Back in November of last year I purchased a ticket from CheapOair from Toronto to Santiago de Chile, with a connection in between (Toronto-Miami-Santiago). The trip was to take place on December 21st, 2021 and cost me $2,532.89 in total.

There were issues with the scheduling from the beginning: First, a few days after booking, I noticed that I couldn't access the itinerary online and the charge was gone from my credit card. After some back and forth via email, CheapOair confirmed my flight and charge.

Four days before my flights (in the middle of the COVID-19 airports hecticness), I received an email from Air Canada (AC) stating that my itinerary had changed, which wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that my connecting flight from Miami to Santiago would leave before my flight from Toronto arrived at Miami!. A bit of a pickle. Spoke with Air Canada and they directed me to CheapoAir (as Cheapo were the ones who booked me), but not without telling me that they thought the way my flight was booked by CheapOair was a mess (which might have explained the earlier issues).

It was nearly impossible to get in touch with Cheapo at this point (which I sort of understood given all the craziness happening at the airports). In the middle of this mess, the day of the flights, I get these notifications from AC that my flight to Miami is now canceled.

I proceed to ask CheapOair for a refund for the whole itinerary; Cheapo says they'll work on it and asks me to give them time given the circumstances--I find that reasonable.

On January 2nd, I get a refund forrrr…: $1,021.21 (Original ticket was $2,532.89 all in --expensive I know. Flights to Santiago were: $1,021.21 and return flights to Toronto were: $1,511.68.) So I'm still owed: $1,511.68

I of course try to get in touch with CheapOair to say: "Where is the rest of my money?". And what do they do? THEY TELL ME I HAVE TO GET IN TOUCH WITH COPA AIRLINES TO CANCEL AND REFUND on the pretext that COPA had already made changes to the flight, allegedly at my request, so they had "lost the ability to make changes" (I hadn't even reached out to COPA). I tell them that's unacceptable and that the cancellation and refund request should have been requested by Cheapo weeks prior. Plus, I bought the ticket through Cheapo, not COPA. After some back and forth they agreed to deal with COPA.

The day of my return flight arrives, I get all kinds of flight notification from COPA so I email CheapOair multiple times to ask "What's up?" I hear nothing until after the COPA return flight departs, when I'm told again that they are working on the refund.

Five months later, I'm still waiting for my $1,511.68 (although I do get the occasional automated email from CheapOair telling me how hard they are working on my case).

I had sort of moved on but a marketing email from CheapoAir today just inspired me to let the world know what a fraud they really are.

Needless to say, never using them again.

THIS COMPANY IS A BIG SCAM

STAY AWAY FROM THEM

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER

FILED AN OFFICIAL COMPLAINT T BBB CANADA

To traveling public - AVOID using Cheapoair because the firm will abandon and leave you to fend for yourself when post-sale complication arises! I have documented my problem and complaint to Cheapoair and their response below. There were no admission of culpability for not providing post-sale service and accepting responsibility for agent's inaction, nor did they response to my two questions. A token offer of $50 and coupon is laughable and meaningless because 1) without admitting culpability, they are really saying they are not obligated to provide after-sale service, 2) more incredulously, they are expecting you to submit yourselves to similar treatment by booking with them again! Read it and you can judge for yourselves:

Complaint Sent To Cheapoair:
Aug 12,18:45 EDT
Mr. Sam S. Jain
CEO & Founder, CheapOair.ca
Administrative Office
7100 Woodbine Ave., Suite 406,
Markham, ON, L3R 5J2
Dear Sir,
I would have written sooner had I not been taken ill upon my return. I am writing toregister a complain of incredible bad service I received from CheapOair for my purchase of two round trip tickets from Edmonton(YEG) to Kuala Lumpur(KUL). My wife (Lee, Seow Khum) and I (Tok, Thomas YS) bought these tickets on March 25th, 2019 (etickets #*******945/46and*******947/48, respectively) for travel departing July 10th, 2019 and returning August 4th, 2019. This is our first time buying air tickets through CheapOair.
However, on Jul 7th, I received a phone call from CheapOair agent advising me that there has been a change to my itinerary. When asked what the change was, I was told that the PEK-KUL segment of my itinerary has been cancelled. When I enquired further as to what CheapOair was going to do to address the issue, the agent's initial shocking response was what was my problem the YEG-YVR-PEK segments of my itinerary were still valid. When I reminded him that my final destination is KUL, not PEK and I have no intention of been stranded in PEK, he then offered to help me book another ticket to KUL, which I have to pay for separately! When I protested that was not an acceptable response because I bought our tickets through CheapOair and I expected CheapOair to help me resolve the issue at hand, his response was, "sorry, Air China did not offer us any options, and the best I can do is cancel the tickets and refund you the purchase price". WhenI further protested that what he had proposed was acceptable, as I would not be able to purchase tickets at a reasonable price at this late date as we were scheduled to fly out in three days on Jul 10th, he offered Air China's contact number and asked that I contact them for a solution. I was left with no alternatives but to scrambled to contact Air China to resolve my problem. I spent the rest of my day, Jul 7th, 2019, working with Air China to resolve the issue. To Air China's credit, they DID COME UP WITH AN ALTERNATE ITINERARY to get me to my destination! Not an ideal solution - a day later but a solution nevertheless! What is even more incredulous was Air China told me they were not able to issue us the new revised etickets because the original etickets were initiated/issued by CheapOair and the revision therefore must also be issued by CheapOair! I have to subsequently call CheapOair; give your agent the new itinerary and flight details in order that he can amend and make the request to reissue the new etickets **************/08,*******096/97, respectively)!
Sir, it is my understanding that CheapOair record all your agents phone calls with customers so you will have no difficulty verifying the accuracy of my above statement. The questions I am asking you today are these:
1. Is it cheapOair policy to NOT assist customers with post-sale issues such as the one I had encountered? If that is indeed CheapOair policy, please state so clearly on your website and let buyer beware! The fact that Air China was not able to issue me revised etickets because the original etickets were initiated by CheapOair, and can only be revise/amend by CheapOair, would suggest to me that CheapOairhas an obligation to service your customers regarding itinerary/flight change issues. Nevertheless, a clear policy statement from you would be appreciated; I am sure the rest of the shopping public would like a clear answer on this matter as well. If my experience was an aberration, what do you intend to do to remedy the problem and assure the shopping public that they will not suffer similar fate? Since CheapOair charge a fee for selling the ticket, I would think it is not unreasonable to expect post-sale service. For the purpose of full disclosure, I have full intention of postingmy complaint and your response on relevant social media websites so that others can benefit from my experience.
2. Is it also CheapOair policy to notify your customers only 2-3 days prior to departures of itinerary/flight changes? In my communications with them, Air China informed me that the PEK-KUL (and KUL-PEK) segments were canceled six weeks prior to my departure date of Jul 10th, 2019, and all the booking agents were advised of it at the time. It would appearvery callous to me to leave it to the very last minute to inform your customer of the changes if the airlines have notify CheapOair six weeks prior of the flight changes. By waiting until the very last minute, CheapOair is leaving the traveller with very limited options for change, and incurring other unexpected expenses. In my case, in addition to having to settle for extra and very long layovers (9 hours in PEK(outbound), 2 hours in SIN(outbound), 5 hours in BKK(inbound), 14 hours in PEK(inbound)), I was forced to forfeit USD100 for prepaid transport fare to take my wife and I from the airport (KUL) to our final destination 300 Km from the airport, because our arrival was pushed back a day. I would therefore respectfully ask CheapOair to, at the very least, consider reimbursing me this USD100forfeiture.
I, and fellow travellers, look forward to your answers to my questions above.
Sincerely Yours,
Thomas Tok

Cheapoair response:

Nashton (Cheapoair)
Aug 13,22:13 EDT
Dear Thomas,

Thank you for contacting CheapOair.ca.

This is with reference to your booking #*******.

We understand your concern regarding feedback.

We truly regret if you weren't satisfied with the assistance provided when you contacted us by phone. We are committed to monitoring the quality of the services and products we provide. Your feedback will help our quality audit team to look into the incident and provide necessary coaching to the agent.

We sincerely appreciate your insight because it helps us build a better customer experience.

However, as gesture of goodwill we can offer you refund of CAD 50.00 which will reflect in your account in next 7-14 business days and an inconvenience coupon of CAD 50.00 which can be use for your next booking.

You may apply a promo code on your online purchase. In order to use your coupon code, once you have chosen the desired dates and cities, click on "Search". Our website will display flight options. If you hit the 'BOOK' button, it will take you to the "Review Trip Details and Book" where you can go to the price detail column. Then click on "Promo Code", input your selected code and click on 'Apply'. It then takes the code you have chosen for your discount.

*The maximum discount from all our promo codes is the value of our service fee charged on the booking.

If you agree please reply to this email stating "I agree for refund and coupon".

We appreciate your business and thank you for choosing CheapOair.
Thank you,
Nashton
Email Customer Support

I booked my tickets from cheapoair for my parents on 2nd January 2019
Unfortunately i got unlucky it was jet airways after 3 months I heard that jet airways canceling their flights.and I didn't got any email from cheapoair that my flight also gonna cancle after that I called to cheapoair for the flight status thay told me wait &watch we can't do anything from our side
I was worried about my parents and I tried to cancel and cheapoair cancelled my flight on 15th april 2019 and charged me 500$ CAD
And suddenly after 2 days on 17 th april 2019 jet airways declared that thay cancelled all thair flight and they will refund full amount to passengers
I called again to cheapoair and thay told me they will refund me 500$ CAD which is cancellation charge that they charged me while cancellation
And also they told me i will get half amount from my jet airways tickets they didn't mention this thing on cancellation day
Very disappointed from cheapoair service worst ever i will not gonna buy tickets from cheapoair
Even I didn't get refund yet its been an over months

Cheapoair has the WORST customer service. We booked our flights for a trip in January 2019. We arrived at the airport to get a call from customer service saying that they didn't confirm our flights and we had no flight booked! We were heading to the Philippines from Canada and had a 24 hr layover in Singapore which we planned to stay the night at a hotel.

This messed up our plans as we had a strict timeline to follow while in the Philippines travelling to other islands (other flights booked to catch).

We spent about 8 hrs on the phone as they kept putting us on hold (20-40 minutes at a time) and transferring us to a supervisor one after the other, all requesting for the same information. 7 hrs on the phone with them meant they didn't rebook us a flight for the same day.

We ended up taking a chance and rebooking with Flighthub to be able to leave on the same day (midnight by then). After another 2 hrs on the phone with them on top of the 7, they finally agreed to refund us our money and gave us $100 credit.

They also suggested we stay in Singapore on stand by eventhough the China eastern flight agent at the airport was explaining to them that we would need the connection flight information or else we will be deported back to Canada. The Cheapoair customer service agent insisted for us to not listen to them and still go on stand by saying they didn't know what they were talking about. Cheapoair customer service agents are willing to tell you anything.

We said we would never book with Cheapoair again but we might as well use the $100 credit, so here I am currently on the phone with them because of course this credit is only redeemable through the phone and it's been 1hr and 11 minutes. And of course I have been transtered 3 times now to a "supervisor" that needs to approve this credit. They are making this extremely difficult for us to redeem the compensation for having not even confirming our flights in January leaving us without a flight on a trip that we have been planning for months.

Basically their customer service tactic is to leave you waiting on the phone pissed off for long periods of time until THEY HOPE you (the customer) gets fed up with waiting. Cheapoair DOES NOT HAVE CUSTOMER SERVICE.

It's another 15 minutes has passed and yes I am still on the phone on hold waiting to talk to the "supervisor".

Going to flighthub to book my flights instead.

On April 16th 2018 I booked an Enterprise mini van rental for pick up in the US through CheapOair #*******. I was quoted not only on the website but also in a confirmation email a total price in Canadian dollars. 9 days for $528.13CAD was a fantastic price! When I received the 2nd email from CheapOair, confirming the reservation with Enterprise, it revealed the price of $513.13US! A significant increase in price with a currency of exchange of 30%.
I called to sort this issue out, and the agent immediately canceled the reservation, and agreed to book it for me over the phone (#*******) and to honor the CAD price. Again, I received the confirmation email quoting Canadian dollars, but when the 2nd email arrived it was again $513.13US.
I called back again, and the manager on staff (Suzie) assured me that my price was indeed in Canadian funds. I explained that I was not confident of this, so she supposedly spoke to someone directly at Enterprise while she put me on hold. She came back and said yes, you will only pay $513.13CAD at the time of pickup.
As my reservation was not until September, I was not willing to wait until the day I was picking the van up to find out it was not the price I was promised. So I called Enterprise directly myself, gave them my reservation number, and they confirmed it would be is US... exactly as suspected!
So I called CheapOair back for a 3rd time and spoke to Suzie again, and she was still insisting that I was wrong, so I told her to call them again and speak to a manager this time. She admitted that when she called Enterprise the first time, she did not speak to anyone directly, that it was just an IVR message. This time she spoke to a live person, and they assured her it would be billed in US funds.
After 3 incorrect bookings, both online and with an agent, all Suzie was willing to do was cancel the reservation for a 3rd time and asked me to go ahead and book again in hopes that I could find a better price with a different car rental company. I am furious! The error was on your part, you were not offering or willing to compensate in any way, and you wanted me to book through you again?!?! NO WAY!

Unfortunately for me I have also booked airfare through you a couple weeks ago, which was non refundable, otherwise I would be canceling them as well. I wish I had never set eyes on this company, and there is no way I would ever give you my business again! Enjoy the $1160. 00CAD you already got from me CheapOair, because it will be the last time I ever do business with you!

I would recommend to family and friends

Not always the shortest route, but economical...

Quick service

Cheap0air is my first choice when booking flights - fast, flexible, cheapest*