Hesitant about Opodo flights

[Tuftykitten]

Posting here for traffic.

I've seen flights on Opodo that are significantly cheaper than the next cheapest option.

Has anyone experience of using Opodo for booking flights?
Opodo don't have a very good rep online but I really want to visit Tokyo and Opodo offer far and away the cheapest flights.

YANBU - book the flights with Opodo
YABU - avoid Opodo

I’ve had a bad experience with them - I won’t elaborate here - but it wasn’t for long haul flights.

I have tried the site once. I am sorry but never again. They are cheaper and I suppose maybe if everything goes smoothly, you shouldn't have any issues but the moment you have the slightest issue, it's a total nightmare: they won't deal with it "because they are not the airline operating the flight" and the airline won't deal with it because "you didn't buy your ticket directly from them".

Nobody seems to be regulating the operation of that site as it just seems to be the aggregator site. Frankly I'd rather pay a little bit more to have someone take the responsibility for all the things that may not go as planned.

Thanks.

How about eDreams?

We had the same problem @yakamoza descibed when Covid put paid to our long haul holiday. Luckily, our c/c company paid out and took over the claim but it was a stressful few months to get our money back.

I used them once (by mistake, I thought I was booking with the airline). It was difficult to find my booking with the actual airline, but the flight was ok in the end. I wouldn’t do it again - if something goes wrong you could end up being caught between Opodo and the airline.

It's just so tempting to book with one of these two companies because the price is a lot lower than the next cheapest.

As above I booked with them once and had similar issues with limited access to my flight booking/options etc. Will always now book direct with the airline for ease.

Don't book with eDreams. They were utterly useless when a flight of mine was cancelled.
I couldn't even get in touch with them.

Don't want to derail but it's the issue all online travel agents?

Any insight on flights from booking.com? I usually only book direct with airline, but have booked with booking.com this time and this thread is making me nervous!!

Always book flights directly with the operator.

How much is using one of these platforms claiming to save you?

If anything happens to flights / connections etc, they will leave you in the lurch.

The flights are direct from China to Tokyo. No connections.

Yeah, I've always booked direct for that reason. I didn't even save money, i have literally no reason 😂

More than 300 pounds.

Id probably risk it for that much money personally

It's quite a bit of money.
If the worst happens and the flights got fucked up/cancelled I could just stay on in China for a bit. It's only me traveling - no-one else.

No connections - direct from China to Tokyo. Hand luggage only.

The low rate usually requires you to sign up for membership.

I’d never buy through Opodo again after our BA flights were cancelled once and we could have been screwed- we were only entitled to a refund and Opodo paid out months after the event. So we had to find last minute flights at great expense- luckily we had the cash to cover them but we might not have done. If we’d booked direct with BA they’d just have moved us onto a different flight.

Opodo are incredibly awful. I paid to have check-in luggage. At the airport they said no payment had been made, so I had to pay £60 or so.

Trying to get the money back from Opodo was a joke. Their customer services don't give a shit. Weeks later, after calls and emails (I had a real bee in my bonnet about it even though it wasn't a huge amount) they said they had refunded me, the money never came through (pretty sure they lied). They actually made me send them my bank statement to prove the money hadn't gone in even though I asked THEM to send ME evidence they had paid. They are absolute cowboys.

Ok. Thanks for the heads up everyone.