Cheap-O-Air swindled, hustled, scammed, Internet

I booked 2 roundtrip tickets for me and my girlfriend through cheap-o-air to fly from Los Angeles, CA to McAllenn, Texas earlier this month, September 2014. We got there fine but leaving McAllen to come home we ended up missing our flight. We were set to fly United so we spoke with the nice gentleman working for United and he said he'd put us on the next flight at 5:30am the following morning free of charge! We couldnt belive his generosity! When he attempted to do that for us, he realized we booked through Cheap-O-Air and not United and told us he couldnt change our itineray without first getting confirmation from Cheap-O-Air. He said, "call them and it shouldnt be an issue." 

So, we called Cheapo and sat at the airport for an hour while on hold waiting to leave until we had sorted everything out. After an hour passed, we decided we could wait on hold in the car and at home. So we left. Thank God we got the name of the United employee. After an hour and half holding, a recording came on saying thank you for calling and just automatically hung up on me. I called back two more times because they have 3 different extensions to choose from. The first extension we tried was for changing existing itinerary, the 2nd for making new reservations, and the 3rd was for airline personel - no one answered any of the different extensions.

So I emailed them. Their phone recording while you wait and their website say something like, "email us and we'll get back to you within a couple of hours." While waiting for the email to come in, we got on their "live chat" which boasts 24/7 instant support. I got what seemed to be a machine with automated replies to my issue. Everything I said it replied, "I see your concern" - no matter what! (I could write a whole separate review on that chat alone but I'll spare you.) Point being, it was infuriating as I tried to explain my situation; United is willing to put us on the next flight for free and I need you to help me coordinate that please. After a lot of waiting for the live chat person and a lot of bull crap, I decided to look up prices on United's site. I thought I might have to just book tickets on there. Tickets were $370 per passenger, one way because it was the night before.

Cheap-O finally gets back to me and tells me that it'll be $600 per passenger, one way! $1200 for me and my girlfriend!

$1200 for two 1-way tickets on United! When I'm looking at United's site and it says $370! I couldnt believe it!

I again tried to explain United is willing to fly us for free. Please help with that booking. They said the airline company had fees that were out of their control - total crap. As you can imagine, I'm losing my mind at this point.

We ended up actually calling the airport back and begging to talk to the guy with United who made us the initial offer. We explained everything to him and how Cheap-O had my balls in a vice grip and was completely screwing us and he worked some magic and got us on the flight for free! Shows you there are still a few decent people left in this world.

I will never ever book through cheap-o-air again! You will never reach someone when you need to and if you do, they will rape you as hard as they can.

Even if you dont think you'll ever miss your flight, which everyone does at least once, then consider the possibility you just might want to make a voluntary change in plans. Or there is an emergency. Or anything else. You will not be able to get someone on the phone, to answer an email, or make any logical sense in a live chat! Don't let Cheap-O tie your hands and rape you. They make their money by being the middle-man and who do you think ends up paying for that? Just compare different airlines on a site like priceline or kayak and after you've found the cheapest airline, just go book directly through them.

By the way, Cheap-O-Air replied to our email request 5 days later.

PS. We ended up getting a $50 gift card and thank you note for the guy at United who hooked us up. We left it for him at the counter at 4:00AM the next morning.

What a trip.