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Vayama Reviews Summary
Vayama has 422 customer reviews and ranks 218th in the Travel Search Engine category. Common review topics include customer service, credit card, customer support.
Their site offers some competitive flights, probably using bulk consolidator fares. I would look at a router they show, dig into it, and potentially just buy the tix on your own, b/c the routers they will offer are not true connecting flights. What this means - is when you get to your connecting airport, you will have to leave security and re-entering, first stopping by the check-in desk. Also, their flights could not be checked in online. I had a connector at MCO (Orlando) to my destination. For some reason, JetBlue would not let me check the Vayama bought JetBlue tix online. Luckily I am TSA-pre / Global Entry - so I accelerated two lines. But some other passenger was going to Colombia and had none of that, I can't imagine she made her connecting flight. In other words - REALLY look at the route they give you.
Vayama has increased price of flight ticket two days before my travel by $300 and said they cannot issue the tickets for the price that I bought for.
When I spoke to customer service, they didn't even want to listen to me. They only had two options to me either to book with new price or cancel the ticket.
I have booked ticket thru Vayama to go to India from the USA for 3 of us for $3986. The ticket was book via Canada thru Air Canada. After few days I came know that we need a transit visa if we travel thru Canada. Since our travel date was within two days, I can't apply for a transit visa and I canceled my ticket.
For cancellation and to know about refund amount I have called several times to Vayama customer care. Most of the time I didn't a line. If I get a line they hold me for at least 20 min. And also held my line for a long time for my every question. It means that the customer service representative doesn't have much knowledge about the refund and admin fee. Each one gave me a different answer. They said they will send estimated amount to my email but they didn't. Next day again I called and got line after several attempts and explained from first. I didn't get any valuable information. I don't want waste time because I have to cancel the tickets before 48 hours to get at least the tax amount. So I decided to cancel my tickets whatever the refund amount it would be. Finally lost more than 50% and paid an admin fee for Vayama. I don't understand one thing. Since It is single click cancellation for group ticket, why they charge $100 for each ticket. I agree if the tickets are booked separately.
Vayama says a lot of things but does not follow through. I am a college student going on a trip with my class, needed to cancel my ticket and make a reservation for another day. $1,000 is a lot of money for someone with nothing, even $100 dollars hurts. After finding out that my ticket is non refundable but I had to cancel anyway, I want to complain as much as possible because no one should go through this.
Finding Vayama's contact information was difficult. They say that they have a "great track record" and that they are "all American", but that is a lie. Their reviews show they do not have a great track record and their phone line is British so that isn't a good start. All I wanted was to feel supported and cared for as a customer, and they couldn't even do that.
Money is important to be because I do not have that much. I trusted this company to help me get a cheap flight and they ended up screwing me over in the end.
Anyway, after a long long struggle with customer service, calling and emailing, I finally was able to cancel without a refund. I am extremely dissatisfied with the support of this agency and do not understand why they do not care for their customers. No one will ever come back if they are pushed away like I was. I have nothing good to say about this company and hope that they have a change of heart and give me a partial refund, or a reimbursement for all of those fees that it takes to cancel or even request to cancel.
I would not wish this upon anyone. I hope that I somehow get reimbursed in any way from this company... I still have hope. But I am sure they will let me down.
The only people who absolutely cared were the travel agents. I luckily bought the cheapest travel insurance, which still doesn't give me much (barely any reimbursement) but their staff was 100x better than vayama. They would call to check on me and tell me exactly what I needed to do. They were so good it makes me think that they must have a lot of experience with this kind of stuff! Vayama must do this a lot to their customers... So that is a sign right there to never go with this company.
Poor, but you will get rich off us, taking our money and giving our return flights. I paid 600+ US dollars to book a round trip ticket. I called abs said I couldn't make my first flight I would get a one way and travel on my return. They cancelled the whole trip but did not refund anything.
I just spoke to the customer service at Vayama about my canceled flight. At the end of the conversation, I told the agent that I am going to use Vayama again because of their service is way below my expectation. The agent responded me say "we don't care! Bye" - I think this tell you all about their customer service. Be careful when you choose to use them.
¯\_()_/¯ Cancelled booking blamed it on credit card but when I called the reliable credit card company they explained that they have only charged a dollar for verification and it went through I have a 10,000 credit limit! They lied it was Vayama who cancelled according to the airlines... and other reviews it hpppens a lot more frequent than not! No customer service who speaks English no worst no management! Please save your booking if it's too cheap to be true it is fake they are a cheap fake company
The worst agency i have ever meet!
There customer support didn't even tried to help.
All of the agent spoke to me so rude, i have never heard such a big agency that talking like this to there customers!
Don't you all dare to use there service.
I would never ever ever recommend Vayama or AIG! Not in a million years! The customer service have nooooo clue what they are talking about or what they are doing. I booked a flight on 4/18 and that day on the booking site through Vayama, I was not given the option to purchase travel insurance through a 3rd party, but was given an option for premium purchase. I called Vayama that day, before I booked and asked to make sure that in case of a medical condition with a medical physicians note, would I be able to cancel the flight and receive full refund with the premium package. The guy on the phone stated "yes"! Now I am pregnant and high risk and my doctor wont let me fly, yet I am being told I cannot get a full refund, but that I needed to purchase the trsvel insurance. WELL GUESS WHAT, I WAS NOT GIVEN THAT OPTION TO PURCHASE IT, which I stated over the phone to Vayama customer service! Vayama has noooo clue what they are doing! DO NOT USE THIS WEBSITE!
Why I cant trace my booking by Vayama ticket number and booking ref no? I am flying on coming 24th.
Anybody has same experience?
Can Vayama reply me?
What to do?
Once you bought your ticket there is nothing you can do - they will not answer the phone for days. If you get through they'll drop you. Their website is not working - cannot reach your reservation. Scammers.
We just lost $1500 to these people. They change the date of our flight with a written consensus. They screw people lives. I strongly recommend not to use this service ever never! They are the worst!
I just lost 1500 dollars to these guys. Called them several times, but they said there was nothing they could do, some of them even pretended not be at the other end of the phone, just so i would hang up. Very rude. I will never make the mistake of booking on Vayama ever again. Stay away if you do not want to lose your money.
I just returned from a holiday after the worst experience with vayama.com. I had booked my ticket using their website in Feb-2017. My itinerary was Houston-Sofia-Houston on Lufthansa Airlines. My initial destination was Sofia-Bulgaria. However, it changed to Zagreb-Croatia. I made this change 4 days after my initial booking. This change was made on the phone with one of vayama's online consultants upon payment of $425 which included a change fee and the difference in fare to the new destination. So, I had a confirmed email itinerary in Feb-2017 from vayama: Houston-Zagreb-Houston.
However, upon reaching the airport in Houston on 26th May 2017, I was made aware that the re-ticketing to Zagreb had not been completed. So, even though I had a booking number / booking confirmation / confirmed itinerary, I was told that I could not fly to Zagreb - only because vayama had not completed the reticketing.
So, I called vayama from the airport - this is where my woes began. I was on hold for over 2 hours (3-4 representative) at the airport in Houston. They were really weak in providing any information or guidance and would simply hang up after a long hold. So, I had to board the plan to Frankfurt (even my checked luggage was only sent to Frankfurt Airport) without any connections.
Upon arriving in Frankfurt, my dealings with vayama on the phone got worse. I was now calling internationally and I must have been on the phone for almost 4 hours (my layover was only 3 hours - so I ended up missing my connection to Zagreb). Again, I spoke with at least 5 people since they would keep hanging up each time.
Even the airline at Frankfurt airport (Lufthansa hub) could not help me. They said that they were not able to make any changes to my ticketing and this was something only a travel-agent can do. Their solution was to purchase new tickets - one-way tickets from Frankfurt to Zagreb and Zagreb to Houston. This would have cost me $2000+ and it was not an option.
What was most frustrating is how unprofessional and unethical the team at vayama was. I kept telling them the situation I was in and their response was to put me on long periods of hold and then hang up. During one of the calls, the consultant said San Francisco (SOF code is Sofia and not San Francisco) ---- that's how poor their service was. Even the officer at Lufthansa Airlines tried calling them and got hung up.
Finally, I got help from the airline - they issued me new tickets for a fee of $300. They saw how distressed I was and the supervisor there took it upon herself to help me. She put on a later flight (6 hours wait) so I could resume my holiday.
So, overall, a very bad experience. Please stay away from vayama and avoid this unethical company altogether.
WORST experience in VAYAMA! Bad customer services, so rude and irresponsible! I want to do refund with them, And they charged me the Cancellation fee 300 dollars, I don't k ow what to say because I'm really angry at his moment, my suggestion is don't go this website again!
Vayama sucks. Booked flights for two to Amsterdam. Received email saying: "Vayama is processing your booking
Vayama will email your ticket number within one business day.
Vayama will provide customer service for this booking:" Next day received email with subject: RE: KUSW-******* ///Booking Cancelled [#*******]" No explanation, no nothing. Now I have to scramble to find other flights at higher price. Vayama's policy is to charge $300 per ticket for cancellations. I expect the same from them. Vayama, you owe me $600. VAYAMA SUCKS.
It was very difficult to phone number for contact support. I believe they want to discourage phone calls. I had few question about changing by flight dates but there was no response - they kept on playing music for more than 15 minutes.
I booked 4 tickets, got a booking inquiry number, but not a confirmation email. After a few days I got a response from their mail support the booking was canceled. I could have saved money elsewhere. It adds up for 4 people. I suppose it could have been worse, but I will never use them again and would not recommend them.
Vayama didn't take actions to respond to my travel during FAA bans on Turkish Airlines. A refund for an unused ticket and compensation for damages.
Vayama didn't take actions to respond to my travel during FAA bans on Turkish Airlines. A refund for an unused ticket and compensation for damages.
I purchased a ticket on May 3,2016 from Vayama.com to travel with Turkish Airlines (TR) from IST to IKA on July 24,2016 and return on Aug 11,2016. I paid $269.80 for this ticket. I also bought a ticket from United Airlines to go from LAX to IST and return.
On July 16 2016, FAA issued a statement banning any travel to and from Turkey until Aug 31st. This statement made it impossible for me to make it to IST to use the ticket I had purchased from Vayama.com - I live in Los Angles, CA.
Jul 16, TR issued a statement that all travelers would get a refund if they can't make it to their flight due to FAA bans.
July 17 and 18, I called Vayama.com custoemr service on July 17 once and twice on July 18. I waited at least 45 min on phone each time. I couldn't reach anyone on July 17 and first attempt of July 18. On the second attempt on July 18, I reached a representative, but she couldn't help and I got hanged up on.
July 17 and 18, I emailed both Vayama.com and TR on July 17 and 18 stating I can't make it to IST to use my ticket and requested a refund for flight from IST to IKA and stated that I'll use my return ticket (IKA to IST). On July 18, TR sent an email asking me to contact Vayama to get a refund. Vayama did not respond to my emails.
On July 18, United Airline, in light of FAA regulations, changed my ticket to go from LAX to IKA directly but left my return ticket unchanged (returning from IST to LAX). I notified both Vayama and TR. I did not get any response from Vayama. TR asked me to contact Vayama to get a partial refund for the outbound ticket.
On the evening of July 18th, FAA issued another statement and removed the ban.
On July 22nd, I traveled from LAX to IKA (through Germany).
On July 24th, I didn't use my outbound ticket purchased on Vayama.com.
On July 29th, I followed up with Vayama via email.
On July 30th, I received an email from Vayama stating the TR policy for travelers affected by Turkish coup activities does not apply to me and offering $24 refund (which I've not received).
On Aug 2nd, I received an email from TR that Vayama has canceled my return ticket (IKA to IST).
Aug 3rd to 7th, I sent a few emails with Vayama explaining the regular cancellation policy does not apply, TR policy for affected people with coup activities does apply to me, Vayama is late to respond to my request, Vayama should not have canceled my return flight, and asked for a refund for the flight that I didn't use on July 24th. I only received an email with some irrelevant information from Vayama.
On July 7th, I had to buy another ticket to travel from IKA to IST to replace the return flight which was canceled by Vayama.
I recently tried booking a trip from Vayama.com -- I don't normally use 3rd parties, but when I have, I've had no problems on those occasions I don't book directly with the airline. I don't normally do reviews either.
They interpreted my asking for a change of a LUGGAGE OPTION as a booking cancellation, after I clearly stated I wished to keep the itinerary as was. After waiting 14 days with endless "48 hour contact returns", and not hearing a word back either by email or by phone, and after not be given any specific timeline re a refund/penalty scheme, I have initiated a billing dispute/fraud charge with my bank.
Whether this service leans toward fraud itself or is merely totally incompetent makes no difference. Their customer service is not woeful, it is rude and insulting. I have never dealt with any merchant that was so blatantly incompetent or perhaps criminal. They are to be avoided AT ALL COSTS.
