booked. They tried to rip me off my asking me to pay over £300 which was daylight robbery. I was horrid by this as the agent confirmed it was cheaper online but felt the need to charge me almost £400.

Flightcatchers is an agent that needs to be highly investigated. They are preying on vulnerable people. There are too many negative reviews and bad experiences by others too.

Dear sir a representative from flightcatchers phoned me on friday morning 19th august 2022

He introduced himself Aadi

We discussed my booking of flights

From Neilsprut to Cape Town

He emailed me flight details on flightcatchers headed paper

Flights

Neilsprut to Cape Town

11th December

Outbound 13-25

Cape Town 16-10

Return

20th December

10-25

Neilsprut 16-10

£210

I agreed this booking Aadi said he would ring me in 2 hours to confirm booking he rang me at 15-13 we discussed my bank details my bank was debited £202 96p

Payable to Mr AL FUTTAIM

He said he would ring me on Saturday morning 20th august between 9AM-11AM no phone call

However a lady called me representative of flightcatchers by the name of michi

She offered me the exact same booking at the same price i told michi i have already made a booking with one of her colleagues Aadi she told me she had no idea who Aadi was she gave me her email address i forwarded email from Aadi i was then had a brief conversation with her supervisor Harsa

We discused my booking he said i may have been scammed i have been in contact with my bank they advised me what to do

I trust this matter is an oversight on behalf of flightcatchers

If not so i will have no choice in posting on all social media platforms my booking with Flightcatchers

And will be seeking legal advice

YOURS SINCERELY

JOHN BROWN

Flight TK1122 Gatwick 16/7/22 Flight Catchers paperwork = 1130hrs depart time

Arrived airport @ 0830hrs 16/7/2022 - Turkish Airlines did not have a flight to Dalaman going at 1130hrs. Eventually found out that we were on the 1635hr flight.

Called flightcatchers, they said we were on the 1130hrs flight, for us to speak to Turkish Airlines, explained numerous times we had etc..

We waited 5 hrs 5 mins, if the flight was changed to earlier we would have not had a holiday and as it is spending all that time at Gatwick was costly, difficult with a 3 year old, we arrived at destination in Turkey @ 0200hr 17/7 instead of circa 2000hrs on 16th. This is very very bad practise and the outcome could have been considerably worse. It was a very distressing day. PS Flight Catchers never emailed me and on the system when I called them they were convinced the flight was still 1130hrs it 100% wasnt