Shaphali
DO NOT USE THIS TRAVEL AGENCY!!
DO NOT USE THIS TRAVEL AGENCY!! We booked 3 tickets from this travel agency using their website on Nov 5, 2021. These were round trip tickets for travel from Tampa, FL to New Delhi, India and back, leaving on the 21st of November and returning on the 1st of December. After making the reservation online, I received an email from the travel agency advising that I should call the agency to confirm the tickets. I spoke with an agent by the name of Denver who advised me that I had purchased base economy fares and that baggage would not be included in this fare. I was taken aback by this information as international travel always has at least one checked-in baggage and one carry-on included in the air fare, even when it is a base economy fare. Denver further went on to calculate how much more I would have to pay for baggage in addition to the $1350 per person I had already paid for. He informed me that it would be an additional $2000 for baggage for all 3 of us. I then asked him for the confirmation number issued by Delta which he very grudgingly gave to me. I went to the Delta website and spoke with a Delta representative who informed me that 2 checked-in and one carry-on baggage were included in the air fare that I had purchased. I confirmed with Delta that our reservation was booked, and the representative helped me further by assigning seats for the entire journey. I visited the Delta website frequently after that to upload documents and get ready for our travel. On the 20th of November, roughly 30 hours before our departure, I logged on to the Delta website again to upload our RT PCR test results and could not pull up our reservation. I called Delta and was told to speak with the travel agency I had used to purchase the tickets. I once again had the pleasure of speaking with Denver from Look Book Flights. This time he informed me that the airlines had changed the fares and that we no longer had a reservation. I asked him why he had not informed us of this and why I was finding out about this at the last moment. He went on to suggest that if I paid an additional $5000, he could reinstate our reservation. I told him that we had our ongoing flights and reservations booked in India and needed to get there urgently. My father had passed away on the 11th of November, my family was waiting for us to get there for the last rites. Denver offered to reinstate our tickets for an additional payment of $5000. I called Delta again, basically, they were unable to help me as the travel agency had cancelled our booking. All of this was done without informing us, and it was only when I went on the Delta website to upload documents and check-in that I found out what had happened. The travel agency tried to extract extra money from us, this went on for almost 4-5 hours on the 20th of November. When I told Denver we couldn’t afford to pay the additional $5000 and that the agency should honor the original booking, he said he could cancel the reservation and issue me a full refund. We ended up opting to have the booking canceled as we just couldn’t afford to pay the extra $5000. My family is heartbroken and so am I that despite all the planning, I could not make it for my father’s last rites. This travel agency should be sued and banned from doing business anywhere. They hold your travel plans to ransom and try their level best to extract and scam you out of money. I have lived in the US for 31 years and travel to India almost every year. I book tickets through websites online and have never had such an experience before. The emotional angst and trauma that this agency has caused me and my family here and in India is unforgivable. I then wrote to the travel agency advising them of the trauma their greed had caused and to give them an opportunity to correct their mistake. Initially, I did not receive any response. I then advised them via email that I would be complaining about them by posting on social media and may also look into legal representation. I promptly got a reply and then a phone call from a Customer Support Specialist by the name of Jason Hopper from Houston, TX. He told me that Denver was no longer in the company’s employ. I informed the specialist that it really didn’t matter now since our trip had to be canceled. I asked if we could get reimbursed for the $600 we had paid for our domestic flights within India to get to my home city for my father’s last rites and was told that the company did not provide any monetary reimbursements. He offered to help me with the purchase of another set of tickets and I politely refused. There is no way I could trust my travel plans with this company ever again.
Response from LookbookflightsDec 3, 2021
Dear Shaphali I wanted to reach out and apologize for the experience you had with our team. This is not the kind of experience we would want for any of our customers. Basis your feedback on service, Our customer service manager tried contacting you however went unanswered. I cannot change the past, however I can try improve and help you with your query. If I may request please reconnect with us for resolving your query. I assure you that such issue would not happen again. Alison