Beck F.

TL; DR: FlightNetwork's COVID response is inadequate at best and predatory at worst. They blame this on the airlines despite the airlines having significantly better policies in place. Their customer service is abysmal; their agents are under-trained and frequently fall back on the tactic of getting rid of a customer by dumping them back into the queue. If ***anything*** goes wrong with your fare you will regret booking with them.

Prior to a trip I was supposed to make in April, the trip went through several flight changes that concluded with the second leg of my outbound trip departing before the first leg. I kept expecting another change that would correct this, but there wasn't one. I called the airline to get things straightened out, but they were advising everyone who booked through a third party that they would have to reach out to the third party for a resolution first; the airline would only help if the third party didn't have any options. I called FlightNetwork and heard a recording asking people to only call in if it was within 30 days (or 15; at this point I can't remember) of their travel date. I waited a few days until I hit that threshold and called back. I waited in their queue for HOURS before someone picked up, and that someone said they couldn't help and put me BACK in the queue. This went on for a few days, each day ending with someone telling me "The people who can help you have left for the day. You'll have to call back tomorrow."

Finally I got someone who could "help," but if I wanted them to book me on a different flight I was going to have to pay the difference in fare. I couldn't afford that, so I asked to cancel the trip under their COVID policy. I received a "future travel credit" that "expired" on 5 November. I checked the policy for the airline I was supposed to fly with and their vouchers were good for a year (in some cases longer). They blamed the 5 November expiration on the airline, somehow, even though the airline's policy was publicly available and clearly very different from what FlightNetwork was citing.

The email about the travel credit didn't come with a redemption number or instructions, so I emailed back to figure out how to use it. As it turns out, they REQUIRE you to call in to rebook with a travel credit. (Remember that; it'll be important later.)

A while later I had a family event and wanted to use my "future travel credit" to fly out for it. I had the same issues of long delays in the queue and reps dumping me back into the queue rather than communicating with me to resolve my issue. One call the rep straight up said, "You have a bad connection and I don't wanna call you back, so call back in," and refused to speak to me further. After a few calls (none of which were of poor quality), I finally got someone who understood what I wanted (after WAY too much explanation) and searched for the flight I was asking for. He couldn't find it. He told me, "I'm having a system issue of some sort, but I'll get it sorted out for you. I have the information I need, so I'll get back to you within 24 hours about the new booking. Don't worry about calling back in." I never heard from him again. Eventually I decided to just buy the fare out of pocket rather than deal with FlightNetwork's customer service again.

Then this week I had another family function that I wanted to fly out to, so I decided to try one more time. Over the course of two days I spent almost 11 hours on the phone, in the queue for most of that time. It took a few hours to get someone initially on day one; that person spoke to me for a minute or two, then said, "Okay, let me put you on hold for one or two minutes," and dumped me back into the queue. I know I was back in the queue because a voice kept popping in to let me know my estimated wait time. I waited until after 9:00 PM just to have someone pick up and tell me everyone who could help had left for the day and I'd have to call back the next morning. I called back first thing and waited a couple of hours, then spoke to someone who finally helped me get a flight booked.

He couldn't get me the flight I asked for, even though it met all of the stated requirements for redeeming the travel credit and was under the credit amount. The alternate flight he offered was significantly lower in value than my credit and one of the stipulations was that any remaining credit would be FORFEITED in that case, so the rep asked me, "Why don't you wait and use this for a more expensive flight?" Because I CAN'T. Because the credit "EXPIRES" on 5 November. "Yeah, it's kind of bad, but the airline's policy--" And he proceeded to blame the airline for FlightNetwork's credit expiring less than half a year after it was issued. I cited the airline policies to him and he told me I didn't know what I was talking about. I literally had them open in front of me and was reading from the airlines' websites. I asked if we could at least use the remaining credit to upgrade my ticket to include seat selection or a class upgrade and he said no, he couldn't apply the credit to any "extras."

Here's what REALLY kills me: He put me on hold for a few minutes to see if there was a tax difference between the fares. He came back and informed me that there was, but it wasn't much. "You'll need to pay $35 total for the fare." Fine, whatever it took to be done with this company. I don't understand why the remaining credit I had couldn't cover the $35, but FINE. OKAY. Then I looked at what the $35 was paying: THERE WAS A $30 "ASSISTED CHANGE FEE." As if I WANTED to waste literal DAYS of my life waiting on the phone for you to "HELP" me. YOU MADE ME DO IT THIS WAY, AND NOW YOU'RE CHARGING ME FOR IT? You just ATE hundreds of dollars out of my pocket in the form of a forfeited "future travel credit," and you're gonna CHARGE ME MORE?

So yeah, I'll never book with them again and I don't think anyone else should either. The savings aren't worth the pain you'll have to go through if anything at all goes wrong with your fare.