Wei X

Review of Flight Network

Sorry this is a long read, but quick takeaway: If ...

Sorry this is a long read, but quick takeaway: If you're looking to cancel/change a trip booked through the Flight Network, do it through the airline. FN will charge you a $50 cancellation fee for absolutely no reason whatsoever, or offer a rebooked flight that is way more than what the actual ticket costs from the airline.

THE LONG VERSION:

I booked a flight through the Flight Network late last year for a trip departing in the next couple of days to Hawaii from Toronto. Unfortunately we can no longer fly there due to the worldwide pandemic right now, nor would we want to. I tried calling their hotline twice last week on Friday, only to have the calls dropped after 47 minutes (and a few seconds) of waiting, and not being able to connect with them immediately after due to "technical issues". I suspect that there was a time fence, where calls were automatically dropped past a certain length of wait time, which is not only aggravating but wastes everyone's time.

I tried calling again over the past weekend, and after being on hold for more than 2 hours, I finally got to speak to a human being! It was no less aggravating, due to no fault of the lady I spoke to, but mainly because of this company's terrible policies & (this probably comes as a surprise to no one) their scammy ways.

Long story short, I was told that I could not get a refund for the flight (it was a United Airlines flight package) so I should just rebook it. I told the lady that I was on the UA website & that their policies clearly states that anyone who booked a flight with them prior to March 2nd 2020 that is supposed to take place between March 9th - May 31st 2020, can cancel their flight for a credit, which can be used towards any other flight or it can be left to expire and be paid back through the original form of payment at no cost.

The lady I spoke with said that in order for me to receive my travel credit from United Airlines, I would have to pay the Flight Network $50. What?! In a time when things change so quickly and no one could have predicted governments shutting their borders, most companies have been more than fair and gracious in their dealings (Airbnb, this random car rental place we put a deposit down at, etc.). But not Flight Network.

So then I asked if she could rebook the tickets for me at a later date, and we looked at some dates in October/November. As luck would have it, minutes later we both found the same flight (same departure & arrival dates, same economy seats, etc.) and she quoted me a price that was $116 more per ticket. When I challenged her on it, she told me that it was because I was looking at a "new" ticket price, and not a "rebooking" ticket price. UH-HUH.

So I decided ok, I should just cut my losses and cancel the tickets. At the end of the cancellation process, she told me that I should call United Airlines just to make sure I can rebook/use the credits that she just charged me $50 for. Ok, why not? We're already down this hell hole, might as well keep going.

Well, luckily for me, even though the cancellation email from the Flight Network did not include ANY information at all about how to redeem those credits (it was more along the lines of, we've cancelled things for you, begone!), I called United today, got through after about 5 minutes of waiting, and learned the following things:

- I should have called United to cancel the flights in the first place. There was absolutely no need to go through the Flight Network at all or pay the $50 cancellation fee (which by the way, I will be contesting)

- There's no such thing as "new" flight prices vs "rebooked" flight prices, so the padded fees is the Flight Network's way of trying to profit during this time while everyone's scrambling to rework their plans and stay home. If that's not scummy, I don't know what is.

I guess this doesn't need to be said, but let's never meet again Flight Network.