Kieran P.

I booked a flight with trip.com from Havana Cuba to Buenos Aires Argentina for the 8 February 2023.

I booked the flight on 31 January 2023. And I cancelled the flight within 24hrs.

The flight was with American Airlines (Ticket Number **************).

I made my booking based on the information provided for the flight on trip.com. As it turned out the information provided on the trip.com website was incomplete, inaccurate and completely useless.

I learnt after making the booking that a visa was required to transit the USA from Cuba and that the US embassy in Cuba was not processing transit visas (required an interview and they weren't conducting the interviews).

You can't get a transit visa from Cuba. And I confirmed this with the US embassy in Havana.

Trip.com then proceeded to tell me the flight was non-refundable.

I contacted American Airlines and they said the refund would be authorised but trip.com as the travel agent selling the flight needed to process it.

After conveying to trip.com what American Airlines had confirmed on the phone (that the flight was refundable in full) trip.com agreed to the refund.

They said due to covid it might take a while. Might take a while in February 2023 due to covid. Yeah, right.

5 weeks on I still don't have the refund.

I now have written confirmation from trip.com that it's all the airlines fault. They've said exactly that in 2 emails that I can provide if the site admins want confirmation. One is posted to this review.

Trip.com have confirmed that they relied on the details provided by American Airlines when advertising the flight information.

And trip.com have also confirmed in writing that it is American Airlines who despite stating clearly on the phone that the flight was refundable, have decided that it's now to be an utterly useless flight credit.

Useless because I'm no longer in Havana or anywhere the US.

Don't use this airline. I will never book them again and will continue to advise everyone I know to avoid American Airlines.

I booked a flight with trip.com from Havana Cuba to Buenos Aires Argentina for the 8 February 2023. I booked the flight on 31 January 2023. The flight was with American Airlines.

I made my booking based on the information provided for the flight on trip.com. As it turned out the information provided on the trip.com website was incomplete, inaccurate and completely useless.

I learnt after making the booking that a visa was required to transit the USA from Cuba and that the US embassy in Cuba was not processing transit visas (required an interview and they weren't conducting the interviews).

You can't get a transit visa from Cuba. And I confirmed this with the US embassy in Havana.

Trip.com then proceeded to tell me the flight was non-refundable. Despite the American Airlines policy being that the flights are refundable within 24hrs. I contacted American Airlines and they said the refund would be authorised but trip.com as the agent selling the flight needed to process it.

After conveying to trip.com what American Airlines had confirmed both on their website and over the phone (that the flight was refundable in full) trip.com agreed to the refund.

They said due to covid it might take a while. Might take a while in February 2023 due to covid - wtf?

5 weeks on I still don't have the refund.

In order to leave Cuba I found an alternate flight to Bogotá Colombia with Colombian airline Wingo. Wingo has 3 classes of tickets (basic, plus, premium). And I checked trip.com again to compare the Wingo flight prices.

What I found was that trip.com was selling only the 'basic' Wingo ticket class that does not include checked baggage for more that 50% over what Wingo sells its 'premium' class ticket.

trip.com is both a rip off (prices are inflated) and a scam because they mark refundable tickets as non-refundable. They also have incorrect flight information on their website - selling tickets from destinations (like Cuba) that they know clients can't use (because they can't board the flights).

Trip.com is one airline booking engine I will never use again. Full review on my website inlovelyblue.com.

**Edited - Review updated to include the email 'Kevin' from trip.com is referring to below. And what they seem to keep wanting to gloss over is that the US embassy in Havana reopened in December 2022. That's when all the airlines transiting the USA (American Airlines) started operating again.But the US embassy doesn't yet have the staff to process transit visas. The information they're providing people is 6 months or more ahead of the actual process (confirmed with the embassy). Meaning any non US citizen who buys a 1 way flight out of Cuba will be in the same situation. Scam website. Stay away from them - and ACCC they're screwing Australians - shut them down.