Opodo Prime Membership - warning

6244_WM

I want to warn people about what I can only describe as the cash cow that is Opodo Prime Membership, a heavily pushed £80 per year travel benefits scheme that offers...

"Opodo Prime is exclusive savings on flights, hotels and cars. Find a cheaper flight or hotel and we’ll pay you 2x the difference. That’s our best price guarantee, and only one of the reasons why over 7 million people travel with Prime."

The Best Price Guarantee is at best a maze, at worst an unachievable white elephant.

My warning is that the membership and the fee are really not worth it, flights are often cheaper elsewhere if you are prepared to book via an agent, but the worst part for me are conditions of the Best Price Guarantee which border on 'unfair practices'.
Try booking a flight, then you find a cheaper alternative, but you can only claim against the price guarantee within 24 hours of your booking.
When you try and claim - Opodo will say you can only claim once your Opodo booking is confirmed. I received my booking confirmation 22 hours after booking, despite me being able to see the flights on Virgin's website immediately.
Then when you claim - they rebuff the price available with Expedia, because the price that is publicly available has a line in the checkout called 'expedia discount', with Opodo stating that this 'discount' invalidates the Best Price Guarantee claim....The discount line in the Expedia price is automatically applied, no code or membership or account is required

If you book with Expedia, Last Minute or some other booking sites they all show an element of 'discount' before the final price, excluding them from Opodo's guarantee.
You can only use the BPG with airline site prices and agents like GotoGate, Booking.com.

My personal recommendation after using this service - you might as well just book with the cheapest option if you are prepared to use an agent.

The Prime membership is worthless.

eskbanker

6244_WM said:

My warning is that the membership and the fee are really not worth it, flights are often cheaper elsewhere if you are prepared to book via an agent

[...]

My personal recommendation after using this service - you might as well just book with the cheapest option if you are prepared to use an agent.

Surely Opodo is an agent, so if you're using them then you've already accepted the principle of buying via such a channel?

6244_WM said:

Then when you claim - they rebuff the price available with Expedia, because the price that is publicly available has a line in the checkout called 'expedia discount', with Opodo stating that this 'discount' invalidates the Best Price Guarantee claim....The discount line in the Expedia price is automatically applied, no code or membership or account is required

If you book with Expedia, Last Minute or some other booking sites they all show an element of 'discount' before the final price, excluding them from Opodo's guarantee.
You can only use the BPG with airline site prices and agents like GotoGate, Booking.com.

I don't see anything within the offer terms at https://help.opodo.com/hc/en-150/articles/19240690043410-How-does-best-price-guarantee-work that would support that conclusion, so potentially worth continuing the debate?

6244_WM

I've gone backwards and forwards with them over this for 3 days.... They rebuff each argument I put forward that a publicly available price is not a loyalty scheme, which is the only restriction I see.


Re the comment about agents - yes, Opodo are an agent, I am just stating that if you are prepared to book with them, you might just as well book with any agent that offers a better price - Opodo offer no more protection or support than any agency.
My preference is to book with airlines as long as the price difference isn't too great. 

madmonk69

they signed me up for prime without me agreeing and took the money from my bank without me knowing, then trying to call them is a nightmare had me waiting online for over an hour on my first call, then the second call was even longer ,i had to tell them that i wanted to book a flight so they would talk to me, they try every way to avoid refunding or cancelling prime,

Caz3121

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81871850#Comment_81871850

I assume you previously booked with them. When you selected your flight you would have been shown 2 different fares. I lower priced 'Prime fare' which came with a free trial period or a higher priced 'non-discounted fare' By selecting the Prime fare you will have also agreed to the t&cs which confirm you need to cancel within the free trial period or you will be charged the annual fee each year until you do cancel.

If you have a look at the website and do a dummy booking you will find the information under the Prime fare information and in the terms and conditions. Unfortunately they make a lot of money from people not reading/understanding what they are agreeing to. (they will be able to prove that you did agree when you accepted the t&cs so chargeback etc will fail)