ExploreTrip

I sat on hold yesterday for over 2 hours and currently sitting on hold for over an hour. This place is rediculious!

I have used Exploretrip extensively since the year 2000.The ease of use is there and it has a quick response to any querys.

Peter Hariss was very kind to e-mail and phone me up when my flight schedule has been changed. So in the future I will use this vendor again

1 star is toooo much! Don't trust your money with them! Buy directly from the AirCompany!

We are a family of four. I work in healthcare. Unfortunately, a week before the trip, I caught COVID. In the following days, my husband and the kids got infected too. So, travelling became impossible/illegal. We promptly let ExploreTrip know of our situation. Did the same with the AirCompany. The cie then changed the ticket to an "open ticket", to avoid paying no-show fees. All seemed ok.

We then contacted the AirCompany to know how to proceed to re-book the ticket. After providing the proofs of the COVID tests, we were told that the ticket could be re-booked at no cost in our case. We didn't need to pay for fare differences as well. We had this in writing from the AirCompany. We then contacted Exploretrip, because the ticket was issued by them. That's when the nightmare started.

We called them on January 21st, and was told we would need to pay the difference. We had to argue with the agent, who even after seeing the e-mail by the AirCompany would provide all sorts of excuses. From "you should rebook with the AirCompany", to you have to pay the price difference according to the "fare rules" (though again, this was not what the AirCompany said in writing to our personal e-mail). We spent a week calling ExploreTrip multiple times, and getting stalled. We have been told multiple times that supervisors or agents would call to solve the issue, but they haven't so far. They should be paying us for hours of time spent over the phone with them! Such a big time consuming... stress piling up... We are already going to such difficult time and they are making everything worse!

Our trip is to Thailand. They have very strict COVID rules. It takes 7 days to get the documents ready to visit the country. But to get it done, we need plane tickets, and thus ExploreTrip "goodwill". We are now risking getting our trip further ruined by ExploreTrip.

Bottom line: The AirCompany was very reasonable with us, but ExploreTrip is just thinking about making the extra cash out of people's hardship.

Why buy a ticket from ExploreTrip if they use the opportunity to "explore" you when they can?

I used Explore trip to book a oneway ticket From Sea to Houston via Denver for a friend. At first it looked like I had found a miracle. They had a booking for a flight with 3 days notice for $97.57. All the other flights were for about $200 more.

As it turns out this company said they had booked the flight. 2 days had gone by and I still had not received the E-Ticket Number. So I called them and they told me to sit tight and that within another 48 hours I would receive it. Since by then the time of the flight would have passed I called the airline directly.

The Airline confirmed that the reservation had been made and they gave me a E-Ticket number. But now the price had increased by $20. Still a great but the begining of the nightmare.

I then gave the number to my friend who got on the plane in Sea to Denver. Now stuck in Denver because the flight to Houston had been canceled. So I used a rebooking site that was sent to me and rescheduled the flight with another carrier after being told that the flight would be reimbursed to the credit card holder.

My friend experienced nearly a 4 hour extended delay on hold over that was already more than 8 hours long.

It took me all of the time to get the flight rescheduled so on top of his inconvenience I lost half a day getting him rescheduled.

Then comes the refund part. They end up sending me a check made out to my friend after 3 weeks have past. I know have no refund and a credit card bill to pay for a $351.43 replacement flight.

When I call them they explain that what I just described is impossible and there is no way to fix it.

So if I were you don't take the chance and use another airline. The company isn't a scam but they have serious flaws in their service and are unwilling to admit to them.

Explore trip is a scam. I booked a flight on their website and got an e-mail confirmation of the fare and reservation made. I then received a follow up e-mail from them asking for a scan of my passport and credit card, which I also provided them. I received a second e-mail confirmation with a PNR# of that reservation and a notification that the e-ticket would be sent to me. I tried to select seats on the airline's website and there was no reservation associated with that PNR#. I called the support number provided at the Explore Trip website and got no response. I sent them an e-mail requesting clarification and this is the response I received:

Dear Customer,

Please accept our sincere apologies, but unfortunately the reservation you made was not confirmed. As mentioned on our website the price and availability of our low fares can change quickly and cannot be guaranteed until the ticket is issued.
In this case, the airline cancelled the available seat before your card was charged because it was booked by someone else. We tried to re-book the ticket at the same price for the same itinerary but were not successful. We regret the inconvenience caused and wanted to let you know your credit card was not charged. We hope that youre able to find another fare on ExploreTrip that meets your travel requirements.

For further assistance, call us on *******984

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

Regards,
Tony

ExploreTrip Support
1-*******984 (Call us 24/7)
ExploreTrip.com

They also returned my call and suggested that if I wanted to rebook the ticket it would cost me USD400 more than the fare that I had earlier received confirmation of. No explanation was given for why they needed my passport and credit card details if no seat was ever confirmed!

Avoid this travel website it is a total scam!

I booked an international round-trip flight through ExploreTrip for $684. The next day I was sent an email asking for a copy of the front of my credit card (an Amex, so the security code is on the front), a written letter of authorization and a copy of a government-issued ID. Not only, in my 18 years of making transactions on the internet, have I not encountered this requirement with any company before; I thought the request was invasive and excessive. This is especially so considering this is my first (and last) transaction with the company.

I was too busy to call ExploreTrip that day. Within 24 hours of the first email I received another email to say my booking had been canceled.

I am currently - more than an hour and 20 minutes in - on the phone with ExploreTrip. The first customer service representative was not helpful when I said I would like us to handle the verification over the phone. She passed me to another person, who did not identify himself as a supervisor, who was ineffective in explaining why ExploreTrip needed this when other companies are able to process transactions securely/without hard-copy evidence.

It took a lot of digging and painful communication on my end for the supervisor to admit that I could book the flights again with another credit card where ExploreTrip's additional verification may not be necessary. The person then realized the flights I originally booked were now being sold for $932.51 - around 40 percent more.

I asked what ExploreTrip is going to do about it and was told it could only give me a $20 credit towards the re-purchase. I said I wanted to speak to the supervisor's manager. An hour and a half later, I'm still waiting on the phone and have used the time to write this account on multiple websites.

I like a good deal but I enjoy my time more.

An hour and 37 minutes later... ExploreTrip has ended the call while I was on hold.

I do not recommend ExploreTrip and I hope it reads about this experience. There are so many travel websites out there that I would be foolish to use it again.

I am going to write to the CEO, Prasad Gundumogula, with a complaint via: pgundumogula at mondee.com.

I booked a ticket knowing that it is the cheapest one here. But rest is just nightmare. In simple words, DO NOT PREFER THIS SITE.

I recently booked tickets to India (from USA) through ExploreTrip and my overall experience was okay. I found this website through another air-fare site online. They certainly did have the lowest airfare among all sites i visited (incl Kayak, Vayama, Orbitz, Hotwire, Webjet etc). While i read some mixed reviews from other fellow travellers regarding their ticketing experience with ExploreTrip, i decided to take my chances due to their lowest fare. Two things that i recommend others to keep in mind- First, ExploreTrip's booking website doesn't seem to be compatible with Firefox. I would hit submit after putting in all my details and the system would not process my request and would return the same page with all my details cleared out. This happened 3 times which is when i decided to try Internet Explorer that worked rightaway. Second, while you get a reference # immediately (i booked my ticket at 1am), I had to wait 15hrs post booking to get an airline e-ticket #. I was worried (given the mixed reviews about ExploreTrip) about not receiving an e-ticket # and I called the customer support center 2 times. I spoke to either a Sam or a Mike and while they answer your phone call, they did not do a good job in assuaging my worries. The first time i was told that i would get an e-ticket # by 12pm EST since the booking engines at 1am do not work (not sure if this is true) and the next time i was told that booking system was slow and i would get my ticket by 6pm EST. Was a little harried since i felt i was losing time and money (not getting a satisfying answer) in booking a ticket at an affordable price from an alternate website. However, i did get my e-ticket # and i cross-checked my ticket on the airline's website and everything turned out okay. So maybe what i was told was true and my worries were misplaced but overall thumbs up to ExploreTrip for the price. Oh yeah, these guys are based out of India (atleast, the call center is). Will try them again. SV

If any one asks me to rate this company i would give 5 stars... also strongly recommend to all...

Best price on flight that I could find. Site is easy to use. Everything worked the way I expected.

Exploretrip.com is the worst company I have never had to deal with it.

I booked a flight with them and I received a Flight Confirmation email, mentioning "Congratulations, your flight has been booked!" and "Paid"
I didn't receive additional news. Finally, I called them. My 2 first calls were cut!; finally when I could continue the conversation with someone, the person told me that the payment was declined by my credit card for fraud! They never contacted me in order to see what is the problem, given that it is usual in some countries that, for security reasons, you have to call your bank to unblock the payment. However, the website of the company has to inform you in this situation (it is easy it tooks 5 minutes; I did it many times since I am travelling in Asia). Their customer service doesn't know this; so there is nothing to do with fraud!

It is not acceptable! The customer service was not helpful and they just put the responsibility on my shoulder rather than think about their mistake.

They should learn how the world works outside their country! And they should learn about their responsability (i. E. send a message asking that the paiement has to be confirm by calling my bank; it is how it works in some countries).

They shouldn't send an email claming that my flight has been booked and paid. It is misleading. It could be considered that they have deliberately mislead me in order to prevent me from going to check with other companies.

Shame on them!

Since I had this bad experience I found many comment online in order to alert about this company. And these comments were true: this company is very bad.

I am so amazed now. I used very time it's services, and they did not let me down.

Before booking my flight, I called this company to ask them if they have a free 24 hour cancellation policy and they said, "yes". So I book my flight in the afternoon, I then changed my dates and booked with a different airline (same prices just different dates) assuming I can cancel my flight booked with this stupid Co. Anyhow, so I called ExlploreTrip (FYI they have a wrong number on their website) the same day (night time) of booking and NO ONE picked up. I called 4-5 time from different cell phones and was on hold forever with no response. The next morning I called and got a guy named Jacinto, who was absolutely rude and lied to me a million times.

He first said, that my reservation was non-refundable, he then said he will partially refund me, and keep $250 since that is the airlines policy and they can not reimburse me for it. Second lie, he said I should have called within 4 hours after booking to get a full refund. Third lie, he said was that I should have called within 24 hours in order to get a full refund and that I was already past that mark (I got a hold of them way before the 24 mark). Fourth lie, $250 is the airlines fee and that money goes to them.

I called the airline (LOT) and they said they did not have any funds on their end from my reservation.

So I called them back, and spoke to a nicer lady named Sophia. I explained my situation and she got a hold of the other guy, comes back on to tell me "Ok, you have been issued a full refund and that she would send me an email confirmation". I said great, thank you. I never got an email confirmation for the fee refund, and about 5-10 minutes after hanging up, she calls me back (I was away from my phone) and leaves me a VM saying to all her back urgently. I called back and they could not locate Sophia. This lead me to believe that she would take back what she said... But I'm not sure...

So I sent them an email to confirm my full refund per my telephone convo and they said it is approved and I need to wait 3-4 business days... PENDING FULL REFUND at this time.

Everything you read about bad reviews on this website is so true! I booked a flight using cheapflights.ca and somehow the link took me to explore trip! I was quoted Canadain dollars for my one way flight and was charged americian dollars I have phone and talked to Simone, joe Clarence Stephan nick and the list goes on always promising call backs which never exist when you call and demand to talk to the guy that was going to help you out they can never seem to find him. They say he will call you back in ten minutes and never do. I have had my credit card company reverse the charge back to them they will get in touch with them as they want there money. They send about an eight page letter to your credit card company saying it is not a fraud booking include your ip adress and go on and on. When I finally talked to Clarence who I thought was going to help me after much arguing with him that I was charged the wrong price American dollars he told me he could not refund my money until I removed the charge back so like an idiot I removed the charge back and now they will not answer my calls or email. I will phone my creidt card company again and tell them to charge them back the money and to no longer accept any further transactions for these people. I was so worried about my flights even being legit that I phoned the airlines to be sure, they were confirmed but after reading all these reviews on them cancelling flights and charging for them no i am to say the least a little worried about when I check in think I better call the airlines agian! This company should be shut down as they are based in India and I read on a web site if you were going to sue it will be under Indian law! Can not understand why they have a USA based address and are dealing out of India! Stay clear of this company!

EXPLORETRIP.COM PROMISED TO ISSUE A FULL REFUND FOR MY TICKET CANCELLATION SINCE THE AIRLINE WAS DOING THE SAME. THEY NOW REFUSE TO ISSUE THE REFUND!

I booked tickets to Israel on July 2nd through Exploretrip.com. Violence in Israel began on July 8th with rocket attacks reaching all parts of the country. I contacted Exploretrip.com to inquire about cancellation and refund. At first I was told by an Exploretrip.com rep that a refund wouldn't be issued, but after I explained that the airline was offering the option to cancel for a full refund due to the escalating violence in the region, the rep said that I could receive a refund. I asked the rep to cancel my two tickets. When I asked for a confirmation, he replied that wasn't necessary, and that I could expect to see the refund in 2-3 weeks. I saw no reason to suspect foul play since the airline was offering a full refund without penalty.

Two months later, and a refund wasn't issued. Now I'm being told that I wont receive the refund. I've called every day for two weeks without even being given an opportunity to speak to a manager. What scares me now more than ever is all the bad feedback I'm reading about Exploretrip.com all over the internet. How can such companies be allowed to remain in business?

Thanks for having entries for the TSA precheck and the freq flyer numbers. That is an amazing feature!

Absolutely ghastly, abysmal customer service. All customer service
Representative are Indians from an outsourced call center and are very
Rude + pushy. I called to book a trip (1 adult, economy, domestic flight
Within US) and Von (man I spoke with) made an initial offer that was
More expensive than Flighthub, Expedia, etc. I said I would go with
Another company, so he dropped $80 off his price and we made a deal.
Then, I read that this company asks customers to SCAN AND EMAIL copies
Of their IDs and credit cards to the company for "verification
Purposes"?! I called back and spoke with Von who assured me that I
Would not have to deal with that invasive policy--and that it's only
There to protect against fraud when folks purchase $3,000+ vacation
Trips. Mine was only a ~$100 ticket. It took an additional 2 days for me
To receive an e-ticket, after providing my name, billing address,
Billing phone number, credit card number, expiration, etc. When I called
To ask why I hadn't received the e-ticket yet, it took an additional 6+
Hours until they sent me the email.

Now, I received an email today at 8am asking for--you guessed it--a
"verification" of my ID and credit card, and moments ago (at 4:20pm)
Received another email saying "we regret to inform you that your
Reservation has been cancelled as the verification failed for the
Payment details provided. Please be advised that card listed will be
Refunded in 7-10 business days." My card had already been charged!

They are a very distrustful company, and I will never recommend others
To go through with travel plans with this company. They will waste your
Time until the bitter end.

Today, Christmas Eve, my Grandfather passed away while my dad was visiting family in Argentina (my Grandfather was in Canada). Me and my siblings took it upon ourselves to take care of my dad's flight home, something that needed to be done as soon as possible as it is most often a 20+ hour trip to get home and he wanted to get there in time for all the funeral arrangements and such.

We browsed and browsed until we came upon the perfect flight package (on the Explore Trip site). We had never heard of them but we were sad and desperate to get my father a flight that got him home in the shortest amount of time.

We booked the flights for later tonight, entered information and payment, got a confirmation email, and 4 hours later received an email stating that the reservation had been cancelled because of payment issues. At first they seemed very understanding of the situation but then told us that the ticket we originally paid for had been taken by another passenger. They said we could re buy this ticket but at a higher price. On top of this price increase they wanted a new card and another $100 for the 'inconvenience' of switching the cards, which is something I could have done free of charge online. Not only this but were they wanting pictures of the original card and new card with passport pictures. We called the bank and the card was ok, they did all this to increase the price and make us desperate. We looked up reviews and found many people with similar situations, so I told the guy to cancel everything after 40 minutes on the phone with him, to which he replied "you are not doing anything good for us by doing this".

After cancelling and assuring us no payment would be charged to any credit card, they continued to call and harass my dad asking for pictures of his ID and credit card. We are still waiting to see if either of the cards will be charged.

Please do no give this company your business, they are sketchy, you may miss your flight, and its not worth your time. We ended up booking with another flight agency and in 10 minutes had a confirmation and E-ticket emailed to us. Use a well known flight agency or use the airline directly.

This JOKE of an agency took advantage of a really terrible situation to make money, with absolutely no respect for a family on Christmas that is grieving the loss of a loved one...

Please safe yourself the trouble... DO NOT BOOK WITH EXPLORE TRIP. EVER!

I've used exploretrip for years and find it the most helpful way to comparison shop for airfare...

You offer trip assurance, but when I try and click on it to accept, it doesn't work.

Booking was easy, good prices! Customer service was nice and worked out the kink in my reservation.

Customer service was pleasant, he looked into the issue and had it solved!

It was really easy to use. Made it pleasant. Showed me the best deals I could get.