Our trip to Africa
Complaint
StaceyR
Country: Canada
Email I sent to Cheapo with no response (also to Ethiopian Airlines)
My husband and I booked our trip November 2011 to Africa leaving September 2012 (yes 10 months in advance). Our fault for being proactive and booking in advance as our flight changed numerous times over the course of 10 months (not sure if you can tell but I'm being sarcastic, as typically being proactive and planning in advance should eliminate any problems at the time of a trip). My husband chose to book through Cheapo as it had the best rates I was hesitant as I had never heard of the site and figured Expedia or Travelocity were more recognized, in hindsight we made a HUGE mistake. We should've spent more to save ourselves a lot of hassle.
We booked our flight from Calgary to Europe via aeroplan points and we booked the following flight to Africa through cheapo on Ethiopian Airlines
Flight 1) Leaving Frankfurt to Addis Ababa Ethiopia (flight 707) to Kigali Rwanda (flight (807)
Flight 2) Leaving Zanzibar, Addis Ababa Ethiopia (Flight 804) to London Heathrow (Flight 700)
*These flight numbers are probably incorrect as they changed 100 times over the course of 10 months. These are the ones I have on the booking reservation from May 2012
Confirmation Numbers:
Anastasia 9500374 (MSKBPV with Ethiopia)
Michael Reinhart 9500418 (BAHGXZ with Ethiopia)
Flight 1 was changed in April and we were unable catch it based on our international flights into Europe. Cheapo sent as an email to notify us. We then spent a number of hours on the phone telling Cheapo that this new flight would not fit into our schedule as we would not be in Frankfurt when our Ethiopian airline trip was departing. We needed a later flight to Africa. Cheapo told us we'd be charged to make these changes....even though Ethiopian airlines was willing to make the changes for free. So we contacted Ethiopian airlines and they changed our flight with no charge (and we made Cheapo aware of this, as they suggested we deal with Ethiopia directly on the change if we can get it for free). This was my first alarm flag, and at this point I knew Cheapo was going to cause us angst.
2 Days prior to leaving for Frankfurt and 4 days before leaving for Africa, Cheapo called me and were unable to get a hold of me so they contacted my husband (Michael Reinhart) to let them know that I had a minor change in flight times to Kigali Rwanda. My husband asked why he hadn't been notified. After looking through Cheapo's system it was discovered that on flight 2 he had been put on a waiting list, but I was still confirmed on the flight. They told us we had nothing to worry about. Alarm flag again - how could he have been bumped off of a flight we had booked 10 months earlier?? And since we had booked them together why had he been bumped but not I? And why hadn't he been notified that he was now on a waiting list and would not be able to confirm his flight 1. Upon some further investigation, it appears that Ethiopian Airlines had cancelled our tickets because Cheapo had failed to re-confirm the tickets with the allotted time. It appears that Cheapo was pointing the finger at us, because they supposedly e-mailed us with the changes and wanted us to confirm them. However, we had already spoken with Cheapo and told them we would make the changes directly with Ethiopia Air (which Cheapo had agreed to), and after that happened, we received no further communication needing to confirm or reconfirm anything.
On August 30 (once we were in Frankfurt) we tried to check into our flights on Ethiopian airlines as Cheapo had told us we had nothing to worry about, we unfortunately had no tickets. We then called Cheapo to find out what the problem was - they then told us that Michael Reinhart was number 7 on a waiting list for flight 2 and I was number 6 on the waiting list so they were unable to confirm our tickets on flight 1 - which was the next day. Which led us to more questions - how had we moved down on the list? And what was Cheapo doing to make things right for us...the answer was nothing?? We then contacted Ethiopian airlines who could not help us as our agent had in fact CANCELLED our tickets without our permission a few months earlier, which was why we were now on a waiting list (as I alluded to in the paragraph above). We had to get Cheapo to fix this. We then called Cheapo, and found out that Cheapo had rebooked us for TWO days later even though this is not what we wanted. We were on the phone with Cheapo from 1am to 5am Frankfurt time. We dealt with various customer service representatives, but we found the worst was the rep in India who argued with us, cancelled our flight, rebooked us on the wrong flight and argued with Ethiopian airlines. We spent the entire night trying to get flight 1 back to how we had booked it in November. Cheapo had made a mess of the bookings. We spoke with Ethiopian airlines who's representative was very annoyed with Cheapo (the same Manager from India had been yelling at them) and told us never to book with them again.
After 5 hours of arguing, and fighting to get our reservation BACK onto FLIGHT 1 - back to normal we still couldn't confirm a seat on Flight 2. The only seats available on Flight 2 were first class and would cost us ~$700/each. We really had no option but to book the first class tickets home so that we could still get to Africa in time for our tour.
So even though we had booked our flights in November 2011 - we had in fact lost our tickets and had to pay an additional $1,400 because of Cheapo's inadequate service. Clearly saving a buck at the beginning of the trip cost us later on.
The customer service representatives were awful, the communication method was horrible. My husband and I are FREQUENT travelers, we have a lot of friends that also travel - and we would never recommend Cheapo as an alternative to Expedia & Travelocity. I still feel like we were taken advantage of to pay for first class tickets because Cheapo had cancelled our flights. I would like to request that we be refunded the $1,400 that we had to pay to upgrade our tickets on Flight 2 but after the terrible service we encountered with your company I cannot imagine any sort of retribution payment. I can probably guess that this email will go in the trash bin without any second thought. My husband and I had been planning this trip to Africa for 2 years - it is a once in a lifetime trip, and Cheapo almost wrecked that trip for us. The stress and angst that your company and service caused us is completely unsatisfactory - I would like to report Cheapo to the better business bureau, but I guess it's buyer beware - and we learned our lesson.
My husband and I booked our trip November 2011 to Africa leaving September 2012 (yes 10 months in advance). Our fault for being proactive and booking in advance as our flight changed numerous times over the course of 10 months (not sure if you can tell but I'm being sarcastic, as typically being proactive and planning in advance should eliminate any problems at the time of a trip). My husband chose to book through Cheapo as it had the best rates I was hesitant as I had never heard of the site and figured Expedia or Travelocity were more recognized, in hindsight we made a HUGE mistake. We should've spent more to save ourselves a lot of hassle.
We booked our flight from Calgary to Europe via aeroplan points and we booked the following flight to Africa through cheapo on Ethiopian Airlines
Flight 1) Leaving Frankfurt to Addis Ababa Ethiopia (flight 707) to Kigali Rwanda (flight (807)
Flight 2) Leaving Zanzibar, Addis Ababa Ethiopia (Flight 804) to London Heathrow (Flight 700)
*These flight numbers are probably incorrect as they changed 100 times over the course of 10 months. These are the ones I have on the booking reservation from May 2012
Confirmation Numbers:
Anastasia 9500374 (MSKBPV with Ethiopia)
Michael Reinhart 9500418 (BAHGXZ with Ethiopia)
Flight 1 was changed in April and we were unable catch it based on our international flights into Europe. Cheapo sent as an email to notify us. We then spent a number of hours on the phone telling Cheapo that this new flight would not fit into our schedule as we would not be in Frankfurt when our Ethiopian airline trip was departing. We needed a later flight to Africa. Cheapo told us we'd be charged to make these changes....even though Ethiopian airlines was willing to make the changes for free. So we contacted Ethiopian airlines and they changed our flight with no charge (and we made Cheapo aware of this, as they suggested we deal with Ethiopia directly on the change if we can get it for free). This was my first alarm flag, and at this point I knew Cheapo was going to cause us angst.
2 Days prior to leaving for Frankfurt and 4 days before leaving for Africa, Cheapo called me and were unable to get a hold of me so they contacted my husband (Michael Reinhart) to let them know that I had a minor change in flight times to Kigali Rwanda. My husband asked why he hadn't been notified. After looking through Cheapo's system it was discovered that on flight 2 he had been put on a waiting list, but I was still confirmed on the flight. They told us we had nothing to worry about. Alarm flag again - how could he have been bumped off of a flight we had booked 10 months earlier?? And since we had booked them together why had he been bumped but not I? And why hadn't he been notified that he was now on a waiting list and would not be able to confirm his flight 1. Upon some further investigation, it appears that Ethiopian Airlines had cancelled our tickets because Cheapo had failed to re-confirm the tickets with the allotted time. It appears that Cheapo was pointing the finger at us, because they supposedly e-mailed us with the changes and wanted us to confirm them. However, we had already spoken with Cheapo and told them we would make the changes directly with Ethiopia Air (which Cheapo had agreed to), and after that happened, we received no further communication needing to confirm or reconfirm anything.
On August 30 (once we were in Frankfurt) we tried to check into our flights on Ethiopian airlines as Cheapo had told us we had nothing to worry about, we unfortunately had no tickets. We then called Cheapo to find out what the problem was - they then told us that Michael Reinhart was number 7 on a waiting list for flight 2 and I was number 6 on the waiting list so they were unable to confirm our tickets on flight 1 - which was the next day. Which led us to more questions - how had we moved down on the list? And what was Cheapo doing to make things right for us...the answer was nothing?? We then contacted Ethiopian airlines who could not help us as our agent had in fact CANCELLED our tickets without our permission a few months earlier, which was why we were now on a waiting list (as I alluded to in the paragraph above). We had to get Cheapo to fix this. We then called Cheapo, and found out that Cheapo had rebooked us for TWO days later even though this is not what we wanted. We were on the phone with Cheapo from 1am to 5am Frankfurt time. We dealt with various customer service representatives, but we found the worst was the rep in India who argued with us, cancelled our flight, rebooked us on the wrong flight and argued with Ethiopian airlines. We spent the entire night trying to get flight 1 back to how we had booked it in November. Cheapo had made a mess of the bookings. We spoke with Ethiopian airlines who's representative was very annoyed with Cheapo (the same Manager from India had been yelling at them) and told us never to book with them again.
After 5 hours of arguing, and fighting to get our reservation BACK onto FLIGHT 1 - back to normal we still couldn't confirm a seat on Flight 2. The only seats available on Flight 2 were first class and would cost us ~$700/each. We really had no option but to book the first class tickets home so that we could still get to Africa in time for our tour.
So even though we had booked our flights in November 2011 - we had in fact lost our tickets and had to pay an additional $1,400 because of Cheapo's inadequate service. Clearly saving a buck at the beginning of the trip cost us later on.
The customer service representatives were awful, the communication method was horrible. My husband and I are FREQUENT travelers, we have a lot of friends that also travel - and we would never recommend Cheapo as an alternative to Expedia & Travelocity. I still feel like we were taken advantage of to pay for first class tickets because Cheapo had cancelled our flights. I would like to request that we be refunded the $1,400 that we had to pay to upgrade our tickets on Flight 2 but after the terrible service we encountered with your company I cannot imagine any sort of retribution payment. I can probably guess that this email will go in the trash bin without any second thought. My husband and I had been planning this trip to Africa for 2 years - it is a once in a lifetime trip, and Cheapo almost wrecked that trip for us. The stress and angst that your company and service caused us is completely unsatisfactory - I would like to report Cheapo to the better business bureau, but I guess it's buyer beware - and we learned our lesson.
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