Key West Express Ferry Beware - You can be stranded and ripped off Ft. Myers Beach Florida

Don’t be fooled! This business preys on tourists and the odds that you can’t come back to fight for the money they’ve kept from you.  We are out $400 with no service whatsoever. The Key West Express company appears motivated to NOT SAIL, since they pre-book most of their reservations over the internet, at a “discount” and then refuse to refund fares when THEY cancel the sailing.

I can not think of any other reason to NOT REFUND a ticket purchase, regardless if it’s a discount voucher or full fare ticket, except that it is much more profitable for the company to NOT SAIL, keep all the money, and provide no service whatsoever.  They also then have an empty return passage seat to resell. I understand not sailing due to weather, but I can see no reason, except pure greed, that no refund is possible.

You can be stranded in Key West, with no car, hotel or boat trip! In the busy season, the hotels get booked. Where will you sleep when Key West Express stiffs you on the return trip? We were notified that the boat was not sailing as we were driving to Ft. Myers to get on board. Since we had hotel reservations, we continued driving to Key West, to not miss the whole vacation. 

At Key West, the gate agent, Bill Foley, told us he would fully refund our money, and “the credit will be on your Visa within an hour.” When I checked, no refund, and another agent on the phone said WE DON’T GIVE REFUNDS for that voucher. Bill lied.  She said we could sell the voucher to anyone for use within two years. She lied, too. Later, another agent stated that the voucher is non transferrable. Only the people on the reservation are eligible to use them.

Don’t be fooled. They know that most people can’t wait another whole day or more to sail on vacation.  They also know that you can’t afford to come back here to go to court, to recover your loss.  If they don’t sail, they keep YOUR money, and you pay someone else to get you home! This is a deceptive business, preying on tourists, swindling your money and not providing service.  You’ve been warned.