Cheaptickets.com ripoff dishonest Parsippany New Jersey Internet

I work for Cheaptickets.com. To your question about how the airlines don't make money when they have agreements to sell tickets at a bulk rate, let me explain how that works.

Cheaptickets.com acts as a third party company, we provide a website where the airlines with the exception of Northwest and Southwest load their own fares and availability. This is done by the airlines themselves four times per day for each airline.

The exception would be bulk fares. Which is when Cheaptickets has gone to the airline and offered to buy a set number of seats. For example Cheaptickets goes to US Air, and offers to buy one hundred seats at a set price i.e. $200.00. Cheaptickets is now the vendor instead of the airline. Cheaptickets turns around and sells the tickets for $225.00, making $25.00 straight profit from each ticket purchased in this "bulk rate ticket." This same ticket is still available for the same flight from the airline, but the airline would still be charging more that the $225.00. The airline really doesn't make a whole lot of profit from this, however because Cheaptickets has already purchased one hundred seats on this flight, those are one hundred seats the airline no longer has to worry about selling, as they are already sold.

Some inside information you may find interesting though. Most fares on any travel website are usually published fares. Meaning that you can get the same price from the airline as you could with any travel agency; with the exception of these "bulk tickets."

Why then book using one of these websites? The answer is you shouldn't! You should use these websites to research fares for several airlines at one time, instead of calling each airline, or visiting each airlines website. Most of these websites homepages offer the immediate option to search for airfare, these are basic searches and will not return results for "refundable fares." If you decide you need a refundable fare you will most likely have to click on "more search options."

Almost all tickets purchased through the airline or travel websites have several penalties to make changes, unless you purchase a fully refundable ticket. The standard penalty for changing a domestic flight is $100.00 plus the difference in fare for the airline and if you purchased through a travel agency or website other than the airlines like cheaptickets, they too have a fee on top of this. Cheaptickets has a fee of $50.00. These are all per person. Names can't be changed by any travel agency, with the exception of some limited bulk fares. Most airlines will also decline your request to change a name. It is so important that you verify the spelling of the name before you submit your purchase. However if you do mess up and your ticket is non-refundable. You usually have the option to cancel within 24hrs, you will be charged a per person fee i.e. $50.00 with cheaptickets but you will be refunded the amount of the ticket. If you have a paper ticket though, you might as well forget canceling within the 24hrs, because all airlines and travel agencies need the paper ticket to get the money back and it is usually mailed immediately after the ticket has been issued.

If you purchase your ticket from the airline, you won't be paying the additional fees that websites like cheaptickets add on to reservations. If you do however purchase from the travel agencies most airlines won't even speak to you. They can be real rude to you and tell you need to call the travel agency you purchased the ticket from. Simply ask the company to "release" the reservation to the airline for all changes. They add this in what's called an OSI. It's a remark the airline can see giving the airline permission to make the changes for you. Then you don't have to pay the travel agency fees. This can't be done on "bulk" tickets, as the fares for these aren't loaded in the airlines system and neither are the penalties. However the fee for changing a bulk fare is usually very cheap $25-75, per person plus difference in fare.

To answer your question about the cost for changing a name. The answer is it doesn't cost them a penny except for the person who is doing They will refuse to change it because those are the rules that someone at their airline decided to lay down. Changing a date however does mean that they now have to resell a seat that someone was occupying before and pay the person to actually make the change. Though I hardly think it's $100.00 worth or expenses for the airline.

Points to take with you.
1. Research using travel websites
2. Purchase from the airlines
3. Save on penalties and fees
4. Save by not paying booking fees
5. Name changes aren't permitted
6. Tickets are non-transferable
7. Trip insurance is useless unless someone dies
so don't waste your money.

Cheaptickets outsources jobs to Manilla the PHILIPPINES, and pays them 0.75 an hour. And closed three call centers in the last year. Meanwhile there CFO made the number one slot for the highest paid CFO in the country, toping 3 million a year. I hate this company so please don't think I am not taking your side. The customers aren't the only ones being screwed here!

The previous comment says that airlines do not make a lot of money when you buy tickets on their airline from cheap tickets.
Yet airlines have agreements with cheap tickets to sell them seats at a bulk rate. If this is not profitable for the airlines why would they do this? It is not as though cheap tickets can force them to do this.

Also you advocate buying full fare tickets if you want to, well, be treated fairly. These tickets are often double economy fares and the conditions placed on the purchaser for changes and cancellations are outrageious found in few other industries. You cannot change passenger names, but the question is why? You have to pay hundreds in fees to change the flight date even months in advance, and why? Does it really cost the airline that much to change the date of a flight? Does it cost them anything at all to change the name of the passenger.

Kory, it is nice to fianlly see someone who knows what they are talking about when it comes to AIRFARE. I have seen so many people like the original poster here who thinks they are special & should be able to get a FULL REFUND on a Deeply Discounted NON-REFUNDABLE ticket. Or they want to make change at NO CHARGE or b***h about any change fees.

Face it, most flyers other than FREQUENT FLYERS can be a BUNCH OF IDIOTS. They think their CHEAPTICKETS.COM or PRICELINE.COM tickets are what is going to make the airlines a whole bunch of profit. NO, you guys are what is costing the airlines all their profits. YOU b***h & MOAN & WHINE worse than a 2 year old baby.

You want all the PERKS you can get & cost more time & effort than you are worth. BOOK DIRECTLY with the Airlines & psy for what you get. Want cheap, fine just dont make any changes or if you do, be prepaired to pay for them. Dont want to pay CHANGE FEE's & such.

Pay for a FULL-FARE ticket & I am sure the airlines will help you out in any way possible.

Kory, it is nice to fianlly see someone who knows what they are talking about when it comes to AIRFARE. I have seen so many people like the original poster here who thinks they are special & should be able to get a FULL REFUND on a Deeply Discounted NON-REFUNDABLE ticket. Or they want to make change at NO CHARGE or b***h about any change fees.

Face it, most flyers other than FREQUENT FLYERS can be a BUNCH OF IDIOTS. They think their CHEAPTICKETS.COM or PRICELINE.COM tickets are what is going to make the airlines a whole bunch of profit. NO, you guys are what is costing the airlines all their profits. YOU b***h & MOAN & WHINE worse than a 2 year old baby.

You want all the PERKS you can get & cost more time & effort than you are worth. BOOK DIRECTLY with the Airlines & psy for what you get. Want cheap, fine just dont make any changes or if you do, be prepaired to pay for them. Dont want to pay CHANGE FEE's & such.

Pay for a FULL-FARE ticket & I am sure the airlines will help you out in any way possible.

Kory, it is nice to fianlly see someone who knows what they are talking about when it comes to AIRFARE. I have seen so many people like the original poster here who thinks they are special & should be able to get a FULL REFUND on a Deeply Discounted NON-REFUNDABLE ticket. Or they want to make change at NO CHARGE or b***h about any change fees.

Face it, most flyers other than FREQUENT FLYERS can be a BUNCH OF IDIOTS. They think their CHEAPTICKETS.COM or PRICELINE.COM tickets are what is going to make the airlines a whole bunch of profit. NO, you guys are what is costing the airlines all their profits. YOU b***h & MOAN & WHINE worse than a 2 year old baby.

You want all the PERKS you can get & cost more time & effort than you are worth. BOOK DIRECTLY with the Airlines & psy for what you get. Want cheap, fine just dont make any changes or if you do, be prepaired to pay for them. Dont want to pay CHANGE FEE's & such.

Pay for a FULL-FARE ticket & I am sure the airlines will help you out in any way possible.

Kory, it is nice to fianlly see someone who knows what they are talking about when it comes to AIRFARE. I have seen so many people like the original poster here who thinks they are special & should be able to get a FULL REFUND on a Deeply Discounted NON-REFUNDABLE ticket. Or they want to make change at NO CHARGE or b***h about any change fees.

Face it, most flyers other than FREQUENT FLYERS can be a BUNCH OF IDIOTS. They think their CHEAPTICKETS.COM or PRICELINE.COM tickets are what is going to make the airlines a whole bunch of profit. NO, you guys are what is costing the airlines all their profits. YOU b***h & MOAN & WHINE worse than a 2 year old baby.

You want all the PERKS you can get & cost more time & effort than you are worth. BOOK DIRECTLY with the Airlines & psy for what you get. Want cheap, fine just dont make any changes or if you do, be prepaired to pay for them. Dont want to pay CHANGE FEE's & such.

Pay for a FULL-FARE ticket & I am sure the airlines will help you out in any way possible.

I am a travel agent and hear the same complaints over and over again.

I know what the Cheaptickets website looks like, and how it works. The policies for the tickets are there, many people don't even bother to read them before booking airfare that can cost hundreds of dollars!

Almost every ticket on Cheaptickets is NON-REFUNDABLE. That's why they're so cheap. If you want the security of a REFUNDABLE ticket, you pay much more for that security.

Also, names on airline tickets are non-transferable. I, somehow, knew this by the time I was sixteen and not even thought of becoming a travel agent. How did I know? On a flight, by myself, I was sitting in my seat on the plane, reading the policies on the back of the ticket.

It isn't Cheaptickets that is refusing to "budge an inch," it's the policy on the certain ticket purchased. That policy is set before you even buy the ticket.

There is NOTHING dishonet about this situation. In the future, either understand the policy on what you're paying good money for, or pay MUCH, MUCH more for a fully refundable ticket.