Vayama

DO NOT book through this company. We booked from LAX to Taipei on July 2015 for a flight in Dec 2015. Our work schedules have caused us to delay this trip. It is 9/16/15 and I just got off with their customer service rep and I have not been more mistreated from people that don't even like me. The "agent" and I use that loosely was more concerned in putting me on hold than letting me finish my sentences. We need to cancel the flights and their cancellation fee is a total of $400.00 USD and even if we were to switch flights it would still be $400.00 USD. Does Vayama think it's a privilege to book through them or something? They were really quick to impose a $400.00 fee on a trip that was being cancelled 2.5 months in advance. Then I asked about switching flights and their policy on it and I had to stop her 5-10 times from putting me on hold before I got her to kind of explain the policy if the flight was less and if we would be refunded the difference minus their $400.00 Vayama customer raping fee. From what I can tell they already charged us $300.00 +/- for their agent imposed fees. I've switched flight at the terminal for far less.

We read the bad reviews and it looks like we are going to pay the price for going with such a horrible company. Don't waste your money with them. On top of that we purchased the trip insurance, which is through AIG (Travel Guard) Vayama did not purchase it. I spoke to AIG and they had no record of it's purchase. We requested the policy number of our travel insurance and Vayama gave us a phone number and we had to call AIG, who were very helpful. So I have an email from Vayama that outlined the cancellation fees and when I called back to cancel they also added that $30/person would not refunded. When I ask for all the fees and deductions for a cancellation that should also have been explained.

So $130/person to cancel a flight 2 1/2 months ahead of time and China Airlines will also charge $100/person. So $460.00 later we are free of this scam of a company and will book elsewhere and save money even with the $460.00 taken into account. Vayama by not purchasing the trip insurance prevented us from getting a full refund. I see it as they took our money for a service and did not purchase it as agreed this is essentially stealing to me as they probably were not going to purchase it anyways. We gave them a shot due to the good fairs and bad reviews hoping it was just the worst case scenarios, but from our first contact with them to our last it was horrible. The last conversation I had with the agent was to send us a confirmation email and him saying it would take a few minutes. I asked if we could wait since I didn't want to be on hold forever again and he said will take a a little while. So I responded with so if it doesn't come shortly I should call back and wait on hold forever? His response: "Yeah." I was fairly heated at this point and pretty much gave up and said whatever then and he said bye. I usually don; t blame people for doing their job especially if they are nice, because I know it's usually not their fault, but the two reps I spoke to were just rude and cut me off several times and either put me on hold mid sentence and in several case did not warn me they were going to put me on hold. I just heard a dead line several times and got hung up on twice.

NEVER BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY! They say your flight it booked and then it's not. I booked my flight and got a card declined from them. Called my bank and they approved my card limit. Spoke with them and got the payment approved and that I would get a confirmation in 2-3 days. I did not get the confirmation so I called wondering what happened. They told me that the tickets were cancelled as the card was declined again and they tried to called me. They never called, I have no record of them calling me. My phone did not ring at the time they have listed. I also called my phone company and they do not see a call registered at that time. I have no voicemail of this said call. I would not use them and avoid them! They are a scam business and I will make sure to make all the noise needed so other people know! Please note you have made a once happy customer very MAD and pissed off! Now I have to look for this flight again! Thanks for wasting my time!

I purchased an XL Air France it was clearly stated that the ticket was non refundable but it said changes may be made. I needed to make a change from aug 5 to aug 20 for medical reasons and was willing to pay the change fee stated and difference in ticket. Vayama would not allow be to make a change. Even though their policy indicates that a change is possible. According to the airline, vayama is the responsible party bcz I bought the ticket from them. Of course they deny this and had me ping pong back and forth between them. I heartily dis-courage anyone from buying a ticket from vayama because even with trip insurance which I have you will not be able to plan for unexpected occurrences. Standard policies cover trip changes but won't cover you of you need to buy a new one way ticket. You are better off buying from the airline directly. At least the conditions will be clear and you don't have to ping pong btw the airline and vayama.

I purchase a ticket ti Europe with Vayama using the Kayak site because it was a bit cheaper than the airlines - HUGE mistake! First of all, you never receive your ticket confirmation code of the airline until you get to the airport to check in so you cannot assign your seat until you are there. Second is imposible to change the returning date after you are in the country you flight to, you just lose your money if you have to do that. Took me 5 long distance calls and 4 hours (paying long distance) to get to talk to someone to just to tell me that they cannot change my return flight and that I lost all my money because I would have to buy a new ticket to return another day! Any agency or airline at least give you the return flight information so you can later use it another day! When you call the airlines to try to change it with them they tell you that you have ti talk to your "travel agency" because they don't have anything reserved, thus they just emit the ticket at the last minute so you are force to deal with them to do any charges. If you want to do changes before the flight -even if you just bought them- you have to talk to them directly and besides the airline exchange fees you have to pay THEM $100 for their "change services". They are a bunch of thiefs! If you have to do changes in any airline within 24 hours of purchase they do it for free!

Booked air tickets on line, but never received confirmation by e-mail although the money was charged to our credit card. Impossible to reach on the phone, they finally responded to an e-mail:

"Due to a technical issue between the airline reservation system and the website, the airline was not able to confirm your flights at the price paid. Therefore we have cancelled your failed booking and refunded the full amount paid by You: 1171. 02 EUR.
You should receive your refund back on your credit card within 7-10 business days at the most."

They offered to re-book at an increased price, but we opted to book directly on the airline's web site, where the tickets were cheaper.

I really regret booking through Vayama. After ticketing my flight, I found that I was not able to select seats on any of my flights. I went to the airline websites and also called the airlines and was told that the class of fare does not allow me to select seats till the day of the flight. The whole reason I had booked in advance was to make sure I had good seats and good flights. When I called Vayama to cancel the booking, all they did was keep telling me to call the airline (even though I repeatedly told them I had called the airline and was told I would not be able to select seats), and then wanted to charge me $50 per person to void the ticket. That was unacceptable. There was nothing in their booking process that indicated that it would not be possible to select seats. I asked to speak with a supervisor, was told that he/she was on another call and would call me back, but I never received a callback. Terrible customer service, not transparent, never booking with them again.

I am so disappointed in Vayama and would encourage anyone to NEVER book with them, but rather book through the airline directly. I had to cancel my upcoming trip to Katmandu, and the airlines is offering a 100% refund, but unfortunately, I had to book through Vayama and now I have to go through them. I have talked to the airline MANY times and they assured me that they are offering the refund, but Vayama needs to process it. In the past 13 days, I have contacted Vayama probably 10-15 times. Each time, I talk to someone who is very nice, but never really accomplishes anything for me. I am always assured that you will hear from us within 24 hours... I HAVE NEVER HEARD back from Vayama, I am always the one following up. My firend, who has the exact same flight has received a confirmation of a refund, but I have not. It is completely unacceptable to say that you will contact someone in 24 hours and to never hear back from them. This was a VERY expensive ticket and I need my refund to be processed because it takes up to 60 days to get it and as of now, Vayama hasn't even processed it. There are multiple call centers and some are doing better than others. This is why my friend already has her confirmation of refund and I don't, because we called different call centers. However, a company this large should really have it together to have protocols for instances like this. I learned a valuable lesson this time around-- DON"T book with Vayama!

Just read at the other reviews, I wish I had before dealing with them, customer care is zero, the "try to fix the internet bad reviews guy" is rude and not help at all.
Just stay away! If you are still hesitating just google Vayama Reviews and you will see what I am taking about@@Update@@
After a very complicated day I can confirm that Vayama was able to solve my problem, in particular David Rush

Director Customer Relations, America contacted me first on twitter and followed the development of my problem until he was able to honor the price for the tickets and the original itinerary.

So there is definitely a customer support there and also very efficient, and his name is David, with regards of the phone customer support, there is margin for improvements.

I have purchased airplane ticket through Kayak but was redirected to Vayama website. I have received itinerary right away so it didn't even cross my mind something could go wrong.

I have received a phone call after 5 days from Vayama representative that my credit card has been cancelled because of what my ticket was actually not purchased. They have offered me on the phone to use another credit card, just the price would be much higher now. Only after getting into argument of why nobody has contacted me right away to let me know that my credit card has been cancelled and that it is their fault that the price went up at this moment they have agreed to repurchase my ticket for the same price. To be honest I wanted to buy the ticket from some other agency right away since I couldn't believe that nobody would let me know for days that my credit card was cancelled, but they have already charged on my credit card part of the ticket and travel insurance which they have told me I can not get refund for because of which I have decided to repurchase the same ticket through Vayama.

On the day of my travel, my mother has called me that she just saw my ticket and that they have changed my flights for coming back and asked me if they have contacted me. She saw that my ticket was changed because she works for one of the airlines companies. Nobody from Vayama has contacted me to let me know. They have also changed it for a flight coming back in evening and I had to be back on that day in early afternoon. Because of that I have called Vayama to ask to change that flight. To make this story short because it is very long. I have called Vayama for days to change that flight, even though they told me right away that it is not a problem and have let me choose which flight I would like, it took them 2 full weeks to reissue the new itinerary. I have been calling them from Europe every single day and every day they have told me to be patient and that they will send me itinerary in the next 24 hours. I felt like a complete fool! They have been telling me the same thing every day like I am stupid until last day I started yelling on them and requested to speak with a manager. After that they have send me the new itinerary next day.

Few days after, when I finally though I have my ticket my mother has checked in the system and has seen that I have reservation on 2 flights from the same city one at 7.40 and one at 8.45 but my ticket was only for 8.45 and I have requested 7.40 flight. With 8.45 flight I could not make it to my connection flight at 11.20 since I was traveling with infant. As soon as I found that out I have contacted Vayama and they were first convincing me that that is not their fault that I have to fix the problem through Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa or Croatia Airlines. I have contacted all 3 companies and they have all told me that they can not change it since agent from Vayama made that reservation wrong.

You can not even imagine my frustration at that point already. If I would not make it to my connection flight I would have to wait with infant all day on the connecting airport. I have talked with Vayama again every day and even though after few days they have promised me they would fix it, every day I was calling they were telling me to be patient and that they will change it in the next 24h, even though I was yelling every day now because my flight was in few days I knew they were just waiting for the day of my flight and to get rid of me.

This mistake with booking wrong flight was Vayama mistake, but they did not want to change my ticket it, since they would be charged for changing the ticket. Because of that they were making a fool out of me every single day with stalling me.

My whole trip was ruined from begging to the end because of Vayama, every night after my baby would fall asleep I would be on the phone with Vayama. Not to even mention the cost of those phone calls from Europe. And btw they did not change my ticket on the end.

Worst experience of my life with traveling and I am traveling all the time and have never ever encounter with company that is so unprofessional, slow and completely inefficient, not to even mention they make complete fools out of their customers. I would never book anything with them ever again! Stay away from this idots!

I have had the worst experience after booking my tickets through Vayama. Even though their tickets are non-refundable, nowhere in their terms and conditions is it mentioned that if you cancel the trip then the entire value of the ticket is lost. Neither do they mention their no-show policy or the fact that Vayama would not assist you in any way on the phone. Every time you call them, after making you hold for about an hour and listening to your concerns, they tell you that they will respond via email, which in my case took about 10 days. And after that I received a quote for $1900 for making a change to a ticket that I brought for $1282. I had no option, but to buy new tickets all together. What is the use of cancelling the ticket in advance, if the entire value is going to be lost. I wrote a letter to Kayak in order to share my bad experience, and I received a response from Anna (KAYAK Consumer Services Rep) giving the Vayama customer care number and asking to call them for assistance. How is this supposed to be of any help?

My husband and I booked a flight to South Africa for next spring to visit some friends who recently moved there. When we found out that our friends had an unexpected scheduling conflict, we had to change the dates of our trip. It took almost an entire month between email exchanges and phone calls to settle this issue. Every email, which they promise to respond to in 24 hours, took at least 7 days to receive a response (usually only once prompted by a frustrated phone call.) When I called to try and understand the exorbitant change fees, the customer service agents were less than helpful. We ended up canceling our itinerary entirely and re-booking directly through the airline. While this cost a small fortune, it still cost less than it would have to change the flight through Vayama. They charge not only the airline change fee and their own $100/per ticket change fee, but they could not offer me the best airline fare available even though it was clearly available through their website. I cannot stress enough how frustrating and expensive this process ended up being. I urge you to book directly through the airline, even though it may cost a little more up front, it will save you a lot of money in the end.

I was routed to this website through Kayak and ended up booking a flight. I arrived at the airport 2 hour 10 minutes before the flight. My itinerary said Air Canada with a flight number AC 4079 which is why I went to the air canada counter and waited there for about 45/50 mins. After waiting there for almost an hour I talked to the lady at next counter from US airways and she told me that all the flights from air canada are going through United. So we went to the United terminal but they told us they can't check us in since we have only 45 minutes left and they need at least an hour to check in international flight. I rechecked my itinerary and there's nowhere mentioned about united airlines. Under the air canada it says subsidiary or franchise which I didn't know meant that it is operated by different airlines.
Like everyone I called Vayama and the supervisor told me they can't do anything and told me to call the airlines whichever the airlines told me to call them back. I felt like they were just trying to get rid of me and push me aside even the guys from airlines were saying that I can call the agent and they can put all so us in conference call but the customer rep of Vayama didn't wanted to go on conference call with the airlines. After calling them again Vayama finally said I can get the ticket for different day but I have to pay a no show fee and another fee and my new ticket will cost me 1500 which is 500 more than I paid for the flight.
I called the different customer rep from the number which I found online from their website it transferred me to an international call center. I was talking to this customer rep explaining everything to him and I sent him a copy of the email vayama sent me as a confirmation they immediately hung up. I called them immediately and being on hold forever they finally transfer to a supervisor. He sent me an email which seems like they forgot to sent me and had united airlines mentioned on it. This guy was so unprofessional that he said " listen, frankly I am going to tell you that you're not going to get anything from me or my manager " after moving further into the conversation he said " you are Indian like me" which really made me angry as I am not from India and him profiling me offended me as it would offend everyone from my country who are mistaken most of the time for Indians.
I don't think someone at a supervisor position should profile people based on their name accents or whatever which also portrays the class of this company. This was the worst experience ever and I wished I would have read the reviews before booking a flight from this website.
Also according to the "supervisor" I shouldn't be dumb enough and should have done research about what subsidiary meant.