Holiday Mood flights ? Scam?

stingrayj · 12 October 2016 at 4:59PM

Anyone used this company for flights? I'm suspicious of them. Booked via Momondo.com (my usual excellent flight search engine) and they provided the cheapest price for a flight to India, not way cheaper, just £10 less than another.

Got a confirmation from them straight away and then another email:

"The payment details provided by you cannot be verified by our online 3D secure password payment system.

In order to establish the authenticity of the payment and card holder we require some supporting documents; if these are not received in the required timeframe it may not be possible for us to confirm your booking at the same fare.

Kindly print and fill out the auth form and send it to us along with an address proof and Id of the card holder (BANK STATEMENT, PASSPORT COPY, DRIVING LICENSE ETC.) and you can either scan it, fax it or even take a mobile phone photograph of it and send it back to us."

Am I just being a bit paranoid? Never been approached by a company before this way. They have a legit looking website and are IATA member. No way I'm gonna start sending them bank statements...

I notice they then ask for an additional 2.5% for debit card fee (not included in the quoted price) and have a cancellation charge of £175.

thoughts?

NiftyDigits · 12 October 2016 at 5:52PM

If your payment details cannot be verified then surely they cannot take the funds.....

Make sure your funds are intact and then move along.

I hope you meant 2.5% for credit, not debit.

Keep copies of everything in the case of needing to enter a dispute claim with your card provider.

Mr_Wangers_Wang · 12 October 2016 at 9:15PM

stingrayj wrote: »

Anyone used this company for flights? I'm suspicious of them. Booked via Momondo.com (my usual excellent flight search engine) and they provided the cheapest price for a flight to India, not way cheaper, just £10 less than another.

Got a confirmation from them straight away and then another email:

"The payment details provided by you cannot be verified by our online 3D secure password payment system.

In order to establish the authenticity of the payment and card holder we require some supporting documents; if these are not received in the required timeframe it may not be possible for us to confirm your booking at the same fare.

Kindly print and fill out the auth form and send it to us along with an address proof and Id of the card holder (BANK STATEMENT, PASSPORT COPY, DRIVING LICENSE ETC.) and you can either scan it, fax it or even take a mobile phone photograph of it and send it back to us."

Am I just being a bit paranoid? Never been approached by a company before this way. They have a legit looking website and are IATA member. No way I'm gonna start sending them bank statements...

I notice they then ask for an additional 2.5% for debit card fee (not included in the quoted price) and have a cancellation charge of £175.

thoughts?

Welcome to India.

This is classic India bureaucracy.

Get used to it.

Personally I would forget it and re book elsewhere. I can vouch for Makemytrip and Cleartrip (both Indian).

Voyager2002 · 12 October 2016 at 9:59PM

The extra fee for card payments probably wipes out the price advantage, so you might as well buy elsewhere. And if the fee was not mentioned before now it gives you a reason to cancel without penalty, so that is something that you can use.

I vaguely remember using a company of that name back in the 1990s, so if they are the same outfit then they are likely to be legitimate.

pogofish · 12 October 2016 at 10:20PM

When I had this I checked it with my bank and their response was that there was no good legal reason to ask for this amount of "proof" but there was a great many illegal ones.

Their considered advice was to challenge them and demand they either process the payment with the info I'd already given - which was in their eyes quite sufficient, or to cancel the transaction with no further charge.

I did this and it was processed and handled without problem.

LMathias123 · 22 October 2016 at 8:46PM

Hi all - I'm in the same boat - just booked a flight but now I've had the weird email and found these reviews...
Now I don't know whether to cancel it or just send them a scan of passport and proof of address. I called them up and they said it's just to verify my details for my bank... and that they'll refund me in 15-20 days if I choose to cancel.
To be honest I'd rather confirm the flight than risk not being refunded it, hearing stories of how long they take to refund them!
Just wondered @Pogofish, did it work out ok in the end for you? thanks so much!

LMathias123 · 22 October 2016 at 9:08PM

@Pogofish did they confirm your flight in the end, without you needing to send the extra details?

thanks so much

pogofish wrote: »

When I had this I checked it with my bank and their response was that there was no good legal reason to ask for this amount of "proof" but there was a great many illegal ones.

Their considered advice was to challenge them and demand they either process the payment with the info I'd already given - which was in their eyes quite sufficient, or to cancel the transaction with no further charge.

I did this and it was processed and handled without problem.

Holiday Mood flights ? Scam?

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