Warning about Bargain Airfares (NYC)

[humidsue]

I thought you should know how Bargain Airfares in NYC (and the owner no less) treats their customers.

We booked airline tickets in July with Bargain Airfares to go Ft. Lauderdale-JFK-Rome for Sept. 21st, 2004 and our return was Venice-JFK-Ft. Lauderdale. They got a us good price and asked us to please send a check instead of using a credit card to save them the fee . We sent them a check did and we received a confirmation and e-tickets via email. (We were in California at the time.)

They never said that she was going to be mailing us paper tickets.

A week prior to the trip-we flew to Florida to stay with my family --where we were leaving from. On Sept. 20th (one day before out trip) my sister-in law called us in Florida to say she received airline tickets for us (in Calif.) and they were through Atlanta (not JFK) and leaving 3 hours earlier than our flight through JFK and taking an hour and 40 minutes longer.

I called Isabel, the owner of Bargain Airfares ( it took several calls before I spoke with her.)

When I finally reached her-she acted as though nothing was wrong. I called Delta, and told them that I my original reservation through JFK was still listed on their site under "my itineraries" which they confirmed and were suprised why we were double booked.

They told us to have Bargain Airfares cancel the Atlanta flight.

When I called Isabel back and asked her to cancel the Atlanta flight--she kept saying

"Well if you want to believe Delta--but if you go to the airport they will not let you on the plane. She said that I was acting like a travel agent.

She was lying to us to cover her mistake, and it was obvious it would have cost her money .We also asked why would she send tickets to California a day before we were leaving from Florida and never checked with us where tickets should be sent.

She said she would pay for the Fedex charge of $49.00 we were going to have to now pay to get the tickets by 8:30 am the next morning.

When I called her again to ask her to please cancel the Atlanta flight--she said "Do not call me ever again and you know what I am going to do?

I am going to cancel both your flights!" I could not believe that she was threatening me!

She was rude,lied, upset us greatly the day before our trip, was completely unprofessional and has still not paid the fedex fee for the tickets

Regardless--we had a great trip--but I would never use her or her agency again.

Humidsue

[vivian02]

Wow, I sure am glad your trip was sucessful. I can imagine the feeling knowing you may or may not be able to board the flight, especially with all the planning at the other end.

I have done alot of bookings with online companies and have had very good luck. I guess the important thing after purchasing the tickets is to verify what type of tickets you are to get. I have had paper tickets delivered at least three days after purchase. I can't imagine getting paper tickets months later. It sounds like a mix up to me. I would prefer E-tickets when traveling to Europe only because it is difficult to loose an E-ticker. By the way I am holding paper tickets purchase two months ago to Munich next May. The seats are confirmed and I have already had one schedule change. (No big deal 10 minutes less time spent at LAX). I have heard of these problems before and it appears the first thing to do is to contact the airlines immediately. Usually the airlines will work hard to clear up the problems if you show that you originally had a purchased ticket. By the way did you have insurance. I'm not a big believer in air insurance but I did purchase a policy with my up coming trip.

I guess the lesson here is to assure you are covered. Thanks for the travel advice. Tim

 

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