Airfare.com Reviews

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.

I did find out that if I would have gone to Chase within 60 days of purchasing the ticket, their fraud department would have tried to help. That may help one of you, if you have purchased it on a Chase credit card. I've also reported them to the BBB. I don't expect to ever see the money again, just hope that by posting here, it will save someone else the hassle or maybe someone will step in and put a stop to this fraudulent company.

It took a week for Avianca to research this before we even found out who had charged these tickets to my card. I called Airfare.com today after email them and getting some responses; the last one a bit disturbing stating that I cannot get a refund (see below). In that email it also stated that we actually booked 4 flights but they could tell that the second booking was a duplicate and only charged me for the first booking. I think that had something to do with the website not processing my credit card properly the first time.

"This is the only option you have. We have done nothing wrong from our side as we don't have any of your info. You booked it online and you agreed to the terms and conditions. Please reply so we can cancel the booking before departure to avoid the no-show, otherwise you will lose the entire funds." If I booked a ticket and they emailed me how come they don't have any of my info? The man I talked with initially was short-tempered and quite nasty, said why was I so worried about this if I filed a dispute with my credit card company and he hung up on me. I called back and was hung up on twice then the third time I was told to talk to a Mr. AJ in their dispute department in 30 minutes and talk to him. I have filed a dispute with my credit card company but SOMEONE has to INVESTIGATE this company.

I requested a refund again after the flight date and was told that it was being processed and would receive a refund in two weeks. One month later after not receiving a refund I called again and was told that I wasn't getting a refund because I waited until after the date of my flight. I have everything in writing via email that they told me and they still continue to deny everything. I am currently following up with legal action. Customer service for this company is rude and you will be hung up on 98% of the time you call as soon as you say you have a problem. PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF THE HEADACHE AND NEVER USE THIS COMPANY!!!!!!!! I have reported this company to the DOT and Better Business Bureau.

A month later I again raised the request to reuse my ticket. Dropped 5 emails, called multiple times. There was no response for the email and customer care is so arrogant and ill mannered that they would shout at you as you made a mistake booking a flight. I do not even know how they could be so ignorant and hard headed a part of customer care team. This is a hopeless website. I actually holds Kayak.com responsible for this as well. They should not list these websites at all. I am so upset that I am thinking of suing them for all the inconvenience and bad behavior.

When I called today, the customer service and the supervisor named **, according to him, were extremely rude and disrespectful. Put me on hold for more than 15 minutes, hanged up on me and cut me off constantly - not listening my concerns. Avoid airfare.com. I am also very disappointed with KAYAK.COM to see how they work with very cheap companies. When I called Kayak, they said they are just a 3rd party search engine. I lost my confidence and belief in Kayak as well.

I checked my email after I got off work that day, I received two from Airfare. First one said that I needed to verify my credit card information (which is understandable) the time of the e-mail was 4.30 PM, and then the second one at 4.53 PM saying that my reservation was cancelled. So I had 23 minutes during work hours to deal with that. As soon as I was done with my work I called the company back, completely stressed out that all my other flights and hotel reservations will be worthless and I'm going to lose all the money that I paid was possibly gone due to a disgruntled employee. The person that answered the phone (after 15 minutes on hold) was much more helpful and resolved my issues. However, the EXTREMELY rude voicemail is just unbelievable, that is the worst thing I've heard in my life!!! Never going to use Airfare again in my life if this is not resolved to my satisfaction.

I have called Airfare.com 5 times (they refuse to let me talk to a supervisor. I am very polite on the phone wanting to reasonably talk and try to resolve a problem asking for a supervisor to discuss this with) and emailed them 7 times - NO RESPONSE! The problem was that they verbally guaranteed the miles! NO RESPONSE is just as alarming as the error they made! NEVER AGAIN!!! Don't get taken in by the slightly reduced fares!!!

After navigating their terms several times, which are contradictory to much of the other information on their site, and calling them several times, we were stonewalled with rude customer service, wait times exceeding an hour and being disconnected. We were bombarded with email requests to click to contractual terms in canceling our flight, agreeing to pay a fee that they wouldn't tell us until we agreed to the terms. They wanted our cc info to pay for fees that they wouldn't tell us until AFTER we gave them our cc info. We only did this after making a call to Amex and receiving their guarantee they would go after them if anything untoward happened.

In the meantime, while waiting for these god awful people to get back to us, we called British Airways to see what they could do. They weren't helpful at first, claiming they had no responsibility as the tickets were sold through a third party. However, after railing on them for close to an hour, we were connected to the division that handles bookings with travel agencies. Through them, we learned that these tickets were actually refundable, minus a $250 fee; the travel agency had been deceiving us, claiming that they couldn't refund them because the airline wouldn't allow it.

Moreover, British Airways quoted a price of $250 change fee per ticket that they charge. This agency quoted us $700 to change tickets, plus an extra $250 dollars on a different flight that was priced LOWER than the original flight when we started this process. They flat out told us British Airways wouldn't allow a refund. We got all the names and extensions of the people at BA who shared this information and were able to they telling the truth; this company was price gouging and taking advantage of the consumer. At this point, we decided to forgo the simple change of flights and wanted a refund and to terminate any transactions. In short, these people shouldn't get our money.

Here's the worst part- when we tried to handle this over the phone, they insisted we needed to file a claim. In that process, they insisted we had to click on the terms essentially agreeing to pay their quote which they claimed came directly from British Airways in order to start the process. They tried to casually explain that if we wrote a memo in the box explaining our communication with British Airways, it would negate their terms and we would get a refund. There was no other way to go unless we agreed to their terms in changing the tickets.

And another point of fraud- They claim on their site that BA allows up to two checked bags per person. After inquiring with BA we learned that they only allow for one checked bag. At this point, we will one last phone call to them to give them the opportunity to make this right. After that we are filing with the Better Business Bureau and sending American Express after them for fraud.

4) Communication was prompt

I cannot let one bad apple ruin the basket...I am changing the overall star rating to 3.

Original Review: March 29, 2015

I booked a return flight ticket from kayak.com which routed me through Airfare.com. I normally don't go by reviews because everyone has their own experience. However, what happened with Airfare.com is ridiculous. I am posting this review after 6 weeks, again because I thought it was just a one-off experience or the customer service representative might have been having a bad day. When another of my friend went through the same ordeal, I had to post the review.

Feb 16 was my scheduled day of journey. However, I had to make changes to my journey date and move it by two days. I just wanted to call the help desk and check. ** (I am guessing is an alias) was the person who answered my call and mentioned, "Click 'Change by E-mail' and fill the form." I acknowledged and ended the call. The form was not very user-friendly. It was 700 dollars and my return journey was at stake. So wanted to make sure I get everything right. So I make another call, and this is where it starts going down. ** answers again. The language used was, "Sir, how many times should I inform you the same?" I apologized and said, "I understand the frustration but please be with me. I want to make sure that I fill this correct." He said in a very rude tone, "SIR, IT'S A FORM. PLEASE FILL IT. YOU CAN'T HAVE ME ONLINE FOR FIIIIIIIIIVE (five was stressed for almost 3-5 seconds) MINUTES."

I am a project manager myself and I have seen people having bad days. I did not react to what he had to say and disconnected the call, thinking I will figure out. Basic thing here was that I needed to know where I should mention my new travel dates so that I get a quote from Airfare.com. The form did not have those fields. So I called again and surprise, the same person answers and starts shouting at me again. The third call went for 10 minutes and again the guy could not answer me and this time I did question back saying, "As a customer rep, you should be helping me but not yelling at me." I got really frustrated. This form had a "Other" or some option with a huge text box. I just mentioned everything I wanted in that box and I got a reply back after 24 hours. As much I appreciate the response and overall experience with the website and my travel, I totally find a fault with the customer service department.

I request Airfare.com to get their house in order. You are a consumer facing website with a ton of competition. If you cannot serve your customers with respect, I am not sure what your operating model is. I hope your customer service department don't start their day with, "Hey guys!! Today we gonna piss off 80% of our calls and make sure none of them return to our website." That's the vibe I got and am I running away from your website forever. Anybody in my circle at any point mentions an air travel, I voluntarily make a statement, "If it is routed through Airfare.com, do not proceed and start over your search."

I have been on the phone to my bank, the fraud squad, retail disputes and no one can get them to release my money so I can use my bank account. How can that be? I don't even know if my flight is even booked as Virgin Atlantic, who the tickets are with have no acknowledgment of payment yet so won’t deal with me. So I have to wait and see if the money is returned within the next 5 days. In the meantime I can’t access my bank account. Nightmare.

After I reached Bangalore, due to an emergency I decided to change the return ticket again from March 21st to April 3rd for which I called Etihad airline and they processed the ticket change and I paid $240. AirFare.com somehow figured out my actual reservation made through them for March 21st was changed to April 3rd and without my consent/authorization they charged $1,221.47 (exact amount I paid initially for my reservation). When I called the customer service, they justified saying I need to pay $1221.47 for flight ticket change and was never able to explain why the charges are made without my consent. In total I paid $3164.94 for which I could have booked a first class ticket.

I've never ever experienced this kind of service anywhere and they literally made me go bankrupt. Their customer service is horrible and usually disconnect the calls when there is a question they cannot answer. To all other customer pls be aware of the scam and avoid airfare.com.

I called airfare.com (average wait time is 30-45 minutes) and they tell me that my card was declined (I checked with my CC, they confirmed that there was no attempt made). I immediately understood that I'm a victim of some sort of fraud..... CHEAP TICKETS DO NOT EXIST! The biggest absurd was when the girl offered me to pay additional $50 per ticket so they can try and book the tickets (once I read the reviews I learned that they do it systematically) .... I was promised to have tickets issued within the hour... of course this didn't happen...

I call again (another 45 minutes on hold), now I speak with the nicest person ever... He promises to personally email the tickets within 2 hours.... and of course this didn't happen. So I call again (this time 55 minute wait) and ask for status on my reservation and the answer was: "We are unable to get your tickets as of now, it takes time"... I asked: "How much time?" A: "I don't know".... I asked for cancellation which I received instantly by email.... They must have been pleased to cancel as they couldn't justify their bluff. WOW.... I can't believe that an "educated consumer" like me was trapped into this nightmare.... what a lesson to myself and to YOU out there.

They said they would do an "exception" and charge "only" $550 a person - (6 of us travelling) and wait 4-6 for our refund of the original tickets - minus the $550/person. Then we could book a new flight ourselves on their website. They said the only changes they allow are the date, but same airline, destination, and time, and still pay a fee of course. Once we get our refunds, assuming the flight we want is still available for 6 people - we will not be using airfare.com!

It's been only 8 hours since I booked this flight, and I'm refused. I get angry, ask to speak to manager, he keeps saying "management won't make an exception", and I keep saying "I'm not asking you that, I'm asking to speak to your manager." I get put on hold for 45 minutes and finally hang up, have called back several times and the line is never picked up.

According to the British Airways website (the airline I'm booked with) a name change for a simple misspelling is a quick and easy phone call. I want to cancel and book through the airline at this point (for the same GD price btw) and now after reading these horror stories I am scared I'll be out $2k. I'm also wondering if this is a violation of the DOT requirement for airlines to hold a reservation for 24 hours.

Anyways, I called airfare.com on several occasions to ask why my card hadn't been charged and they were responsive and answered fairly quickly (within 10 minutes). I was impressed that the representative said he'd make notes of our conversation for the billing department, and when I called days later they recited the notes from the previous call. I also called the airlines, Gulf Air, several times to inquire into my booking and everything was fine on their end too.

I successfully took a trip with airfare.com and enjoyed an amazing price. Keep in mind I didn't make any changes to my itinerary like many of you have, and I called them many times so they likely knew I was onto them. Would I fly with them again? Probably. I was extremely satisfied after night flights (again I saved a ton of money and had an amazing itinerary), but i'm not sure it was worth the initial anxiety. If you're reading these reviews after purchasing like me, just DO NOT make ANY changes to your itinerary (the contract pretty blatantly infers you're screwed if you do), and keep on them to make sure they make a note of your correspondence. Bon voyage!

I asked for a supervisors and agent said "he" was the supervisor which was totally unbelievable given his language skills...then he suggested I call his manager the following day...I asked for his name and he said it was "Scott", not even being able to pronounce it!! I hung up thinking I would just call back and then I received an email saying they had cancelled my reservation...and it was followed up by an email saying I should be "happy" they didn't charge me a cancellation fee (which appears to change depending on who you talk with...anything between $350 and $500!) because I discovered the "bait and switch" with the tickets after 24 hours had elapsed. Horrible service, horrible company. I ended up booking through Orbitz...a few dollars more, literally, but a confirmed flight and confirmation. Silly me for trying to save a couple of dollars...NEVER AGAIN!

I am waiting for my 1500$ for the ticket which I never used for travel planned in December as I went ahead and book tickets with other airline. They said they will check again with the airlines and call me back on Monday 1/5/2015. This is ridiculous & unacceptable. Forget the time you spend over phone and email with these guys which is never compensated. I didn't had choice for 0 star so gave 1 star. Only advice is when you book ticket through kayak & get redirected to airfare.com please be cautious. Pay little more and book directly through airline website but avoid using third party sites for cheaper price as it is never cheap at the end of the day.

But here's the kicker: When I got my credit card bill a month later, I saw that Airfare.com had billed me four times for my trip. In other words, instead of billing me just for the one fare (approximately $1100), they billed me for an additional $3,300--about $4,400 in all. I learned this later, when I received my monthly credit card bill, which showed the additional charges on my statement. Thankfully, though, the overcharges were accompanied by corrections that had been made toward the end of the credit cycle.

So in the end, I did not overpay, but I did experience a week where my credit card was not available to me because retailers rejected it. I had to spend quite a bit of time on the phone with Visa trying to figure out why. It was because I had reached my maximum spending limit, thanks to Airfare.com's erratic billing procedures. As soon as I started to be bombarded with emails from them, I Googled them and learned about their bad reputation on the Internet, and I tried to cancel my flight and book through AeroMexico directly; but Airfare.com's stringent no-cancel policy prevented me from canceling the flight. I will never use them again, and have warned my friends against using them.

I just want to have the tickets to go back to China and please, somebody helps me OK? I have called the customer service several times yesterday and still nobody answers me. And I wrote an email to airfare.com, still nobody replies to me. Please, I really need to resolve this. If my booking has been cancelled, at least somebody please inform me, I don't want to be told that I did not have a ticket when I am in the airport and heading to go back home. PLEASE somebody pleases help me. Thank you so much!

Still today, In their website Airfare.com, "Your booking is confirmed, and it is under processing" (I have the written proof). Both the rep and the supervisors were dishonest and not helpful at all and hung up on me when I said that I would entertain legal actions. The flight was my wife to see her father who is sick. I had to rebook another flight with substantial loss of money. NEVER BOOKED FROM THIS WEBSITE - THIS WOULD BE A MAJOR MISTAKE.

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 # ** 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.

I had the booking confirmation and the itinerary from airfare.com with me, thankfully. I called them, and was told that the airline had changed my flight in October, which is a lie. I was standing there with the airline agent, who showed me the records on the computer showing that my flight had been purchased by airfare.com on Sept 17 with the 3:45 pm return time! I would not have purchased a ticket with a 7+hour layover after an all-night flight. The airline was willing to rebook me on the 11 am flight, but needed airfare.com to re-issue the ticket. They refused, blaming the airline for the change in itinerary. Unbelievable.

BTW, I had to call a few times because the agent kept hanging up on me when I asked for a supervisor. I ended up speaking with a supervisor and someone from their booking department (or so they told me). I have all the records from the airline and have contacted the FAA and a friend who is a class action lawyer. After reading the posts here, I am going to contact Kayak as well.

BA told me that they made a refund for cancelling my one way ticket to the agent but the agent (airfare.com) says we have a non-refundable policy for highly deducted tickets (just 30$ difference when I booked). When you got the money from the airline then charge me a penalty and return whatever I paid. I got one word for you. "Swindler mugger". Oh yes one word is not enough to describe you cheats!

Yes, of course the customer should do their research, however, when there is such an outlier such as this company is, it would be impossible to do enough research to understand how shady their practices are. Also, I do research almost everything, but after having such good experience with KAYAK I trusted them. Everything is done by email. The change fee seems reasonable, but unfortunately its just the beginning of the fees. You have to provide credit card information to make a change without any option to explore various flights that may be less expensive. I am confused, annoyed, and if nothing is done about companies like this, angry that more is not being done to protect consumers from this type of predator. Shame on you Airfare.com. And, KAYAK I think you should share the blame too, seeing that people have been now reporting this for a long time! Fool me once... but, I will do everything in my power so no one is fooled by this again!

I called and emailed customer service several times to ask refund the $110 overcharge. Their final explanation was the $110 was part of my new ticket cost. There was NO refund to me. I could not believe they conveniently counted the $110 in the new ticket cost. In fact, I had the email from THEM as a proof of the new ticket price after the ticket change. It was not what they claimed the escalated price on the phone. I paid $725 for changing my tickets. At the end, I paid total of $1600 for my tickets, which originally was $875. I think their ticket change practice is deceiving. Customer service is poor. What they charged for new tickets is operated in the black box.

At one point, I got an email saying my flight had been switched and I needed to call to change it. I had read all the poor reviews and literally just started crying thinking I had wasted thousands of dollars. Airfare.com took care of the problem and were very professional about the situation. Please don't freak out for no reason and hopefully this can help some of you rest easy a little bit. I don't want everyone else to have a ruined vacation for fretting the entire time.

Foolishly, I expected this to be in-line with industry practices. I did not get a particularly good deal on this flight - in fact, it was in-line with direct to airline sites. Sadly, I had no idea that I was purchasing this ticket other than directly from British Airways. This information was not very apparent, until after I made my purchase via Kayak.com. This is not a consumer friendly company - it is a predator in the travel industry. Please do yourself a favor, and cancel any ticket that you have found you inadvertently purchased via airfare.com within the 24 hour window. It's not worth the perceived savings.

I will never deal with AirFare.com again. The help desk staff are very defensive, probably because they are constantly dealing with angry people. After I requested the cancellation they made it seem that they had brokered a special deal for me to be able to get any refund at all, suggesting that BA was extracting the $500. On further questioning they would not say how much of the fee actually went to BA and how much was for their own expenses (yes, they have costs too. I respect that, but they should admit this upfront). Their help desk staff are mostly quite unprepared to handle customers. The first e-mail I got about the cancellation said that there would be a free flight but actually that was just their way of describing the $500 fee and ticket refund situation.

Airfare.com website says new ticket is 1700 dollars and $350 is change fee, I had paid 1000 dollars so the amount due should be $1000 approx. but they wanna charge me 2000 dollars with no explanation of how they are reaching this amount. When I asked for explanation of "difference in fare" I did not have any response, just a plain blunt "take this or you will lose all your money". Reached out to Kayak, but they simply said, "It's not their business" and have nothing to do "Even though they acknowledged they had received complaints and they should explain what is the difference in fare".

To me Kayak.com is party to this malpractice and knows they are listing a travel agent with no Infrastructure or service and engages in malpractice but just sheds the responsibility. Deeply disappointed by Kayak.com attitude and no sense of moral or ethical responsibility towards a site which is ripping off under their umbrella.

About a half an hour after that, we received a confirmation email from Airfare.com stating that our reservation was confirmed, and again listing the same confirmation number (i.e. booking reference number) and e-ticket number. Again, so far, so good, right? The next day, we tried to make a seat reservation directly with the airline (Cathay Pacific) but the airline could not find our "confirmed" reservation either with the e-ticket number or the booking reference number. We thought perhaps the information had not reached their system yet, as unlikely as that might seem. Then, on the following day, we received an email with the subject reading "Urgent regarding your booking with Airfare.com." This email then stated that they placed a small authorization charge on the card as a security measure to check that card's validity, and that we'd need to verify this amount with the bank and input this information via their website. This is when the fun began. It turns out that this test transaction was taken by a company in England.

First, we attempted to verify the reservation with the airline; still, it did not exist. I did not show up via their online portal, nor did it show up when we called the airline directly. We then found information on both this website and on Yelp.com and realized there probably was a problem. We called Airfare.com twice; the first person seemed to be in India and was insistent upon getting the credit card verification information. When we demurred, he became very rude. We asked what would happen if the amount were not verified, and he said the ticket would be canceled. We asked at that point to just cancel the ticket, and he said there would be a $350 fee. We then said that we could just refuse to verify the test verification amount (which was just for $1) and let them cancel it; to this, he said that they would charge us $450. We again refused to give him any further information and he quite rudely hung up on us.

We contacted the airline directly and confirmed that no reservation had been made. We then called Airfare.com back and spoke to someone equally unhelpful. Again, this person insisted upon us giving the test transaction amount, and we refused to do so until he could confirm that the reservation had been made. He stated on that the ticket was already confirmed; we checked online with the airline and there was no reservation. Again, the man claimed that the reservation had been made; we checked it yet again and there was nothing there. Then we were put on hold, and another itinerary came through, along with a confirmation email from Airfare.com. We then went online to Cathay Pacific and attempted to book that same flight with a different credit card.

Then, we called the bank with whom the booking was made via Airfare.com; they verified that in the previous 5 minutes a charge was attempted by "Cathay Pacific" and that this was declined. However, the booking made via Cathay Pacific was with a different bank altogether; this attempted charge was coming through Airfare.com (or their England- or India-based subsidiary) using the front name of "Cathay Pacific." This is very dubious. We then had that credit card number canceled and a new one issued so that there could be no further charges from Airfare.com against that card including the threatened $450 cancellation fee. In the end, we got the same airfare directly from the airline itself. Stay very, very far away from Airfare.com. Unregulated capitalism and off-shoring can have detrimental consequences, and the evidence of this business' unethical practices is just one illustration.

Two days later, our account is $2000 overdrawn. Come to find out, we were charged twice for our tickets. We immediately called Airfare.com, and they said they needed proof, and that we should email a screenshot of our account statement. We emailed that to them, and didn't hear anything back for the rest of the day, but we had to go to work. After work, we called them back (this was about 6 hours after the email was sent), and a man named Alan said they had received our email, but it could take 48 hours to process the refund. I told them about how I am overdrawn and it's a huge inconvenience to me, and they said there's nothing they can do because the accounting department was closed!

I asked him why this wasn't handled earlier in the day, when I sent the email. Alan said the accounts manager was very busy. He did say that there was a "note" on the account, saying that they had tried to contact my bank but they were closed. I told him that was untrue, as I had just gotten off the phone with my bank, and they were open for another two hours. He tells me there's nothing he can do, call back tomorrow when they open.

So I call back the next day (today) and ask to speak with accounting. They put me on hold for about 10 minutes before finally picking up. AJ in the accounting department tells me this was not brought to his attention at all yesterday! I'm furious - I've been sitting here for the past day with a -$2000 balance on my bank account and this company had done literally nothing yesterday to help me. AJ tells me he needs to contact the booking agent to see why there was a double charge. Yes, apparently this is how it works: Kayak -> Airfare.com -> some random booking agent -> airline.

Anyway, AJ tells me he will call me back in two hours. I will wait for his call today and update the review as necessary. I asked him if I could completely cancel my reservations, and he told me there would be a $450 fee (per ticket!) for that. When I told him the airline doesn't have this fee, and that I feel Airfare.com owes me a full refund without the cancellation fee due to my inconvenience, he basically told me tough luck, this is how it is. So now I'm contemplating paying $900 just so I don't have to deal with this company anymore! Unbelievable!! I will never, EVER use Airfare.com again, or even Kayak for that matter! Shame on them for even referring me to this awful, awful company.

Now they're charging me $450.00 USD to cancel my flight. I'm not going to see my girls for another month because of this. British Airways has a 24 hour cancellation policy but unfortunately after having spoken to them twice, they told me the travel agency had to issue the refunds, etc... I saw the $ in my account was withdrawn by a company called Sky Bird who they customer service agents haven't even heard of. I wrote them directly at their San Francisco office so hopefully they'll be able to do something about it. If anyone has any advice let me know!

However, due to the WAR, they were allowing people to cancel with no penalties if we were going to fly before August 1, 2014. They sent me an e-mail that I could show to Airfare.com that I was no longer on the fly list, so that they could not say I was a "no show". Airfare.com said that I had to put in a complaint that they would not give me my money back. So I did and my credit card company is arguing it now. I don't understand how this is legal and how they are still in business. They are rude, and a nightmare to deal with. They pretty much say too bad and laugh in their customers face.

After weeks of not responding, they cancelled my airfare to Brazil after months of me calling them and haggling with them. They claimed that THE AIRLINE'S cancellation fee was $600... which I had to pay upfront and then the airline would return me the full fare in 6-8 weeks. I knew this was a lie because all my other friends on the same flight, who had purchased direct, had paid $200 cancellation and gotten their flights cancelled immediately. Furthermore, Airfare.com told me that once I paid the $600 fee, my fare would be returned in 6-8 weeks! This is not how flight cancellations work: normally, you get your fare back, less the fees. In no scenario do you pay a huge fee upfront, and receive your fare back 2 months later.

I paid the $600 fee and waited 6-8 weeks. When I finally got the fare returned 7 weeks later, it was the original fare minus another $200. This means that the airline did in fact charge the $200 that they normally charge to cancel a flight... and that the $600 fee was Airfare.com, stuffing their own fee. Clearly, they lied about the nature and size of this fee... and that the airline would then charge another fee.

It took them about a week to clear the double charge from my account which is annoying but understandable. We had no issues checking in, boarding our flights or any other problems related to our flights and travel. Neither of us will probably use this site again, but we did manage to save 100 dollars per person. We did not try and change our flight dates or times. We confirmed our flights with Air Canada a few days after booking and checked in 24 hours before our flights. Hope this helps anyone with their decision.

Though majority of these were automated, there was one email from an agent that said that there was a change and that I needed to reply to her that I accept these new changes. I told her I did not because the hours proposed were too early/late for me to accept; we were on a honeymoon and did not want to wake up at 4 in the morning to catch an international flight that would get me back to the US at midnight. Her only response to me was to contact the airline directly and she could not do anything for me.

I was frustrated but I didn't even bother making the changes. On my trip however, I had to make a detour to another country due to a family emergency. Since I was very close to my connection city, I asked the airline if I can skip the first leg of my scheduled route and make the connection back home. ANA, the airline, was very understanding and said under normal circumstances they could help but I had booked through an agency and the agency rules are different. She told me to contact the agency and they would be able to assist me with the changes. I then tried for a little less than an hour to get through to anyone that could help me from airfare.com before I gave up and emailed the representative that had email me about the schedule change.

Like other upset complaints on this board, the price of the change was more than the cost to simply buy a new ticket. I am very disappointed in the level of customer service that this company offers. Their fees are "passed through" from the airline but I am confident that they tack on an additional fee from themselves when peoples' situation are pressing. I lucked out because I had an email address to contact them from a representative's earlier email, but you are out of luck if you try to contact them via their phone center. I rate this company the lowest possible rating for its lack of customer service and fee policy that does not, despite their claims, align with any airline that I know of. I will not be using their service ever again and highly recommend others to steer clear from this agency.

The call center people gave me the run around for three days and then finally found a flight but was going to cost me an extra $700 just to book it. I understand there was a $350 reschedule fee, but paying another $350 on top of that is insane. It currently costs $791 for a better flight than what was offered. I just think it's ridiculous that there would be that much of a charge. That is the price of a new ticket. I will never use your service again.

I was in for another shock when I realized that my ticket was cancelled without informing me. I called Air India office one day before to confirm the reservation for myself and my 2 children who were traveling with me. I was informed that my reservation was cancelled by Airfare. The reservation for my children were done with another agency and now they were left with no one accompanying them. How can anybody cancel the reservation after charging a customer and more than that, not even informing them.

After calling Airfare one night before my departure and wasting multiple hours with the customer representative, a new reservation was made with the airlines and guess what, I was again charged twice for this reservation without refunding the previous charges. Thankfully, seats were available with the airline otherwise I would have to cancel the reservation of my children and cancel my whole trip.This is a BAD agency and a bunch of people with no work ethics. I have yet to receive any refund from them and will probably have to block their payment with my credit card provider. After going through this bad experience I was not shocked to see other people having similar bad experience with them. PLEASE BE AWARE OF THEM, YOU MIGHT END UP IN SIMILAR PROBLEMS!!!

Airfare suggested me to cancel the booking and request Lufthansa to issue a new ticket ensuring that the ticket is not cancelled as a "No show" and then apply for a refund with Airfare later. I did as they mentioned and cancelled my booking by calling Lufthansa and explaining them the Visa issues. After coming back I applied for refund with Airfare but did not get any refund so far and Agents put my call on hold indefinitely after I enquire about my issue. Moreover I also got an email saying it was a "No Show" and nothing will be refunded whereas I was at the airport on the day of travel. The customer service was not equipped to handle this situation and kept re-directing me to Lufthansa till my flight time passed and finally I booked a ticket the other day. I paid additional 900$ for the one-way return ticket because of this mess caused by Airfare.

My point is why to issue a ticket which requires Visa when it was not required and if you are issuing then why not flag the Visa concern while booking itself. The booking algorithm is stupid in the sense it assumes a person traveling from America would have a European visa for his travel to India. If it was flagged while booking, I would have taken care of the necessary steps. How do you expect the customer to be so intelligent about Visa norms required across geography? This is ridiculous and I have seen that many people who booked through Airfare had faced similar issues including one of my friend who booked same tickets 3 months back. I never faced this issue with any other booking websites. I feel cheated and would not recommend Airfare to anyone and would also tell all my friends not to use it. I strongly feel they are using these tactics to rip off money from customers and list of customers with this same issue is growing.

Airfare has a different story of course. I know they are in the business of making money - but why rip-off a customer? I have not seen any policy statement around the refund cost on airfare site. Also I'm willing to pay the penalty but close to a fair amount - roughly 20% of the ticket amount (also the change fee amount of $300). I think it is only fair to charge that amount if not fully reimburse for my medical reason. I really hope that airfare can show some consideration here. Still waiting for their response. Fingers crossed!

He was rude and said he could do nothing about it and put me on hold in which I waited one hour and then I just hung up. I emailed several times. They called but I was at work and could not talk. I emailed again. They said they would cancel flight and charge me only 150. I said I just want the flight changed. They said there were no flights to Wroclaw. I went on their site and found several flights. I emailed them a picture of the flights offered through their company. Well they said they were canceling the flight and charging me with or without my approval.

I then find my account charged and I also called the airlines and they said there was no reservation ever in the name I purchased it for. I emailed stating that is unlawful to cancel a purchased flight without authorization and also to charge other money without authorization. It is absurd. I am not only seeking legal advice but I am recommending no one ever ever use this site for tickets. They are unprofessional and just out to make a quick buck without really caring about the customer.

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 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.

Japan airlines told us that since my mother is a green card holder, she might get a transit visa. I checked online at Japan consul houston texas and the processing time is 5- 7 business days. I called Airfare.com about the situation and the agent looked for a ticket for us with limited lay over time since my mother is a handicap. He suggested a ticket that will cost us both $3200.00. I originally purchased a ticket for my mother and I for $2300$. I told the agent I can't afford to pay $3200.00. He said he does not have control of the airfare and I have to pay $450.00 cancellation fee. I said why will I pay $450.00 when there is no way I can used the ticket because of the visa requirements and Narita airport operation hours which I don't have any control.

I called back again to cancel the tickets and A male agent told me "if you don't pay the cancellation fee of $450.00, there wont be any refund." This is obviously a RIP OFF. HOW CAN YOU PAY FOR SOMETHING THAT YOU CAN'T USE IN THE FIRST PLACE AND BE PENALIZED. THERE WAS NO INDICATION ONLINE AND RESERVATION THAT YOU HAVE TO EXIT THE AIRPORT DURING LAYOVER BECAUSE THE AIRPORT IS CLOSED. I called again to request for cancellation and the airfare agent told me to call Japan airlines if they will approve the cancellation. I called japan Airlines at 12:52 pm and was the reservation has not been ticketed and http://airfare.com has the authority to cancel flight and not Japan Airlines. It is obvious that agents of http://AIRFARE.COM wants to rip off people and telling lies to their customers just to get money.

This all being said, I was really surprised at the low level of service I received when I called airfare.com (kayak.com found the least expensive flight through them) to change my boss' flight, and think other possible customers need to know about this. I have called somewhere from 6-8 times in the last four days and have actually been yelled at, placed on hold many times without being asked if I could hold, passed from person to person, whom I truly had difficulty understanding, and not just because of a strong accent - because the grammar was also not being formed into coherent sentences, and one of the women I spoke with actually expressed her frustration when I respectfully asked 3 times for her to repeat herself because I just could not figure out what was being said to me (I understand this would also be frustrating to her, but not at all appropriate to express it to the customer who is just trying to ask a very simple question in the same language and also frustrated but stifling frustration to be polite because angry customers usually don't help to resolve anything, and can seriously change the tone of a customer service rep's day), and the manner in which they treat you.

I spent over 16 minutes on hold (put there abruptly 4 times in one day) after giving my confirmation # and 8+ minutes with silence on the other end (3 times) after giving my confirmation #, before being told I needed to be put on hold because they needed help. I was informed that I could only make a flight change online, and after following up 3 times over 4 days and at least 6 times today (because the wait time was too long or the phone was put down and I was never connected with someone), and being passed around among customer services reps (one of whom was a manager, but did not know how to help me, and told me to call Australia???), I was told I had to wait for an email reply with an offer for another flight. This took over 48 hrs, which is the maximum wait time given on the website for an email.

I finally called again, because my boss' schedule depended on this flight, and many people both in Australia and America depend on his schedule. I even tried to be proactive since I wasn't being helped and I didn't want to be "a victim" of not getting information the way I was supposed to, so I called Virgin America, which is the airline he is flying, in the hope they would be able to do something because NOTHING was being done to help me, and they said I must follow the policy of the booking agent (airfare.com)... so I called again.

This time after holding, and being passed around again, someone told me he was looking at the flights and there were no more seats left for the day I wanted but I had to tell him right then and there whether I could make the flight he pulled up in the computer for a different day while we were speaking - if a flight could have just been pulled up while we were speaking the first time, it would have been so much easier for all of us - I would have had the info I needed approximately 4 days earlier, and they wouldn't have had such an influx of calls for the same reason (I'm sure this couldn't have just been me)! By this time, however, days later, there were no seats available on any flights. I am very disappointed, and have additional pressure on me by my boss to make this happen, and you can imagine how difficult a situation this is as someone just trying to make a simple flight change.

I would not recommend airfare.com to anyone - in fact I have already told 3 people never to use it because it is SUCH a hassle to handle even a question, a waste of time, which most of us do not have to waste, and I'm disappointed on behalf of all of other customers who have to deal with the same thing. It seems like something so significant to a future customer that they need to be warned when booking - "you will most likely not get service if you need it."

Today, the last of the 4 days, and the same day my boss is scheduled to fly from Australia, I spent another 5 hours between airfaire.com and Virgin Australia, who sent me back to airfare who sent me back to VA and then I called to connect Airfare and VA both on a 3 way phone call, and the person who answered the airfare phone put my call on the table and didn't come back to me.

I called back and finally got SUZIE, a manager, who took care of it. She was wonderful. Thank goodness for her. Without her, my simple change request would never have happened. Without her, God knows how many more hours I would have been dealing with this. She can verify how complicated the whole thing was because she was the one who was with me through disconnections and connections with Virgin Australia, and was kind enough to listen to my story when I was just SO frustrated. She handled it beautifully and took care of my request for me. If only the entire staff could be like her.

That being said, if I knew I would get Suzie every time, I would have no second thoughts about using airfare.com again, but truly, after this, I will never use airfare.com again. Not worth it. Please, for everyone's sake who does business with you after me, fulfill on your promise that my feedback will help you improve the quality of Airfare.com. I hope Suzie gets a raise. She deserves it.

Airfair reps did not want to help us at all. Four phone calls. See how ridiculous they are: First phone call - Guy keeps saying the ticket has not value. I tell him my wife already has it rebooked. Finally, he says to submit change request online (how stupid, I am there right on the phone!) Second phone call - They say they are still working on the request. Third phone call - New guy keeps saying ticket has no value. When I tell him I need to talk to manager, he wants me to first go through what he has to say (the ticket has no value few times). Finally, I get to manager, who is equally rude. But at last he says he will check with airline if ticket has value. Fourth call - They are still processing.

I called the airline and they said there has been no request made to them by airfare. What? Four days and they don't even have made the request?? At this point, I am looking for legal means of dealing with these cheats. Going through their websites caused so much loss in terms of money, aggravation, transit visa fee, etc.

This is my first and last time to purchase the ticket in Airfare.com and I will not recommend this merchant to my friends at all. Please never ever buy from here...

However, here is the the worst part: if the prices are lower, they don't pay for the difference??? What kind of business model is that? This is such a scam that Kayak and Airfare will not get my business anymore and from anyone that I know. If in case you think you are going to get a good service for the $350 fee that you have to pay for the change, forget about it!!! I strongly suspect that the customer service people are all working from their own homes because I have heard dogs, cars, cooking over the calls. Also, I needed to change an error on the booking and the person refused to fix my address.

Now, if in case I get in trouble because of a wrong fact, who will be responsible for it? Why would anyone refuse to make such basic address correction? Airfare.com is NOT customer-friendly at all, so I suggest anyone booking through Kayak to simply find the airlines offering the best prices for the trip and go to the firms' websites to book it, because the prices are 'always' the same and the benefit is that the airlines give the customer a much better client experience.

After talking to 4 unprofessional customer service reps and a rude supervisor at Airfare.com, who kept repeating "we are checking with the company" and putting me on hold for hours, I decided to call Virgin America directly. That's when I was told that actually no request for change was sent to the company from Airfare and that the ticket was just cancelled. It's just unacceptable and frustrating to see that the service you paid for $1800 and was happy to pay an additional $350 is just not provided. Is the legal way the only way? Did anyone get a legal action succeed against airfare.com?

I had not received any email or call notifying me that the reservation was cancelled, so I called back Airfare.com to ask about their notification policies and know whether they notified customers if a reservation did not progress due to credit card problems or other issues. Frankly they sounded like they don't give a damn about it. I think it should be routine policy to email customers if a reservation is cancelled, and failure to do so is a deliberate bad service to the customer.

I contacted the Airfare customer service in order to explain the gravity of the situation. I wouldn't have even been able to get anywhere due to the country having a curfew! At first I asked if I can get a refund due to the situation being out of my personal control, as I cannot control events in Egypt that are only getting worse. I even gave them links to warnings from the United States embassy! They would have a rep call me very rudely tell me that they can only give me a special offer of $550.00 per ticket for cancellation and that I had only 40 minutes to agree to pay it, in order for the tickets to be canceled. I told him, my understanding is it can be up to $450.00 and that they can possibly offer a cheaper one. He began to rudely tell me that they can even raise the price higher if they wanted to.

I read reviews and saw that AJ Knight, the rep that has been responding to these concerns on here stated that they can see if they can get a waiver to lower the fee. The man on the phone kept aggressively telling me only $550.00 per ticket.

"If this came to my attention, I could contact the Airline Refund Department to get a waiver to lower the fee, but the time has passed and the request was sent to Airline. I do apologize for this kind of inconveniences or frustration.Thank you again for bringing this matter to my attention. Thank you, AJ Knight.''

I am hoping that AJ can actually assist in this terrible process. I know that if I agree to the cancellation fee then I will not get assistance. It is very unfortunate how this company deals with these dilemmas and then says too little too late. Hopefully I can get help. If you are not 100% confident that you will be going on your trip with no alterations...DO NOT USE AIRFARE!

When I pointed out that I did not think he was understanding my question correctly, he got angry with me and essentially beginning yelling at me. I informed him that this was getting us nowhere and that I was hanging up the phone now, but thanked him for his help. The next morning I then received a response from Airfare.com informing me that I could cancel my flight for a fee of $500. I called again and asked why I had not received any information about changing my flight. The man on the phone first told me that I had never requested to change it (I had) and then told me that it could not be changed.

I next asked him why the fee was so high when I had friends who had cancelled flights with the exact same airline on dates very close to mine cancel for around $200. The man became very hostile and told me they do not negotiate here and went off on a tangent. I explained to him that I was not looking to negotiate and that I simply wanted an answer to my question. When he continually refused to answer my question, I asked to speak to a supervisor. The woman that came on the phone next made everyone else seem incredibly professional and polite. She came onto the phone call essentially screaming at me telling me that I shouldn't even see a cent of my money back and that I was wasting their time. She then told me to accept the terms of the refund and hung up on me.

I can honestly say I am in shock at having been treated so horribly by a company when I was not even refusing to pay their ridiculous fees. I think at $500 to cancel a plane ticket, it is a fair question as to what the basis of that fee is. I had no intentions of attempting to negotiate it down. I just wanted an answer to my question. I will never be using this website again. I only wish there was a more large scale way of warning people to steer clear of them before it's too late - as it seems they really are not in the business of repeat customers, only first time unsuspecting victims.

We asked the supervisor to place us on the next flight. He said he would but he would charge us for a new flight ticket. When we asked why we were being charged for new tickets, he told us it was not Aeromexico's fault that we did not arrive on time for our connecting flight. Aeromexcio supervisor told us that we should have had a minimum of 3 hours between connecting flight. The Aeromexcio supervisor showed us on his computer screen that our connecting flights were not compatible, that we needed more time between connecting flights.

We attempted to call Airfare.com at 707-379-1777 from the airport but the telephones could not connect us. Fearing that next flight would be sold out, we bought four new tickets which cost more than the original tickets. When we returned home from my trip, I called Airfare.com and spoke to supervisor Mike. He advised me that after 10 days of the flight he could not help us. He told me to email the Airfare.com Charge Office so that I may receive part of a refund for our tickets. I emailed Airfare.com and the reply to my 2-page email was the following: "Thanks for you Last E-Mail. Your Ticket is NON-REFUNDABLE once you use the first Flight."

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE! Sold my family a bad connecting flight. They failed to investigate if there was problem with my connecting flight. I did not even get a phone call to explain the findings of their "investigation".

I called again today in the morning, spent an hour on the phone with another agent. I asked him to change the dates only but not the airport. I was on hold for 40 minutes and he finally got back to me and said that not only I had to pay a $350 change fee but also additional $400 dollars for the difference in the plane ticket.... That was ridiculous... Therefore, I asked him to cancel my ticket instead. His first response was that my ticket was nonrefundable and he will not able to cancel it, and then I informed him that less than a day ago I received an email about the cancellation option. He tried to tell me the confirmation email that I received was invalid.

Finally after I justified my rights to cancel the ticket he agreed to charge the $450 fee and give a full refund 6-8 weeks. They charged the cancellation fee soon after the phone call, and I am expecting my refund within 8 weeks. Airfare.com's website is very vague about the cancellation policy and their customer service agents are very unprofessional. Be aware of their scams!

She then became very rude and hostile, responding to what I was saying as if I were arguing with her. This struck me as very odd behavior and not what you would expect from someone you can trust professionally. I asked to please speak to a supervisor and she said she is the supervisor and put me on hold where I waited until it was clear nobody was going to get back to my call.

I then called back and spoke with a man in the same office. He said that yes I was speaking to the supervisor and that they would change the flight, but that in addition to the $700 fee to change the reservation as well as the difference in plane ticket cost I would also have to pay the same fee on the return tickets that I was not changing. This meant a duplicate fee. Effectively $1,400 in fees plus the difference for the new tickets. I said that was never stated when I originally spoke with the supervisor who told me what the fees and the terms of the change would be. I also asked why would I need to pay a fee to change two tickets, and then pay the same fee again on two tickets that I am not changing.

I said I just want to change my departure date and I will pay the fee that the supervisor originally described when detailing what a trip change entails with Airfare.com but not another fee in addition. I said that this trip is in two days and it is important to get on a flight soon because I had originally called at 3pm asking them to make the change and it was now 6pm. The man then said that he was going to look for tickets but that "I was being a mean guy" and that he would call me back. After that call I had no confidence that the Airfare.com representatives were going to do anything. So I called back again and eventually reached a representative who charged me the originally agreed $350 fee per ticket and the difference in price. I will never be using Airfare.com again. The representatives were bizarrely argumentative, abusive and openly attempted to defraud me of $750.00.

I purchased two RT tickets from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Jakarta in February 2013 for a September 2013 trip. I booked far in advance because friends in Indonesia were paying the majority of the flight costs for my brother and me to attend their wedding and requested that I book at that time. Since they were footing a huge part of the expense, I had a personal obligation to make sure we got to their wedding at a low cost. I found the fare listed on Trip Advisor and was directed to the Airfare.com site to book. I had never heard of them before, but everything seemed legit. I was aware of their strict policies and hefty cancellation and change fees. Since I didn't foresee any changes or a need to cancel, I was okay with it given the savings. I should mention I've booked with consolidators before, so wasn't that surprised by their policies.

After searching extensively online and checking with a travel agent to see if any cheaper fares existed, she told me it was a great deal and to book. Total cost for the tickets was around $3200, it was a relatively short itinerary and about $300 less than what the agent could quote. I was elated to have found such a deal. Minutes after I booked, I got a phone call from Airfare.com saying my credit card was invalid. I knew this was impossible, but they asked me to call my credit card company to see what the issue was. This is when the red flags started rising. The credit card company saw the pending charges and all seemed well. I called Airfare.com back and told them this and they acted like they didn't know what I was talking about. They actually denied ever calling me in the first place. It was very peculiar. I went online, read the reviews on this site (and others) and started panicking.

For a couple of days, I went back and forth with the credit card company, United and Qatar Airways (airlines in which the tickets were booked) and Airfare.com to confirm the purchase and legitimacy of the tickets. After nearly a week, it seemed as though all was sorted. I had confirmation numbers and ticket numbers. Sometime in March, I started getting emails from Airfare.com that the airlines had made schedule changes and I needed to contact them directly to sort out the changes. The domestic segments of my flight were with United and international segments were with Qatar. I called both airlines and they confirmed all was well. The changes were slight (flight number or small changes to flight times) and likely due to the fact that the tickets were booked so far in advance. Airlines often make seasonal itinerary changes to flights. Still, it made me uneasy.

After that, I called the airlines every three weeks to check in. I had read far too many of the horror stories online to be complacent. I received two more of these schedule change emails during the summer and stayed on top of things. Three days before my trip, I called the airlines for one final confirmation. A representative at Qatar noticed that my tickets had never been reissued after the schedule changes in June and that Airfare.com must request the reissue with the airlines directly. I was panicking once again. These schedule changes had happened months prior and no one had told me the tickets needed to be reissued during my many check-in calls to both United and Qatar Airways. Qatar Airways (who were wonderful to work with, United not so much) advised me to call Airfare.com immediately or I would not be getting on my plane. They also said the reissue should be no expense and to not allow them to charge any fees (the Qatar rep said ticket consolidators are known for these extra charges).

I called Airfare.com expecting the worst. Until this point, I had relatively little interaction with them, instead working with the airlines directly as much as possible. I was surprised to speak to someone somewhat polite and helpful (although I did hear him intentionally yawn very loudly while I explained the issue). I told him that both Qatar and United needed Airfare.com to reissue the tickets and he said he'd take care of it "soon." I reminded him that I was leaving in just three days and these reissue requests should have been performed months prior when the schedule changes happened. The rep acted surprised and said, "Oh, you leave in three days? I will do it right now then." I am not sure it would have ever been done otherwise. I also asked if there were any fees and he said, "Oh no dear, you aren't making any changes, so there aren't any fees.

Nothing in life is that easy, I would gladly take your money if I could. Ha ha." I didn't find it humorous considering all the stories I've read about their business practices, yet I was polite as I could be fearing that they would somehow mess with my tickets even more out of spite if I wasn't. While we were on the phone, the Airfare.com selected my seats which was helpful. The rep was friendly and told me he would personally ensure the reissue took place within the next couple of hours. In reality, took about 12 hours before the reissue was processed. I called both of the airlines the next two days leading up to my flight to confirm and they assured me all was legit. I can't tell you how nervous I was walking up to the ticket counter to check-in or how nervous I was before each of our three flights to Jakarta and three flights back that I would be denied a seat at some point.

I am happy to report all went well with the actual flights. I got where I wanted to go and back home again. Indonesia is an amazing place by the way, it's worth a visit. So if you're like me and freaking out reading all of the horror stories on this website after booking your ticket, I offer the following advice: Be your own advocate, don't leave it up to Airfare.com. Frequently check-in with the airlines directly to make sure you have a ticket number (not just a confirmation number). If you do receive emails from Airfare.com about schedule changes and they request you to contact the airlines, make sure Airfare.com does what they need to do by reissuing the tickets. The airlines won't work directly with you since Airfare.com is acting as your booking agent and "owns" the ticket. Before you book with a consolidator, prepare yourself for charges if you need to make changes.

Airfare.com should not charge you anything to reissue the tickets if it's just an airline schedule change. It seems like the majority of customers posting on this site who have issues with Airfare.com have made changes to their tickets or want to cancel. Airfare.com has extremely strict and expensive policies around customer-initiated changes and cancellations. Are these policies fair? Maybe not, but they are explicitly stated on their website, so it's a gamble you take when booking your tickets with a consolidator.

Buy travel insurance. I purchased "cancel for any reason" insurance which gave me some peace of mind. The thing is, you usually need to buy it within a week of making your booking and it typically covers up to 75% of the ticket costs, but it's better than being out 100% if something goes wrong. I bought mine with Seven Corners and it was very comprehensive. The truly coincidental part of my story is that the cost of my travel insurance essentially negated most of my savings by booking with Airfare.com! Still it was worth it to me. Also it's never a bad idea to have travel insurance when going abroad. I did not use AMEX to purchase my tickets, but wish I would have. From reading the reviews on this site, they seem to be the safest credit card company to offer protection against double charges that seem to happen with Airfare.com. Luckily, this was never an issue for me.

If you HAVE NOT yet booked with Airfare.com and are reading these reviews trying to decide if you should, I would say it's not worth the stress. I travel abroad often, have used a ticket consolidator before and never encountered these kinds of problems. I used to work for Orbitz, so I am not against third party booking agencies. I use sites like Travelocity and Orbitz regularly, but I really don't think Airfare.com is worth the headaches. For what it's worth, I think reading all the negative reviews on this site actually made me even more nervous than I needed to be. They have been in business a long time, so surely a lot of people are having success with them. Unfortunately those people aren't sharing their stories on this site. If you have a low propensity for anxiety and don't mind taking a risk, you can save cash with Airfare.com. If purchasing the tickets is a huge expenditure and it would cause extreme hardship to lose the money or pay more if you need to make changes or cancel; book elsewhere (directly through the airline is safest). I hope my review and advice will be helpful to others.

TL;DR: Airfare.com can save you money, but it's not worth the stress.

I have been talking to them back and forth now for 2 whole weeks. My flight is next week and they have still not changed my ticket. They keep telling me to email them and to call them, and whenever I do what they ask for, they simply can not help me! It seems this all is going in one direction: that I will lose my ticket because I am not able to travel now and nobody can help me to change my date! DO NOT EVER go with this airline. They are simply useless and not helpful. I have been screwing around.

I will NEVER use this company again and will tell all of my friends, family, colleagues, etc about the excessive penalties. $800 to cancel a flight, seriously, that is the price of a roundtrip ticket. This is beyond unfair and this company should be ashamed. I know that I am only one customer but as I add my complaint to the list of others, eventually your company will feel the impact and realize that this is not the way to do business. This company is the WORST company that I have encountered.

Called back third time and Mr. ** told me he has no supervisor and he will not take a complaint. Hung up on me. Called back a fourth time and asked for Mr. **'s supervisor, was told his name is Mr. **. Mr. ** told me that he'll "investigate" and when I asked how I can track that I was told I can't. Refused to provide timeframe for follow-up. Refused to provide his name and direct number or extension. Refused to provide his email. Said any of the above information will "cloud the investigation." When I asked how that will cloud the investigation he STOPPED REPLYING. Just stayed on the line without replying as I repeatedly asked for his information over 15 minutes and then hung up.

I’m in utter shock at this. Never in my life was I in a situation so absurd. Week to go, reservation cancelled against my wishes, and a supervisor's supervisor refusing name or any contact info and then hanging up. Not to mention that my account was charged $1000 twice. Stay away.

After asking for a refund and purchasing another much more expensive ticket for my girlfriend to fly home, Airfare.com called me back and said that they called AirCanada and changed my reservation to the next day. They said that I might need to pay a change fee and that I would need to call the airline to ticket the flight!!!!!!! I AM BEING TOTALLY SCREWED OUT OF MY MONEY BY AIRFARE.COM. I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE ABSOLUTELY NOBODY TO DO BUSINESS WITH THIS ORGANIZATION.

I call back and speak with a very pleasant Customer Care rep (AJ) who explained that the fare was advertised incorrectly and that the airline had cancelled my booking!!! I called Qantas back, who again informed me that this was nothing to do with them and that their system showed that the ticketing office that Airfare.com use (TAT) had cancelled the booking. I called TAT and get another rude call-center employee who had no information. Basically, no one is taking responsibility for this error. It horrifies me that Kayak.com, Airfare.com and Qantas have washed their hands of this - no one willing to offer any compromise or compensate me. Apparently there are 22+ other customers experiencing the same issue.

I bought tickets, was given tickets and then had them taken back! How can I book through Kayak or Airfare.com again without worrying that my flights will be cancelled the next day, or in a week or even the day before I fly! This means that I will no longer use or trust Kayak or Airfare.com, and instead will have to book another flight with Virgin Australia instead. A stressful, and upsetting experience.

2 weeks after, the dispute department called me and was told that they are returning the money I paid to Airfare.com. They said they have called Airfare last July 2013 and confirmed that NO confirmed tickets. These are recorded in the dispute case I filed in the bank. I thought the nightmare ended. But I was wrong. Today (August 14, 2013), a person named ** from Airfare.com called my mom and asking them that I haven't paid the tickets yet. My mom got worried so she called me and reported the same. Minutes after, I have a missed call from Airfare.com and also received an email. THEY ARE ASKING THAT I NEED TO SEND THEM THE TICKET REFERENCES I PURCHASED IN SAME AIRLINE (via Travelocity) and OFFERED ASSISTANCE AS MY RESERVATION TO AIRFARE.COM IS CONFIRMED. I had doubts so I called Japan Airlines and to my shock that there are 2 sets of confirmed tickets for my parents!

So this person named AJ (this seems a generic name and this person wears multiple hats!) asked me for ticket references and I said NO. They could easily check that against the airline company to see that there are duplicate confirmation. This tactic is another scam. ** told me that I need to pay some cancellation fees and I don't intend to do so. So I called the credit card company and reported this harassment from **. Airfare has no business to know the ticket references I paid on a different travel agency. With these massive scams reported against Airfare.com, they have the power to hold the passengers tickets and my parents could miss the flight!

This is **'s email signature when he sent the email to me. This is a RED FLAG as it is the same name ** that pretends to be a Customer Care Manager who's also using same name as Charge Back and Fraud Prevention Department Manager. This has to stop! Please tell your family and friends to avoid AIRFARE.COM!

Original Review: Aug. 13, 2013

I have already issued a complaint. The company has owed me $1455.19 for TEN WEEKS. This is in-excusable. Time for action.

When I did an internet search on them I was totally shocked by how many bad reviews these people get. Yet they're still in business. They should be pulled out. So this is all I can do now. Please spread the word. AVOID AIRFARE at all costs! These guys are practically thieves. You don't have to take my word for it, check out the multiple review links out there about them.

After many calls and emails to Airfare.com plus a formal complaint to the DJO, I received a PARTIAL refund. However, I'm still chasing the rest of my payment. BTW, there does not appear to be any way to contact Kayak (except by snail mail) to let them know their partners are crooks. Avoid Airfare.com at all costs.

Nobody answers the phone when you call their toll-free number 1-800-247-3273, and when they did, they said my case was handled by their supervisor and I need to speak only with him. I have tried reaching this so-called supervisor almost 100 times now through email and phone with no luck. Their direct extension does not work at all, it just keeps ringing and disconnects. Their customer service SUCKS. I highly discourage anybody from using this site.

I pointed this out to the representative from Airfare.com. He offered no explanation and hung up. I contacted Kayak to ask what was going on. They replied that they would send the information to Airfare.com and I would receive a reply in 1 or 2 days. Instead I did not receive a reply for 3 1/2 weeks and the reply completely ignored the issue of the false information, which would have led to the purchase of a second ticket and subsequent hefty cancellation charges. Fortunately, the ticket that I purchased with such difficulty has proven to be valid. I don't know if Airfare.com was incompetent or if there was some darker purpose in fishing for additional credit card information, but I will not be dealing with them again.

When speaking with the bank, they said no. It’s just pending and Airfare.com needs to finish the transaction. We looked on the internet as it seemed to be suspicious. There are hundreds of complaints on the internet about this company, but actually no one talks about Kayak. They have a page on their website affiliating themselves with a company that steals money from unsuspecting people. This is new. I book through them for my company for hundreds of people every year. All the airlines seem to know that this is a scam. It messed up the booking system for Swiss Air. Virgin claim to not have real reservations made and the references given were fake, or if they are booked Airfare.com, it voids them.

Our bank told us that there is a company called AirTrade International who has actually taken our money. We can't get a hold of anyone from either of the companies who can speak good English, or have a manager present to speak to. We asked what the street address of the company was, and he said he didn't know. When pressed, he gave an address in DC - 4619 41st Street, Suite 300, Washington, DC. I know now that I'm not going to get my money back as they seem to be operating in such a way that no one can touch them. What is Kayak doing about it? They are affiliated with them and they are sending hundreds of people who give their credit information, based on the good name that Kayak has, to people who are literally stealing people's money.

Airfare is selling non-refundable tickets without even putting a warning in the emails that they sent to let the customers know that even though Airfare.com is selling you the tickets, you might not be able to travel! Who would buy tickets if there is an uncertainty that you might not be able to travel?

I called them and asked them since the charge hasn't been posted to my credit card yet, to switch me to another flight that doesn't go through Baku so I don't have to worry about not getting the transit visas on time. They said even though the charge hasn't been posted since the tickets were non-refundable, I have to pay $300 cancellation fee even for the same day flight. We have purchased tickets to Europe from them online before.

We are never going to buy any tickets from them and we will advise all our friends and family members not to do so! There is no need for this company to be in business if they don't want to take care of their customers. We have traveled several times to the countries that they need transit visas and usually the travel agent will get them for you for a minimal cost, but they will never tell you, "Sorry we just made $2700 from you but we don't care if you can get on the plane or not." This is unbelievable!

It's my sincere advice to all consumers to avoid Airfare.com because most of the times you may feel the need to change your travel plans and at that time you are stuck with Airfare.com. They will add charges from out of the blue. There is no answer as to why would you charge me another $100 extra. Are you not satisfied charging exorbitant $350? When I found that I can get another ticket for the same price, obviously I will try to save the difference in fare cost. But beware, the company won't allow to do it. Beware of Airfare.com. They don't abide by their own policies mentioned in the website. Any help as to how do I dispute such wrong charges is highly solicited.

I never got an email from Airfare.com that there was a problem with the credit card payment. As a result, my entire trip got wasted, and I came home in the night. I booked the ticket now for the next day with Etihad airlines directly to go for the next day. On the other hand, I see the payment on my credit card from Airfare.com booked on Qatar airways. I called my credit card, and I am now disputing the transaction. Please do not believe these guys at Airfare.com. These guys are real cheaters. Don't go with these guys. You might get a ticket for a cheaper price, but you can never start your journey. I don't know why Kayak is listing these guys. The next step for me to is complain to Kayak.com

A quote via the website: "Whether it is an emergency last minute travel booking or just a pleasant reservation experience, it is our fundamental belief that customer service is the top priority." I had a last minute booking concern, and the sales rep did little to help. He gave no helpful advice and spoke condescendingly as I mentioned earlier. Don't shop Airfare.com.

This company needs to be shut down and I'm going to make sure that it happens so no one else ever has to go through this again. My wife is under armed guard in Costa Rica because of Airfare.com for doing absolutely nothing wrong. They will pay for ruining not only our trip together that we've been planning for months and months, but also any fall out damage that it does. She cannot get to me in Honduras for at least another two days and now she's being told that they can't get her here at all. So I'm stuck in Utila for the next week by myself. More to come. It gets better/worse. ** is going to be exposed and this company is going down!

You are taking the risk that Airfare.com may never find the tickets for the promised/booked price within a reasonable time frame. They do not have any statements in their policy relative to the time limit they will produce an official ticket number for your booking. So, you may waste time by waiting for them to procure the promised airfare tickets for you. In the meantime, there is a high probability that you will miss the opportunity for buying tickets at the going rates (slightly higher than Airfare promised) until rates will go higher as you get closer into the hot season. Any comments or feedback at Airfare.com? Why do you not provide a clear disclaimer on your website that booking with you at a quoted price does not guarantee getting the real airline ticket. This would only be a fair game for a volume discounter.

Now they are trying to force me to rebook a ticket obviously at a much bigger amount. If I want my money back, according to them, it is a cancellation of the ticket from my side... They have cancelled my ticket already according to the airline? Now they want to hit me with a cancellation fee of USD 150 per ticket... I am stuck in USA... not having money to buy another ticket until they refund me. I lost my flight in London. My question... why did they issue the tickets on the 19th? Why did they take my money on the 18th while they could not verify and authenticate my credit card on the 16th? This is obviously a scam to force you in a higher price ticket or to walk away with cancellation money. See other people running a website on them called airfarecomscam.blogspot.com.