Buying tickets from them is like gambling in my experience and my humble opinion. I will take responsibility for not scouring the website to find and read all the terms and conditions, but I was under the assumption that it was like every other online booking site I have used in my 10 years of travelling around the world. The airline cancelled our flight. We did NOT want to cancel. Hop2 never informed us even though they knew weeks in advance. The airline said it was their responsibility to inform us. The airline informed hop2. Then they said our ticket is not refundable. In order to seem like nice guys they said they will offer us a partial discount minus $100 processing fee per person (we are 3 people). SO basically if you buy flights from them, they can be cancelled, especially in this time of the pandemic, without your knowledge or consent and you will lose the money you paid or maybe get a partial refund. We had to scramble to buy tickets the day of our trip and ended up spending $1000 more. Just book directly through the airline (I actually applied for a refund which they granted, but since hop2 paid for the tickets, they got the refund, not us). I had also booked through Expedia months before for this same trip and the flight was cancelled for coronavirus, but in contrast Expedia gave us a prompt refund with no fees charged. This is the difference between a good travel agency and Hop2. The tickets from Hop2 weren’t even that much cheaper, I just chose them because they were a little cheaper and I thought they were a reputable company. I have wasted many hours with this issue, including my vacation and work time on my trip.
Victim Location 95134
Total money lost $5,000
Type of a scam Travel/Vacations
I booked a return flight from San Francisco to Amsterdam with British Airways through Hop2. When I turned up at the airport, I was unable to check in due to some problem with the ticket that had been issued. This was three hours before the flight. The staff at the check-in desk spoke with BA who stated that I needed to get the travel agency to reissue the ticket as it has not been correctly issued. They could not do anything because it was issued by a 3rd party. After I eventually got someone from Hop2 on the phone, I was amazed to find that instead of resolve this immediately, they wanted me to investigate exactly what was wrong with the ticket and put check-in staff on the phone. I went through several check-in staff who said they are not allowed to speak to companies like this via my phone, but all of them called BA to find the same problem: the ticket must be reissued. The Hop2 staff said they could not re-issue the ticket without knowing what was wrong (as though I was supposed to know that as a customer). The bottom line was, they had messed up my booking, and rather than fix it they spent 3 hours going back and forth with me on the phone which eventually made me miss my flight. They claimed to have been speaking with BA on the phone as well who were apparently telling them the ticket was fine, but I now believe it to be a lie that they spoke to BA at all.
So, I missed my flight. You would expect any travel agency worth booking through would fix this, right? Get you on the next available flight due to their error? Well, no. I was told they could not get me on the next fight because the rate was too high (not my problem), but they would "try" to get my ticket refunded. I ended up having to buy another ticket on the spot myself for $4000 in order to not miss the plans I had made that weekend.
When I got back home, I pursued the refund with Hop2 for the original ticket. I would still be thousands out of pocket for the new ticket because of them, but I wanted to at least be refunded for the original ticket. This is the first response I received:
"Good day, Paul.
Once again, we are sorry for the inconveniences caused. As I do recall the case, the airport agent was insisting that they can see a restriction on the ticket which was related to the form of payment, i.e. used credit card.
Indeed, as you are saying, the fact that there was an issue was reported by you 3 hrs before the flight, yet the airline agent has refused to provide us the exact reason on why they can’t allow you boarding and we need to reissue the ticket.
Furthermore, for a specific period of time, they were refusing to discuss with our agents.
Back at the time, our agents have called several times British Airways agency support desk in order to find out how we can help and under which reason we shall reissue the given ticket.
Each time the British Airline agents were assuring us that the ticket is ok to travel and no reissue is needed, they were also insisting that this must be an issue with American Airlines, but they cannot help and none of us were aware of what exactly was the issue American agents were having.
Till the end, we managed to get an airport agent with us on the line only like 20 min before the gate is to be closed, and we needed about another 10 min to convince her on providing the reason.
By that time it was already too late as there is no technical possibility of getting a waiver confirmed and ticket reissued within remaining 10 min. Only hold time for British agency support is 10+ min, and that is the only instance that could have allowed the waiver so we could have reissued your ticket.
Considering this, while the events were taking place, we have decided that we request a full refund for the unused ticket, as you were saying you are going to have this handled with the airport personnel.
Currently, the ticket shows refunded in our system and there is no remaining value on this.
We cannot refund the newly booked by you ticket with Air France as the issue which led to you not being allowed to board was caused by airline/airport systems, rather than by our direct actions.
We have tried to be helpful and shall the airport agent mention the reason to reissue the ticket in a timely manner we’d have been able to fix this.
I’d though suggest that to pursue the reimbursement for the second ticket directly with the trip insurance provider.
Their product is specifically designed for scenarios like that and submitting a claim directly with them shall prove more helpful.
Rest be assured that our actions were directed only to providing a resolution that would have allowed you to use the booked through us product just as described and that we value your business.
Cordially,
Tim"
When I said that I had not received any refund, I got this reply:
"Hi, Paul.
Regularly the credit is posted to customer’s account within following 2 to 3 weeks after the refund is processed.
You’ll just have to give it a bit of time.
Cordially,
Tim"
It has been over 5 weeks, still no refund. I contacted them again several times since and did not hear anything, but when I left a review on TrustPilot they came back with this response:
"Good day, Paul.
We had checked this case once again with British Airways, looks like there was indeed a delay on the refund that has been issued by them.
Right now this has been fixed and shortly(around another one to two weeks) the money shall be posted to your account.
Rest be assured we value your business."
I contacted BA with my details and they said they did not have any refund on their system. I do not expect to hear anything further from Hop2 now as I can see the company is false and a fraud. If you look carefully at their website and read around the internet, you’ll see this for yourself. Other people have had similar issues with the tickets not being valid.
I think their technique is to blame "issues with the systems" for ticket problems and then drag out a non-existent refund till the customer gives up. I believe the tickets they issue are not even valid in the first place, but good enough to look legit when the booking code is checked on the airline’s website. It is only once the customer arrives at the airport and can’t check in they will realize. A customer can write a negative review online, but then they reply saying there were some delays and "the issue is now resolved" when it isn’t. This confuses other prospective customers and doesn’t fully conclude it as a scam. They also post a lot of fake positive reviews to boost the overall rating of the company, and somehow managed to get their link through to SkyScanner (which is where I was caught out, thinking it should be a legit firm if Skyscanner have supported it).