Poor Support Through Covid-19 Outbreak
I always take things with a grain of salt and try to look into the positives of everything but I cannot find a single one with Vayama, unfortunately.

It's a trying time with the uncertainty of Covid-19, and I get that. Being on hold for an hour was the least bit of my frustration. What really had me frustrated was that I had originally booked two tickets from Kayak directly from Air Canada from Portland, OR to Ho Chi Minh City, by way of Air Canada through Vancouver B. C. and Seoul, South Korea as stopovers.

I then booked an additional ticket for my sister on the same flights through Kayak but this time, it was through the intermediary Vayama.

Air Canada currently has a goodwill policy that'll allow customers who are transmitting through South Korea to rebook free of charge. I didn't mind waiting on the phone for Air Canada's customer service for 2 hours, but at least they were able address my concerns and rebook me on a flight to Ho Chi Minh City from Portland, OR by way of Tokyo, Japan free of charge in accordance with their goodwill policy.

When I had contacted Vayama's customer service to change my sisters flight to the same one I just rebooked with Air Canada to ensure my sister wouldn't have to travel alone. The Vayama customer service representative had stated that because there is no flight serviced by Air Canada from Tokyo to Ho Chi Minh City, we cannot rebook your flight. I get it, you're a travel agency which may limit what access you have in rebooking flights from different airlines, so I asked if the Vayama customer service representative would be able to find an Air Canada flight from Tokyo to Ho Chi Minh around the travel dates I laid out. The customer service representative said no there are not.

So I reconfirmed that the two options Vayama would best support their customers with is to cancel a non-refundable ticket, wait to see if the flight gets cancelled in order to receive a refund or travel to South Korea, in which the United States CDC and State Department has a level 3 warning for (avoid all non-essential travel), she said yes and that has left me hopeless in Vayama's ability to support their customers in a trying time such as the Covid-19 outbreak.

I express high disappointment with Vayama, and believe this may be my last time utilizing their service. It just bewilders me that in accordance to their goodwill policy that Air Canada is able to re-accommodate, while Vayama cannot honor such policy laid out by the airline through unforeseen circumstances.

I hope whoever may be reading this reconsiders the next time they book through Vayama to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

I booked a flight to Paris for a girls vacation with a layover in DC to pick up one of our girlfriends along the way. The outbound flight had no issue. However, I got an email about 4 months out saying our flight home from DC to Phx was delayed an hour... no problem. About a month later, I got a second email saying this same flight was now delayed exactly 24h! So of course, I called customer service to sort this out. And they were completely useless. So I called United directly as it was a Brussels Flight operated by United and United found me a flight on the same day as my original flight just a few hours later. They did tell me they would reserve my seat but the original agency would need to call them to book me on the flight and reissue the ticket. Fine. At least United was beyond helpful. So I called Vayama back and gave them the info for the new flight I needed them to rebook for me (literally doing their job for them) and they tried to rebook my flight from Paris to Chicago to Phoenix? Wtf! Not even close to what we spoke about. When I again explained my request to them, they said they would issue an inquiry to the airliner because 1) excuse #1 they can't rebook on United since Brussels is the airliner so I explained the United lady said it WAS possible since United operates the flight and agreed to it free of charge so 2) #2 next excuse was they could not find the flight I sought out and would have to wait until the inquiry was completed in "24h or a few days or some time"... when I subsequently asked if the inquiry included the specific United flight I was requesting the Vayama customer service gentleman continued to repeat himself that I would need to wait for the inquiry to be completed so I asked to speak to a manager twice. I wanted to ensure that the inquiry included the flight I was requesting so there would be no further delays. However, twice I was told there was no supervising manager available to speak to... rather abruptly "no you cannot y'all to my boss"... next thing I know the customer service agent muted the phone and he is not responding to me for approximately 2.5 minutes even though I keep asking "hello?", prompting me to hang up the phone. Completely useless. Next time I'm booking directly through United for a few extra bucks.

Read in english down my opinion: ES: es increible vayama lleva años con la nueva web lleva 5 años pero estafando gente lleva 14 años! Esta ubicado en la india y no en Estados Unidos ni Holanda como se pone siempre esta alargando el tiempo contestando tiene un montón de gente contratada para estafar en call center y en las redes sociales y jamas te devolverán el dinero y tampoco obtendrás los tickets de vuelo porque son estafadores internacionales, recién me entero ahora porque mi hermana no sabe ingles y llame al call center todos ellos hablan con acento indu no les van entender y ellos solo dicen que envie email y jamas te responden se mantiene diciendo que ya esta en proceso que verifiques esa gente que trabaja para ellos esta entrenada se perdio ahi $1000! Dolares si te han estafado ve a su redes sociales y denunciarlos ya hice eso en facebook y instagram para que bajen sus redes sociales tambien enviare un email a IATA porque usan su logo y mi hermana por eso confió y no reviso referencias en la web lo único que nos queda hacer es ir a la policía y denunciarlos por delito informático a ver si acaso logramos con el banco podemos lograr que ellos nos ayuden... aunque lo dudo... EN: It is incredible. Going has been with the new website for 5 years, but being people has been for 14 years! It is located in India and not in the United States or Holland as it gets always lengthening the time answering has a lot of people hired to cheat in call center and social networks and will never return your money and you will not get flight tickets either Because they are international scammers, I just found out now because my sister does not know English and call the call center. They all speak with an accent. They are not going to understand them and they just say that I send email and they never answer you. It keeps saying that it is already in process. Check those people who work for them are trained lost $ 1000! Dollars if you have been scammed go to their social networks and report them I already did that on facebook and instagram to download their social networks I will also send an email to IATA because they use their logo and my sister for that reason I trust and do not check references on the web the only thing What we have left to do is go to the police and report them for a computer crime to see if we succeed with the bank we can get them to help us... although I doubt it... they are SCAMMERS from INDIA

We booked five overseas tickets 8 months ahead of time. Unfortunately my brother who is the caregiver of my 95 year old mother passed away. I can no longer leave the country because I became the caregiver by default. I contacted Vayama two months before the flight, I was advised that the ticket is non refundable, I asked if there is any exception to the airline policy (All Nippon Airline) because of family emergency, I was asked to provide a death certificate and proof of relationship to my brother which we complied. They said it will take about 4 weeks for the airline to comply, this is back in Nov. 1,2018. We made the follow up after 5 weeks and they said they submitted the request and the Airline have not replied and they will contact us if there is any response from the airline. We called ANA Airline and was advised that they cannot help us because VAYAMA is supposed to contact them. The Airline said there is a separate customer service for travel agency that VAYAMA can call but they cannot provide the phone number to me. Various calls were made to VAYAMA customer service, each time I called I have different answers. Here are the response from VAYAMA: (1) We are working on it, we submitted the request. (2) We are waiting for Airline decision. (3) We will contact you within 5 -7 days by e-mail. (4) The Airline made the decision we will send the response via e-mail today Dec. 13,2018. This is the Supervisor's advised named Sona. (5) Today Dec. 15,2018, I called, the response was we made a mistake there is no decision by the Airline. The flight will be on the 26th of this month and I still have no response from the airl; ine. Can they make a
5. I called today because there were no e-mail receive, ther response was we made a mistake we are still waiting for the response from the Airline. They don't even call the Airline, I assumed that they are not contacting the Airline because it will affect their commission. The ticket cost more than $900.00. VAYAMA's Customer Service sucks, if they cannot convince you with brilliance they will convince you with bull$#*!. We will never again buy tickets from this travel agency. I will tell all my facebook friends and my Instagrams to stay away from VAYAMA. I'm still grieving the death of my brother and I have to go through this B. S. VAYAMA have mercy on your customers, my message to customer service, please put yourself in the customer's position, the frustration that you made added more stress to me. HAVE CONCIENCE, YOU CANNOT TAKE ALL YOIUR PROFITS TO YOUR GRAVE.

I purchased a ticket through Vayama website. I received two confirmation codes and two separate Vayama charges on my credit card. I called Vayama, spoke to a customer service representative who told me there was just one ticket and I shouldn't worry, it would fall off my credit card and I would only be charged once. Three days later I see there are still two tickets and two charges on my account (except this time they've actually posted to my credit card and the amount has been withdrawn TWICE). I emailed Vayama and didn't receive a response (even though I have an email tracker and I know they read my email), I then called Vayama and spoke to an employee who said her name was Susan, I explained the situation: Her company had charged me twice for the same ticket, and I just wanted a refund for the double charge. Susan was by far, the rudest customer service person I have EVER had to deal with. She said it was my problem, I had bought two tickets and there was nothing she or anyone could do about it. I explained to her that it was literally impossible for me to buy two tickets for myself for the same flight on the same day, at the same time. And I kindly asked if I could speak to her supervisor. She said "I am the supervisor and I won't be transferring you to anyone, so whatever you want to say you can say to me, but you paid for the ticket twice so it's your fault and that's that" She was so rude and literally shouting at me, that my husband who was on the other side of the room asked me who was shouting at me on the other line. He could not believe it was a customer service rep. Really unacceptable and unprofessional. This "Susan" agent/supervisor was unwilling to see that maybe there was some glitch in her system, maybe their website put my card through twice, she just blamed the customer for the problem and refused to help resolve it.

I then called Lufthansa - the company that Vayama had booked me to travel with, and they said it was a really easy fix, all Vayama had to do was call them, give them the duplicate ticket numbers and the airline would credit me back for one. This woman "Susan" was unwilling to help me in any way and didn't offer this as a potential solution. Had I booked directly with Lufthansa, this would not have been an issue. For a company that deems themselves a "Travel agent with great customer support" this has absolutely not been my experience. I spoke to Lufthansa who told me all Vayama had to do was "Contact the Lufthansa travel agency support line, explain the situation, give my two travel confirmations and get a waiver to cancel booking for free."

But Vayama refused to call Lufhtansa, they refused to transfer me to an actual supervisor, they lied about one of the charges falling off my credit card and then blamed me for a double booking and told me that it was my fault that I had spent the money on the same ticket twice and there was nothing they could/would do about it. I asked Susan "What normal human being would purchase two tickets for themselves for the same flight on the same day at the exact same time? Does that seem like something people do?" It must have been a technical issue, and yet, they were unwilling to take responsibility, or even try to fix the problem which according to the airline would take only a phone call from the travel agent! Instead they are choosing to hold on to my money (TWICE) and refusing to provide any customer support regarding this situation. This is unjust, unfair and HAS to be illegal, especially since the airline assured me this happens from time to time and travel agents usually just call in and fix the double booking. Vayama's unwillingness to help in this situation is unacceptable. I filed a claim with the BBB, another claim with the FTC and another claim with the ASTA, I also filed a dispute with my credit card for the double charge, and sent a second email to Vayama. Still no resolution, and what should have been a $482 flight has turned into a $964 one way ticket! I hope justice is done. I recommend not supporting this company or it's sister companies, they should be held accountable for their terrible customer service. Please note that Vayama is owned by Travix International B. V. and some sister companies include: BudgetAir, CheapTicktes, Flugladen, Vayama, Vliegwinkel and others. Please do not support any of these companies, as they all fall under the same corporate umbrella and probably have this kind of terrible customer service across the board.

No surprise they have 1 star (out of 5) on average from 91 reviewers on BBB! #Vayama #*******@Vayama

Learning the basics of flying a plane is not too difficult. What separates a good pilot from a bad pilot, however, is how they handle the unexpected and unforeseen events.
I apply this same principle to Vayama. As long as there are no problems, you probably got a pretty good deal on your ticket. Once a problem is encountered, however, Vayama is nowhere to be found.

I purchased my tickets from RDU (Raleigh) to MUC (Munich) months in advance. We originally had a two-hour layover in Dulles before boarding a Lufthansa flight to Munich. In the interim, I received two emails notifying me of scheduling changes to the RDU-IAD flight on United. The second changed the departure time so that we now had only a one-hour and twelve minute layover in Dulles. I knew that this would not be enough time if there were any unexpected events getting to Dulles.

Sure enough, the day of the flight thunderstorms delayed our flight from RDU to IAD long enough that we missed our flight to Munich. I was aware of this potential and emailed Vayama the day before, asking to rebook us on an earlier flight. I didnt know if that was possible, but I never even heard back from them on this.

At Dulles, it took me about ½ n hour to finally get in touch with a Vayama rep, who sounded like I woke her up from a nap. She was absolute no help and acted as if it was a real nuisance that she had to deal with finding us another flight to Munich.

Fortunately, my wife was simultaneously on the phone with United, who booked us on a flight the next day for no extra charge. We lost a day in Munich, one nights lodging, and the price of a rental car in Dulles so that we wouldnt have to sleep in the airport. I have contacted Vayama and am waiting to hear back from them.

The remaining flights went as planned.

DO NOT BOOK WITH VAYAMA! A friend had booked 2 tickets through them for an upcoming trip and they misspelled my name by 2 letters accidentally. The trip was 2 months away so we figured it wasn't a huge deal and would be able to get it fixed easily. I had emailed and explained the situation and got a reply saying they would reach out to the airline to see if it was possible and it was subject to airline approval and would get a reply in 3-5 business days. After a week with no reply I called Vayama and spent over an hour on the phone with them while they told me they could not correct my name on the ticket and we would have to purchase a whole new ticket for over $2000. The original ticket was $1300 and originally told me we could be refunded for that amount and would take 45 days, and then turned around and told me it was non-refundable and our only option was to purchase a new ticket. I asked to speak to a manager and I was told there were no managers there. I asked to speak to their name change department, which they do have, and she told me they have "limited access to who they can speak to and I could not talk to them. I was clearly getting frustrated and asked to speak to someone else. She laughed at me and told me I could not speak to anyone else. She advised me to call the airline, so I did. Finnair was the operating airline so I called them and explained the situation and they told me it was not a big deal, was a very easy fix and would only be a $25 name change fee. She explained that since we booked through Vayama they had control over the tickets and Vayama would have to do it on their end. I called Vayama back and told them this and they laughed at me again and told me the only option was to purchase another ticket for $2000. After this conversation was going nowhere I called Finnair back and told them they would not do it. Finnair was able to then separate our bookings and correct my name with a $25 charge. Our bookings or seats were no longer together but our flights were all the same thankfully. It was a huge mess over a small accidental error that anyone could have made. I definitely feel like they were just trying to get our money and were unwilling to help. My advice for next time is to never book through one of these third party sites and to always book directly through the airline to avoid a lot of time and frustration. I will never book with Vayama again.

I just returned from a holiday after the worst experience with vayama.com. I had booked my ticket using their website in Feb-2017. My itinerary was Houston-Sofia-Houston on Lufthansa Airlines. My initial destination was Sofia-Bulgaria. However, it changed to Zagreb-Croatia. I made this change 4 days after my initial booking. This change was made on the phone with one of vayama's online consultants upon payment of $425 which included a change fee and the difference in fare to the new destination. So, I had a confirmed email itinerary in Feb-2017 from vayama: Houston-Zagreb-Houston.

However, upon reaching the airport in Houston on 26th May 2017, I was made aware that the re-ticketing to Zagreb had not been completed. So, even though I had a booking number / booking confirmation / confirmed itinerary, I was told that I could not fly to Zagreb - only because vayama had not completed the reticketing.
So, I called vayama from the airport - this is where my woes began. I was on hold for over 2 hours (3-4 representative) at the airport in Houston. They were really weak in providing any information or guidance and would simply hang up after a long hold. So, I had to board the plan to Frankfurt (even my checked luggage was only sent to Frankfurt Airport) without any connections.

Upon arriving in Frankfurt, my dealings with vayama on the phone got worse. I was now calling internationally and I must have been on the phone for almost 4 hours (my layover was only 3 hours - so I ended up missing my connection to Zagreb). Again, I spoke with at least 5 people since they would keep hanging up each time.
Even the airline at Frankfurt airport (Lufthansa hub) could not help me. They said that they were not able to make any changes to my ticketing and this was something only a travel-agent can do. Their solution was to purchase new tickets - one-way tickets from Frankfurt to Zagreb and Zagreb to Houston. This would have cost me $2000+ and it was not an option.

What was most frustrating is how unprofessional and unethical the team at vayama was. I kept telling them the situation I was in and their response was to put me on long periods of hold and then hang up. During one of the calls, the consultant said San Francisco (SOF code is Sofia and not San Francisco) ---- that's how poor their service was. Even the officer at Lufthansa Airlines tried calling them and got hung up.

Finally, I got help from the airline - they issued me new tickets for a fee of $300. They saw how distressed I was and the supervisor there took it upon herself to help me. She put on a later flight (6 hours wait) so I could resume my holiday.

So, overall, a very bad experience. Please stay away from vayama and avoid this unethical company altogether.

Vayama didn't take actions to respond to my travel during FAA bans on Turkish Airlines. A refund for an unused ticket and compensation for damages.
Vayama didn't take actions to respond to my travel during FAA bans on Turkish Airlines. A refund for an unused ticket and compensation for damages.

I purchased a ticket on May 3,2016 from Vayama.com to travel with Turkish Airlines (TR) from IST to IKA on July 24,2016 and return on Aug 11,2016. I paid $269.80 for this ticket. I also bought a ticket from United Airlines to go from LAX to IST and return.

On July 16 2016, FAA issued a statement banning any travel to and from Turkey until Aug 31st. This statement made it impossible for me to make it to IST to use the ticket I had purchased from Vayama.com - I live in Los Angles, CA.

Jul 16, TR issued a statement that all travelers would get a refund if they can't make it to their flight due to FAA bans.

July 17 and 18, I called Vayama.com custoemr service on July 17 once and twice on July 18. I waited at least 45 min on phone each time. I couldn't reach anyone on July 17 and first attempt of July 18. On the second attempt on July 18, I reached a representative, but she couldn't help and I got hanged up on.

July 17 and 18, I emailed both Vayama.com and TR on July 17 and 18 stating I can't make it to IST to use my ticket and requested a refund for flight from IST to IKA and stated that I'll use my return ticket (IKA to IST). On July 18, TR sent an email asking me to contact Vayama to get a refund. Vayama did not respond to my emails.

On July 18, United Airline, in light of FAA regulations, changed my ticket to go from LAX to IKA directly but left my return ticket unchanged (returning from IST to LAX). I notified both Vayama and TR. I did not get any response from Vayama. TR asked me to contact Vayama to get a partial refund for the outbound ticket.

On the evening of July 18th, FAA issued another statement and removed the ban.

On July 22nd, I traveled from LAX to IKA (through Germany).

On July 24th, I didn't use my outbound ticket purchased on Vayama.com.

On July 29th, I followed up with Vayama via email.

On July 30th, I received an email from Vayama stating the TR policy for travelers affected by Turkish coup activities does not apply to me and offering $24 refund (which I've not received).

On Aug 2nd, I received an email from TR that Vayama has canceled my return ticket (IKA to IST).

Aug 3rd to 7th, I sent a few emails with Vayama explaining the regular cancellation policy does not apply, TR policy for affected people with coup activities does apply to me, Vayama is late to respond to my request, Vayama should not have canceled my return flight, and asked for a refund for the flight that I didn't use on July 24th. I only received an email with some irrelevant information from Vayama.

On July 7th, I had to buy another ticket to travel from IKA to IST to replace the return flight which was canceled by Vayama.

Long story, but short warning: Do not book a flight, hotel, etc on Vayama unless you are 100% sure you will NOT have to change the booking.

First, some background: Normally, when you want to make changes to the flights for an airline ticket you bought from a travel agent, before you fly the first segment(s), you must call the travel agent. After flying the first segment(s), you call the carrier that ticketed the ticket. (Example: If the ticket number starts with 016, this is a United ticket and - normally - United takes over the itinerary from the travel agent after you fly the first segment.) This is true even if all the subsequent flights are on a different carrier than the one that flew the first segment(s).

But, Vayama often buys airline tickets and hotel rooms in bulk. They buy these tickets on popular segments (think NYC-LAX, SFO-NRT, ATL-FRA, etc) at prices below what any individual traveler can get. Then, when those segments are added to an itinerary you want to buy (eg: NYC-LAX-SAN, SFO-NRT-OSA, ATL-FRA-MUC, etc), they upcharge them significantly - meaning: more than the 3% or 5% that travel agents usually get in commission.

The problem is that, if you need to make any change to such a ticket, you can never go to the airline. Even if you have flown all the segments except the very last one, even if you are a top-level platinum super-duper whatever flyer, your airline will send you back to Vayama. Thats Bad for you No 1.

Then, when you call either of the phone numbers on the Vayama website (meaning: the 877 toll-free number or the 650 San Jose area code), option 3 in the auto menu tells you that, to make changes to your ticket, go online. But, the online web service refuses to change your ticket, telling you that you have to call the 650 area code number. So, you get the run around - thats Bad for you No 2.

By the way, the 877 toll-free number has an interesting personality quirk - it drops calls that have gone on too long. Specifically: If your call exceeds approx 30 minutes (which, of course, Vayama is paying for - its a toll-free call to you, not to Vayama), the call is dropped - even if you are the next caller in line. Thats Bad for you No 3.

If you are clever, you realize that the best auto menu choice is DO NOT CHOOSE ANY OPTION. This brings you - eventually (the wait this evening was over 40 minutes - twice!) - to a live person. The live person will tell you a bunch of interesting things but, the bottom line is that you cannot cheaply make any changes to these tickets other than the date of travel. That is: If you want to change the route, or an airline, or even the time of day to travel, the fare difference can be staggering. This is primarily because you are exchanging a bulk ticket for an individual ticket, and you will get hammered. Thats Bad for you No 4.

If the above four items were not bad enough, heres the clincher. When you want to change your itinerary, most airlines charge a change fee of anywhere from $100 to $300 or more. Whats so ludicrous is that this fee is charged for the Customer Service person pressing a button on the flight sequence you have chosen. Of course, so they say, the airlines have to pay those Customer Service persons to provide that customer service. (Question: Then why is there a change fee still charged even when you make the changes online?) But, weve all gotten used to the brave new world where even using the bathroom on a flight can be chargeable offense. (Spirit Airlines, were looking at you!). However In the case of Vayama, they collect that change fee for the airlines and they also change their own change fee! That is, you get the thrill of paying two changes fees for one change! And, this is not the $39 change fee charged by American Express for a US-based AmEx representative - this is a full $100 for a person who is clearly not based in the USA! Thats Bad for you No 5.

So, Im done with Vayama. I have too much variability in my flights to want to endure the flight change process even one more time. Again: If you want to book international flights and you are 100% sure you will not change the itinerary (eg: for a family summer holiday), Vayama is among the best travel search engines providing the most offering airlines and route options. But, if you pay for flights and change fees yourself, and you even occasionally change your itinerary, DO NOT USE VAYAMA.