CheapOair customer service misleads customers with promises of promo-codes New York Internet

I have been a loyal customer with Cheapoair for many years. I have some business trips I need to take next month, so I logged into their website to book two international and two domestic flights within the USA. I need to travel from Hong Kong to New York to Florida to Los Angeles and then back to China.

While booking my flights, I made a mistake with one of the dates. I booked my trip from Florida to LAX on the wrong day. I noticed my mistake minutes after receiving the confirmation email, so I called the customer service line for assistance. The person on the phone was pretty rude, and the first thing he did was put me on hold for 5 minutes before even taking any of my information. He informed me that there was a $50 fee to cancel my reservation and there would be a $50 fee to change my reservation. I was a bit confused by this because I remember having problems with a previous booking, and the customer service representatives were able to assist me in making the changes at no charge.

I asked the rep to explain if the policy had recently changed, and he was rude and hastily transfered me over to a cancellation department. I had to wait on hold for 30 minutes for this person to tell me the same thing. Frustrated I called back and asked to speak with a supervisor. He offered to make the change for $39 instead of the $50, and said he would offer me a $50 credit which could be used for future travel. He put me on hold, and when he came back on the line he started adding the words "up to" in front of the $50. When asked for clarification on what this meant, he got very rude with me, so I told him not to make any changes.

In total I spoke with 3 reps on the phone and one online. I had a horrible experience with all of them. They showed no sympathy for any of my issues and seemed more concerned about getting me off the line instead of helping me understand why I was being charged extra. I used to work in customer service, so I know that being rude or raising my voice doesn't do anything to help my situation, so I know that the level of service I received was not in response to my berating or raising my voice to anyone.

I really used to love this company because of the cheap rates and the service I received before with any issues I had during the booking process. I am really disappointed in how I was treated. All I did was click the wrong date on the website, and I had to spend hours trying to fix the mistake.

I finally relented and called back to make the change in my ticket. The rep on the phone said he would make the change for $35. He would charge $15 immediately and then I would see the other $20 charge in a few days. He promised a voucher for up to $50 would be sent out to me in a few days.

I made the change and the booking was confirmed. I waited a few days for the discount coupon. I had another trip scheduled, so I figured I'd use the promotional code for the new flight. I didn't receive the code, so I emailed CheapOair about the promised code. They sent me two reply emails that made no sense and did not contain any codes. It almost feels like there is no oversight whatsoever in their offices because of how disorganized they are now.

I finally got the promotional code, and when I typed it in it did not work. I emailed them again about this issue and they forwarded me to a page which explained that the promotional code was valid as a discount for their Travel Assist service. I would have to purchase the $30 travel assist feature to qualify for $10 in savings. So after all I went through being promised this promo code by two different reps, the promo code was a complete lie.

I'm not interested in doing business with a company like this. Their customer service reps need to be trained on how to be polite to customers and not to mislead customers just to get them off the line. Whatever changes you have made in the company have made it a lot worse to work with. All the good-will I had for this company has now been lost. The customer service has been outsourced to the lowest bidder, and they seem to care very little about the level of quality anymore. You see that they received a customer service award in 2014, but not anything since.