DO NOT book a flight with ebookers ! EXTREME incompetence !! What can I do ?

KeithH_2

2 weeks ago booked return flights Manchester - Chicago - Las Vegas with ebookers, my wife and I fly tomorrow Tues 21st March.
On Friday, I rang them and said "where are our tickets?" They said they had "mislaid" them, and were re issuing them and posting them via special delivery that day, to arrive saturday ( a service I had paid for when booking).
Post came on Saturday, Booking form showed two people, only one ticket in envelope.
Spent all day on Saturday and Sunday, arguing with useless call centre staff in India, who, on the rare occasions they answered the phone, tried to fob me off with every excuse imaginable (go to ebookers desk at manchesterairport on tuesday morning, ebookers do not HAVE a desk at Manchester ! Just turn up and you will be aloowed to board, they know about your ticket. Rang BMI they said no etickets on USA flights, either paper ticket in your hand or no seat, and probably arrested!)
After 2 days I lost my rag and sent a very stern email to every ebookers email address I could find on the site.
If I had not spotted the missing ticket and rang up and caused trouble, I would have just turned up at check in and been refused travel. Are ebookers bothered about this ? No.

I have been ringing and just got a call back from a VERY difficult to understand person in India, saying it was sorted (BMI rang me back and said ebookers have not even given them the ticket number they asked for to reissue the ticket)
This is still not resolved, I just get told by ebookers to turn up at 5am tomorrow and "see what happens at check in".
No one seems interested, and I am very worried about my holiday, and what is going to happen tomorrow.

I also asked if I could get a discounted upgrade, and the Indian guy said it is against the booking rules to give upgrades, even tohugh the head of communications told me differently (but I cant get hold of them now) and their websites offers different grades of flight, and there is availability on the flight.

wigginsmum

Oh heck - we're flying to the US a week on Saturday with ebookers and have been told that we'll have e-tickets, not paper tickets! I'd better check direct with the airlines.

KeithH_2

Good luck arguing with the poorly trained indian staff who don't have a clue.

wigginsmum

I'm just looking at the ebookers website and it says American Airlines is covered for e-tickets, which is who we're flying with. But I'll check with them directly. The ebookers website is saying very specifically that e-tickets are available with BMI British Midland; maybe the problem is that you were originally going to have paper tickets and they're having to do e-tickets at the last minute?

Really hope you get it sorted out, mate - what a nightmare.

KeithH_2

one of the indian staff even said you can get on a flight to the US without a passport.

Ive jsut rang ABTA and grassed the clowns up.

cundall

KeithH wrote:

Good luck arguing with the poorly trained indian staff who don't have a clue.

I am not indian but why do you have to bring any country into this as you can get poorly trained staff from any country.

richardw

Do u have an airline reference? if so go to https://www.checkmytrip.com and see what is there.

Don't forget e -tickets need a number to be valid.

KeithH_2

I brought the country into it because it is reflective of the poor service offered. The staff had only a VERY rudimentary knowledge of our language, the manager I just spoke to did not know what a "Passport" was and although my name is Hays, he repeated it back to me as "Gees" "Wees" and "Hoos". Airline tickets must be correct to the letter to be valid, or I would not have been allowed travel. So I feel that employing staff in India was a very poor choice.

sale_2

i agree with cundall.............off late everyone is outsourcing to India which includes big names.

also out here it is very rare to get a satisfactory answer and most of the time it's misleading.

even i am trying to book tickets to Washington and believe me everyone has different fares everyday. i decided to go thru travelbag and tried to save an extra 2% thru quidco only to find that now thru quidco the tickets are costly by £10 than ususal.

bottom line is there should be some regulation on these so called cheap flights which ruins someone's holiday on everyday basis.

i have decided to go thru BA directly though it is costly compared to so called online cheap travel agents.

cheers........

richardw

sale wrote:

i have decided to go thru BA directly though it is costly compared to so called online cheap travel agents.QUOTE]

Which is what BA want you to do, they want to control the sale of their flights directly so they can put prices up.

wigginsmum

I just spoke to American Airlines who confirmed there are no problems with e-tickets to enter the US and confirmed our bookings and booking reference. I can only think that somewhere between BMI and ebookers your change from paper to e-tickets isn't showing up. Fingers crossed that you get it sorted in time.