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Anonymous
I have been leveraging travelopod for over 4 years for my family's international travels. The usual happy path that prevailed for the last 4 years , let me live in an illusion that I am buying relatively cheaper tickets( 200 USD less for 4 tickets combined) and my travel to India and other international destination has been a breeze( the fool in me did not realize that it was the airlines being on-time and prompt). This time around with Covid-19 around is when the reality stuck me hard. My wife booked a non-refundable ticket for 4 people to and from( SFO--> Sing-->Bali-->India and India-->Sing-->SFO) through this imbecile bunch for May( booking was done early Dec) . With all this hullaballoo over COVID in the places I was about to travel to, i had my reservations on the travel, but still decided to wait instead of pressing the PANIC button. That was, until the airlines intimated me that they are preponing my flight and my wait time in Singapore( right in the centre of covid from another centre of COVID) just got extended by a day. This made me nervous and also thought this is an opportunity to potentially cancel my tickets. I tried alternatives like asking credit for future travel, they refused and quoted that Singapore airlines advisory does not let them to issue for future credit and my only option is to have an Open ticket( to the same destination(s) till March 31st 2021). I tried explaining that the March timeframe does not fit into my scheme of things considering my kids are in school and if it possible to extend the same till August 2021, although the right option should have been to refund me for the fact that the airlines preponed the date of the flight and respected the current condition that COVID has created , especially for the destination(s) I had in my route . I asked them if they checked with the airlines about the alternatives and the person on the phone said she put me on a 2 minute hold and got the confirmation from airlines :-), anyone who has called Singapore airlines would know the wait times and come to conclusion that she was either lying, plain lucky or has a special dedicated line to connect with Singapore airlines . This has been my most frustrating experience till date and i promise that I will not repeat the mistake that I have been doing for 4 years and lose a fortune trying to save a few hundred dollars. The fact that we also referred a few 'friends and family' to this inept bunch who faced the same situation actually makes this experience a tad worse , thankfully some of them got a refund( on a non-refundable ticket) after they contacted the airlines directly ( be ready for an hours wait on occasions with the airlines, but still worth/better then spending 2 minutes on the phone with these folks. The idea here is to be persistent with the airline customer service , as their first instinct is to shoo away to your agent . But from what i heard, the airline are ready to respect the situation, once you give a clear picture of the incompetency of your agent. The agents just don't try hard enough ) . The main intent of writing this review is to ensure that I can impart my 'lessons learnt' to a larger audience , rather than them learning the hard way ( by spending a fortune trying to save a few dollars). PS: Will you not buy medical insurance , with a view that it will save you a few hundred bucks per month on premiums, if your answer is 'Hell No' I will buy the medical insurance, then do not go with these bunch to save a few hundred dollars and potentially lose a fortune in case of any mini-emergency. Taking advantage of a calamity certainly does not do anyone , any favors in the long term
5 years ago
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