Lifestyle

Opodo manages to book us flight tickets on a barred airline


Last December my husband and I used Opodo to book return flights with CemAir to Hoedspruit in South Africa from Cape Town.

The day before departure last month, I tried to check in through Opodo’s website but it kept throwing me back to the home page. I incorrectly assumed the website was down and we decided to check in at the airport.

When we arrived, our flight was not on the departures board and the CemAir desk was shuttered. Officials advised us that CemAir had been grounded by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) and bookings transferred to South African Airways, which had no record of our booking. We had to buy new tickets at a higher price.

Once back in the UK, I spent an hour trying to call Opodo and each time I asked to speak to a supervisor four different operatives claimed they could no longer hear me and ended the call.

On the last occasion I raised my voice and, miraculously, the staff member suddenly heard me and said my behaviour was inappropriate and my calls would no longer be dealt with. I suspect this is a tactic used to avoid having to deal with customers.

I called back immediately to find our reference number was no longer recognised, so now I can’t get through to anyone. GSE, Sunderland

You bought your tickets on the same day SACAA banned CemAir from flying for the second time in a fortnight due to safety concerns.

Part of its fleet had already been grounded earlier in 2018 and in January 2019 the privately owned company was barred from takeoff indefinitely. A message on its website states that it will not be taking bookings until further notice.

That has not stopped Opodo advertising CemAir flights on its website. When I searched the route you took I was offered departures that no longer exist. Opodo’s communications are notoriously poor, judging by the experience of previously stranded readers, and it blames “human error” for its failure to inform you that the airline was no longer operating. Only after contact from the Observer did it announce it would refund the tickets and any additional expenses “as a matter of urgency”.

As for the phantom flights, it says that one of the distribution systems that supply it with flight details was erroneously showing seat availability for CemAir. Anyone trying to buy tickets would have received an error message that their “session” was interrupted and inviting them to try again.

Opodo says no money would have been taken. “Following your email identifying this situation we have immediately removed this content from all our platforms and reported this to the distribution provider to make sure the issue is solved,” it says. “We would like to apologise for the inconvenience that this may have caused our travellers.”

If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number. Submission and publication are subject to our terms and conditions



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