First booking and the last one ever!

First booking and the last one ever!

I booked flight tickets through the FlightNetwork for my family member recently and accidentally misspelled one letter in the last name. As soon as I got a confirmation letter, I noticed a misspelling I logged into my account, there is a profile page that says Edit Info , but when you click on it all fields are faded and there is no way to change it.

So, I called their service number. It was 20 minutes after booking. First of all, there is an automated answering machine, that gives you 3 options: 1) Make a new booking; 2) Change an existing booking; 3) Other not related options. I selected to change my booking, it gives you next options: 1) To book an insurance; 2) To pay for your bags and seats; 3) For vacations; 4) For hotels; and no option to speak to a representative.

I called the second time and chose to book a new trip, because it was the only option to speak to a representative. I explained to a person what happened and was told I will get a call back. I received a call back within another 10 minutes. I was told that I should pay $150 US in order to make a change in the name or in order to cancel the whole booking. I told that there was no statement about $150 change fee when I was booking the tickets, the guy asked me where did I see a statement No change fee ? He said they that have it on their Policy page. I asked them If I can call to the airline directly in order to change it without any fees and I was told that I cannot do that. I was very mad because of the customer service and told them if they are not willing to do it without a fee, I would call to my credit company to cancel the transaction instead.

2 minutes after, I am receiving a call from the person I spoke to and he tells me that they can do an exception for me and charge only $86 for the name change. I asked to explain what are they charging me for. I was told, the ticket price went up $11 and I have to pay $75 for a change.

At that point I was very disappointed and told them to cancel my booking instead. I would rather not to process with the company that treats their customers like that. I was charged $75 cancellation fees.

I then went to the actual Airlines website and booked the same tickets for only $4 more!

After all this stress, I read my confirmation email and found a statement about the change fee that actually says 100 CAD, not $150 US. Obviously, there was no notice when I was booking it.

Also, I Googled to find if there any laws for that. Here is what I found:
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, you can cancel a non-refundable ticket and receive a full refund of any airfare, without cancellation fees or penalties, as long as you booked your ticket seven days ahead of your flight and you do so within 24 hours of booking.

And a funny thing is when you go to FlightNetwork website to the reviews page, all reviews shown are 5* only. When you Google FlightNetwork reviews and go through customer reviews on other website, like Yelp and TripAdvisor, all actual reviews are awful. It was a lesson for me to make a good research before you book something from a provider you have never dealt with before.

So, my advice is by your tickets somewhere else. I would never use this company neither would recommend it to anyone!