Anne G.

NEVER BOOK WITH THEM, YOU'RE BETTER OFF BOOKING WITH THE AIRLINE DIRECT

My experience with Opodo is a bad one, unfortunately.

Tl; dr book directly with the airline of your choice, don't go through Opodo. Not worth the worry, not worth the booking fees, not worth the wasted time/energy, not worth a one hour wait/phone call with their helpline.

I'd bought tickets for my parents as a present, and upon purchasing them i found that it takes "up to 24 hours" to process my tickets. It rang alarm bells when after 24 hours, i still had NO confirmation on my tickets despite already having PAID for them!

I phoned their helpline, and was on hold for 50 minutes! After a hurried conversation with the person, i basically was told to wait yet ANOTHER 24 hours for processing and confirmation. Here's where it gets fishy. The Opodo person told me to wait 24 hours, and if it's still processing, they'll release my tickets to me straight away. I asked how come they can't just release my tickets to me now, what's the difference between waiting 24 hours and having them processed now? He couldn't answer me and simply said "the process might be too confusing for you to understand"! How patronising!

As expected, another 24 hours later (Mind you, it's now been 48 hours or more!) it still says "processing" on my booking (both on Opodo's website and mobile app). I phoned the airline directly and was told by the airline that even they wouldn't recommend Opodo. The airline person said that they would always discourage people from booking with Opodo because often times, Opodo will hoard all their bookings and release/process tickets in one go, not as and when they come in. This means that i would have had to wait at least a WEEK for my tickets without phoning to chase them! This is why so many people don't get their tickets if they book last minute and some don't get them at all!

I phoned Opodo right after speaking to the airline, and they hurriedly released all my tickets. Why couldn't they have done this before?! I fly fairly frequently and i have never experienced this with any of my ticket bookings. They are always processed IMMEDIATELY. This is the first i've heard/experienced a booking that needed so long to process. It's ridiculous!

My advice, and the airline's advice, is that instead of booking through Opodo, travellers should book directly with the airline of their choice. Or just choose another service provider that's more reliable. It took me almost a week to sort my tickets out, had i booked with the airline, it would have taken me less than a day to get all my documents processed and ready to check in. Thankfully i booked early. I feel horribly for all those who book with Opodo and don't get their tickets due to their "processing procedure" of accumulating bookings only to process them all at once, thus delaying everyone's ticket release. BAD experience, NEVER AGAIN!

I checked the prices and it'd been the same if not cheaper if i booked directly with the airline because Opodo has hidden fees (admin fees, booking fees, etc.) PLUS the TWO HOURS i was on the phone to them needlessly added to my phone bill as well. They're not cheaper, and even if they were, it's really not worth the hassle!