Farerepublic/Flysearching.com

wburchell

Hi, we've paid a £630 deposit (on credit card) on two return flights to Perth, Australia bur are getting nervous about the company. We searched for our flights through farerepublic.co.uk and then booked via a phone call, we paid a deposit and received an itinerary email from a flysearch.com agent which also outlined the deposit and remaining balance. There has been problems with communication at each stage, the latest issue being that the agent wanted the balance paying by bank transfer, I told him no and asked to pay through a terminal, which he said he would have to arrange. I'm still waiting for a phone call back, he said he would be 5 minutes and it's been an hour. Should I be worried?

Thanks for any help given.

Westin

Hope the saving was worth it.

One look at that website (farerepublic.co.uk) would have turned me off.   I expect this is a one man band with a registered address at a service office.

https://www.farerepublic.co.uk/about-us.php

Caz3121

bank transfer request = red flag
Companies House show one director who is resident in India. First accounts were due to be filed by 31st May and have not been so steps started to have them struck off as a company
I would start preparing to get your credit card company involved and look at booking flights direct with the airline. If tempted by a third party, research thoroughly first - there are many many more terrible ones than there are good ones

eDicky

Quite a scream...

"farerepublic might be an autonomous on-line agency and not related to any third party. By accessing and using farerepublic.co.uk electronic computer you agree that farerepublic is not guilty for any direct or indirect loss, however arising, from the employment of any of the data, offers, materials or links to totally different sites found on this internet site. If you have got any queries you will be able to call us at our Toll Free 0208-124-6555 or simply email USA at support@farerepublic.co.uk"

Alan_Bowen

The mangled English would have put me off from the start. For you, begin by contacting the airline and see if you have a live booking, it may well have been booked but automatically cancelled if it wasn't paid for. The company has no IATA licence so has to buy tickets elsewhere in which case, by law you should have been issued with an ATOL Certificate but they don't seem to have one of those either.

If there is no valid booking, then you will need to formally request a refund and assuming that doesn't happen then follow the excellent advice of Caz3121 and contact your card issuer for a refund. The company has never filed accounts, has a share capital of one pound and there appear to be no reviews anywhere....

wburchell

Hi All, many thanks for all your advice and the time spent researching the company, which granted, I should have carried out for myself. It would seem that despite all this we have got genuine BA flights to Perth. I've downloaded the BA app and added my flight ref and all the connections show up fine. Just to be certain I called BA and got them to confirm that the flights were paid for, which they verified. Thanks again for all your help!

Voyager2002

wburchell said:

Hi All, many thanks for all your advice and the time spent researching the company, which granted, I should have carried out for myself. It would seem that despite all this we have got genuine BA flights to Perth. I've downloaded the BA app and added my flight ref and all the connections show up fine. Just to be certain I called BA and got them to confirm that the flights were paid for, which they verified. Thanks again for all your help!

So how did you pay in the end?

If you have not yet paid the balance then remember that the agent can still claw back the money from BA, so make sure that you do pay and that you pay by credit card.