Why You Should NOT Book flights with Booking.com or GoToGate.com

[DC3]

I tried to get any sense out of Booking.com when i was stranded overseas at an airport, because of an airline mistake. The airline said talk to travel agent - booking.com said talk to the airline …

You may have had a good reason for using Booking.com. Maybe someone recommended this to you?

Although I once used a travel agent many years ago, I now make my travel bookings directly with airlines, hotels, etc. Perhaps for a complicated itinerary I would use a travel agent, but never the on-line ones such as yours.

And welcome to AFF.

 

[elanshin]

Just curious, but is this last minute changes before a flight? If so shouldn't it be on airlines themselves sorting it out as it enters the irrops section of the timing?

 

[burmans]

You might need to provide a bit more detail on this one. Like the type of mistake, how close in to travel was it?

Ditto, we’d need to know what the mistake was to offer any advice.

 

[imai]

Why NOT to book flights with the Booking.com or the GoToGate.com

Booking.com has been our number one for booking service for many years. I have booked accommodation multiple times using this site and have never had an issue until this year.


In April 2023 we purchased a cruise starting from London, UK in June 2023. Therefore, as previously in 2019 we booked 2 days accommodation in London via Booking.com to ensure that we will not be late for our cruise.
So, I thought I could trust them also for flight booking too. It was late evening and I didn't check any reviews about their flight service.


The purchased cruise was in June and I used Booking.com to purchase Malaysian Airlines flights for me and my wife from Australia to London and also return flights in the late August back to Australia.


The booking process was quite simple; select flights, ensure correct luggage allowance, select seats, and finally get all details with charges on the "check and pay" screen before paying. As per good practice I saved the "check and pay" screen page (save the screenshot) for my reference.


After paying by credit card we soon get an email from Booking.com confirming the flight with the airline booking reference number. It seems that all needed was well done.


However, this is the first time we have encountered problems at the airport at check-in time because the Malaysian Airline personnel refused to process our two suitcases. I was showing them our "check and pay" ticket information.


They checked our tickets on their airline system and informed us that they have a different version of tickets on their system, which includes only the "Light economy luggage allowance" without the checked bags although our "check and pay" screenshot showed two 20kg checked bags allowance.


My wife and I were surprised, shocked and also devastated at this time.


The airline personnel indicated that I am not the first customer with such a problem.


Trying to help us, they advise us to repack our suitcases and pay over 1500 AUD for the excess luggage in order to continue our flight to London.


The Booking.com didn't deliver us the flight tickets as per details of our "check and pay" order and also refused to compensate us for the incurred cost of over 1500 AUD paid for the excess luggage because deficiency in their service system (probably software problem because other customers experience similar events).


When booking flights through Booking.com
I did not realise they use a subsidiary company called GOTOGATE.


The Booking.com uses their partner services of the GotoGate.com for flights and
it is one of the worst online flight agencies.


Now the Booking.com includes many other partners and therefore service quality is deteriorating.


Hence, based on my experience and also other customers included in the productreview.com.au I will not recommend their flight services even to my enemies.

I got the same experience today. I have been using booking.com for while now so didn't think they would actually scam me. My name was show. Wrong in flight details and I asked what are my options and customer services informed me they could help out with the name change and charged me 388AUD to solve this matter. Since I didn't received any emails and matter was remaining. I reached back because I had to check in today. They said they will refund the amount for the name change and asked me to call directly to airline but airline informed me this matter should have resolved by the agent in the end I had to cancel the booking and what they said was they are sorry for the miscommunication and I need pay 230AUD panelty fee. I got a mail from GO TO GATE ( BOOKING.COM) I will get the refund if the airline approve it. I feel really disappointed about BOOKING.COM, ziro customer service

 

[latawiec]

I got the same experience today. I have been using booking.com for while now so didn't think they would actually scam me. My name was show. Wrong in flight details and I asked what are my options and customer services informed me they could help out with the name change and charged me 388AUD to solve this matter. Since I didn't received any emails and matter was remaining. I reached back because I had to check in today. They said they will refund the amount for the name change and asked me to call directly to airline but airline informed me this matter should have resolved by the agent in the end I had to cancel the booking and what they said was they are sorry for the miscommunication and I need pay 230AUD panelty fee. I got a mail from GO TO GATE ( BOOKING.COM) I will get the refund if the airline approve it. I feel really disappointed about BOOKING.COM, ziro customer service

It is sad that you learned in a hard way.

I am not sure that you would recover all money as a lot of customers didn't including me (AU$1500).

Main issue is terrible service from the GoToGate.

I wish people to learn from others and avoid bad experience...

If you purchased the flight tickets using credit card you should approach bank to recover funds via back charge. But move quickly. Good luck.

 

[imai]

It is sad that you learned in a hard way.

I am not sure that you would recover all money as a lot of customers didn't including me (AU$1500).

Main issue is terrible service from the GoToGate.

I wish people to learn from others and avoid bad experience...

If you purchased the flight tickets using credit card you should approach bank to recover funds via back charge. But move quickly. Good luck.

I received the refund but I had to nag almost every day but never going to book flights from booking.com

 

[Flyerwin]

I don’t use booking.com period. Had a similar issues with hotel and chauffeur bookings.

 

[QantasGonza]

It is sad that you learned in a hard way.

I am not sure that you would recover all money as a lot of customers didn't including me (AU$1500).

Main issue is terrible service from the GoToGate.

I wish people to learn from others and avoid bad experience...

If you purchased the flight tickets using credit card you should approach bank to recover funds via back charge. But move quickly. Good luck.

Well well - how interesting this is. I have booked a variety of flights through Booking.com in recent years, mostly without a problem but did experience an issue having paid extra for so called 'flexible tickets" only to find an inflexible GO TO GATE response on my outbound Japan flight with Philippine Airlines, so I suffered inconvenience rather than pay the exhorbitant extra fee they demanded. On the return leg I also needed a 1 day change, but this time requested direct to PA who obliged without charge,
BUT, more recently on a trip to Bali, Booking.com used up my bonus cash on a hotel booking that I had cancelled 6 weeks before the 'cancel free' date and then they failed to even reply to my several requests to reverse that error let alone credit my account
AND, until this post I didn't realise that they owned RENTALCARS.com who 8 weeks after I booked a Mercedes Benz GLA to drive around Tassie, rang me 4 days before departure to say that they were unable to provide the Benz but had set aside a Mitsubishi ASX for me at no extra charge! How generous. Despite me pointing out that the two vehicles were not in the same class they did not agree and gave me an ultimatum either to accept or cancel the booking. I cancelled, only to then discover that there was a shortage of rental cars in Tassie at the time and finished up paying through the nose for a Toyota Camry - 2x the original price for the Benz.
It was Xmas 2014 that I stopped using Wotif and started my Booking.com romance with many bookings since then but it's divorce now!!!

 

[muppet]

….
AND, until this post I didn't realise that they owned RENTALCARS.com who 8 weeks after I booked a Mercedes Benz GLA to drive around Tassie, rang me 4 days before departure to say that they were unable to provide the Benz but had set aside a Mitsubishi ASX for me at no extra charge! How generous. Despite me pointing out that the two vehicles were not in the same class they did not agree and gave me an ultimatum either to accept or cancel the booking. I cancelled, only to then discover that there was a shortage of rental cars in Tassie at the time and finished up paying through the nose for a Toyota Camry - 2x the original price for the Benz.
It was Xmas 2014 that I stopped using Wotif and started my Booking.com romance with many bookings since then but it's divorce now!!!

Similar thing happened with me with Rentalcars.com - downgraded to a car that cost about half the price of the one I booked (and had fewer seats) and only got about a 25% refund. Classic bait and switch. But I got notified at the counter so had no option but to accept.

The actual car company refused any refund saying they’d given me a car that cost more. To rentalcars/booking.com’s credit it actually got me the 25% partial refund. But I want the rest.

Will take it to VCAT if not resolved in my favour - can’t stand being ripped off.

 

[Justinf]

I’ve booked hotels with booking.com and never had a problem, however I just booked a Great Wall tour from Beijing using them and now I’m worried.

 

[clifford]

I've had a bad experience with booking flights on booking.com too. Won't ever do it again. I also book accommodation with them and really haven't had a problem (but you need to be careful).

The problem I had was with a Ryanair flight booking, which I only did because the Ryanair website was playing up for me and wouldn't let me book what I needed. The flight was booked, as requested, with booking.com (via GoToGate) but the problem was that Ryanair doesn't like bookings from travel agents, so insisted on me paying EUR55 to check in at the airport (they wouldn't allow me to check in online).

As the check in fee was more than the ticket was worth, I just walked away from it and booked elsewhere. So, Lesson learnt.

However, I did get some recompense by disputing the charge with Amex, on the basis of booking.com not disclosing the additional cost of the check in fee. What swung the argument for me was that GoToGate told Amex that I should not receive a refund because I had been a no-show for the flight, even though it was still a couple of months in the future.

So lots of incompetence and deceit all round. But just don't use booking.com or any other OTA for airline tickets. Car hire and cruises I can't comment on, but I would be wary, personally.

 

[ChasingDaylight]

I could yet be the latest clown having made a mistake booking with GTG.

Wanted J flights at the end of the month from NZ -> SEA, with a few hours in SIN. before continuing on; mix of OW & *A (in short, a holiday with a side of *A status point run).

Couldn't build it with Air NZ, or NZ based agencies (i.e House of Travel), but could on Google flights with various OTA. Vaguely knew of GTG and that it was associated with Booking.com but didn't do any further research (have had fine experiences in years past with hotel bookings on BDC). Silly me.

Ironically I could have built a similar route with an NZ-based (and registered and HQ'd) OTA, but didn't because I'd never heard of it.

It's been 11 hours and it hasn't ticketed yet, albeit I have a PNR that is showing on all bar NZ (won't until it tickets). I'm nervously optimistic; time will tell.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Couldn't build it with Air NZ, or NZ based agencies (i.e House of Travel), but could on Google flights with various OTA. Vaguely knew of GTG and that it was associated with Booking.com but didn't do any further research (have had fine experiences in years past with hotel bookings on BDC). Silly me.

You weren't being silly at all. Some itineraries cannot be booked directly with the airlines and need a travel agency of some sort be it in person or an OTA like Expedia or GTG. However, what I do tell people all when they are booking complex bookings is to take your time at constructing the fare. Sometimes yes it makes sense to have everything on one ticket, but other times it may not. Case in point, Next week I'll be travelling to South America for 2 weeks from Canada. I've got a total of 7 flights booked, some between North and South America but also some within South America. In the end I booked an open jaw ticket (Toronto to Santiago and Curitiba, Brazil to Toronto) followed by a one way ticket (Santiago to Curitiba). The golden rule when booking tickets separately is never book separate tickets as connecting flights. Separate tickets should always be on separate days (ideally several days if you are actually visiting a destination). The reason being is in the event of a delay, the airline isn't generally responsible for dealing with other flights you have booked if they aren't on the same ticket. However, they are liable (under Article 19 of the Montreal Convention) if you can show that the airline did not take all reasonable measures to minimize the disruption, and certainly a delay of over a day would qualify in most circumstances.

Now certainly I could have booked this all as a multi-city but it would have been far more expensive and I would have less options because of plating. Plating for those who aren't aware are the complex and archaic fare rules which dictate which airlines can appear on what tickets and if so how to price the ticket.

-RooFlyer88

 

[QFFHntrGthr]

Word of caution about making any bookings within this group of companies. I made a booking through Agoda for an overnight transit at Sama² KLIA. The booking failed because of a payment glitch. I then booked through Priceline (not knowing they are sister companies) and all went through and comfirmation received with the future date final payment will be deducted. A little later, I received an email from Agoda confirming my reservation. I thought the first attempt had somehow gone through & I had a double booking. I promptly cancelled the Agoda booking using the link in the email. Payment date came and Priceline charged my card. A few days before arrival, I rang the hotel to inform them I was arriving mid afternoon not the after 9pm in the original booking. The hotel informed me my booking was cancelled by Agoda back on the date I booked. I said yes but there should be an active booking through Priceline. There wasn't. I contacted Priceline and they replied to contact Agoda instead. After much throughing and froing, it appears the Priceline booking was actually given to Agoda to arrange. and when I cancelled, it was the same booking. I asked why then did they still deducted the payment weeks after the cancellation. They accepted it was a system error. They said they will cancel the original authorisation and that will trigger a refund. The refund never arrived. I chased up multiple times and kept getting fobbed off by Priceline to Agoda who in turn told me to contact Priceline. I got nowhere. I finally sent them a long scathing email running through the whole episode and telling them they are thieves blaming each other to avoid reponsiblility.
Their final response to me was the original authorisation has been cancelled. That's it. No refund after 8 months. That became a very expensive transit, I had to book a suite (only rooms available) plus the loss of the orginal. I now only book direct or just recently started making one or two bookings through Qantas hotels but only as an exception (Not sure who they use).
Caveat Emptor

 

[AIRwin]

No refund after 8 months.

Credit card chargeback?

 

[KenB46]

Why NOT to book flights with the Booking.com or the GoToGate.com

Booking.com has been our number one for booking service for many years. I have booked accommodation multiple times using this site and have never had an issue until this year.


In April 2023 we purchased a cruise starting from London, UK in June 2023. Therefore, as previously in 2019 we booked 2 days accommodation in London via Booking.com to ensure that we will not be late for our cruise.
So, I thought I could trust them also for flight booking too. It was late evening and I didn't check any reviews about their flight service.


The purchased cruise was in June and I used Booking.com to purchase Malaysian Airlines flights for me and my wife from Australia to London and also return flights in the late August back to Australia.


The booking process was quite simple; select flights, ensure correct luggage allowance, select seats, and finally get all details with charges on the "check and pay" screen before paying. As per good practice I saved the "check and pay" screen page (save the screenshot) for my reference.


After paying by credit card we soon get an email from Booking.com confirming the flight with the airline booking reference number. It seems that all needed was well done.


However, this is the first time we have encountered problems at the airport at check-in time because the Malaysian Airline personnel refused to process our two suitcases. I was showing them our "check and pay" ticket information.


They checked our tickets on their airline system and informed us that they have a different version of tickets on their system, which includes only the "Light economy luggage allowance" without the checked bags although our "check and pay" screenshot showed two 20kg checked bags allowance.


My wife and I were surprised, shocked and also devastated at this time.


The airline personnel indicated that I am not the first customer with such a problem.


Trying to help us, they advise us to repack our suitcases and pay over 1500 AUD for the excess luggage in order to continue our flight to London.


The Booking.com didn't deliver us the flight tickets as per details of our "check and pay" order and also refused to compensate us for the incurred cost of over 1500 AUD paid for the excess luggage because deficiency in their service system (probably software problem because other customers experience similar events).


When booking flights through Booking.com
I did not realise they use a subsidiary company called GOTOGATE.


The Booking.com uses their partner services of the GotoGate.com for flights and
it is one of the worst online flight agencies.


Now the Booking.com includes many other partners and therefore service quality is deteriorating.


Hence, based on my experience and also other customers included in the productreview.com.au I will not recommend their flight services even to my enemies.

Totally agree. I got caught booking online with VietJet which later turned out to be thru Booking.com & Go To Gate. I had to cancel (with Medical cert) and had huge issues with VietJet and after complying with all the ridiculous requests (Medical cert had to be types, prove my husband and I WERE married by submitting our Marriage Certificate etc etc. Then eventually telling me no refund but we could have a credit!! There's no way I'd ever book VietJet again. They told me to contact Booking.com and it was only then I realised the booking wasn't direct as I'l booked it on their website.

 

[QFFHntrGthr]

Credit card chargeback?

I was so upset by the whole episode at that time it didn't occur to me to take this course of action. I wonder what and whether there is any time limitation to make the claim. Thanks for suggesting.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

I was so upset by the whole episode at that time it didn't occur to me to take this course of action. I wonder what and whether there is any time limitation to make the claim. Thanks for suggesting.

Time limits are recommendations made by the bank. In theory you should be able to raise the chargeback regardless. If the bank wants to claim you have passed an arbitrary deadline, your next bet would be to file a small claims suit against the bank and the merchant as this is very clear cut a breach of contract by the merchant to you and the bank is unwilling to honour its obligations under the law.

-RooFlyer88

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Totally agree. I got caught booking online with VietJet which later turned out to be thru Booking.com & Go To Gate. I had to cancel (with Medical cert) and had huge issues with VietJet and after complying with all the ridiculous requests (Medical cert had to be types, prove my husband and I WERE married by submitting our Marriage Certificate etc etc. Then eventually telling me no refund but we could have a credit!! There's no way I'd ever book VietJet again. They told me to contact Booking.com and it was only then I realised the booking wasn't direct as I'l booked it on their website.

Sounds like travel insurance wouod have been the way to go here… at least you wouod have got your money back rather than a credit!

 

[ChasingDaylight]

You weren't being silly at all. Some itineraries cannot be booked directly with the airlines and need a travel agency of some sort be it in person or an OTA like Expedia or GTG. However, what I do tell people all when they are booking complex bookings is to take your time at constructing the fare. Sometimes yes it makes sense to have everything on one ticket, but other times it may not. Case in point, Next week I'll be travelling to South America for 2 weeks from Canada. I've got a total of 7 flights booked, some between North and South America but also some within South America. In the end I booked an open jaw ticket (Toronto to Santiago and Curitiba, Brazil to Toronto) followed by a one way ticket (Santiago to Curitiba). The golden rule when booking tickets separately is never book separate tickets as connecting flights. Separate tickets should always be on separate days (ideally several days if you are actually visiting a destination). The reason being is in the event of a delay, the airline isn't generally responsible for dealing with other flights you have booked if they aren't on the same ticket. However, they are liable (under Article 19 of the Montreal Convention) if you can show that the airline did not take all reasonable measures to minimize the disruption, and certainly a delay of over a day would qualify in most circumstances.

Now certainly I could have booked this all as a multi-city but it would have been far more expensive and I would have less options because of plating. Plating for those who aren't aware are the complex and archaic fare rules which dictate which airlines can appear on what tickets and if so how to price the ticket.

-RooFlyer88

Normally I am quite happy with open jaw and married segments, but certain apects I just couldn't do anywhere else it seemed and having a return ticket greatly lowered the price.

My flights have now ticketed (and in the right classes, in the right name!), but the issuing agents IATA code comes back to an agent/company that has been defunct since approx 2020, if not earlier.... but were strongly linked to a Greek bunch of travel sites and are now linked to mytrip.com, part of Etraveli... who absorbed the Greek conglomerate in 2017, and was itself nearlytaken over by Booking.com's parent company more recently.

Honestly it's all a bunch of horizontal russian nesting dolls leading back to one main conglomerate.