Optiontown Upgrade - a negative experience

[legroom]

Friends

I just wish to report a rather negative experience with optiontown where you could apply / pay in advance for possible upgrades usually with 2nd / 3rd tier airlines.

Their business model is that you have to pay in full for the requested upgrades and if unsuccessful, they will refund your money (minus $1-2 fee) some 5 days after the date of travel.

You can argue that business model is taking advantage of your cash for free but that is not my point here.

I applied & paid for a possible upgrade to J flying VN (SYD-SGN-SYD) in Dec 2012.

However, my return trip was changed to a different date.

My request to optiontown - some 3 weeks before the departure date - resulted in this reply: "... you need to sign up again..." i.e. they would like you to apply & pay for another upgrade while not refunding the now-aborted paid-for upgrade.

They refused to transfer my paid upgrade to the new date, nor did they refund it so that I can apply that sum to the new date.

IMHO, this is about grabbing as much cash as possible, for as long as possible, from as many clients as possible.

So, if you are planning to use optiontown, just be aware that your money would be tied up without any possible exchange or refund.

I would never use them again as it is so consumer-unfriendly.

 

[mannej]

Having had an upgrade knocked back, I am aware that they may take longer to refund the money compared to what they state, however from memory isn't one of the terms that the upgrade request is not transferable or refundable should you change flights?

I am just trying to remember as it has been a while since I have used it

 

[legroom]

Having had an upgrade knocked back, I am aware that they may take longer to refund the money compared to what they state, however from memory isn't one of the terms that the upgrade request is not transferable or refundable should you change flights?

I am just trying to remember as it has been a while since I have used it

Like many others, I probably did not read all the small-print Ts & Cs.

This is what is shown on the website:

*****

[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"]How UTo works?

If you have a confirmed booking with one of our partners, you may be eligible to Sign-up for UTo.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"]UTo Sign-up[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[TD]Select your Airline and enter your Booking Reference, Last Name and Email.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[TD]Select the flight(s) where you want UTo and the desired upgrade class.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[TD]Pay a nominal Sign-up price and Upgrade Price (refunded if not upgraded).[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"]UTo Upgrade[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 2"] [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[TD]Your upgrade decision will be emailed to you normally between 1-3 days* before flight departure and at least 4 hours before departure. We advise you to wait for your upgrade decision before you check-in for your flight, as it might impact your upgrade decision.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]

[/TD]
[TD]If you are not upgraded, then your Upgrade Price will be refunded automatically.


**********

As you can see, there is no mentioning of transfer / cancellation.

The point is they are so unfriendly when I contacted them about that simple date change.


[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[moa999]

There is no point signing up until a few days before when you know you will take the flights.

 

[mannej]

From memory it is in the FAQ's. I remember it specifically stating that you could not cancel it once you have paid for it all.

 

[anat0l]

Did you voluntarily change the date of your return flight?

If the change was involuntary, i.e. VN changed it for you, then you may have a stronger case against Optiontown.

If you voluntarily changed the return date, then it will depend strongly on the Optiontown T&Cs, though suffice to say it would be a harsh shame if you could not recover your money at all. The FAQs on the website seem to imply that your payment is completely non-refundable, with a refund due only in the case that you do not receive an upgrade, the latter which is also ambiguous!

You may want to consider filing a claim at your relevant consumer affairs body. They might be very interested in a business which touts that all payments are non-refundable.

 

[markis10]

You may want to consider filing a claim at your relevant consumer affairs body. They might be very interested in a business which touts that all payments are non-refundable.

Said business is outside of the coverage of either state or federal law in Australia, filing a complaint would be useless in that respect as the authorities are not empowered to act.

 

[anat0l]

Said business is outside of the coverage of either state or federal law in Australia, filing a complaint would be useless in that respect as the authorities are not empowered to act.

Oh well... then I hope the OP didn't have to invest too much then!

 

[mella2007]

7 months after a flight with Air Asia using Optiontown (got the upgrade there, but not on the way back) I still didn't get a refund from the upgrade fees I paid. I wrote it off as a bad mistake (paypal dispute didn't help either)

 

[legroom]

7 months after a flight with Air Asia using Optiontown (got the upgrade there, but not on the way back) I still didn't get a refund from the upgrade fees I paid. I wrote it off as a bad mistake (paypal dispute didn't help either)

I got the refund as promised so not a complete loss there.

I did not dig deep into the Ts & Cs so cannot comment whether they are right or wrong, just plainly unhelpful.

The way I see it (as a consumer), they just want to hang on to your money no matter what the circumstances are.

To reapply (i.e. paying for another upgrade) when the other upgrade is known to be void is simply asinine, IMHO.