Hundreds of South Africans thought they’d found bargain air tickets on local domestic airline FlySafair via an online Europe-based travel agency last week, only to discover they’d paid for non-existent tickets.
The fiasco was sparked last week by the airline’s bookings system provider, Radixx International, having a catastrophic systems outage, which took FlySafair totally offline — along with Fastjet, Air Transat in Canada, Air Belgium and Japanese low-cost carrier Peach.
“There were no sales through our website, through the GDS marketplaces or through any of our partners such as Travelstart or Checkers/Computicket, or eBucks,” said FlySafair’s chief marketing officer Kirby Gordon.
“But online travel agency eDreams — part of a group called Odigeo — continued to sell tickets on our flights, and we don’t know how — they would have had no confirmation of available seats, no confirmation of what price to sell at, and no confirmation that a booking was successfully made for the customer. But they took customers’ money.”
eDreams claims to be the largest online travel agency in Europe with more than 18 million customers.
Grace is one of several customers who shared her eDreams experience on Twitter. On Friday she booked a return FlySafair ticket from Cape Town to Durban, departing on April 26 and returning on May 2.
“I searched for flights on Cheapflights and was referred to the eDreams site,” she said. Having paid R2,886 for the return ticket, she received a booking confirmation e-mail with her flight details. But when she tried to check for the first flight online on Monday, she couldn’t.
“I called FlySafair and the guy I spoke to said he can’t pick up my booking. I panicked a bit, but I left work anyway because my leave was already approved,” she said. When Grace arrived at Cape Town International, FlySafair confirmed that her booking, and those of several others, was not showing on their system.
Unable to contact eDreams by phone, Grace paid for another one-way ticket to Durban, at a cost of R1,864.
Given the lack of standard confirmations that eDreams got from our systems, these tickets are pretty much pure fiction.
— Kirby Gordon, FlySafair
FlySafair apologised to Grace but said they had no record of her reservations and had not received payment for the flights in question from eDreams.
“We have no direct relationship with eDreams,” Gordon told Sunday Times Daily.
“We don’t have any guarantee that we will get payment from eDreams should we accept these passengers. In some cases, the flights have been full, so no seats were available for those with eDreams-issued tickets.
“Given the lack of standard confirmations that eDreams got from our systems, these tickets are pretty much pure fiction.”
Having managed to track down a senior eDreams employee this week, Gordon was sent a list of 1,500 FlySafair bookings made by eDreams — only 28 of them were on FlySafair’s system.
The agency confirmed that the error was on their side, Gordon said.
“We have highlighted to eDreams the urgency of dealing with these customers, and proposed that they contact these customers and either rebook them or refund them promptly.
“We also asked for a contact address so that customers could get hold of them. The reply was: ‘Please note that customers don’t need to contact us for this issue. We are already setting up the right procedure to inform all the affected passengers about the refund of their bookings.’
“eDreams will not give us any details on these customers so that we can contact them or make new reservations,” Gordon said.
“They insist that their processes are in play to correct this situation. My last four e-mails remain unanswered and they won’t give us a telephone number to call.”
Gordon warned that booking local flights with an international travel agency often works out more expensive, once their agency adds its hefty fee and the buyer’s bank charges and international transaction processing fee.
Plus, he said, the agencies are often extremely difficult to engage with.
FlySafair advises those who made bookings for its flights via eDreams to check whether they are valid.
“If eDreams has not yet contacted you, call our contact centre on 087 357 0030 or contact us via WhatsApp or Telegram (076 958 5303), Facebook or Twitter.
“If the booking does not exist, we are advising customers to confirm a new booking with us so that they can still board a flight, and then get hold of eDreams to get their money back.”
FlySafair has created this online form enabling affected “ticket holders” to request a refund from eDreams.
A spokesperson for the eDreams has denied that the company was to blame for the non-existent bookings.
“FlySafair experienced a major technical outage on its booking system and did not notify this incident to all its global ticketing and distribution partners, including the one utilised by eDreams,” he told Sunday Times Daily. “This ultimately enabled travellers to continue booking seats on their flights despite their booking system being down. As a result, the airline failed to confirm a number of bookings made by eDreams customers.
“We regret that this technical incident caused by FlySafair’s booking system has impacted our customers and are currently contacting all concerned travellers to provide them with the necessary assistance with their bookings. Customers are being offered to be re-booked on the same flights at no additional cost or to receive a full refund. We are committed to providing the best possible service to the 17 million customers that book with us every year”
The agency did not commit to a timeframe for the processing of refunds to the affected customers.
CONTACT WENDY: E-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za; Twitter: @wendyknowler; Facebook: wendyknowlerconsumer
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