Why You Should NOT Book flights with Booking.com or GoToGate.com

[latawiec]

Why NOT to book flights with the Booking.com or the GoToGate.com

Booking.com has been our number one for booking service for many years. I have booked accommodation multiple times using this site and have never had an issue until this year.


In April 2023 we purchased a cruise starting from London, UK in June 2023. Therefore, as previously in 2019 we booked 2 days accommodation in London via Booking.com to ensure that we will not be late for our cruise.
So, I thought I could trust them also for flight booking too. It was late evening and I didn't check any reviews about their flight service.


The purchased cruise was in June and I used Booking.com to purchase Malaysian Airlines flights for me and my wife from Australia to London and also return flights in the late August back to Australia.


The booking process was quite simple; select flights, ensure correct luggage allowance, select seats, and finally get all details with charges on the "check and pay" screen before paying. As per good practice I saved the "check and pay" screen page (save the screenshot) for my reference.


After paying by credit card we soon get an email from Booking.com confirming the flight with the airline booking reference number. It seems that all needed was well done.


However, this is the first time we have encountered problems at the airport at check-in time because the Malaysian Airline personnel refused to process our two suitcases. I was showing them our "check and pay" ticket information.


They checked our tickets on their airline system and informed us that they have a different version of tickets on their system, which includes only the "Light economy luggage allowance" without the checked bags although our "check and pay" screenshot showed two 20kg checked bags allowance.


My wife and I were surprised, shocked and also devastated at this time.


The airline personnel indicated that I am not the first customer with such a problem.


Trying to help us, they advise us to repack our suitcases and pay over 1500 AUD for the excess luggage in order to continue our flight to London.


The Booking.com didn't deliver us the flight tickets as per details of our "check and pay" order and also refused to compensate us for the incurred cost of over 1500 AUD paid for the excess luggage because deficiency in their service system (probably software problem because other customers experience similar events).


When booking flights through Booking.com
I did not realise they use a subsidiary company called GOTOGATE.


The Booking.com uses their partner services of the GotoGate.com for flights and
it is one of the worst online flight agencies.


Now the Booking.com includes many other partners and therefore service quality is deteriorating.


Hence, based on my experience and also other customers included in the productreview.com.au I will not recommend their flight services even to my enemies.

 

[latawiec]

Please be aware that the Booking Holdings owns the following brands: Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, Rentalcars.com, KAYAK and OpenTable, as well as through a network of subsidiary brands including Rocketmiles, Fareharbor, HotelsCombined, Cheapflights and Momondo and also GoToGate.​

 

[LondonAussie]

over 1500 AUD for the excess luggage

Also a reason not to use Malaysia airlines if that's how much they charge for 2x <20kg suitcases!

 

[MELso]

This feels like a post straight from the Tripadvisor air travel forum.

There are dozens of warnings across the internet not to use them, and yet you went ahead anyway. We can't do anything here - you need to speak to your credit card provider and seek a chargeback from them for the amount paid to Gotogate for the luggage they didn't deliver.

(FWIW, I booked with them on a LAX-PPT-NOU-SYD flight. Sadly, a reschedule meant the flight timings didn't work but after getting Aircalin to record my eligibility for a refund on the GDS, it was fine getting the money back from Gotogate.).

 

[latawiec]

After repacking we had only 2 suitcases 10 kg each and the excess luggage charge was 1522 AUD for flight from Perth, Australia to London, UK via Kuala Lumpur. So it is quite expensive.

 

[latawiec]

This feels like a post straight from the Tripadvisor air travel forum.

There are dozens of warnings across the internet not to use them, and yet you went ahead anyway. We can't do anything here - you need to speak to your credit card provider and seek a chargeback from them for the amount paid to Gotogate for the luggage they didn't deliver.

(FWIW, I booked with them on a LAX-PPT-NOU-SYD flight. Sadly, a reschedule meant the flight timings didn't work but after getting Aircalin to record my eligibility for a refund on the GDS, it was fine getting the money back from Gotogate.).

Credit Card provider doesn't support the chargeback as the transaction was legal and consider such event as a civil case on the service deficiency.
I am not waisting my time on reporting to ACCC but by this post spreading awareness about risk to other potential customers.

Avoid the Booking.com for flights....

 

[tgh]

Seriously amazing stuff.. caveat emptor is trumps here .... would never fly Malaysian anyway

 

[MELso]

Seriously amazing stuff.. caveat emptor is trumps here .... would never fly Malaysian anyway

It wasn't really MH at issue here.

The OP has ignored a whole internet of warnings and gone with an OTA who's sold a 'lite' fare (which MH offers as they need to cater to people who only look at headline prices on price comparison websites) and then most likely added their own baggage fee which not surprisingly was not recognised by MH themselves.

 

[aikman]

Surely Booking is aware of the issues with Gotogate. I'm surprised they are allowing their brand name to be attached to it.

 

[MELso]

Surely Booking is aware of the issues with Gotogate. I'm surprised they are allowing their brand name to be attached to it.

They're the same company. (EDIT or at least were going to be until the EU kiboshed the merger)

 

[tdimdad]

It wasn't really MH at issue here.

The OP has ignored a whole internet of warnings and gone with an OTA who's sold a 'lite' fare (which MH offers as they need to cater to people who only look at headline prices on price comparison websites) and then most likely added their own baggage fee which not surprisingly was not recognised by MH themselves.

The Manage My Booking on the MH site would have shown them the unexpected low baggage allowance, wouldn't it. That should have alerted the OP that something's amiss with the booking.

MH charges USD $52 /kg for excess baggage which for 20 kg then would come to about AUD $1,500. That is one expensive shortfall in the service.

 

[CaptJCool]

The last trip I packed at 6.5kg carry on plus what I wore 3 shirts and a jacket

Left behind EVERYTHING I could feasibly buy in Tasmania …

And constantly getting email advising “do you want to buy extra luggage ?”

I would rather ditch the $52/kg stuff and just repurchase once overseas ….

 

[latawiec]

It wasn't really MH at issue here.

The OP has ignored a whole internet of warnings and gone with an OTA who's sold a 'lite' fare (which MH offers as they need to cater to people who only look at headline prices on price comparison websites) and then most likely added their own baggage fee which not surprisingly was not recognised by MH themselves.

We also are opinion that this case wasn't MH issue although our flight was intercontinental were normally flight tickets include checked luggage allowance.

Our "check and pay" flight tickets order included the " Basic economy luggage allowance" that was two 20 kg checked bags.

However, the Malaysian Airlines had a different version of our tickets on their airline system, which was the " Light economy luggage allowance" without the checked bags.

The glitch or problem is very likely within the GOTOGATE software.

The Malaysian Airlines personnel indicated that we are not the first customers with such a problem. And from product review.com.au I can see that similar events still occur.

 

[latawiec]

Surely Booking is aware of the issues with Gotogate. I'm surprised they are allowing their brand name to be attached to it.

By refusing to admit that they have problem and also not willing to compensate customers for their financial loss Booking.com and Gotogate.com are tarnishing their brand reputation. We were waiting over 2 months for their reply telling us about refusing to compensate us.
And now they lost a customer that for almost 20 yrs booked accommodation with them.

Thanks for all who comment on this issue. DO NOT trust Booking.com and Gotogate.com

 

[kamchatsky]

By refusing to admit that they have problem and also not willing to compensate customers for their financial loss Booking.com and Gotogate.com are tarnishing their brand reputation. We were waiting over 2 months for their reply telling us about refusing to compensate us.
And now they lost a customer that for almost 20 yrs booked accommodation with them.

Thanks for all who comment on this issue. DO NOT trust Booking.com and Gotogate.com

Earlier this year I did look at getting JTR-ATH-FCO ticket via booking.Com/GoToGate but ended up booking at A3 direct because their review on flight booking was no good.

For accommodation I have no issues with booking.Com though, cave houses at Santorini, airbnb style apartments at Florence and Lake Como.

 

[Pushka]

This feels like a post straight from the Tripadvisor air travel forum.

There are dozens of warnings across the internet not to use them, and yet you went ahead anyway. We can't do anything here - you need to speak to your credit card provider and seek a chargeback from them for the amount paid to Gotogate for the luggage they didn't deliver.

(FWIW, I booked with them on a LAX-PPT-NOU-SYD flight. Sadly, a reschedule meant the flight timings didn't work but after getting Aircalin to record my eligibility for a refund on the GDS, it was fine getting the money back from Gotogate.).

That's a bit harsh. Of course we can't do anything but the OP is warning others. I looked at using them recently and people don't necessarily look at TA for flight booking places, and in any case TA has its own affiliations.

 

[jase05]

I’ve used booking.com many times for accommodation without issue but I’d never book flights through them. I always book direct with the airline even if it costs a little more

 

[MELso]

That's a bit harsh. Of course we can't do anything but the OP is warning others. I looked at using them recently and people don't necessarily look at TA for flight booking places, and in any case TA has its own affiliations.

It's harsh. It's also true.

If the OP had bothered to do any research before plunking down thousands of dollars on airfares (rather than just making assumptions that a particular set of circumstances exist, like that airline bookings work the same way as hotel bookings), they would have seen hundreds of complaints and warnings about Gotogate and booking flights through Booking.com. The OP's post merely joins those ranks.

Likewise, they failed to check their booking after it was made with the airline (again making more assumptions that Booking.com had made the booking correctly with MH with the correct luggage allowance).

(The observation about Tripadvisor is more that its Air Travel forum is filled with people complaining about the 'scams' of online travel agencies when their desire to save a few bucks compared to booking directly with the airline has blinded them to the risks and complications of using online travel agencies - risks and complications that could have been avoided by doing even the smallest amount of research before booking, rather than just clicking on the lowest price offered by Kayak or Skyscanner.)

 

[burmans]

It's harsh. It's also true.

If the OP had bothered to do any research before plunking down thousands of dollars on airfares (rather than just making assumptions that a particular set of circumstances exist, like that airline bookings work the same way as hotel bookings), they would have seen hundreds of complaints and warnings about Gotogate and booking flights through Booking.com. The OP's post merely joins those ranks.

Likewise, they failed to check their booking after it was made with the airline (again making more assumptions that Booking.com had made the booking correctly with MH with the correct luggage allowance).

(The observation about Tripadvisor is more that its Air Travel forum is filled with people complaining about the 'scams' of online travel agencies when their desire to save a few bucks compared to booking directly with the airline has blinded them to the risks and complications of using online travel agencies - risks and complications that could have been avoided by doing even the smallest amount of research before booking, rather than just clicking on the lowest price offered by Kayak or Skyscanner.)

While I agree another warning on this forum does no harm and probably helps some people. I’m not overly a fan of the I’m so much smarter than you attitude, flyers have a variety of experience and we should cater to all such levels on this forum, save that attitude for Flyertalk where it seems to be the norm these days.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Seriously amazing stuff.. caveat emptor is trumps here .... would never fly Malaysian anyway

The problem is not with Malaysian and if you want seriously good satay I suggest you do!