The Site: SmartFares.com
- Flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises and group hotel rates through HotelPlanner.com
- SmartFares negotiates cheap airfares with airlines and airline ticket wholesalers (A.K.A. airfare consolidators), which are at times cheaper than the published airfares you will find elsewhere online
- Offers one of the largest selections of cheap and discounted flights available online
- SmartFares search results are pulled from multiple Global Distribution System (GDS) systems, which gives you more travel options
- Lowest Price Guarantee – within 24 hours of booking
- Customer service center located in the United States
The Good:
SmartFares takes great pride in the customer service that they offer. We definitely cannot say this about many of travel websites that we have reviewed, and think that this is a very important aspect of being a great company to book your travel with. When you are planning a vacation, the last thing you want to do is stress and deal with bad customer service issues.
The Bad:
That being said, it appears that SmartFares.com is part of the Travelation brand, which has several complaints, especially with the Better Business Bureau in California. If they are part of the Travelation brand, it is not obvious, as the only reference we found for them was at the bottom of their “terms of use” page. So, we are unsure on this aspect.
The airfare pricing we found on SmartFares.com was good, but pretty much identical to what we found on Kayak.com, and other airfare consolidator websites. We compared SmartFares prices with Orbitz, Hotwire, Travelocity (among others), and often found the cheapest flights on Orbitz.com (in one instance, as much as $26 cheaper than any of the competition, albeit it departed from a suburb). We took it one step further and found an identical flight on the airline’s own website (AlaskaAir.com), and found that if we booked on SmartFares.com we would pay exactly 19 cents more. So, we found no special negotiated rate there. Although SmartFares claims they have “negotiated” pricing with airline ticket wholesalers, we didn’t find them. Perhaps if SmartFares.com advertised the exact flights or airlines that are discounted, we would be happier with this service.
SmartFares automatically adds “trip protection” insurance to every flight booked (we saw upwards of $29 per ticket), which you may remove on the booking screen. Although we recommend travel insurance, we don’t like when it is automatically added. We recommend finding travel insurance on SquareMouth.com.
SmartFares charges a service fee, which we assume is just another word for “booking fee” on every flight that they sell. We realize this is how they make money, but the least they could do is make it super easy to see how much this fee is. We had a difficult time finding the amount of their fees.
The Fees*
Cancellations: Most airlines will allow SmartFares.com to void an airline ticket within 24 hours of purchase. A “void fee” will apply to each ticket, and the amount of the void fee is not specified and varies per airline. After 24 hours, many flights are non-voidable, but if the fare rules allow for it you may be able to hold your ticket for future credit on the airline. In addition to any penalties imposed by the airline, SmartFares will charge a “processing fee” of up to $100 per ticket.
Service fees to SmartFares.com are non-refundable (this is including in the “taxes and fees” portion of your ticket purchase. The amount of their service fee is not specified.
*Based solely on research done by TravelSiteCritic.com, these figures may be inaccurate and are subject to change.Verify policies with the website before you book. Please be aware of airfare taxes & fees, applicable to any booking that includes airfare.
The Deals:
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I have used plenty of Travel Agencies and Websites, and have had lots of good experiences. Normally I don’t write to complain, but SmartFares actions caused me to miss my planned travel date by 2 days and ended up costing me more money than had I simply booked through the airline. More than that, once they made the mistake they did not offer to help resolve the issue.
This is the issue:
After booking a flight with SmartFares I received an email from them confirming the “reservation”… but the fine print said it could take 24 hours to purchase the ticket. I immediately emailed them for clarification. They specifically told me not to worry, that they simply needed to call the airline.
Unfortunately, 24 hours later they did cancel the ticket and offered to sell me another one (on the same flight) for $500 more. In the end I had to book another flight on my own but by that time, the previously booked ticket on the day of preferred travel was gone and I was required to pay $200 more and fly 2 days later.
People make mistakes, that is understandable. It is how they respond when they make a mistake that defines them. Smartfares issue was that once they made the mistake, they did not attempt to “make it right”.
Their logic of not seeking to help me and feeling that upcharging me $500 was acceptable was because their original email indicated they needed 24 hours to confirm the ticket. What they failed to acknowledge was that: 1) they waited until AFTER I booked the ticket to tell me they needed 24 hours to actually issue a ticket, 2) they did not offer to allow me to cancel the reservation without a penalty once they told me they needed 24 hours, and 3) one of their representatives specifically told me not to worry about the 24 hour statement in their original email.
SmartFares needs to better disclose the fact that they simply take your order and then try to buy a ticket after you place your order. There are other websites that offer similar fares, better customer service, and immediate ticketing. Buyer beware of SmartFares.
The worst service I’ve ever had with Smartfares.
I booked a ticket to China for $1175. But I found out 2 hours before the flight that my visa is expired, so I called them and tried the change the ticket to a week later so I will have the visa ready. I called the Smartfares office before my flight, no one answered the phone until after 10am mountain time. My nightmare started. Their staff was so slow to respond, and every time I called them, it will take 15-30 minute to get someone to answer the phone, and they would say “you need to check your e-mail”. Smartfares always reply to me in several hours, so 3 days were gone and the problem has not been solved. They said would charge me $375 changing fee, and $404 of the fare difference, but I checked the airline’s own website, and Smartfare’s website, the fare difference is only $285. I asked them if I have other option of canceling the ticket and rebook (since it will be cheaper than their option), or leave the credit in my account for future booking, and am getting no response from them. MY big lesson, NEVER work with Smartfares. The best choice is going through the airline directly.
Unfortunately I found out the hard way that smartfares rips you off. I paid $150 for a ticket that I had to cancel. I purchased and paid $10.95 for the travelers insurance that is making me JUMP thru hoops in order to get a refund. I had to cancel due to a death in the family and I have to send a copy of the death certificate and copy of my invoice that the ticket was paid for for consideration of refund. WTH!! The value of the ticket is $120 which if I want to rebook it will cost me $150 because according to smartfares that is US Airways rebooking fee.