BEWARE of cheaptickets.com!

So get this… I was trying to book an airline ticket on cheaptickets.com last sunday down to New Orleans to knock on some doors. I found the flight I wanted and hit “accept”. I got a message that I needed to try again later. So, after a couple of minutes I tried again, same thing. I tried two more times, Nothing. So I called the 800 number and explained what happened to the lady and asked to book a ticket with the flight number I gave her. She tried and said my debit card wouldn’t go through(WTF!). So, monday morning I called the bank and they said I entered one number wrong on the security code the first attempt(although it was right on subsequent attemps), and for security reasons it “locked up” my card. Here’s the kick in the nuts that followed… every attempt I made afterwards, cheaptickets “reserves” the money from my account! Four attempts at $615 an attempt!!! Do that math!!! So after a couple of hours on the phone with cheap tickets I have gotten NOWHERE! Over $2400 out of my checking account, and NO TICKET! I’m headed to the bank in a few minutes and not leaving until I have my money back. Oh yeah… that flight is now full, and the next best one has gone up $250 bucks in price! Cheap tickets and Orbits are the same company! Who do ya’ll use to get good ticket prices?

Just go straight to southwest or jetblue if they fly that route.

I’ve used kyak to find a flight when not using the above airlines and then go directly to the airlines web site to get the ticket I want. Usually comes out cheaper as those “discount” websites actually add a few bucks for their handling fee. Plus is you go direct with the airline if a problem does come up they can help you out a lot more.

The only time I’ve saved any significant amount of money was using priceline’s name you’re own price and that was just for hotel rooms. When flying you don’t get to pick youre flight times or get a refunds if you miss you’re flight. Much to risky when you’re crew change is never set in stone.

Always buy airline tickets and rent cars with a credit card, preferably a “gold” or better credit card. Credit cards are better regulated, you have more rights, the credit card companies do a half decent job of handling complaints, and the charges get reversed immediately until the complaint is resolved. You also get air mileage points, travel insurance, and free car rental insurance with credit cards (you must have full coverage on your personal car).

In my opinion, the best credit cards for flying are the Alaska Airlines Card (miles never expire and they can be used on some other airlines) from Bank of America, and the American Express Platinum Card which comes with pretty good travel services and free access to most airline’s members only executive club lounges (which can be pretty nice if you fly a lot and get stuck with layovers).

You get absolutely no extra benefits and virtually zero consumer protection with a debit card. Its as if you just wrote check or paid cash. Any problem becomes your problem alone.

For one example, If the airline goes bankrupt and cancels your flight, you’ll get your money back if you paid with a credit card, but if you used a debt card, you’ll get nothing. For another, if anything happens to your rental car, the first thing they are apt to do is clean out your bank account with your debit card.

I don’t use debit cards for anything, except to withdraw cash from an ATM.

I really like SW and JetBlue. I have also gotten some good deals on Cheap-O-Air.

Depends where your flying from. I would suggest www.kayak.com. Thats a pretty good site and they use alot of the airlines websites also. So you have options.

I don’t have or use credit cards, I haven’t had one in about 15 years, and never looked back. My car insurance covers me in anything I drive, so I’m covered there. I just got back from the bank, I walked into the bank officer’s office and the first thing that she said was," your face is red, are you OK?" …after three calls and one fax… she had my money back in about 20 minutes. :slight_smile:

I used cheap tickets.com’s 1-800 number to buy a last minute ticket over the holidays. I found them very helpful and they saved me time by doing the searching for me. Paid a 75 dollar booking fee but it wad still cheaper than booking through the airlines, which is what I do most of the time. I would use them again in certain situations.

I would still use cheap tickets… but not online. From now on I would probably look up what I wanted online and then call them to book it. It still pisses me off that there is not some message that should have told me that it was hitting my account every attempt I made. I just thought others should be warned about how they do that. It would suck to try and make a last minute reservation, and try a few times, to find out you don’t have enough money left now to get home!

Kayak to find options then directly to airline site. I recommend those new cc’s also from United and U.S. Air, sure there are others. You get miles and free bags where if you need it saves a ton of dough. You do have to be responsible enough for a little credit however. Also call the airlines as I know for a fact they have flights they do not list online.

[B].

I use [/B][U]http://www.airfarewatchdog.com[/U]
[B]
[U]Always[/U] did better than orbitz, pricline…etc.[/B]

[QUOTE=bell47;66264]It still pisses me off that there is not some message that should have told me that it was hitting my account every attempt I made. [/QUOTE]

Yes it is really annoying but it is not just them. This is what happens EVERY time you use your card, credit or debit. Restaurants, stores and all. The problem you had is just the amount not the method. It sucks but we have all had it happen at some time. I had an issue a couple of weeks ago in Grand Isle LA. the 24 hour fuel dock did the same to my account but only for a dollar each time. But the system saw it as attempted fraud or some such, and locked put the card. leaving me with no fuel and no (usable) credit card. It took almost an hour to clear the stop and get things working.

Glad you got it worked out.