Beware Ebookers! If you dont buy travel insurance, they cancel your flight! Avoid!

sinanyavass

A couple of weeks ago, I booked a return flight ticket from Copenhagen(CPH) to Istanbul Sabiha Airport(SAW) for August 2016 on ebookers.com. My original plan was flying Copenhagen from London on Friday 29'th July, spending there the weekend with some close friends and flying Istanbul on the 1'st of August.

On Monday last week I received a call along with an email saying that "the airline company has cancelled your outbound flight to Istanbul on the 1'st of August because of operational reasons". And I was told that the Airline Company had already issued me with another ticket for the 2'nd of August. This obviously changed everything! I can not stay in Copenhagen one more night since my friends are going away for a holiday as well; plus I have another booked flight to catch in Istanbul in the afternoon on 2'nd of August. So I have no other chance but to be in Istanbul on the 1'st of August, otherwise I have to change my entire travel plans!!!

For the following days I contacted Ebookers.com's Customer Service several times in order to finding a solution. Each time I called in I spent nearly an hour on the line and each time there was a different person on the other side of the line. So I had to go through my story over and over again with every single member of Ebookers' Customer Service. After spending two days with Customer Service, I was finally told that Ebookers can not do anything but refunding the ticket price! What a proseffioonal Company & its professional Customer Service Team! Like a joke! Seriously..

Even though the Airline Company has several other direct flights from CPH to Isanbul on 1'st of August, I was kept told that there is no direct flight at all! I told Ebookers that I was OK with arriving Istanbul Ataturk Airport which is not far from Istanbul Sabiha Airport.

After all, Expedia kept saying there is nothing they can do as the Airline Company is not willing to offer me a ticket to Ataturk Airport. I was forced to either take the flight on the 2'nd of August or accept the refund. Flight tickets have doubled since the time I booked my ticket; staying in Copenhagen will cost me exstra; plus I have to cancel my folowing day flight within Turkey and purchase another ticket!!! A refund will obviously not compansate my lost and it seems like I'll have to cancel my original plans of staying over in Copenhagen and book a direct flight from London to Istanbul on the 1'st of August!!

All in all, I can say that Ebookers is far from defending it's customers' rights. They are there to work for their business partners' benefits! They dont have any corporate or business values!; They have a very unprofessional way of dealing with issues!; And their Customer Service is useless!

Don't book any holidays or flights on Ebookers! Avoid! Be aware! They might cancel your booking because of "Operational Reasons"! And I can assure you that they will not even bother to explain what are these Operational reasons!! Avoid! Dont buy!

Stevie_Palimo

I have used them before without any issues.

jpsartre

Great, this poster was busy spamming the Air Travel forum on Tripadvisor yesterday and have now moved here.

It's not Ebookers/Expedia's fault if the airline refuses to change the destination airport and it was not Ebookers that cancelled the flight (contrary to what the thread title claims). Of course, he was told all this yesterday but apparently it hasn't sunk in.

Caz3121

sinanyavass wrote: »

A couple of weeks ago, I booked a return flight ticket from Copenhagen(CPH) to Istanbul Sabiha Airport(SAW) for August 2016 on ebookers.com. My original plan was flying Copenhagen from London on Friday 29'th July, spending there the weekend with some close friends and flying Istanbul on the 1'st of August.

On Monday last week I received a call along with an email saying that "the airline company has cancelled your outbound flight to Istanbul on the 1'st of August because of operational reasons". And I was told that the Airline Company had already issued me with another ticket for the 2'nd of August.
airlines often proactively rebook on the next available option but you are under no obligation to accept this flight

This obviously changed everything! I can not stay in Copenhagen one more night since my friends are going away for a holiday as well; plus I have another booked flight to catch in Istanbul in the afternoon on 2'nd of August. So I have no other chance but to be in Istanbul on the 1'st of August, otherwise I have to change my entire travel plans!!!

For the following days I contacted Ebookers.com's Customer Service several times in order to finding a solution. Each time I called in I spent nearly an hour on the line and each time there was a different person on the other side of the line. So I had to go through my story over and over again with every single member of Ebookers' Customer Service. After spending two days with Customer Service, I was finally told that Ebookers can not do anything but refunding the ticket price!
options will have been defined by the operating airline. They have the responsibility to reroute or refund the passengers and they will often have a re-accommodation policy that is available to agents to advise...booked on x flight, offer alternative on y flight. The agent can ask the airline for alternatives but has no requirement as an agent to provide you with an alternate flight

What a proseffioonal Company & its professional Customer Service Team! Like a joke! Seriously..

Even though the Airline Company has several other direct flights from CPH to Isanbul on 1'st of August, I was kept told that there is no direct flight at all! are the other flights between CPH-SAW you are seeing with the same airline?I told Ebookers that I was OK with arriving Istanbul Ataturk Airport which is not far from Istanbul Sabiha Airport.

After all, Expedia kept saying there is nothing they can do as the Airline Company is not willing to offer me a ticket to Ataturk Airport. I was forced to either take the flight on the 2'nd of August or accept the refund. There is no obligation on the airline to offer flights to/from different airports (although often they will) and offering a refund means they have complied with the regulations. Flight tickets have doubled since the time I booked my ticket; staying in Copenhagen will cost me exstra; plus I have to cancel my folowing day flight within Turkey and purchase another ticket!!! A refund will obviously not compansate my lost and it seems like I'll have to cancel my original plans of staying over in Copenhagen and book a direct flight from London to Istanbul on the 1'st of August!!

All in all, I can say that Ebookers is far from defending it's customers' rights. They are there to work for their business partners' benefits! They dont have any corporate or business values!; They have a very unprofessional way of dealing with issues!; And their Customer Service is useless!

Don't book any holidays or flights on Ebookers! Avoid! Be aware! They might cancel your booking because of "Operational Reasons"! And I can assure you that they will not even bother to explain what are these Operational reasons!! Avoid! Dont buy!

From the sounds of your tale...if the airline are not offering flights to different airports and have offered another date or refund then you would be in exactly the same situation whether you had booked with the airline direct or with any other agent.
There are one-way flights available from CPH-SAW on the 1st August for £64 with Pegasus. (2 different times)
If you take the refund of your original flight and buy the Pegasus ticket I am assuming you do not need to change any other plans (don't need to stay longer in Copenhagen, don't need to change onward flight and you may be able to claim the difference between your refund amount and new amount from your travel insurance (but even if not it is probably a small price to pay for not disrupting all your plans)
If you were expecting ebookers to be responsible for routing you on another airline when the operating airline of the cancelled flight will not, I think you have misunderstood how third parties operate

Have you tried contacting the airline to ask what the re-accommodation policy is for the cancelled flight? If they state IST is as option then I would take that message back to ebookers to follow up. If they state 'no' to IST then refund is probably the better option than accepting a date that does not work for you

and on your last point Agencies do not cancel flights for operational reasons, airlines do
I think your frustration is directed in the wrong place
Airline cancelled flight + airline will not rebook on another airline or to a different airline = airline at fault...not third party agent

sinanyavass

Pegasus Airlines' flight at 14:20 on 1'st of August suits me, I would book a seat on this flight if it was scheduled last week! But, there was no such flight at these hours when I checked last week! This flight must have been scheduled recently! Otherwise I would do that. The cheapest one way ticket was from Atlasglobal and was £91! Now, after all, I cancelled all my plans; booked a direct flight from London.. Plus, when I called Turkish Airlines they advised me to get in touch with the agent where I booked my flight! They said they can discuss situation with the agent only! And I think they're right! Because I got my ticket on Ebookers.com. So, Ebookers should get in touch with TurkishA and defend my rights against them. Isnt this reasonable? Can you manage that?

Neil49

The title of your post is "Beware Ebookers! If you dont buy travel insurance, they cancel your flight!"

Where does this appear in your ongoing text?

Very misleading.

Caz3121

sinanyavass wrote: »

Pegasus Airlines' flight at 14:20 on 1'st of August suits me, I would book a seat on this flight if it was scheduled last week! But, there was no such flight at these hours when I checked last week! This flight must have been scheduled recently! Otherwise I would do that. The cheapest one way ticket was from Atlasglobal and was £91! Now, after all, I cancelled all my plans; booked a direct flight from London.. Plus, when I called Turkish Airlines they advised me to get in touch with the agent where I booked my flight! They said they can discuss situation with the agent only! And I think they're right! Because I got my ticket on Ebookers.com. So, Ebookers should get in touch with TurkishA and defend my rights against them. Isnt this reasonable? Can you manage that?

was your London-Copenhagen part of the same ticket as the Copenhagen -Istanbul? If separate tickets then these are separate contracts and the fact that one flight is affected means your rights are related to that flight only
Surely abandoning your London-Copenhagen ticket and having to buy a new ticket from London to Istanbul has ultimately cost you more than the difference between your original ticket and the original price you saw of £91. Not sure why you could not find Pegasus flights last week, it is not a new route
eBookers role as your agent was to contact Turkish Airlines and request an alternative flight or obtain your refund. What alternatives could be given were down to what Turkish Airlines would give....Turkish response appears to have been "we have no flights on that date from CPH-SAW and cannot transfer the passenger to CPH-IST so we can offer a flight on the 2nd or a refund"...ebookers then check with you to see which of the 2 options you wish to proceed with.... you appear to want neither and want a different option....not quite sure what it is....maybe you want reimbursed for your abandoned flight and your new flight from London?...you have no rights to that so, if you are looking for anything more than you refund you should talk to your travel insurance

Caz3121

Neil49 wrote: »

The title of your post is "Beware Ebookers! If you dont buy travel insurance, they cancel your flight!"

Where does this appear in your ongoing text?

Very misleading.

there is lots of misleading information.
The fact that the airline cancels a flight due to operational reasons is nothing to do with who you booked it through and whether insurance was purchased
Ebookers did not cancel the flight, the airline did (the same flight was also cancelled for those people that booked direct and for those people that purchased travel insurance)
OP is entitled to a full refund and does not need to have purchased travel insurance to receive that
Turkish airlines have offered an alternate flight or refund as they should.

I had a cancelled flight on BA this week...cancelled the night before, my options were a flight 5+ hours later (nothing available before then and no use to me) or a refund. Refund requested and flight booked with another carrier.....not difficult really

leylandsunaddict

As has been said, he posted the same rant umpteen times on Trip Advisor yesterday (to the point TA closed is account) and got told many times that this was not the fault of Expedia, or Ebookers. He seems to think that because they're part of the same group they're the same company He is really clueless.

sinanyavass

Let me put this right! You're suggesting me not refunding my original booking as the inbound leg is still valid and will be operatted as it it is scheduled. Plus I should buy another seperate ticket for cancelled outbound leg from another Airline Company, is that right? Which was £91 last week.. But why do I have pay for a new ticket? Was it me cancelling the original flight?
Also when I called to Ebookers' Customer Service, I was told to get either the following day flight or refund the full return ticket. These two were the only options!
No one suggested me buying another outbound flight ticket for the 1'st of August, which will be paid buy the Airline Company itself!! Now you're telling me that TurkishA would pay the price difference?? Why on earth I wasnt told about that when I wasted my two days with Ebookers' Customer Service? I'm not asking for any reimburshments for my new travel plan!! But TurkishA or Ebookers should pay me back a seperate tickets' price, plus full refund for my original return ticket!! That's what I'm expecting.

jpsartre

The airline (and I assume it is Turkish Airlines based on what you say above) should offer you re-routing or a refund. If Turkish Airlines had a flight to a different Istanbul airport that suited you then I completely agree, they should have offered this. The point is that none of this has anything at all to do with Ebookers so why you have directed your anger at them rather than at the people who *actually* cancelled your flight and then refused to accommodate your very reasonable request is a bit of a mystery.

Buying a new separate ticket for the outbound flight only wouldn't have worked as your ticket would have been cancelled had you no-shown the first leg.