“I received an email from customer service on April 17 regarding a refund, expected within 5 to 10 days, for my flight ticket canceled by the airline. To this day, I still haven't received anything, despite several follow-ups via email and chat. I sent the refund request email to customer service, and the response was: "We will check with the airline." Other responses included: "Wait 24 or 48 hours" or "We apologize for the delay." It's been almost a month, and I'm still waiting for my money.
I will take the necessary legal measures and use social media to share my experience if Budget continues to refuse to act.
A customer service response that brushes off the problem by redirecting to the airline, even though the ticket was purchased on budgetair.com
Date of the experience: April 17, 2025”
“I am writing to formally raise a complaint regarding the refund for our cancelled flight booking from Mumbai to Baku via Delhi with IndiGo Airlines, which was cancelled by the airline due to Pakistan airspace restrictions. It has now been over 12 days, and while IndiGo has confirmed that the full refund has been processed, we have yet to receive the amount through budget air .
We have followed up multiple times and provided all relevant details, including the transaction ID, reference ID, and refund reference number. Despite this, your team continues to delay the process, repeatedly stating that they are still checking with the airline. This ongoing lack of clarity and responsiveness is both inefficient and highly unprofessional.
Your customer support has consistently failed to offer any concrete updates, resorting instead to generic responses that do not address the issue. This has resulted in one of the most frustrating experiences we’ve had with any travel booking service. We are extremely disappointed by the lack of accountability and urgency being shown.
We expect immediate action and a clear resolution. Please escalate this matter to a senior representative and confirm the refund status without further delay.”
“I had a terrible experience with BudgetAir due to their lack of communication and poor customer service. I missed my outbound flight because they never sent me a check-in reminder or the airline’s final confirmation, which is something that most professional travel agencies do.
When I contacted customer service, I requested to change my flight date, but they refused and told me that my return flight was still valid. However, after I booked a new outbound ticket at my own expense, they suddenly informed me that my return flight was automatically canceled due to their "no-show" policy—without notifying me in advance!
To make matters worse, they have no direct phone number for urgent issues, making it nearly impossible to resolve problems in real time.
This experience has caused me significant financial loss and inconvenience, and their handling of the situation was highly unprofessional. I strongly advise against using BudgetAir and will never book with them again.
Date of experience: 18 March 2025”
“I am writing to express my deep dissatisfaction with the service my mother-in-law received from BudgetAir regarding her recent travel plans.
Her original flight from London to Lahore, scheduled for August 7th with a stopover in Istanbul, was changed without adequate notice or consultation, causing significant inconvenience and distress. Initially, her flight was rescheduled to August 7th with only a 45-minute stop in Istanbul. We contacted BudgetAir multiple times to express our concerns about the impracticality of such a short layover, which would likely result in her missing the connecting flight to Lahore.
Despite our efforts, no one from BudgetAir addressed our concerns, and the flight was changed again. The new itinerary involved a flight from London to Antalya with an 11-hour stop, followed by a flight to Istanbul with a 1,050-minute layover, and finally to Lahore on August 8th.
This itinerary was not feasible as it required a Turkish passport to travel to Antalya.
Since BudgetAir was not respodning, this time we contacted Turkish Airlines, we were informed that the mistake was on BudgetAir's side. Ultimately, we secured a new ticket, and she travelled on August 9th, missing her son’s wedding due to the two-day delay.
This experience has been incredibly disappointing and has caused undue stress and emotional distress to our family. The lack of communication and the unprofessional handling of the situation by BudgetAir is unacceptable.
I request a formal apology and compensation for the inconvenience and additional expenses incurred due to these changes.
I hope BudgetAir will take this complaint seriously and improve its customer service to prevent such issues in the future.”
“They are scumming people I still waiting for nearly 500 euros refund ,they are criminals they even using random email adress and adress to add to you booking .you can be lucky but they don opera with a good intentions.they are stealing from people”
“3 December 2023 purchased a Virgin Airline ticket - £941-38. AFTER purchase was told the cost had increased by £400, but I would be refunded in 5 days to two weeks. In the meantime I purchased a second ticket with them as they were refunding me for my initial purchase.
We are now end of JUNE 2024!! Nothing received. I kept querying and was told the matter was with their PAX team who specialise in this.
Travis is a robotic voice who will only answer your specific questions. FRUSTRATING as there is NO CONTACT number to call and actually speak to someone.
A different person send you emails every time and I waited SO long to get a positive outcome that I missed the 90 day deadline to enable Credit Card company to look into the matter.
Perhaps this is their TRICK.... ..6 months and nothing.
DO NOT use Budget Air! You may receive your tickets promptly but ANY hiccup could turn into a nightmare like mine.
There is a Travel Agent called Budget Travel- easy to confuse the two, but they are different entirely.
My entire holiday was compromised by not having the extra funds to enjoy - so quite honestly Budget Air UK - you are FIRED!”
“This company does not send you the correct information for the flights, they are not contactable and cause a great deal of panic. I had a lot of hassle dealing with the airline. Don't wait until your check-in. Get the ticket number and the correct booking codes (the ones they send will not work) way before. Or just avoid them, its not worth the stress.”
“This company is a scam. I bought a flight from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam to Phuket, Thailand three days before my desired departure. The flight number on the booking was not a flight number. The airline confirmed that there was no booking under the name and the budget is reference number was nonsense.. Luckily I got the money back via American express charge back. I would also like to add that I reached out to them originally thinking it was a genuine mistake and they did not reply to any of my inquiries. They only respond to my inquiries when they receive the chargeback request.”
“Fraudulent company. They should be closed down. Bilal confirmed flights and sent details. Got to the airport and got told there was no booking. Called him again and he took 2 seperate payments. Now a few days on money has been withdrawn again. There is no way to contact these bunch of low lifes! Avoid!”
“Big time scammers! I booked a return ticket with them on 21st of March, after making the payment I got my ticket and was able to retrieve the ticket on the Qatar website however after a day i rechecked on the official Qatar website my ticket wasn’t being retrieved. They also charged me an additional refundable £20 admin fee.
It’s been 3 days I’m trying to contact them but no response.
There contact details are mentioned below.
020 8144 6786
+44 7488 891173”
“This is Fraud. These people are scamming money. They take your account details and charge any other price not discussed.
Ashraf Malik and Bilal are very fake and they have taken money from our 2 accounts.
Please please go somewhere else. These lot are fraud.”
“This is worst so called travel agency who should be removed.
I would give zero star, if this was on offer.
As a pensioner, I travelled alone and was excited to travel to South Africa but was met with no communication after informin Budgetair of the change of my time via Turkish Airlines request that I need to contact the above agency. I arrived at a point that cried enormously because the lack of communication.
The reviews bad reviews are warranted.
BUDGETAIR ARE CRIMINALS!!”
“*BE AWARE!!! FRAUD!!!! DO NOT USE*
Was looking for a deal online and came across budgetair
Got in contact and spoke to a guy called Billal
Acted like such a nice guy out there to help giving the best deals. Answers query’s straight away. UNTILL……
Now the real story starts
He asked me to pay half the outstanding payment to put the booking through, done that. He sent me a booking confirmation and everything and the requirement was to pay the remaining by the morning, which is the day of the flight.
Now they say if it’s too good to be true then it’s most likely not real.
Flight day is here and the remaining balance has been paid.
Arrived at the airport went to go check in and got told there’s no booking and the confirmation number/email does not exist!!!!
Had no choice but to turn around and go home!!!!!
Got played by a fraudster!!!
Remember how I mentioned how Bilal was answering questions and calls straight away, now trying to get a hold of him is the most difficult thing to do!!! I text him on WhatsApp as that’s the only way to get in contact, as he does not answer any calls stating what happened. He WhatsApp back saying the refund team will get back to me.
There’s been no refund, no calls, NOTHING!!!
STAY AWAY FROM THIS FRAUDULENT COMPANY AND KEEP REPORTING!!!!
There’s really low scums out there in this world!!!”
