1st CheapOair told me a flight price will be $168 more than their advertised price of $337; a lame excuse was given for the price hike, but I agreed & gave credit card information..., because I fell for the line that "only one seat was available & that I wouldn't find a cheaper rate elsewhere."
To satisfy my curiousity, I then called the airline directly and was told several seats were available on the identical flight and the price would be $78 less than CheapOair's price.
I then called CheapO... To give the update; they explained that "prices change by the minute", and I could now have it for $45 less than their last quote, "because of the timing of my call." I agreed to the discount.
But curiosity motivated me to call the airline directly again, and lo and behold, I found out "prices" don't "change by the minute"; their price remained the same & still cheaper than CheapO...
I then called CheapO... And said "match the price I was quoted by the airline or I want to cancel the flight." They said they can't match the price, and there will be a $24 service fee if I cancel. I said "OK let's cancel", since $24 the airline direct price was still cheaper than CheapO...
CheapO... Then said "what if another $7 is taken off the price", which would be the break even point to me going with the airline directly combined with paying the $24 cancelation charge paid to CheapO...
I wanted to get this over with, so I agreed to not cancel on that call, since I figured I'm losing $24 either way.
After we hung up, I was thinking how little trust I had in CheapO..., so I checked them out in the Better Business Bureau website, & what I read about them scared the bleep out of me.
I then called CheapO... And said I want to cancel the flight, & when they asked why, I felt great pleasure in saying "because I never want to do business with you guys..."
Then they said the "service" fee for canceling would be $50. As irritated as I was with Cheapo..., I actually laughed thinking about all their price changes, & said "I was told the fee would be $24, why is it now $50?" I was put on hold & then told "OK, $24 is correct."
Oh, and I was told the refund will take 7 to 10 business days by one rep, 20 to 25 business days by another rep, and the last I heard is that it may take up to 12 weeks!
So, they are charging my credit card the full price of $500 and will "refund" all but $24 of it some day.
All the above happened within a few hours, and I immediately called the credit card company to dispute the charge... Fortunately, the credit card company said the worst that will happen is that I'll lose the $24.
I'm lucky to only be potentially losing $24; it could have been a lot worse in dealing with CheapOair.com. I learned my lesson...
Check the Better Business Bureau website before deciding whether to deal with a company name that begins with "CheapO".
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