SmartFaresReviews 7,698

I would give smart fare a zero star if possible
We booked a ticket and flight got cancelled. When asked for refund then they say call the airlines they will forward the refund to them and then they will forward the refund to us.
Airlines refunded them and they never refunded
us. We kept on calling but of no use
Very poor and never booking from their site again

Not only they lie to people about tickets but after they canceled my flight, they didn't refund my money for over 2 months now. Even though, they said they did! DO NOT BUY!

Please don't book your flight from these scammers. They will rip you off where ever possible. Worst company.

They blatantly tried to cheat without any shame. I purchased a roundtrip business class ticket from Washington Dallas airport to Istanbul in October of this year. I flew fine to Istanbul; however, when I called them from Istanbul to get the electronic ticket number to reserve my seat back to Washington, I was informed by their customer support that since I changed my return ticket, they can find me another returned date. I informed him that there was an error and I never changed the date of my returned flight. Customer care then informed me, well, the returned flight was inoperative on the returned date and he can book me back on another flight with a fee. I asked him what does "inoperative" mean? He put me on hold and came back a few minutes later informing me that the flight was canceled by the airlines and my only option was to book another flight with a fee. I replied that I am sitting on my computer and I do not see the flight canceled. He asked me to wait again and a few minutes later he came back and said he can book me on another day and there are no seats on my scheduled flight back. I said, well, I will buy a new ticket back to Washington if my returned flight was changed/canceled and I will deal with your company when I return to Washington. He put me on hold for the third time and a few minutes later he came back and said there was an error and my returned flight has not changed. I could not help but scold him and scored his company for playing a game trying to charge people for alleged canceled flights in order to make additional fees. While I was scolding him, the line got disconnected or he may hang up one. I called again to get the electronic ticket number and a new customer care agent and the same shameless process was repeated trying to cancel my flight and book me on another day justifying that with lies and deceptions. I will do my best to report this travel agency to the better business bureau, & the FBI. Kayak.com, from whom I booked the ticket, should remove them from their list.

Beware of this website and their services, I got duped twice but never again. When they charge your credit card they don't purchase the ticket immediately, if you purchase in advance to secure a deal, then once time comes close to your flight date, they call you to tell you it has been cancelled by the airline, then they offer an unacceptable alternative. Once you dispute, then the roller coaster ride starts. First they tell you that since you don't accept the alternative flight, you must pay a penalty, then they drag you on and on, until you are ripe for the picking. Once you made numerous calls they will finally say that the credit has been received and you should receive shortly. After a week you call them back again, to mention that the refund hasn't been received, then they say the airline send the refund to them, but of course, less the taxes, do you accept? If not we will fight for you, but it will take a lot of time, what a scam!

Never go with these folks.
The customer representatives are rude and they do not feel the need to understand the problem.
I had cancelled a reservation and I was told it will take a week for the refund to appear, when I called after a week, it was told 2 week, then another week.
They hang up on you when you ask for a supervisor.

Purchased a ticket on the 7th of December and received an email with the dates of my flights and saying that I'll receive another, "final" email "within 24 hours"; got money withdrawn from my account a few days later by them, though never received the "final" email nor an invoice.
My flight departs in 2 days and there was no progress, so I called them. On the phone they gave me my booking's reference number and promised to send the "final" email within 5 minutes. In the meanwhile I filled the newly received reference number in my flight company's webpage to manage my flight, just to discover that there's ton of personal information missing (passport no., date of birth, etc) and the ticket is currently not valid. Moreover, I am not validated to fill in that information.
40 minutes later while still waiting for the "final" email, I called them again and they hung up on me 3 times in the middle of our conversations.
On the 4th call the person on the other end supposedly filled the necessary information and promised that it will appear on my e-ticket within 5 hours. 3 hours have passed and no progress has been seen, but I still have hope!
Then, I finally DID receive the "final" email, which came from a completely different source, did not involve any reference to SmartFares. All the email consisted of was saying that my flight had been confirmed, and the timetable of my flight and step-overs.
One last thing. As I had not received an invoice or any kind of official proof that me & SmartFares had done business together, I asked the person whether they could send me an invoice. It took a while for the person to understand what I meant with "an invoice", after which I was put on hold for about 30 minutes. Finally the guy said that their team will send an invoice within 48 hours. Well, I really hope they do cause my flight is in 55 hours and if this whole thing turns out to be fraud, at least I have some form of proof.

I DO wanna believe that my flight is going to work out, since it, indeed, is registered on the airline's website (with, alas, much crucial information missing, rendering the ticket currently invalid), but the hustle and stress that this has caused me and will keep causing me until I get on that plane makes me give SmartFares 1 star.

PS - In the 1st email, in listing the price of the tickets and other expenses, there's a section "Baggage Options: $19.95". What on earth does "Baggage Options" mean? My flights have no checked-in luggage. Anyways, thank you for reading and, please, watch out!

I booked a flight through smartfares website and had to reschedule it. Called the number on their website and agent told me I have to pay total of $700 fare difference. They made nonsense statements such as "this is the price difference on the ticket" (wrong) "the prices i see online are not updated" (wrong) they cant refund me because the ticket is nonrefundable (its not written anywhere and he asked me just believe him. They can give me only credit to use on smart fare website but then i have to pay penalty on n top of the fare difference. Non of this made sanse. And the guy kept offering lower price for "fare difference " i finally hung up and called turkish airlines directly. Got my flight re-scheduled for $0 extra charge. StAY AWAY FROM THESE SCAMMERS.

I wanted to check in for one day from the flight for the istanbul-chicago ticket that I bought by paying $1237. I contacted more than 15 people working in the institutions for about 5 hours because the system did not allow me to check in. Each one of them told different lies, they kept me busyby sayin you should wait 1 hour, 2 hours. Finally, the person I spoke last said that I could pay $250 to buy a new ticket, otherwise I would not be able to make the flight. While I was not guilty of delaying the flight one hour, and while I was suffering from this situation, they said that I would have to pay $250 dollars hours before my flight. And if I hadn't tried to check in one day before, I would have stayed at the airport. Moreover, they did not warn in advance of the situation by making a single message, e-mail or even a call. As I said, I spoke to 15 different people and the last one told me to pay. When I asked why the others did not mention this situation, I was told that "they are new in the position". Also, they tried to negotiate about the price by making it $150. Then they called and e-mailed me many times to convince me to pay the money. Thanks to the help of the flight company (they never had to help) the situation was resolved without paying any money. All they want is taking money. AWFUL BUSINESS. I wouldn't buy it even if they sell their tickets for free!

No legit booking code. The customer service is a call center in India. The guy "Ammy" is completely illiterate. He does not even understand a simple question. Upon asking where's my confirmation code from the airlines, ammy the idiot, drops the phone line. I called again and asked for the manager. There is no manager. Shame on you guys!

BEWARE: You won't be able to cancel the unconfirmed tickets with them. They hate to part with the money so they have this nasty policy to drop the calls. They keep transferring and drop the calls on purpose. Per Jordan (fake/phony name) they all are in San Diego, CA. LOL! LOL!
Talk to him once and you'll know if he's really in States… LOL!

Don't waste your money working with this firm. They all are crooks! They won't confirm your tickets, would demand more money and still will not confirm the tickets. They have a hard time issuing the refund too (if at all you are lucky).
Totally CHEATS!

Unfortunately I didn't check the reviews prior to booking my very expensive ticket to Norway. I purchased the FLEXIBLE ticket for $200 extra due to COVID and the risk of Norway changing travel rules. Well low and behold they changed the travel rules so I had to change my flight. Fortunately I bought the flexible ticket... that was until I got Smartfares on the phone.

They said that the ticket was $300 MORE than my previous ticket for a flight six months later. The ticket price I found - all tickets - $825 - or $500 less. HOWEVER they said that there was a class difference and that they "COULD NOT" book me into a lower class. When pressed as to why they said it was because of their policy.

THIS IS A RIP OFF --- DO NOT BOOK THROUGH SMARTFARES - - INDIAN CALL CENTER NO DECISION MAKERS - they are a complete and utter WASTE OF TIME. Max was the guy I talked too - apparently Max is now a common name in India...

Unfortunately this scam got me but I hope it doesn't get you too.

So my fiancé booked a flight and it was all fine till the arrival date magically changed. I had called to see if we could change or get a refund. 136$ flight they would refund 50$. I asked if we could change the date and she said 345$ to change it one day. A 179$ flight she wanted 345$ after we already payed 136$ and their website $#*!ed up. I asked to talk to a supervisor and she went "you can call back"?!?!

Second time unlucky using this agency. I booked a flight and reserved seats but failed to deliver. Poor customer experience, agents do not take time to listen to client questions. Keep away

I paid $7700 for 2 premium economy tickets. When I saw the prices drop after my booking I called them to see if they can cancel my original booking and re-book a new flight. The rep quoted $3300 for the new ticket so I decided to move forward. After the tickets were booked I am told by the rep that $3300 were additional charges to what I already paid earlier! Instead of cancelling and rebooking a new flight the idiot CHANGED my existing ticket and charged my additional $.
The story doesnt end there. Singapore airlines cancelled my singapore to chennai flight so called them again to get a full refund. They stated that they can only process the $7700 original fee and the $3300 was "Exchange fee" by the airline and cannot be processed or refunded. Bunch of no-brain jokers so stay away.
The customer server was bad and they hung up on my as I kept insisting on proper explanation. Their phone connection is also VOIP and it not reliable and have gotten disconnected multiple times
So stay warned and save your $$$.

Stay away from this website! It's a major scam! It states right on top of the reservation page that you can "Review & Book with Confidence – You can cancel for free within the next 24 hours!". There is further information on this. When I asked to cancel within the 24h, I was told that only the ticket would be refunded, while all the add-on insurances are "non-refundable", totaling more than USD $130. When requested to provide where these condition terms were stated, they couldn't find it, but said that it is so... Unbelievable!

Two weeks ago I ordered a flight ticket via this service and a few minutes later got a confirmation letter with all the details which says that a flight ticket itself will be ready within 24 hours. After three days tried to contact them via gmail and FB because no ticket was sent to me. With no answer from their side I phoned them and their agent told me that my flight was canceled. At this point I asked to get a full refund which has been confirmed from their side (I have all the calls recorded). The agent told I should get a refund letter within a 48 hours and the procedure of my money back gonna take 6 working days (I didn't get any of these). Today I called them again and the agent informed me that a refund gonna take up to a month. After I told her that I been promised 6 days and asked her name she just hang out on me!
I am not sure I'll see my money back at this point. I have all the proof and gonna take it further. Be aware of their scam.

I didn't get confirmation email upon the purchase. It wasn't clear whether the transaction went through. I wasn't sure if the purchase was closed or not, I went ahead and brought a ticket directly from the airline which ended up cheaper than this agency charged. I tried to dispute it but failed. Never never do business with this agency! Now I am stuck with two airline tickets and also this agency is charging me $200 to change the date.

"No risk! Free cancellation within 24 hours."
THIS IS A LIE!
Today I purchased a ticket at 11am from Smartfares and later realized that I had accidentally booked a PM ticket that I thought was AM. No worries, I'll just call and cancel the tickets. Within12 hours of my purchase I called to cancel. Upon calling, I was hung up on twice by the same agent. When I requested a cancellation, he pretended that he couldn't hear me and hung up, twice. The third time, I got a woman with a very heavy accent. She informed me that I would have to pay $40 to cancel the flight. Explaining that Smartfares don't charge a fee but the airline does. This was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I explained that you shouldn't list this on your page. It didn't show an (*) denoting this information about the airline charge. Then she offered me to pay $30 and told me this would be my only chance to cancel. I can't express the irritation that I feel. I hope and pray these people go out of business. They have no integrity or common decency. Please STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. THEY ARE DECEPTIVE LIARS!