istanbulagiden

Count me in as another one who discovered FlyerTalk through a web search for asaptickets.com, to find out if they were legit. What I read on this site satisfied me that they ARE legit, i.e. they sell usable plane tickets, even if they use deceptive advertising techniques. I am dismayed by the use of these techniques, but I need to save money even more, so I just gave them roughly $1300 worth of my business, for a simple round-trip ticket from ORD to IST at the absolute height of the high season. After spending several days exploring kayak.com, sidestep.com and various "discount" travel agents based in NYC and San Fran, I found that this was the best deal--not by a mile, but by about $50. I say OK, I'll take that $50 margin and run with it.

A similar service, with similarly narrow profit margins and Eastern European pedigree, appears to be atcostflights.com, which also uses the sneaky technique of "finding" fares in its database that aren't real fares, just so you'll call them. Then when you call, the fares they offer are very competitive, if not the absolute cheapest, available--but several hundred more than advertised...

I called atcostflights too, but didn't buy from them because the rate they quoted was a few dollars more than asaptickets. But I do want to share my experience that they both seem like real companies that provide a real service. agents are very hardworking, too. IF something goes terrible wrong at the airport in June, or on the return flight in August, I'll post about that. But for now, I'm satisfied.

EmailKid

Welcome to FlyerTalk istanbulagiden

You are much braver than me - I would not hesitate to spend an extra fifty bucks in order to have peace of mind.

So unless you post on some other topic we expect to hear from you in June, possibly August at the latest

EmailKid

Courtship

If you just do the math its cheaper. Don't be lazy. I'll do some math for 200 USD per hour. Read the fine-print and get over it. Tickets everywhere are cheaper weekdays, and with so many people in the world, ticket availability changes instantaneously. Snooze, you lose. This company makes money selling last minute low deals to fill planes, not dazzling spend-happy people with consistency. Don't feel cheated because you don't like math.

CopperSteve

I do like math. ASAP Tickets isn't selling math, however.

EmailKid

I also like math

My use of it:

First time poster with no posting history defending an iffy company

Now you do the math @:-)

EmailKid

golazo

hi
I was looking for info about asaptickets and bumped with this forum

I usually buy in Expedia and get fair prices and very good costumer services and never had a problem

This time I have a special case, ; I have to buy a ticket from NYC or EWR to Johannesburg ,South Africa from 7/7 returning 7/12. The problem is that I will Know if I fly on 7/6 around 5 PM

It is impossible to buy a ticket in expedia or other places that I know ,with this time window, and the prices get very hight

I saw that this web site sell tickets last minute deals, and, apparently , good prices, googled it and find this forum

Do you have other suggestions where to find a fair price for my flight to South Africa, on 7/6 , to fly on 7/7? i na reliable company

thank you

LuvMyPup

ello?

tom911

Did you have a question?

LuvMyPup

Haha, ok, just wanted to make sure it worked.

This has been a VERY entertaining forum. I've spent far too much time reading it. I was looking for flights for my boyfriend and came upon the atcostflights.com... Great looking prices!!! Once I clicked on the "Buy Now" and it gave me a phone number to call; right then I knew something was deffinitly WRONG. When I went to google it, before I even typed the word after the sites name in the bar, 'scam' and 'fraud' were already the folowing predicted text. Lol!

After that I've pretty much just surfed the net through all of the travel horror stories... and the occasional con poster, claiming that they would most certainly use atcostflights.com again. Haha. Ah, but I guess the old Russian has to feed his family too. It seems that with all this energy that he has put into keeping the scam going, that he could put it to some better use! It's entertaining because you know which texts are BS. It may be weird, but everytime I read one of his responses (/employee...etc...), I hear the words in a deep voiced russian accent in my head.

Do NOT use ------> atcostflights.com !!!!

Enough warning signs are scattered across the internet for these scams, take them to heart.
Also keep in mind that, though he may decide to change the name (and probably already has), his tactics will remain the same.

Safe travels everyone! Stay sharp!

leerkg1945

asapticket.com can be checked out via San Francisco BBB, it is listed as
International Travel Network
One Market Plaza Steuart Tower
San Francisco, CA 9415
Web site asapticket.com

I am a DOD employee, working for Military Sealift Fleet Support Command
Naval Base Norfolk, VA
I use asapticket.com having found out about it from a travel agent in Singapore when I ask her had she was able get the ticket so much cheaper
than I could. Good Luck.

aktchi

leerkg1945: Thank you for joining FT just to tell us about asapticket.com . I hope you will defy the trend and remain an active member of this forum, contributing in other ways as well.

Nightshadow

Red Flag, Red Flag! I am new to the site, so Im probably a super secret spy working for someone.

So I am currently looking for a cheap flight from US > Dubai and came across ASAP like everyone else here apparently and I prices looked so wrong I *knew* something was not right. As usual I do my research online and find you guys. I read all the posts a bit past AJ's (the guy working for ASAP) and then I read your flame-posts against him (gee, no wonder no one freakin bothers posting on these forums, first timers or otherwise)

Is ASAP some sort of deceptive marketing ploy to get you to actually buy expensive tickets, I dunno, probably. Even the AJ guy admits it. Am I going to trust them and buy my ticket to Dubai through them, Hell No. So why did I bother taking the time to register, wait for an email, click on the verify link and write this up? Well, heres why:

Most people on the internet are in fact, *first time posters* to most websites that arent internationally known, its not to say that Flyertalk is a crap forum, its just not on the same level as Amazon, Yelp or Newegg.com. Based on your 5 pages of commentary, it would appear that

1. Bad reviews are immediately praised.
2. Good reviews are immediately fake
3. Reviews from persons that are "community members" are well respected

I disagree with #1 and #2 but whatever... #3 is the one that bothers me, because, you see, Id never even heard of Flyertalk before this... heck, thanks to ASAP tickets, Im aware you even exist. Now, I have to become a valued member of this forum / community before any of my opinions are considered to carry any weight... which is a catch 22, because I might want to join the forum *JUST* to tell you what a great experience I had on some airline or in some airport... except you wouldnt care, and if you dont care and its obvious that you dont, because I am NEW, then why should I bother signing up and creating a profile and verifying the link...blah blah blah. Dont you see what youre doing guys? Give the new members the benefit of the doubt. I dont disagree that 1 good review, ever, might just be the owner of that business trying to look good, but on the flipside, you shouldnt feel the need to like yell it out to the world (ding ding, possible fake post!!!) as again, we get caught up in the above mentioned loop^^^^^ where people will feel like even bothering to sign up is a waste of time.

Lastly, back to my "Most people on the internet are in fact, *first time posters* to most websites that arent internationally known".

1. Most people dont even bother posting positive reviews on most websites - like this one. I can tell you Ive flown and traveled 60-70+ different times and had never, not once heard of this website.
2. Most people dont feel the need to run to the web and post positive reviews... although Ill admit I flew JetBlue once and holy crap, best flight of my life... that airline kicks ..., but again, I never posted it anywhere.
3. Most people will immediately want to share their bad experiences with the world, if only someone will listen to them "ta-daa, The Internet!" (Our problem as consumers is that if all is well, we dont bother, if all goes wrong we make a big stink about it in hopes of having justice and showing the big guy that the "little guy" does indeed carry some power) - Did you guys see that youtube video about the one guy whos guitar was broken by the airline? Ill give you $1000 dollars if you find me ONE video by that same guy / band about a positive experience with airlines.... (hopefully now youre catching on to where this is all leading)
4. When I first started buying stuff online, I never posted reviews... but I sure as hell did use them to make decisions, Id go on websites like resellerratings.com or whatever to see if this one web vendor was trustworthy.
5. Larger online vendors with communities, such as Amazon.com are worth posting on because most people buy different things from them all the time and theres no reason not to review different items on the same site. Ill give you a breakdown:

A) I purchased HD cables
B) I purchased a Bluray
C) I purchased a Book.

If amazon didnt have a ratings system (user community) and I had positive experiences, I would have had to sign up at different forums (ex, flyertalk) just to say how pleased I was with my purchase - So Id have to google for forums like : hdcablesratings.com, blurayvendorsonline.com and booksellerratings.com - Can you imagine? Creating a login and registering JUST so i can tell the world that "amazon" was a good and trustworthy vendor who got my book to me on time? Who in their right mind would bother with that? Get real man!! And even if they did, who would bother then rating their second positive experience and "newbookratings.com" instead of "booksellerratings.com"??? That would require a whole new login.

Add to that the fact that people on those 4 different sites, which I made up for sake of argument, would require me to be a trusted community member just to take my positive review seriously and quite frankly, youve taken away any desire anyone might have to do so.

All I am trying to point out is how flawed your system is and when you finally did have a representative from the vendor come online, you jumped him like piranhas... is it any surprise then that people from Expedia and Orbitz dont bother with these types of ratings forums?

I wont be buying from ASAP tickets but I hope that youll at least give new members the benefit of the doubt and that youll appreciate that any representative from any online vendor even bothered signing up to quell 4-5 peoples negative opinions.

Lastly, and I say this with much sarcasm, I am going to go and become a valued member of this community - even if it takes months, and if and when Ive been accepted, I will finally be able to post my review on Jetblue... as I dont want it to be overlooked, laughed at or have people roll their eyes at me when I mention how delicious their free white chocolate, key lime cookies were during the flight. I wouldnt be surprised either if the community feels this is a threatening post to their close-minded views and ended up deleting my post, which of course would prove everything Ive just said to be true.

Cheers guys.

PS. My two cents: When it comes to international flight, I would highly recommend using reputable vendors - The last thing anyone needs is to be stranded in Fiji trying to get a hold of AJ or the chick from Latvia at 2 am... heh, then again, I can remember when a small company called "Cheapair.com" was just as suspicious.

aktchi

Welcome to FT! No real spy draws attention to himself like this, so I'd guess you are a normal person, who happened to rant and is apprehensive about how it will be received.

FT has > 1/4 million members, > 1 million threads, and > 14 million posts. Wouldn't you say that reading five pages over a few days of membership is not enough to form strong opinions, let alone feel qualified to lecture others?

Actually that is only half true. Of course, people care more about the opinions of someone they have come to know and trust. OTOH this is a community of travelers, who have learned to seek information and advice from people they never met before. I don't automatically discount it for that reason, just factor that in.

You have already posted some advice about Cancun. If I was visiting CUN, I'd pay attention, because you seem to know CUN and I don't. I am sure the others on that forum will listen as well. OTOH you clearly don't know FT, so most people including myself will ignore your rant about it.

This place didn't get to have 250,000 members by making people fee that signing up was a waste of time. Of course, I have no quarrel if you prefer Amazon's size and style. However, we can't go to Carnegie Hall or Harvard or Apple Headquarters, and start lecturing them on how "most people" do things in "most" concerts, colleges or computer companies. Each place of excellence has its own unique personality and culture. If you do prefer the content or style of another community, bigger or smaller, I understand and wish you well for your participation there. However, FT does have a unique mix to offer a frequent flyer.

You seem to think that FT only has negative reviews, not positive ones. This could be because the few posts you have read concern an outfit which some of us do view negatively. Travel agency is not some unique rare esoteric business; I have dealt with dozens over a period spanning decades and know what good and bad ones are like. For all the lofty talk that costs nothing, I don't see you inclined to give ASAP your own money, are you? Or think of it this way. There must be some things you don't like. If by chance I heard you criticizing something for a few minutes, would I be justified in concluding that you are a negative person who never likes anything? It is a simple fact that most advice at FT is of positive nature: do this, do that, go here, buy this etc. An entire forum is devoted to airfares that people find attractive and recommend to others. Another one to travel products, again recommended by brand, model number and often where to buy. Etc.

So, Welcome to FT once again. I sincerely hope you will not be a 2-post wonder. Please hang around. Get to know the forums and participate in those that appeal to you. Accumulate some experience and knowledge. Then your opinions about FT will ring true, be worth listening to, and may really help it improve. God has given us two eyes, two ears, but only one mouth; that is a hint from Him on how to conduct ourselves.

CopperSteve

Nightshadow, I'll have to re-read your post tomorrow. I am not sober, but apparently I am less sober than I thought because I have no idea what you're trying to say.

fijal1

I recently had to book emergency flights back to th uk with asap and yes they were cheaper than others and was assured if i had to change my return flight it wouldnt be a problem, until i got there and my father in law died and then they werent interested in helping me or refunding me the return flight costs either.

I had to book whole new flights from a diffrent airline, when I returned home I contacted the company and she told me I hadnt asked the right questions when I booked.

I seriously wouldnt recommend them to anyone