On May 15, 2011, my wife Casey and I (Kyle) were supposed to depart Phoenix, AZ for a once in a lifetime trip to Peru, where we would see Puno, Lake Titicaca, Cusco, and hike to Machu Picchu. The trip had been planned for over a year, and final preparations were made in mid-March, with our airline tickets reserved on Cheapoair.com (booking #6806519). Despite always using more established companies for our travels in the past, we decided to give your company a try and use Cheapoair for our booking. The flight we chose, including US Airways Flight #173, required a lengthy layover in Mexico City, and we decided to stay at the Camino Real in Mexico City to rest. Casey is a registered nurse and I am a police officer, and we both worked the prior nights and had not had any sleep for 12-15 hours prior to our flight, and we wanted to arrive in Peru fresh for our adventure.
We arrived at Sky Harbor Airport at approximately 0700 hours, giving us plenty of time to check in for our 0949 flight. At the US Airways desk, we attempted to use the self-serve kiosk, but received an error message, and were directed to an agent to correct it. The US Airways agent attempted to check us in, and immediately had a look of concern on her face. She informed us that Cheapoair had exchanged and voided numerous tickets for both of us (at least nine times), and she was having difficulty locating the correct ticket number for my ticket. I even provided her a printout of the itinerary I received from Cheapoair on May 12th, showing ticket numbers of 5448637023390/91 and 5448637070765/66 for me, but the agent said the ticket numbers were incorrect. The agent attempted to find the correct ticket, but after about 15 minutes she suggested that we call Cheapoair, as she needed to start assisting other customers.
Casey made her first call to Cheapoair, 212-478-0335, at 0832 hours, was able to speak with a customer service representative, and explained the issue with my ticket. In what would prove to be an exception to the rule when dealing with Cheapoair, the phone call was answered and "resolved" in approximately 2 minutes, and the representative was able to provide Casey with a ticket number of 5448637070767 for me, then the phone call was ended. We talked with the ticket agent and provided her with the updated ticket number; however, upon checking the ticket number, she said the ticket was in Casey's name, and there were no tickets issued in my name. It was at this point that we realized the scope of the problem. The agent informed us that we would need to re-contact Cheapoair and have the ticket changed to my name.
Upon re-contacting Cheapoair, Casey made three phone calls and I one, wasting an additional 10-15 minutes before Casey was able to at least get through to an agent. By this time it was around 0850, but the US Airways agent was still confident she could get us on the flight, and she seemed to think the issue could be resolved pretty quickly (I agreed, as it seemed Cheapoair did not have problems exchanging our tickets in the last 2 months).
This starts the hours of poor customer service and run around we have come to expect from Cheapoair. We had high hopes of a quick ticket exchange to correct the error Cheapoair had made; however, this was not the case, and in what turned out to be the standard practice, once Casey got ahold of a Cheapoair representative, she was placed on hold and waited on hold for most of the 105 minutes (yes, 1 hour and 45 minutes!) phone call.
Casey first spoke with "Daisy" (all names are in quotes as there was a language barrier between Casey and the representative who was clearly speaking English as a second language, thus even more so inhibiting our ability to quickly resolve the ticket issue), and explained the issue and what needed to be resolved. Casey was initially told that the tickets were issued correctly, but with some persistence, was able to get it understood that she had two tickets in her name, while I did not have any in mine.
Wishfully thinking we would still make our flight, Casey was repeatedly put on hold for "2 minutes", believing the ticket was going to be reassigned to my name. However, "2 minutes" turned in to 10, then almost 30 and then much more, and our flight boarded and departed, with still no representative resolving the issue. A few minutes later Daisy came back on the line, and informed Casey that my ticket could not be reassigned because our flight had already left. At that time we started looking in to the possibility of boarding a later flight so we could still arrive in Peru on May 16th.
Daisy transferred Casey to "Emmanuel", who looked at some new flight options. Casey was put on hold multiple times, all preceded by Emmanuel telling her it would just be "2 minutes", before again putting her on hold for over 15 minutes at a time. (At this point it became apparent that the representatives were working off a script as they constantly repeated the same generic answers and "2 minutes" for a hold time despite Casey's questioning.) We learned that all flights leaving May 15th were already filled, and the best departure was on May 16th, US Airways #173, departing at 0949 hours and including a 10 hour layover in Mexico City.
In addition to a new flight, we believed it was reasonable that Cheapoair will also pay for the hotel room for us in Mexico City, as we would need a new hotel room there for May 16th. However, Emmanuel informed us that Cheapoair was not able to provide us a hotel room. Emmanuel also refused other requests for possible reimbursement (such as a ticket voucher or upgraded seats) as a result of the mistake made by Cheapoair. The reason for the refusal to provide us with any type of reimbursement, according to Emmanuel, was that the new tickets for us were going to cost over $4,000. However, when Casey pressed Emmanuel for reimbursement, he went on to tell us the employee who made the mistake on my ticket was going to have to pay for the increased amount themselves.
Having worked in business prior to becoming a police officer, I can unequivocally say that statement is a fallacy. There is no way an employee would be responsible for $2,200, and why that statement was made instead of any type of reasonable explanation is beyond me. In addition, upon further pressing, Emmanuel changed his response that the employee would not have to pay for the entire difference, but would have some sort of penalty to pay.
Despite requests by Casey to speak with a supervisor, Emmanuel said there was no supervisor available, and he told us to "go home and relax" while our new tickets were booked. As anyone put in this situation can imagine, it is not easy to "go home and relax", when you have been expecting to travel to a foreign country that afternoon, especially when we had gotten our house ready for being gone for almost two weeks by hiring a pet sitter, stopping mail, adjusting the temperature of the house, and putting water, lights, and more on timers.
At that time, it was clear that Emmanuel was not able to help us further, and after spending an excessive amount of time on the phone at the airport, we decided to go home to get some sleep. Emmanuel promised we would receive a call in a "couple of hours" with our new flight information. We got an extension of 9797 for Emmanuel and his relief, "Pierce", in the event that we did not receive a call back in a "couple of hours" as promised, and the call was ended at approximately 1030 hours.
We went home and contacted Camino Real, and informed them that due to a booking error, we would not be able to make our reservation, and requested to change it to the next night. However, we were informed that due to our change being less than 24 hours prior to our reservation, we would be charged fully for the room the night of May 15th, and there was no availability for next night. We were now not only out an entire day of our vacation, but also the $117 that we lost for the hotel cancellation caused by Cheapoair.
Frustrated, we fell asleep, waiting for a phone call for our new flight information. We woke up around 1900 hours, with no call from any representative at Cheapoair. Casey called at 1909 hours and attempted to get a hold of someone using extension 9797, but the automated phone line indicated the extension was not valid. Casey called the main customer service line and was attempting to get a hold of a representative, when at 1911 hours she received a phone call on the other line from "Abner."
Abner initially claimed that Cheapoair had been trying to call her, but a check of Casey's call log showed no missed calls from Cheapoair. Then it turned out that our tickets still haven't been rebooked, and we still need to go through that process. While speaking with Abner, Casey again asked about a credit or having Cheapoair fund a hotel room for us, as all available flights included a lengthy layover in Mexico City, but was again told there was nothing they could do. At 1925 hours, Casey requested to speak with a supervisor, but was told by Abner that he was the only supervisor available. However, when Abner was not able to provide us with the level of service we deemed necessary, Casey pressed for a supervisor, and at 1942 hours, was transferred to a female "supervisor" whose name we did not get.
While speaking with Abner and the female supervisor, Casey was told that our new flights had been booked, and a confirmation email was being sent to us. Over 10 minutes later, no confirmation email had arrived. We were then first told that it "took a minute" to confirm, and when nothing came through, were then told that it still had to be confirmed. These lies are a prime example of the poor customer service your company provides. Eventually, the email with our new flights came through, which included a layover in Mexico City from 2355 hours on May 16, 2011 to 0540 hours on May 17, 2011, and at least a portion of this debacle was resolved.
Casey also insisted on speaking with another supervisor, but none was available and the best alternative was that one would allegedly call us in the morning. However, we believed we would be in the air before the supervisor started their shift. After clarification of business hours and times zones, it became clear that a representative would call Casey at 0900 on May 15, 2011 (before we would be scheduled to leave), and this was supposedly arranged, but never happened. When we returned from Peru, there was a voicemail on Casey's phone from Tracy in the escalation department, with travel services at 1421 hours. Clearly no attempt was made to contact us in a timely manner before our flight left.
Also, though Cheapoair offers hotel reservations, as was heard over and over again while being placed on hold for the majority of the 4 hours spent on the phone with representatives, we made the right choice by booking a hotel in Mexico City for our layover on Expedia, a company that has never treated us like Cheapoair. Frankly, we have never experienced any errors in all of the bookings we have with Expedia. The cost of this hotel was $246.48, another additional charge incurred by us due to Cheapoair's error.
Overall, the experience we had with Cheapoair was dreadful. We frequently travel both nationally and internationally, and have booked with multiple online sites, but never Cheapoair. As a result of Cheapoair's booking error, we missed an entire day of travel in Peru, which caused us to miss a planned 3-day trip from Cusco to Puno and Lake Titicaca. It was also necessary to contact the hotels in Cusco and Puno where we were booked to inform them of our changes. Fortunately we were able to make the changes with no monetary penalty, but it was still a complete hassle to make international phone calls when we should have been in the air. In addition, because we had to change nights that we would be staying in Cusco, we had to stay in a room with 2 double beds instead of a queen size bed, once again because of Cheapoair's error.
Finally, the service we received from Cheapoair was disappointing, as was the ambition of the representatives of Cheapoair to remedy our situation despite the situation arising from an error by Cheapoair. The refusal to remunerate us in any way, whether that was in the form of a complimentary hotel, or a credit toward future travels, was completely shocking for both of us. The financial and emotional burden of this journey, coupled with the fact that representatives from Cheapoair refused any type of remuneration, have made it certain we will never book with Cheapoair again, nor will we recommend it to any of our friends or fellow travelers. We were thoroughly disappointed by the level of service provided by Cheapoair. As a company operating during a time where travelers are fiscally sensitive, we both expected more, and were sadly underwhelmed.
At this point we are requesting reimbursement in the form of a credit to our credit card, as your poor service does not warrant future travel with your company, and a credit for Cheapoair would essentially be no credit at all. If your response to our request is delayed or unsatisfactory, we will contact the Better Business Bureau to inform them of your poor services.
Regards,
Kyle and Casey **