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Cheaptickets.com Complaint - False advertisement of airfares at Cheaptickets.com - Price quotes
Price quotes - Complaint
PORTLAND, OREGON -- I have been trying to purchase a ticket from Portland, OR to Buenos Aires, Argentina for weeks now. I have been monitoring the prices for the last 45 days but was not able to purchase my ticket till recently for personal reasons.
While searching (I use Mobissimo and Kayak.com normally) I kept having Cheaptickets.com coming up as the cheapest deal. I was really surprised because the tickets at the time were around $1300-1500 each, but magically at Cheaptickets.com they would appear for $1064. But each time you tried booking them, when you got to their web site and after you clicked to purchase the ticket, it would say that the quoted price was no longer available and gave the following message:
"We're sorry. Due to changes in airline availability, the fare for your selected trip is no longer available. We have adjusted the fares for all affected flights. The fare for your selected trip is now $ 6380 total. See below. (Message 1048)"
In actuality, the price in the results would be: "$1,316+ $305 taxes & fees = $1,621 per person"
But wait... when you chose that price and clicked on it to purchase it you received the following message: "Due to changing availability, the fare you selected is no longer available. Here's the lowest fare for your flight(s). (Message 102a)"
And the new price was now quoted to be: "Total trip cost $1,657.19 USD"
So the ticket advertised for $1064 was actually $1657.
Now this happened on every one of the cheap tickets offered on their web site. I should know because I had tried to purchase them for three days. In some of them you would get the following message: "Great news! We found an even lower fare for this itinerary. Act fast to take advantage of this fare before it expires. (Message 102b)" and the price would be quoted as "Total trip cost $5,881.19 USD"
Of course, I understood this was a scam, but then I was so angry I tried each and every one of them, and saved most of the results. So now I have this collection of price quotes from Cheaptickets.com that are all false.
And the worst part is that if you try using a search engine for airfare tickets, like Kayak.com or other ones, they all quote Cheaptickets.com and Orbitz.com as the cheapest ones, but yet, they both are false advertisements to lure customers in and hope they purchase one of their more expensive tickets they actually offer.
I am not the only one experiencing this because other friends and family members are having the same experience.
I will forward all the information I have collected with my complaint to the Attorney General's office and the Better business bureau because this is not right. People are trying to get a better deal on an airfare and we waste our time with false advertisements. I could have purchased a cheaper ticket much earlier, if I wasn't spending all this time to purchase a cheaper ticket that didn't exist.
While searching (I use Mobissimo and Kayak.com normally) I kept having Cheaptickets.com coming up as the cheapest deal. I was really surprised because the tickets at the time were around $1300-1500 each, but magically at Cheaptickets.com they would appear for $1064. But each time you tried booking them, when you got to their web site and after you clicked to purchase the ticket, it would say that the quoted price was no longer available and gave the following message:
"We're sorry. Due to changes in airline availability, the fare for your selected trip is no longer available. We have adjusted the fares for all affected flights. The fare for your selected trip is now $ 6380 total. See below. (Message 1048)"
In actuality, the price in the results would be: "$1,316+ $305 taxes & fees = $1,621 per person"
But wait... when you chose that price and clicked on it to purchase it you received the following message: "Due to changing availability, the fare you selected is no longer available. Here's the lowest fare for your flight(s). (Message 102a)"
And the new price was now quoted to be: "Total trip cost $1,657.19 USD"
So the ticket advertised for $1064 was actually $1657.
Now this happened on every one of the cheap tickets offered on their web site. I should know because I had tried to purchase them for three days. In some of them you would get the following message: "Great news! We found an even lower fare for this itinerary. Act fast to take advantage of this fare before it expires. (Message 102b)" and the price would be quoted as "Total trip cost $5,881.19 USD"
Of course, I understood this was a scam, but then I was so angry I tried each and every one of them, and saved most of the results. So now I have this collection of price quotes from Cheaptickets.com that are all false.
And the worst part is that if you try using a search engine for airfare tickets, like Kayak.com or other ones, they all quote Cheaptickets.com and Orbitz.com as the cheapest ones, but yet, they both are false advertisements to lure customers in and hope they purchase one of their more expensive tickets they actually offer.
I am not the only one experiencing this because other friends and family members are having the same experience.
I will forward all the information I have collected with my complaint to the Attorney General's office and the Better business bureau because this is not right. People are trying to get a better deal on an airfare and we waste our time with false advertisements. I could have purchased a cheaper ticket much earlier, if I wasn't spending all this time to purchase a cheaper ticket that didn't exist.
Comments:
Posted by Ryan84 on 2007-11-26:
I've had this experience with Cheaptickets. I tried booking a flight to Maui for my honeymoon, the advertised round trip price for 1 ticket was something like $750, when i clicked on it, it came up as $1100. I called them and they explained to me its because the airlines have just changed the price! even tho they advertised the $750 for 4 days afterward. I ended up booking on Orbitz for $756. try the airlines website.
Posted by msnanny on 2007-11-27:
If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. Book directly with the airline. You will be MUCH better off in the long run.
Posted by bargod on 2007-11-27:
A lot of the sites and even the airlines themselves sell a limited amount of seats at a sale price. So depending on the dates you enter they could be sold out already as I have found out from experience.
Posted by Dimitris on 2007-11-27:
I understand if they have a sale, but if it is sold out why is it appearing then as an option only at certain times of the day? Interestingly enough, today is the first day that these cheap tickets did not appear on their web site after 4 days that I know of. Interestingly enough, it is also the day after I complaint about it and spoke with a manager and said that if it continued today, I would write a formal complaint to the attorney general's office and the better business bureau. Coincidence??? Maybe, but I am not buying it. They were getting so many hits from all the travel search engines that it must have been crazy.
Anyway, sold out means unavailable. I know that many airlines had sale prices on the specific trip I was looking at. When they run out, they simply did not appear again in any search engine. Why is it that theirs and only theirs and Orbitz seem to be the only ones to appear, even though they are unavailable? Why not other travel sites?
Dimitris
Anyway, sold out means unavailable. I know that many airlines had sale prices on the specific trip I was looking at. When they run out, they simply did not appear again in any search engine. Why is it that theirs and only theirs and Orbitz seem to be the only ones to appear, even though they are unavailable? Why not other travel sites?
Dimitris
Posted by mOnIcA83 on 2007-11-28:
If it's really a scam, you should've been able to purchase the flight before it will declare the increased price so they can benefit from it, don't you think? Now what do they get by advertising the wrong price but not booking you in it?COMPLAINTS.So tell me, how is it a scam? what is the purpose?
Travel agencies base their prices from the airlines- which changes from time to time. Sometimes if change is too constant there would be a delay in the update. NEvertheless, the WOULDn't let you finish the booking if it's not the correct price. So that means they didn't get anything from you.
It's not a scam. It's a system delay. Equally just as bad though.
Travel agencies base their prices from the airlines- which changes from time to time. Sometimes if change is too constant there would be a delay in the update. NEvertheless, the WOULDn't let you finish the booking if it's not the correct price. So that means they didn't get anything from you.
It's not a scam. It's a system delay. Equally just as bad though.
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