Complaint Review: cheaptrips.com

This company promisses up to 85% off regular airfares and much much more. They have some sample airfares on their website but you have to become a member in order to search for fares and make reservations. Membership for 1 year is $29 plus $10 shipping of membership kit. This sounded too good to be true, so I first called them and asked if I'll be offered the Boston-Johannesburg price as advertised on the website. I even gave my flight dates and other information and I was assured of the price.

However, when I tried to make the reservation on the same day after paying the membership fee, I was given several numbers of travel agencies to call. All offers from those agencies were at least twice as high as the price I was promissed. When I called to complain I was given new phone numbers that led to the same results. I finally bought my ticket from a different website for a price much lower than the offers from cheaptrips.com and ... without paying any membership fee.

I requested a refund of the fee as I never used their services and was actually misleaded. The answer was - we don't give refunds. I didn't give up and finally a representative gave another phone number for refunds - it had an automated message saying that refunds could be considered upon a written request. It's been 2 months after I sent the request, including the $10 membership kit, consisting of a paper card and a bunch of more false promisses.

I haven't heard from them since then and I don't know what to do anymore. At least, I'd like to make this story public so that other people don't fall into the same trap.

Irene
Boston, Massachusetts