Opodo – cancelled flights

Opodo Reviews & Complaints

Reported By: RebeccaFryer

Contact information:
Opodo

We purchased our tickets through a booking agent called Opodo. We were travelling from Manchester, England to Mwanza, Tanzania. The booking details are below:

11 February 20:35 – Manchester to Dubai (Emirates EK 20)
12 February 10:15 – Dubai to Dar es Salaam (Emirates EK 725)
12 February 19:05 – Dar es Salaam to Mwanza (Fastjet FN 147).

Returning on 25-26th February. A total of £1379.78 was paid to Opodo to cover the cost of all of the flights.

However, when we arrived in Dar es Salaam on 12th February we were told our flights had been cancelled as we hadn’t paid. We showed our proof of payment but the gentleman said we would have to go back out of the airport and talk to the Fastjet office. We spoke to the lady in the office who made some calls and after a long wait we were told we could board the flight. However, when we got back to the check-in desk we were told to wait again. The same gentleman came back and said he’d spoken to his boss who had told him we would have to purchase new tickets and claim back a refund. We were told that the card machine wasn’t working and that we’d have to leave the airport again to use the ATM. The gentleman told us we would have to take two lots of 600, 000 Tanzanian shillings out to pay for each way. We took one lot of 600, 000 out and tried to take out another but the ATM would only allow us to take out 400, 000. The man said we would have to pay 525, 000 for a one way ticket and sort out the return tickets in Mwanza. By this time everyone else had boarded the plane. I requested a receipt and then we had to run in order to catch our flight.

Once we landed in Mwanza our names were called out and we were told to stay on the plane until they had received their money. By this time we had been travelling for 24 hours and were absolutely exhausted and knew we had no way of getting out the extra money they were demanding, which was very distressing. Eventually we were told we only owed 147, 000 not 525, 000. The man in Dar es Salaam knew we had withdrawn enough money to pay for the return flights but was trying to con more money out of us but because we had requested a receipt he’d had to inform Mwanza of the correct amount due.

The whole experience was incredibly stressful and upsetting and the way we were treated was appalling.

On returning to the UK I called Opodo to claim our refund. We were put through to a call centre, presumably in India, to a man who struggled to understand what I was telling him. Eventually I received an email informing me I would receive a refund in the next 3 months. The email didn’t state how much the refund was for and nobody had asked how much we had paid for the additional tickets or the cost of withdrawing the money from the ATM. So far no money has received our account.

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