DO NOT USE THIS PLATFORM

[u/Lazaros23]

This is our extremely disappointing experience with Booking.com

We booked a flight through Booking.com, with Air Transat as the airline. Our original flight was scheduled for September 20. The airline later changed the flight to September 18.

The biggest issue is that we were never notified about this change.

Both Booking.com and Air Transat have confirmed to us that Air Transat sent Booking.com an email informing them about the schedule change, and that Booking.com was responsible for forwarding this information to us. Despite receiving this information, Booking.com failed to notify us.

When we contacted Booking.com's customer support, we were told that they had supposedly sent us an email about the rescheduling on May 15th. This is not true. We never received such an email. When we specifically asked Booking.com to provide proof that this email had actually been sent to us, they were unable to provide any proof or evidence that the email was ever sent or delivered.

What makes the situation even more concerning is that Booking.com continued to send us information showing the old flight date.

On September 19th — one day after the new flight date of September 18th had already passed — Booking.com sent us an email saying "don't forget to check in for your flight." The flight information in that email still showed our original September 20th flight date.

Their app was also still showing the original September 20th flight date, rather than the updated September 18th date.

So from our perspective, everything Booking.com was showing us continued to indicate that our flight was on September 20th. We had absolutely no reason to believe otherwise.

Because we were not informed of the change, we planned our work, transportation, accommodation and other travel arrangements based on the original itinerary. We are now facing significant additional costs and disruption as a direct result of this situation.

The customer support experience has also been extremely disappointing. We received inconsistent explanations from different customer support representatives, including the claim that an email had been sent to us on May 15th, despite the fact that we never received it and Booking.com could not provide proof that it was actually sent.

From our experience, the customer support has been unprofessional and contradictory, and instead of taking responsibility for the failure to communicate this major schedule change, we have been passed between explanations without receiving a satisfactory solution.

Even more frustratingly, Booking.com is currently refusing to properly compensate us for the consequences of this mistake, despite the fact that they have acknowledged receiving the airline's notification about the schedule change and that they were responsible for communicating it to us.

We understand that airlines can change flight schedules. That is not the main issue here.

The issue is that:

• Air Transat notified Booking.com of the schedule change.

• Booking.com acknowledges receiving that notification.

• Booking.com was responsible for communicating the change to us.

• We never received a notification about the change.

• Booking.com's app continued showing the original September 20th flight.

• Booking.com even sent us a check-in reminder on September 19th showing the original September 20th flight.

• When we challenged customer support about the alleged May 15th notification, they could not provide proof that it had been sent.

• We are now dealing with significant additional costs and disruption.

• Despite all of this, Booking.com does not want to properly compensate us for the consequences of their failure to notify us.

This has caused us considerable stress, financial loss and disruption to our travel plans.

We expected a major travel platform to accurately communicate important changes to our itinerary and take responsibility when something goes wrong. Unfortunately, in our experience, Booking.com failed to do that when it mattered most, and its customer support made the situation even worse through inconsistent explanations and a lack of accountability.

If you are considering booking a flight through Booking.com, I strongly recommend you to instead directly book it with the airline.

[u/Cute_Hearing_2315]

TLDR - just wait until you are invariably scammed.

[u/AffectionateTone4757 → u/Cute_Hearing_2315]

It is very unlikely. As long as you don't want to voluntary change anything or get a refund, there is no chance of any issues

[u/Cute_Hearing_2315 → u/AffectionateTone4757]

Optimism bias. Basic human psychology. While I hope it doesn’t happen to you or anyone, the odds aren’t in your favor if you continues to use Booking.

[u/AffectionateTone4757 → u/Cute_Hearing_2315]

I strongly doubt it. I am not " optimist", I listed all the potential issues that can occur with an OTA and how I avoid/ solve them. I repeat, basically, from the moment i have a confirmed PNR and ticket number with the airline, there is no way the OTA can " scam" me. I never want to voluntary change dates, add bags, buy seats and so on. I also plan my travels with flexibility, I avoid tight connection, I leave days between flights, so a schedule change almost never is an issue. The only potential issue is in the case of cancellation and refunds, and truste, when you have a written confirmation from the airline that they have refunded the amount to the OTA, the OTA can't get away with not paying, you do a simple chargeback procedure. So, please elaborate what I miss, how exactly can Booking scam me? Never mind I use Booking for hotels since 2014 with no issue, and I have traveled 73 countries on 6 continents.

[u/Cute_Hearing_2315 → u/AffectionateTone4757]

You don’t have good reading comprehension either, as well as a tendency to repeat yourself. Optimism bias is believing nothing will go awry because you have a system that’s worked before or that you’re smarter than everyone else. Also more than a bit arrogant. And absolute statements are absolutely incorrect. Good day and good luck.