SHADY ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCY: Don't book with Justfly.com!
#1
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SHADY ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCY: Don't book with Justfly.com!
I called customer service on January 27, 2018 to cancel a flight and receive a travel credit in the value of $297.59 which is the original price of the booked tickets. The itinerary was Pensacola to Orlando, then Orlando to Bogota. I could no longer leave from Pensacola, so since I thought I would cancel my tickets and rebook a different itinerary leaving from Miami to Bogota by using the travel credit.
So I paid the $75 cancellation fee with the notion that I would be able to book a new flight from a different departure city and with a different departure date using this travel credit. But while talking to the customer service representative, it was NOT made clear to me that I could NOT choose a different departure city and I was NOT informed that there would be an additional $300 re-booking fee if I wanted to book a new ticket using the travel credit.
Not knowing this information, I cancelled the tickets and when I called customer service 5 minutes later to rebook a ticket from Miami to Bogota using my travel credit I found out that I could only rebook my tickets through the same route (Pensacola to Bogota) and with the same airline as before! So what is the point of cancelling a ticket if you can't rebook a new ticket with the changes you need to make (ex: change the departure city) When I kindly asked the customer service representative to please re-instate the ticket I had just cancelled 5 minutes ago she refused and said it was impossible. When I asked to please be allowed to book my ticket from Miami, she refused and again said it was impossible. And when I asked her to rebook the exact same itinerary as the original, she said that I would have to pay a $300 re-booking fee for the same ticket from Pensacola which was really of no use to me.
So in essence, I paid an extra $75 to lose my tickets worth $297.59 without hope of using that "travel credit" to book a new itinerary from the departure city that I needed. Not being transparent about the conditions of the "travel credit" and not notifying the customer of additional fees for using this "travel credit" is underhanded and dishonest.
The moral of the story is DON'T BOOK WITH JUSTFLY.COM! Or if you do, then definitely don't cancel your ticket for their "travel credit"!
So I paid the $75 cancellation fee with the notion that I would be able to book a new flight from a different departure city and with a different departure date using this travel credit. But while talking to the customer service representative, it was NOT made clear to me that I could NOT choose a different departure city and I was NOT informed that there would be an additional $300 re-booking fee if I wanted to book a new ticket using the travel credit.
Not knowing this information, I cancelled the tickets and when I called customer service 5 minutes later to rebook a ticket from Miami to Bogota using my travel credit I found out that I could only rebook my tickets through the same route (Pensacola to Bogota) and with the same airline as before! So what is the point of cancelling a ticket if you can't rebook a new ticket with the changes you need to make (ex: change the departure city) When I kindly asked the customer service representative to please re-instate the ticket I had just cancelled 5 minutes ago she refused and said it was impossible. When I asked to please be allowed to book my ticket from Miami, she refused and again said it was impossible. And when I asked her to rebook the exact same itinerary as the original, she said that I would have to pay a $300 re-booking fee for the same ticket from Pensacola which was really of no use to me.
So in essence, I paid an extra $75 to lose my tickets worth $297.59 without hope of using that "travel credit" to book a new itinerary from the departure city that I needed. Not being transparent about the conditions of the "travel credit" and not notifying the customer of additional fees for using this "travel credit" is underhanded and dishonest.
The moral of the story is DON'T BOOK WITH JUSTFLY.COM! Or if you do, then definitely don't cancel your ticket for their "travel credit"!
#2
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I am curious. When you were looking at fares, did Justfly.com have significantly lower fares than the website of the airline you were going to fly with?
I have rarely found that I can get that much of a better deal using a third party than if I book directly with the airline. I hardly ever book with a third party (Expeida, Travelocity, etc) because if there are problems, you really don't have any recourse such as dealing with the airline. And especially with connecting foreign flights? Nope.
I hope you figure this out - I see you have just registered here and this is your first post on Fodors. It would be great if you will come back and let us know what you ended up doing.
I have rarely found that I can get that much of a better deal using a third party than if I book directly with the airline. I hardly ever book with a third party (Expeida, Travelocity, etc) because if there are problems, you really don't have any recourse such as dealing with the airline. And especially with connecting foreign flights? Nope.
I hope you figure this out - I see you have just registered here and this is your first post on Fodors. It would be great if you will come back and let us know what you ended up doing.
#3
Sorry this happened --
Since you know how to find travel sites on line (you found us ) I'll assume you didn't do much research before booking. There are bad reviews all over the interweb about this company -- including a few threads here.
Since you know how to find travel sites on line (you found us ) I'll assume you didn't do much research before booking. There are bad reviews all over the interweb about this company -- including a few threads here.
#4
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Glad you brought it up again anyway. I have not used them, but see their pop up ads all the time. It is always tempting, but I look, then go directly to the company or one I feel confident in. This is a good reminder to research anything related to travel or big purchases.
#6
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Okay, just to help you for the next time:
I don't know anything about justfly but I will try to clear up your confusion.
1. Before pressing that magic 'confirm purchase' button when buying a ticket, make sure you understand the 'fare rules.' These are usually specific to the airline, not the broker who booked the flight. The rules should be clearly stated somewhere on the itinerary description. Next time, don't buy until you can find out what these are! And by 'finding out' I mean, something you can read on a screen or better yet, print out and study, not something said to you over the phone. Oral conversation are too easy to misunderstand what is said. This is why as someone else said, it can pay you to book directly from the airline in question as their websites nearly always spell out the terms very clearly.
2. What your broker, justfly, referred to as a 'rebooking fee' most airlines would call an 'increase in fare.' In other words, it is rare that, even after paying a cancellation or change fee, that that is the only extra cost to you should you want to use the credit. This is quite normal in the case of the cheapest fares, which are cheap precisely because they are relatively inflexible.
3. I found out that I could only rebook my tickets through the same route (Pensacola to Bogota) and with the same airline as before! So what is the point of cancelling a ticket if you can't rebook a new ticket with the changes you need to make (ex: change the departure city)
Look at it this way: you want to buy a pair of shoes from shoe store A. You do so and then decide to take them back in exchange for a credit note. But, the credit note is only good at store A.
Later you see a different pair of shoes in shoe store B that you like better. Well, just as shoe store B won't honour the credit note issued by store A, airline B won't honour the credit note you got from airline A. The credit note is not with justfly or the broker, but with a specific 'store' i.e. a specific airline, good only with them for a product of like type (same route.)
When I kindly asked the customer service representative to please re-instate the ticket I had just cancelled 5 minutes ago she refused and said it was impossible.
This is also normal. Frustrating, but normal. My shoe store analogy doesn't work so well here because shoes are an actual good whereas when we buy airline tickets we are buying a service. What is more, you are buying a specific contract for a service. When you had her cancel your original contract, and give you a credit instead, it's not like she can just go into a back stockroom somewhere and retrieve your ticket and reinstate it. What is more, the seat you want may not necessarily be at the same price as the price you originally paid. This is because of something called 'dynamic pricing.'
I realize this is a pain in the butt, but it is normal.
I don't know anything about justfly but I will try to clear up your confusion.
1. Before pressing that magic 'confirm purchase' button when buying a ticket, make sure you understand the 'fare rules.' These are usually specific to the airline, not the broker who booked the flight. The rules should be clearly stated somewhere on the itinerary description. Next time, don't buy until you can find out what these are! And by 'finding out' I mean, something you can read on a screen or better yet, print out and study, not something said to you over the phone. Oral conversation are too easy to misunderstand what is said. This is why as someone else said, it can pay you to book directly from the airline in question as their websites nearly always spell out the terms very clearly.
2. What your broker, justfly, referred to as a 'rebooking fee' most airlines would call an 'increase in fare.' In other words, it is rare that, even after paying a cancellation or change fee, that that is the only extra cost to you should you want to use the credit. This is quite normal in the case of the cheapest fares, which are cheap precisely because they are relatively inflexible.
3. I found out that I could only rebook my tickets through the same route (Pensacola to Bogota) and with the same airline as before! So what is the point of cancelling a ticket if you can't rebook a new ticket with the changes you need to make (ex: change the departure city)
Look at it this way: you want to buy a pair of shoes from shoe store A. You do so and then decide to take them back in exchange for a credit note. But, the credit note is only good at store A.
Later you see a different pair of shoes in shoe store B that you like better. Well, just as shoe store B won't honour the credit note issued by store A, airline B won't honour the credit note you got from airline A. The credit note is not with justfly or the broker, but with a specific 'store' i.e. a specific airline, good only with them for a product of like type (same route.)
When I kindly asked the customer service representative to please re-instate the ticket I had just cancelled 5 minutes ago she refused and said it was impossible.
This is also normal. Frustrating, but normal. My shoe store analogy doesn't work so well here because shoes are an actual good whereas when we buy airline tickets we are buying a service. What is more, you are buying a specific contract for a service. When you had her cancel your original contract, and give you a credit instead, it's not like she can just go into a back stockroom somewhere and retrieve your ticket and reinstate it. What is more, the seat you want may not necessarily be at the same price as the price you originally paid. This is because of something called 'dynamic pricing.'
I realize this is a pain in the butt, but it is normal.