Beware of Cheapoair! The company is engaging in some dubious business practices. I booked a flight US- Paris for December 2020 and got an email a few days ago about a “schedule change” and was told to contact the airlines (in this case British Air). A lady there said” they could not access my data.”Then she said the flight was cancelled but could offer me another flight for the exact same time and date (hmmmm). Another man I called at BA central booking said my booking had been cancelled (hmmmm). Who did that? Not me. For the past 4 days I have tried to call customer service at Cheapoair and ended up waiting for 1 hour before the phone cut off. The same happens with their online “chat” option. It’s not possible to submit a claim online as the “submit” button doesn’t work. I wonder why a booking would be cancelled so far in advance and then offered again. Cancelling flights and rebooking them incurs extra fees which are quite costly and usually involve a higher ticket price. I’d just like to get my money back, but it doesn’t look like this will be easy and according to Cheapo’s terms and conditions could take 90 days.
Posted by
Lynnwood, Washington
8879 posts
Cindy, I am so sorry. My sister-in-law made the same mistake of using Cheapoair. Her flight was back in March and she is still fighting for a refund. Good luck to you.
The air travel forums at Trip Advisor are full of stories of poor service and difficulties with this company.
Posted by
Washington DC
28065 posts
Yes, unfortunately, I've read quite a number of horror stories (without needing to search for them) over the years. CheapoAir is definitely one to avoid, no matter how good a deal it seems to be offering. At some point it may be worth trying to contact your credit-card company, but it may be too early to do that--I don't know.
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11875 posts
https://www.bbb.org/us/ny/new-york/profile/travel-agency/fareportal-inc-0121-89212
It is truly amazing that any business that generates 3 complaints a day could get an A+ rating. Despite the rating, I would not do business with such a complaint ridden company.
Maybe a complaint lodged with BBB will improve your chances for a favorable outcome. It looks like the "complaints" are resulting in 'satisfactory' resolutions
Posted by
Pacific Northwest
894 posts
…...and, Please Be Aware...…."Cheapoair" and "Cheapair" (note the difference...one little "o") are Not the Same Company. I have had very very good luck with Cheapair, an especially good resource for car rentals (nationally and internationally).
Posted by
Missoula, Montana
511 posts
Perhaps the name itself and the - dare I say deliberate - likeness in the spelling of the two services says it all. The best bet is booking directly with the carrier to avoid the middleman and the "It's their problem not ours" run around.
Posted by
Folsom
2732 posts
Terrible company. My experience with them swore me off of OTA’s forever. Abbreviated version: bought three RT tickets to Europe. Got a notice that my high limit Amex card was maxed out +. CheapoAir charged each ticket X3. Took so many calls, weeks to get this fixed. Horrible company, can’t imagine anyone using them after doing even a cursory Internet search.
Posted by
Beverly Hills, MI
813 posts
Well, what can I say? You got what you paid for. I hope you get your money back in 90 days and learn something in the process. The airlines look at consolidators and the people who use them as being one small step above common thieves and when things go wrong they get their revenge.
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
And yet it is the airlines themselves that allow those 3rd party sites to book their flights. Airlines are about on the same level as crooked politicians in my book!
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
crooked politicians
That's redundant!
Posted by
Pennsylvania
258 posts
I made a mistake of buying 5 RT tickets to Asia via cheapoair. It had the best prices of any website - but still cost over 6500.
No sooner than I hit the buy button, I received a call from customer representative informing me if I refused to purchase advanced seating, all my families will be separated and I won’t be able to choose any seats (which was a lie).
Few weeks later, I received an email stating there was a problem with my reservation and instructed me to call the 1800 number. The customer rep states I have to change my reservation because airline moved up my connection flight from LAX. I refused. He was very insistent that they will not be responsible for us missing our flights. I still refused. As soon as I hung up, I called the airline directly to make sure my flight is still good. They were, and they reasurred me no changes were necessary.
Well, literally 2 days before my departure, they called me again stating the connecting flights time have changed, and would require us to change reservation to a much later flight.
I told him NO!!
He again told me that cheapoair will not be responsible for missing my connection. I told him, I don’t care, and I hung up on him. I called the airline directly, and they said everything was ok with my flights and don’t need to worry,
Now I’m convinced Cheapoair is a scam! I’m just thankful the original reservation went thru,
Never again will I use Cheapoair, I don’t care if they are the cheapest on the internet.