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

[RB001]

... I now only book direct or just recently started making one or two bookings through Qantas hotels but only as an exception (Not sure who they use).
Caveat Emptor

Expedia

 

[CaptJCool]

Word of caution about making any bookings within this group of companies. I made a booking through Agoda for an overnight transit at Sama² KLIA. The booking failed because of a payment glitch. I then booked through Priceline (not knowing they are sister companies) and all went through and comfirmation received with the future date final payment will be deducted. A little later, I received an email from Agoda confirming my reservation. I thought the first attempt had somehow gone through & I had a double booking. I promptly cancelled the Agoda booking using the link in the email. Payment date came and Priceline charged my card. A few days before arrival, I rang the hotel to inform them I was arriving mid afternoon not the after 9pm in the original booking. The hotel informed me my booking was cancelled by Agoda back on the date I booked. I said yes but there should be an active booking through Priceline. There wasn't. I contacted Priceline and they replied to contact Agoda instead. After much throughing and froing, it appears the Priceline booking was actually given to Agoda to arrange. and when I cancelled, it was the same booking. I asked why then did they still deducted the payment weeks after the cancellation. They accepted it was a system error. They said they will cancel the original authorisation and that will trigger a refund. The refund never arrived. I chased up multiple times and kept getting fobbed off by Priceline to Agoda who in turn told me to contact Priceline. I got nowhere. I finally sent them a long scathing email running through the whole episode and telling them they are thieves blaming each other to avoid reponsiblility.
Their final response to me was the original authorisation has been cancelled. That's it. No refund after 8 months. That became a very expensive transit, I had to book a suite (only rooms available) plus the loss of the orginal. I now only book direct or just recently started making one or two bookings through Qantas hotels but only as an exception (Not sure who they use).
Caveat Emptor

Qantas hotels are a shopfront for Expedia

 

[latawiec]

I like to show ranking of the Booking.com as this could be very surprising

1. Booking com - self ranking with over 4


View attachment 368627

2. Hotelchantele.com ranking
View attachment 368638
3. Product review.com review with only 1.4
View attachment 368639

4. ThrustPilot with only 1.2 or 1.7 (AU website).

View attachment 368640

5. Consumer Affairs with only 1.1

View attachment 368641
I would like you and others to make your own conclusions, particularly regarding self-ranking or self-review... by OTA.

Also I like to mention that it is important to check ownership of OTA before using it for booking and not to learn in a hard way what happened to me last year.

Thanks for the update and supporting reviews.

Like to point out the the first one might be sponsored, being paid ...

Still wouldn't recommend booking flights via their websites.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I like to show ranking of the Booking.com as this could be very surprising

1. Booking com - self ranking with over 4


View attachment 368627

That is likely the App Store rating for the app. I would make the argument that Booking.com and just about every OTA is a 5 Star service. After all, you can book Lufthansa and a number of other 5 Star airlines with them!

2. Hotelchantele.com ranking
View attachment 368638

That just means 85% of the review sponsorship fee was paid by the company!

4. ThrustPilot with only 1.2 or 1.7 (AU website).

View attachment 368640

I’ve heard of TrustPilot but not ThrustPilot. Then again I really don’t want to know what they’re all about

Joking aside, I would be curious how the airlines score in terms of customer satisfaction when booking direct with them. I suspect some on this forum have had a 1 Star booking experience at times with Qantas.

-RooFlyer88

 

[CaptJCool]

thrustpilot is taking Orf ….

 

[NamarrgonFlyer]

Qantas hotels are a shopfront for Expedia

Not necessarily. All these deals displayed here: https://www.qantas.com/holidays/deals will be procured by the Qantas Hotels team directly. Also, any classic reward bookings and any with triple points offers.

I’ve booked hotels with booking.com and never had a problem, however I just booked a Great Wall tour from Beijing using them and now I’m worried.

Booking.com only acting as a reseller for probably Viator in this instance.

 

[Marishka]

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.

I concur with everything you experienced. We, too, lost 1600 Euros when we discovered that the airline had booked us on a discount airline for a much lower ticket fare, but still charged us the full fare. There was no disclosure of the type of fare, nor the cancellation or rebooking options. In fact, there was no transparency at all, but because we're used to booking with Booking.com for hotels, we were confident any changes would be handled promptly and fairly. Needless to say, we're switching to Amex Travel. We simply can't rely on a second rate booking company that uses a 3rd rate flight reservations system with deceptive practices.

 

[trooper]

It seems to be quite variable. I have only used Booking.com for hotels (and never had a problem..luck..or??) I recently booked a multi airline J trip on Aunt Betty via Skyscanner ..and had both airlines PNRs within a very short time. Itinerary shows on both Airline web sites exactly as booked, and seats/meals selected etc... We will see how it goes.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It seems to be quite variable. I have only used Booking.com for hotels (and never had a problem..luck..or??) I recently booked a multi airline J trip on Aunt Betty via Skyscanner ..and had both airlines PNRs within a very short time. Itinerary shows on both Airline web sites exactly as booked, and seats/meals selected etc... We will see how it goes.

Aunt Betty is a subsidiary of Flight Centre I believe?

i used them too, for a flight at short notice - leaving the next week. No issues at all. It was a good price, simple ticket, and ticketed quickly.

I think people run into problems when they want to make changes, or get refunds. Mostly due to the passenger not understanding the terms and conditions of the ticket in the first place.

 

[dajop]

I concur with everything you experienced. We, too, lost 1600 Euros when we discovered that the airline had booked us on a discount airline for a much lower ticket fare, but still charged us the full fare. There was no disclosure of the type of fare, nor the cancellation or rebooking options.

What airline was it originally and how/which airline did it change to? Did you originally book Airline A and when the ticket came through you found you were booked on Airline B? It seems very odd.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

What airline was it originally and how/which airline did it change to? Did you originally book Airline A and when the ticket came through you found you were booked on Airline B? It seems very odd.

Good pick up! I thought it was booking.com that did the substitution, but the OP says it was the airline. Perhaps something like Wamos operating for the actual airline?