Airfare.com

2 and a half hours later and a couple emails later, still no answer (this was from 10PM - 12:30AM)!!! Then, finally in the morning, we got ahold of someone. Really, you have 24-hour call agents, but no one picked up for 2 and half hours? Are you freaking kidding me? So after waiting for hours to no avail, they had the guts to tell us that they never received any calls or emails from us. Either you have a cheap-** system that doesn't do what it needs to do, or you LIED about it, or you really don't have a 24-hr call agent that is available as you advertised it. So consumers, STAY AWAY FROM AIRFARE.COM. These are crooks and the company is a scam!!!

2 and a half hours later and a couple emails later, still no answer (this was from 10PM -12:30AM)!!! Then, finally in the morning, we got ahold of someone. Really, you have 24-hour call agents, but no one picked up for 2 and half hours? Are you freaking kidding me? So after waiting for hours to no avail, they had the guts to tell us that they never received any calls or emails from us. Either you have a cheap-ass system that doesn't do what it needs to do, or you LIED about it, or you really don't have a 24-hr call agent that is available as you advertised it. So consumers, STAY AWAY FROM AIRFARE.COM. These are crooks and the company is a scam!!!

I called Airfare.com and spoke with Robert (thick eastern European accent) in customer service and was told I was only billed once and that sometimes it looks like you are billed multiple times... I then told him that I have 3 separate transaction numbers and the bill is closed and 3 weeks old. Robert, whom works in customer service, then told me to try to email customer service and that he could not resolve my issue... even though he works in customer service. I am now contacting Bank of America Platinum Business Services, BBB, Consumer Affairs and KAYAK.

The supervisor also barely speak English and all I understood was that they tried to call me the day before the departure (which was yesterday) and I didn't answer which is a lie. Looks like this a business runs from a home (I could hear the loud TV and crying children in the background). I was in a terrible situation and almost paid the double the amount that I paid initially to book a new trip with another ticketing agency. When I request to refund the money they refused and said that it was an airline cancellation and they cannot do anything. Really? I already filed a credit dispute with my credit card company. This company should not be doing any business in the United States.

I told them to cancel it as they had just issued it, and they refused. They did not listen to my explanation that they had cancelled the reservation, and I had confirmed this with Royal Jordanian having some alternate version of reality, and denied having cancelled my reservation and refused to cancel their reservation. Fortunately, I was still within 24 hours with my American Airlines reservation and they (very professionally) cancelled the (now) duplicate reservation. Stay far away from this company.

I actually combined two AC codeshares: a UA from the U.S. West Coast, an overnight at a Starwood airport hotel that is explicitly non-changeable, non-refundable, and the kayak-airfare.com-Sky Bird Travel & Tour (Toronto) tag team booking process. That, I am guessing, is how consolidators work. For sickness (or death) cancellation one can buy travel insurance. Other changes will be costly. The alternative is to pay rack rate. My only complaint with airfare.com is the lack of transparency and the use of fine print rather than a loud warning for the benefit of the naive and the inexperienced to consider travel insurance cancellation cover. (I booked the first leg through UA rather than AC because my Chase MileagePlus CC gets me exemption from a checked-baggage charge for the first bag on the North American leg.

The fact that neither of the flights show up on the AC Web site (I can't log in properly anyway because I am a MileagePlus and not an Aeroplan member) is disconcerting but as far as I am concerned airfare.com did what they said they would do, did it in reasonable time, and saved me a few hundred dollars. Your mileage (no pun intended) may vary, of course. It was confidence-building that I got a UA "receipt for confirmation" in seconds with ticket number and all the rest. And, after seeing the bad reviews disconcerting that I had to wait a day (and a call to LH was met with Teutonic frigidity) to be able to download a Passenger Itinerary Receipt from the LH Web site.

It's annoying that unlike the UA receipt the LH one doesn't show my Frequent Flyer number, but I'll fix that at online check-in or at the airport. (I have noted the Kayak fare-hacking system, which I didn't use because I was willing to pay extra for that non-stop flight, and I think Kayak makes clear that you've got to book quickly and you may lose a reservation even in those minutes (and, presumably, have to cancel within the 24-hour window.)

In the morning, I repeat, by phone. They gave to me a new booking reference number for a new ticket and soon after, minutes later, by email, they claimed that, because the price went up, they had to cancel the transaction. I didn't know of it until later in the evening, until it was too late to act and now, thanks to their inability to do their job, I lost my ticket. They didn't took responsibility for it. Actually, they denied to have any of it. Do not use Airfare.com but if you got so unlucky to run in them, when you will have to try to deal with the resulting troubles, never try to sort them out talking with this one, called James **, because if you do, you will end up with nothing. Actually less than nothing.

In my case, I was having all the right to be upset because of their ineptitude but he showed no interest to help to find a resolution for their mistake. Actually, he was very rude and unconcerned, even insolent and he did it as somebody who is very used too, in general, dealing with companies. James ** is one of the most dishonest person I ever spoke with and if he is a representative of this company, that's tells you all. I lost big money! Stay away from them!

What made it a good experience was that I called Airfare.com and rehashed a live person, who explained that since I was buying an itinerary from two small airlines, I would need to check in twice: once for the domestic and once for the overseas flight. The thoughtful thing about this process is that the itinerary allowed a six hour layover in Boston, which was more than enough time to switch terminals and then pass through customs on my return flight.

The airlines themselves did an outstanding job. Thomas Cook's Airbus 330 was new and the attendants were polished. Sun Country was a little cramped and they charged for everything except water, coffee or sodas, but what do you want for an ultra cheap flight? Keep in mind as you read reviews on this site that people come here to complain. I don't feel this fairly represents the experiences of most folks. I will probably use Airfare.com again to at least check to see what I could save if I just took a bit more control over my travel planning in the future.

Airfare agent Phillip confirmed on the phone that both tickets were rebooked for 2 days from that day, free of charge as discussed with the airline, that confirmation is coming. The following morning, the confirmation was still not provided. I followed up with Airfare. They gave me runaround, told me that no one could have made the reservation as it was weekend and they just came to work on Monday (what??).

They suggested to talk to the airline directly, which I did, but the airline could not explain what happened as they did not issue the tickets. I spoke with another 2-3 people at Airfare, no one could help. They told me that now they rebooked one of the tickets, not both. The new ticket was never issued - but the confirmation was sent. The airline confirmed that there is no real ticket! The new confirmation, for the non existing ticket was also very confusing as it had two dates for the return flight. I called Airfare multiple times and got runaround again.

I disputed the charge on my credit card. Airfare charged me for both tickets again, with no authorization! The fraud was reported and is investigated. Now I have multiple charges being investigated as a dispute, not just two original ones. Of course we were not able to use the tickets that were never issued. Oh, we also got an automated notification, that our return flight was rebooked - to the next day... and then it had a 12h layover somewhere in Europe. This would be a disaster traveling with a small baby. Stay away, don't buy from them. They should be closed down.

Then I was asked to extend my trip. I check with the airline directly to see what the fare difference was, I was told there'd be no difference but would have to change with the agent. The agent at airfare.com wanted to charge me a $350 penalty fee on top of a $350 fare difference. When I explained the airline had said there was no difference, they got snappy and said, "Fine, then just deal with them." I had to go through 3 days of calling and emailing to explain that the changes had to be done with them. Each person I spoke to was ruder than the previous. I've never experienced such horrid customer service. This company is awful! In the end, I couldn't make any of the changes... ugh!!!

Such a coincidence that the flight prices had dropped to those exact rates as the days went by. They were using my $1,000 to buy CHEAPER tickets and then give themselves a BIGGER commission. And continuously refunding me every time they would find cheaper tickets. I bought my ticket on the contingency of a base fare of $900 and $100 in fees/taxes. I am disgusted by this conduct. Of course the people on the phone can't explain anything as this company is literally outsourcing people in India for $3/hour to answer the phones. They are rude, unprofessional and talk over you. I was very tempted to block my card after this.

They kept sending emails to wrong email address. I kept being put through someone else who had no idea what was going on. I explained my story 15 times and they said they understood but did not rectify. They said to call Virgin Australia which I did and they washed their hands of it as well. I was passed like a bouncing ball between booking agent and Virgin Australia with none taking any kind of responsibility. I will never use this airline again. They have so many complaints on Consumer Affairs I think they should be investigated.

I remained worried just because of some of the reviews I had read. The day before our flight, I received an email from Kayak saying I could check in online. So I did, and printed our boarding passes. They were legitimate and we flew with zero problems. My advice is: be sure of the dates you want to fly. Most of the reviews I read were people who tried to change or cancel their booking. We didn't need to do that, and we had no problems, thank God!

Cut to a few weeks ago, when I found out through my lawyer that I would be unable to fly due to my current visa status. Essentially, leaving the United States at this time could result in me being disallowed to re-enter the country, so in her own words "it's not worth the risk". I try to do the right thing and contact Airfare.com to let them know I need to cancel, not really expecting to get any credit back. More than anything, I was trying to do right by this company and the airline. It's a pain when passengers no-show. So I call the number of the Airfare.com website. The first THREE times I call, I'm put through to a customer service rep who, after saying 'hello', doesn't speak to me at all. I don't know if the call dropped (it was still connected?) or whether they just didn't feel like working. But either way, by the fourth time I called, I was pretty annoyed.

I tried to explain the situation to the customer service rep who seemed more interested in talking over the top of me. He told me in no uncertain terms that I could NOT get any credit back on the flight and when I asked to speak to a supervisor, he initially refused. It wasn't until I told him very calmly and firmly that I knew I was entitled to speak to a supervisor that he finally put me on hold and transferred me. By the time the supervisor got on the line, I had decided that there was no reason for me to speak to another rude, helpful person in a call center on the other side of the world. Previous reviewers are right, it's near impossible to speak to a fluent English speaker who works for this company. When I asked the supervisor if I could be transferred to someone in an office in the United States, she simply said "No". About 5 times.

Finally, she told me to just email. At this point, I was so annoyed that I agreed. Not only was the connection bad/muffled but nobody spoke anything better than broken English. And they seemed more interested in reciting a script than listening to what I was actually asking them. Email seemed preferable. Upon emailing Airfare.com, I was told that I would have to pay A CANCELLATION FEE. I didn't get around to finding out how much the fee was because at this point, I firmly emailed them back and told them "Haha, no way. I'll just no-show if that's the case." They then proceeded to call ME about 6 times even though each time, I told them very firmly that I was not going to pay to cancel my flight and that I would appreciate if they stopped calling me.

Finally, I called Delta and Virgin to find out if I could do anything on their end. Guess what? They had NO RECORD of my booking. I am not currently listed in their system (as of today, November 9 2015), despite the fact that I am supposed to fly out of the United States on a Delta/Virgin flight on November 30th. In the words of the Delta rep, "your third party hasn't paid us for the flights yet". Even though I booked over 18 months ago. Right. In short, AVOID. This company says they are based in Washington, they are not. They are based in India. It's impossible to speak with someone who is fluent in English. They will give you the runaround and charge you excess fees whenever they can. And it seems like even if I had turned up to the airport and tried to board my flight on the 30th, there's a good chance the airline would have had no record of me as a passenger! Not worth it. I wish Kayak would stop using them as a suggested third party.

When we arrived to the San Francisco International Airport (SFO), we were asked to step aside as they had no record of our flight details, or any other account info that would put us in possession of any tickets and/or on the flight. During this inquiry with American Airlines to find our tickets and flight information, we ended up missing our flight. American Airlines said we could not board another flight (to Chicago) to catch up to our first stop (from Chicago to Rome) because domestic travelers have priority over international travelers and the flights were already full. Then, American Airlines instructed us to contact British Airways for further assistance since the tickets information was with their company and American Airlines was only facilitating the flight. After a lengthy wait on hold, British Airways informed us that they canceled the connecting flights because we missed the first flight to Chicago.

They informed us the insurance we bought was not through them and that we must contact the insurance company we bought the tickets from originally for further assistance and for insurance information. We then contacted Allianz who was insurance company Airfare.com recommended to us and they instructed us to go home, and that we would not be traveling that day. The Rep from Allianz, Jeff, told me very sternly to go home. That WE WOULD NOT BE TRAVELING THAT DAY. He told me that I would have to file a claim via Allianz and hope to get some money back.

I didn't understand why I wouldn't get all my money back and he just kept repeating to me to go home and to check my email and that I would have to file a claim. I asked him again and he said sorry and hung up on me. After our two hour drive home we filled out an insurance form with Allianz and waited longer than the prescribed 10 days (more like 45 days). They denied our claim on the basis that, the plane has left so the tickets have no further worth.

We attempted to contact them 4 more times, but they were not answering their phones. No automatic voicemail or auto-directory. Simply just letting it ring. We noticed that this situation was not the first time someone had this problem with this company after reading various reviews online and we then proceeded to complain to American Express. A formal CLAIM was filed through American Express on September 26, 2015 for both Allianz as well as for Airfare.com. American Express attempted to issue a refund/cancel payment. Each time, they were given a different reason why they could not give us a refund while included contradicting answers. The first answer was that we in fact were on the plane and used our 'e-tickets'.

Once we documented that we never left the state of California, let alone the country, they then changed their answer to say that we never even showed up to the airport. The third time we re-opened our claim with AMEX we're told that it is not in their policy to refund because our reason is not a qualifying issue. It seems to us, that if we are telling the same story over and over again and they are changing theirs each time to fit their needs a bit better each time, someone is being dishonest. My spouse and I are disappointed that we missed a once in a life time opportunity to spend two weeks in Italy on our Honeymoon and treat ourselves for all of our hard work and sacrifice. I lost time (3 weeks) from work that could not be reversed.

My spouse and I lost the money that we spent on hotel deposits, non-refundable museum tour fees, a non-refundable and expensive time share gift from our parents and then the obvious; our very expensive airfare that caused all the problems. We want this company to be held responsible for taking money from us and not giving anything to us in return and Kayak needs to stop doing business with this awful company!!! This has been an awful experience.