I got my entitled refund for a cancelled flight, but I had to PERSIST & REFUSE EBookers LIES. I booked a flight to Austria, early March, for a ski trip. 2 weeks later, I myself discovered that due to Covid19, Austria were closing all ski slopes, closing all tourist accommodations & refusing landing rights for flights from the UK. Ebookers never informed me of any flight cancellation. Getting through to them via Chat was impossible (it was quite obviously an automated system). I used email & phone, hours on hold. When I did get through, I was told that only a voucher was on offer & they blamed the airline for enforcing this. I refused this & phobed the airline, BA, myself. They told me not to be 'fobbed off with a voucher' & that it is a Condition of Carriage that a full refund was my entitlement, as the service, my flight, was not going ahead. This applies WHETHER OR NOT the flight was booked direct through to airline or via an intermediary, like ebookers. EVEN ON EBOOKERS RECORDED PHONE MESSAGE THEY STATED THAT AIRLINES WERE GIVING VOUCHERS, NOT REFUNDS & THAT THIS MEANT THEIR HANDS WERE TIED. ALSO, VERY CRAFTY) the message prompted me to press 1 to cancel my flight...(a flight that was already cancelled). All that would have done was to get me a voucher, NOT a refund. So DISHONEST. It took more time on hold on the phobe to ebookers. Whenever I emailed, they would not commit to any direct answer & always said I had to phone them. Eventually, after I persisted, I got an agreement to a refund, which I got some 10 days later. EBookers are linked to Expedia, Booking.com, Priceline, Trivago, Travelicity, Hotels.com & more. I already dumped Booking.com for their corrupt Reviews system. Now I have dumped the rest too & will book DIRECT in future.
A couple of weeks ago, I booked a return flight ticket from Copenhagen(CPH) to Istanbul Sabiha Airport(SAW) for August 2016 on ebookers.com. My original plan was flying Copenhagen from London on Friday 29'th July, spending there the weekend with some close friends and flying Istanbul on the 1'st of August.
On Monday last week I received a call along with an email saying that "the airline company has cancelled your outbound flight to Istanbul on the 1'st of August because of operational reasons". And I was told that the Airline Company had already issued me with another ticket for the 2'nd of August. This obviously changed everything! I can not stay in Copenhagen one more night since my friends are going away for a holiday as well; plus I have another booked flight to catch in Istanbul in the afternoon on 2'nd of August. So I have no other chance but to be in Istanbul on the 1'st of August, otherwise I have to change my entire travel plans!
For the following days I contacted Ebookers.com's Customer Service several times in order to finding a solution. Each time I called in I spent nearly an hour on the line and each time there was a different person on the other side of the line. So I had to go through my story over and over again with every single member of Ebookers' Customer Service. After spending two days with Customer Service, I was finally told that Ebookers can not do anything but refunding the ticket price! What a proseffioonal Company & its professional Customer Service Team! Like a joke! Seriously.
Even though the Airline Company has several other direct flights from CPH to Isanbul on 1'st of August, I was kept told that there is no direct flight at all! I told Ebookers that I was OK with arriving Istanbul Ataturk Airport which is not far from Istanbul Sabiha Airport.
After all, Expedia kept saying there is nothing they can do as the Airline Company is not willing to offer me a ticket to Ataturk Airport. I was forced to either take the flight on the 2'nd of August or accept the refund. Flight tickets have doubled since the time I booked my ticket; staying in Copenhagen will cost me exstra; plus I have to cancel my folowing day flight within Turkey and purchase another ticket! A refund will obviously not compansate my lost and it seems like I'll have to cancel my original plans of staying over in Copenhagen and book a direct flight from London to Istanbul on the 1'st of August!
All in all, I can say that Ebookers is far from defending it's customers' rights. They are there to work for their business partners' benefits! They dont have any corporate or business values!; They have a very unprofessional way of dealing with issues!; And their Customer Service is useless!
Don't book any holidays or flights on Ebookers! Avoid! Be aware! They might cancel your booking because of "Operational Reasons"! And I can assure you that they will not even bother to explain what are these Operational reasons! Avoid! Dont buy!
Bad experience including Customer Service when trying to resolve!
Although this was a couple of years ago it was such a bad experience that it is still in the front of my mind. I am only now writing something as I have been going through old emails and I found my emails in relation to this experience. I never complain or write bad reviews but we were really let down and the wonderful holiday was forgotten when we arrived at the airport on our last day.
Now, firstly, my partner and I both double checked everything after booking online before we proceeded with the payment.
I had found an awesome deal for us to go to Istanbul to celebrate Valentine's for which we were super excited as we didn't have much money to celebrate and buy each other presents so this was our present. Anyway, after an awesome holiday we got to the airport and the lady at check-in was taking her time checking the computer. We asked her if there was something wrong and she said that she couldn't find us on the flight. She then said that all she could find was a flight back to Ireland for us on the same date but for the next month. I said this was impossible as we had both checked everything before confirming and paying. She wouldn't let us board and said we could buy tickets for the next flight which would be in about an hour. We then checked our bank accounts which were blocked by the bank due to us using it abroad and forgetting to let the bank know. We missed the next flight and there was only one left which was going to cost 800 between the two of us which we had to take as we had work the following day plus we had no more funds to stay. So after a stressful 3 hours of trying to get the cards unblocked, lending money and getting money transferred we finally boarded the flight. Instead of being on a high after our awesome holiday we were so disappointed, angry and let down. When we got home the first thing I did was check our booking again and it was down as the date that the lady had said but it would have been impossible for us to book it incorrectly - firstly cause we had both ensured everything was correct before paying and secondly because the date we booked back was in the same calendar month but the following week so we did not need to open a new calendar month but just had to move the cursor to the following week on the same calendar. If it was a different month I could understand how it might have gone wrong. My partner is a bit of a perfectionist as well so enough said. I then got hold of Turkish airlines who referred us to Ebookers as we booked it through them but they were not any help at all saying that we were supposed to ensure everything was ok before paying and it could not ever be an issue on their side which I do not agree with. Things could go wrong with technology as well. Maybe with the details passed on from e-bookers to the airlines but basically they didn't give two **** and that was that. So they were no help to us at and I have not booked anything through their website again. I would rather go directly to the airlines or Skyscanner who I find brilliant!
This is my open letter to Ebookers
Congrats Ebookers. You're currently the WORST TRAVEL AGENT EVER. You are probably going to delete this just like how you did to my previous post. To anyone reading this STEER AWAY FROM EBOOKERS. Extremely appalled at the terrible customer service, very incompetent bunch of service staff giving template answers and absolutely of no help to my situation. I GAVE UP WITH MY NAME CHANGE PROBLEM.
Firstly they want to charge 10pounds to add my Chinese name into the ticket. Fair enough. In my Defence, Chinese names are confusing because they don't categorise as middle name but yet they are not first names hence the order of name becomes a hassle. It is not reflected on my ticket hence I cannot depart the country and Ebookers will only refund 120pounds for a 470 pounds ticket.
Secondly they said the airline charged them 50pounds hence the cost will be passed to me. BUT WAIT! That's not the end. They said that in the event of difference in taxes and fees for my ticket I would have to pay the extra. That means they have to cancel my ticket and hence pay for the difference in my 'new ticket' AN INCREDIBLE INCOMPETENT WAY OF TICKET BOOKING AND A COLOSSAL SCAM. Why is my name change not on the same ticket? But having to rebook a 'new ticket'? Is this not a way to get me to buy a new one at a higher price and hence increasing your commissions? Hence if the total price of my ticket is higher the larger your commission?
Lastly your customer service is abysmal. It is so so bad. I've made over 100pounds worth of calls all the way from Singapore to your 'helpline'. They did everything but help. Terrible attitude and offered zero probable solutions to my problem. I had to brainstorm for you them only to be rejected by 'sorry ma'am, policy, regulations crap crap crap.' You've ruined my holiday. Don't you dare call yourself a premier travel site. Don't you dare.
Ebookers sucks!
I have a MAJOR COMPLAINT with EBOOKERS.COM
The incident is narrated below:
I called a travel agency (ebookers.com) while in London around March 2013 to help me book a flight from London to New York for APRIL 9th 2013. The agent suggested several flights and ended up giving me a London-Montreal-NewYork flight. There is a Montreal layover of 1.5 hours. I told the agent that "I have a Philippine passport and a B1-B2 tourist visa for the US, is that ok?" and the agent said try to check with your local embassy regarding visas for transit flights etc etc. Thinking i didn't need a visa for the 1.5 layover, i didn't bother checking besides they're the agency so they should help me book a flight based on the documents i had already mentioned.
At the day of my flight, I was at the airport about to board but the staff didn't let me get on the plane cos apparently I needed a Canadian visa for the layover. I COMPLETELY MISSED THE FLIGHT AND HAD TO FLY A DIFFERENT AIRLINE THAT DID NOT REQUIRE ANY TRANSIT. Upon arrival to the US, my luggage was delayed for 2 days and it was slashed open when it was delivered to me. My return flight to London supposedly last MAY 14 goes from New york-Toronto-London so whether or not I needed a transit visa, it was pointless to fly that same flight back.
After weeks and weeks of arguments with call center agents and supervisors of ebookers over the phone from New York, they said its not an agent error so they won't refund me nor reroute my flight back or any other offer to settle the whole thing. My point is as a PAYING CUSTOMER, I needed the service of a travel agency to avoid the hassle of booking most especially because I didn't know if I needed other documents for travel. All i knew was I had the US visa. I gave my details and the agent shouldn't have assumed that I had documents. They should have just given me a direct flight knowing that I had a Philippine passport and a US tourist visa. The agent was very insistent in selling the ticket though I've said during the conversation that I WANTED TO PUT THE PHONE DOWN FIRST AND CHECK THE FLIGHTS FOR MYSELF ONLINE because I had a hard time figuring it out over the phone. Basically, the travel agent DID NOT REALLY CARE if I had documents. He barely asked questions about it. ALL HE WAS REALLY CONCERNED ABOUT WAS MAKING THE TICKET SALE. EBOOKERS SHOULD NOT BE A TRAVEL AGENCY INSTEAD, A TICKETING OFFICE! I would've just booked the ticket on my own if I HAD TO FIGURE OUT ALL THE DOCUMENT REQUIREMENTS ON MY OWN!
As I have said, I had been talking to agents and supervisors of the call centers in India and Philippines (connected with ebookers) complaining about what happened. I booked through an indian call center and they made me listen to the audio bit of the conversation when I say that I had a Philippine passport and b1-b2 us visa and the agent said check with your local embassy etc. AGAIN INSISTING THAT THERE WAS'NT ANY AGENT ERROR.
NO AMENDS WERE OFFERED. I PAID FOR A ROUNDTRIP TICKET THAT I NEVER EVEN FLEW ON WITH THE COMPANY'S KNOWLEDGE AND STILL NOT A SINGLE PENNY WAS GIVEN BACK OR OFFERED TO ME.
THIS IS CLEARLY THE MOST SHAMEFUL COMPANY I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. YOUR EXECUTIVES SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THE KIND OF SERVICE THAT THEIR COMPANY PROVIDES THEIR CUSTOMERS!