Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to alert you to a continued "false advertising" price scam that I have found on the website, Cheapoair.com, owned by the business Fareportal Inc.
Numerous times in the past, when booking a flight with cheapoair.com, after finding a low price on an airfare, at the very last moment, I receive an alert that there has been a price change and asking if I want to "accept the price change" or "search for other flights". It seems to happen consistently every time I book.
This evening, I searched for a domestic American flight on United Airlines, and found a low price of approximately $234, which came to a total of about $233 after adding $15 for flight insurance and subtracting $17 for an advertised promo code. But after entering my credit card information, the site alerted me that the fare had changed to a bit more than $276.
I chose not to accept the price change, and instead searched for other flights. Again, I found the same flight for the same price ($234... final price $233). And after filling out my info very quickly the second time, the price again jumped again to $276.
I called cheapoair's hotline and they said the only thing they could do was look up the price in the airline database and quoted me something around $273. They claimed it was because their prices are updated manually, but then later admitted that this wasn't true. Then they said that the technical department updates their prices, but weren't working at this late hour. Again, this is inaccurate if they use computer code to update their system automatically. Then, they suggested that there is a natural time delay between receiving the updated price from the airline and updating their system. So, I tried again 15 minutes later, and then 30 minutes later. Still, the price is advertised on their search page at $234 ($233 with discount and trip insurance), and then the price jumps to $276.
After speaking with both a customer service representative and a supervisor, and neither of them being willing to address this issue, I did a search for cheapoair.com and found from this wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CheapOair) that "CheapOair has been investigated by the Department of Transportation because its fare matrix was displaying erroneous information. The company made changes to fix the error and agreed to pay $92,500 to avoid litigation.[19]".
I raised this issue with the supervisor, to no avail.
Finally, I decided to write this complaint. Cheapoair.com clearly has not addressed the issue for which they were investigated by the Department of Transporation, and for which they paid a fine.
They continue to steal business from honest competitors with falsely advertised low airfare prices, and bait-and-switch tactics that add an additional amount to the fare, which contradicts both the advertised price of the fare (on their search page), and the supposed discount promo codes that they advertise. Their site continues to do so in such a predictable way, that you can still find the false low price in their search long after they have received supposed information about a fare increase.
The DOT should reopen their investigation, and this time look more closely at the timing of information received from the airlines databases and information being posted in their search algorithm.
Sincerely,
A very frustrated consumer
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to alert you to a continued "false advertising" price scam that I have found on the website, Cheapoair.com, owned by the business Fareportal Inc.
Numerous times in the past, when booking a flight with cheapoair.com, after finding a low price on an airfare, at the very last moment, I receive an alert that there has been a price change and asking if I want to "accept the price change" or "search for other flights". It seems to happen consistently every time I book.
This evening, I searched for a domestic American flight on United Airlines, and found a low price of approximately $234, which came to a total of about $233 after adding $15 for flight insurance and subtracting $17 for an advertised promo code. But after entering my credit card information, the site alerted me that the fare had changed to a bit more than $276.
I chose not to accept the price change, and instead searched for other flights. Again, I found the same flight for the same price ($234... final price $233). And after filling out my info very quickly the second time, the price again jumped again to $276.
I called cheapoair's hotline and they said the only thing they could do was look up the price in the airline database and quoted me something around $273. They claimed it was because their prices are updated manually, but then later admitted that this wasn't true. Then they said that the technical department updates their prices, but weren't working at this late hour. Again, this is inaccurate if they use computer code to update their system automatically. Then, they suggested that there is a natural time delay between receiving the updated price from the airline and updating their system. So, I tried again 15 minutes later, and then 30 minutes later. Still, the price is advertised on their search page at $234 ($233 with discount and trip insurance), and then the price jumps to $276.
After speaking with both a customer service representative and a supervisor, and neither of them being willing to address this issue, I did a search for cheapoair.com and found from this wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CheapOair) that "CheapOair has been investigated by the Department of Transportation because its fare matrix was displaying erroneous information. The company made changes to fix the error and agreed to pay $92,500 to avoid litigation.[19]".
I raised this issue with the supervisor, to no avail.
Finally, I decided to write this complaint. Cheapoair.com clearly has not addressed the issue for which they were investigated by the Department of Transporation, and for which they paid a fine.
They continue to steal business from honest competitors with falsely advertised low airfare prices, and bait-and-switch tactics that add an additional amount to the fare, which contradicts both the advertised price of the fare (on their search page), and the supposed discount promo codes that they advertise. Their site continues to do so in such a predictable way, that you can still find the false low price in their search long after they have received supposed information about a fare increase.
The DOT should reopen their investigation, and this time look more closely at the timing of information received from the airlines databases and information being posted in their search algorithm.
Sincerely,
A very frustrated consumer