tom911

Interesting that two brand new posters found this very thread, which hasn't been active for a few months, on the same day they registered for FT to post these positive reviews. Any association with the web site in this thread? Some reason you didn't post detailed reviews? You've both posted so little information that it's of no value in deciding whether to use the web site in this thread.

tom911

Looks like you haven't been back since your first and only FT post back in February. Any updates?

ne52

The only positive reviews are all in broken English. That should be fair enough warning.

Rose123

I came across many sites while booking my business trip but my experience with these exploretrip people is good...and found some good fares with their site.....

tom911

Rose123-

Welcome to FlyerTalk

Can you share some details about routes, prices?

jabez

Rose
More info, or I'll suspect spam.

monthlytraveler

ExploreTrip is a SCAM. They do it again and again, in different ways, and yet have people write fake positive reviews to keep going.

The CEO is Prasad Gundumogula: http://www.linkedin.com/in/prasadgundumogula

This is the COO: Mr. Venkat Pasupleti

Here are a few complaints from the internet: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...ir_Travel.html

...and here is their horrible D+ rating on the Better Business Bureau site:

http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-franc...ateo-ca-370040

http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.exploretrip.com

I plan to litigate against this company. In the meantime, do not book anything from them. They will mess up your reservation on purpose (as they did with mine) in order to coerce you to pay them exorbitant amounts of money to fix them. Simply incredible.

tom911

You really haven't provided a single piece of information about your personal experience with this company other than "they will mess up your reservation", yet you're going to litigate against them? We're missing a big piece of the story here.

Welcome to FlyerTalk

amiok

I just booked a trip through ExploreTrip.com and then looked into them and started getting nervous with all the bad reviews. Especially since the tickets I bought were several hundred dollars cheaper than any other site had them for.

However, an hour after placing the order I got an eTicket itinerary. I entered the confirmation number in United.com and it says "This reservation has been ticketed and confirmed" and I can choose my seats and view my receipt.

Stupid question, but that means I'm good to go right? Is there any way that ExploreTrip could still screw this up for me at this point, or is their job done and I have tickets just as if I'd bought them straight from United?

Thanks!

tom911

You've probably noted that most of the posters the last few years pop in, make one post, and are never seen again. I doubt there's anyone here who can offer you the assurance you're after. With an airline web site, you're generally safe once you have a ticket number issued, but you're not booking with an airline web site.

Tom in Melbourne, Australia today

amiok

Thanks Tom. So what does that mean? I won't know if I have a legitimate ticket until I'm on the plane? That's not acceptable, as I need to make this trip, and don't want to get to the airport just to have to pay thousands of dollars extra to get a same day ticket.

What I don't understand is how I have an e-ticket from United and a receipt from United showing the amount I paid and the last 4 digits of my credit card, if this is a potentially illegitimate ticket. I can understand ExploreTrip showing an incorrect price and getting scammy about it once they have your credit card, but I don't see why United's system would let it through. I'm not doubting you at all, I'm just wondering when I can be sure I'm booked and can stop worrying about this, or if I need to try to cancel this whole thing with ExploreTrip and book elsewhere...

tom911

All I can say is once you have a ticket number you are generally safe, no matter where you've purchased the tickets. There have been exceptions in the past where low/mistake fares are cancelled by the airline after ticketing, and DOT in the U.S. allows that now, but it would usually occur within a few days of ticketing.

I'm not familiar with the vendor you purchased from and just can't comment on them. I don't know what country they're located in and have never visited their web site. I know nothing about their business practices other than what I've seen in this thread, and the absence of comments from other FTers might be an indication they're not familiar with them, either, to comment. I've always purchased my tickets from more high-profile sites and have never had an issue in flying. Just like you, they all issued a ticket number and properly charged my credit card.

That's about all I have to offer.

wayne530

Hey all, for quite some time, I've been using Hipmunk to research flight options and have overall been pretty satisfied. Recently, they started to show fares from Exploretrip - never heard of them before, but assumed that Hipmunk has always been legit so I extended the same trust. I booked a SFO-DPS flight and the Exploretrip fare was about $100 cheaper per person than the airline's (Cathay) own published fare. It wasn't until after I booked that I decided to research this company (I know, I know) and I was mortified by all the reviews I read but figured if they cancelled the tickets, I'd just book directly through the airline (my trip is still months out so the fare probably wouldn't have changed much). Long story short, I got the booking confirmation from Exploretrip, which like others have reported, says that I would receive the eTickets within 4 hours. About an hour later, the eTickets were issued. I verified them on Cathay's site last night and it shows as a confirmed booking. This morning, I called Cathay to verify the validity of the booking and they said everything was legit. I asked if there was any way Exploretrip or Cathay would cancel the ticket - they said in the event of fraud or if the charge was disputed with the credit card that they could cancel the ticket. As of now though, Exploretrip seems to have delivered on their lower fare (fingers crossed). I will update this thread if anything changes.

Next time, for such a small fare difference, I would be inclined to book direct with the airline but if Exploretrip had a significant fare savings and my trip was well in the future and still flexible, I would likely take a chance again and book with them.

And yes, I know - I just registered today to post - but I assure you I'm in no way affiliated with Exploretrip. I felt it was important to update the thread.

jjangoo

I have a trip to Greece next month. My inbound was ATH-IST-JFK but the IST-JFK leg was cancelled. Somebody (for some stupid reason) changed my itinerary to ATH-IST,AMS-JFK, giving me 1.5 hours to get from IST to AMS. I called Exploretrip to fix this and they made promise after promise to address the issue but have done absolutely nothing.

tim23adi

I booked my tickets with exploretrip to London from Phoenix. The price was great, 3 people for $1800 in August( i believe it was an error fare). I was happy and planned the trip. In 2 days I received this email :
" Dear Customer,

Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused.

Your reservation been canceled as the verification failed for the payment details provided. We regret any inconvenience caused to you. Please be advised that card is not charged.


We are committed to serve you in the best possible way, 24/7,

Regards,
Mac
ExploreTrip Support
1-866-855-3984 (Call us 24/7)
ExploreTrip.com

Thank you for choosing ExploreTrip.com
PS: Unhappy with our service, we are just a mail away. Just send us an email to [email protected]
Please send all your queries to [email protected] for quick response.


"
I emailed them without result..



I called the customer service dept and asked what is this about.. after few arguments they hanged up on me... Escalated this to a higher level ( as they say) and received a call in the morning ( 6 am) from a guy which was continuously repeating " we are sorry" They did not solve the problem, and they came up with a story that they were not able to process the payment due to a phone number error.. BS ! I have a hold on my CC on the amount of the trip. hopefully it will be dropped.

What I believe it happened ? They didn't honor the booking because of the possible error in fare. My Advice ? : Stay away , pay the extra $$ to a better company and have a nice sleep until you fly. If you book with Explore Trip they can cancel it any time.