{"id":4273,"date":"2011-07-04T12:33:01","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T19:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/?page_id=4273"},"modified":"2016-02-27T11:34:07","modified_gmt":"2016-02-27T19:34:07","slug":"smartfares-reviews","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/1-2\/smartfares-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"SmartFares Reviews | SmartFares.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tkqlhce.com\/ah81uoxuowBFCGCLEFBDCFLELKIBDGEIHFJIDFCCC\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"border: 0px;\" alt=\"Choose Your Exact Flight &amp; Time!\" src=\"http:\/\/www.awltovhc.com\/fp65ltxlrpAEBFBKDEACBEKDKJHACFDHGEIHCEBBB\" width=\"120\" height=\"600\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>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<\/li>\n<li>Offers one of the largest selections of cheap and discounted flights available online<\/li>\n<li>SmartFares search results are pulled from multiple Global Distribution System (GDS) systems, which gives you more travel options<\/li>\n<li>Lowest Price Guarantee &#8211; within 24 hours of booking<\/li>\n<li>Customer service center located in the United States<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Our Editor&#8217;s Review<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>SmartFares claims they take great pride in the customer service that they offer.\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 1em;\">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. \u00a0If 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 &#8220;terms of use&#8221; page. \u00a0So, we are unsure on this aspect. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>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. \u00a0We 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). \u00a0We took it one step further and found an identical flight on the airline&#8217;s own website (AlaskaAir.com), and found that if we booked on SmartFares.com we would pay exactly 19 cents more. \u00a0So, we found no special negotiated rate there. \u00a0Although SmartFares claims they have &#8220;negotiated&#8221; pricing with airline ticket wholesalers, we didn&#8217;t find them. Perhaps if SmartFares.com advertised the exact flights or airlines that are discounted, we would be happier with this service.<\/p>\n<p>SmartFares automatically adds &#8220;trip protection&#8221; insurance to every flight booked (we saw upwards of $29 per ticket), which you may remove on the booking screen. \u00a0Although we recommend travel insurance, we don&#8217;t like when it is automatically added.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I recommend purchasing travel insurance on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.squaremouth.com\/21061\" target=\"_blank\">SquareMouth.com<\/a> as soon as you book any flight on SmartFares. <strong>This may protect you from fees or problems down the road.<\/strong> \u00a0Before even calling SmartFares,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.squaremouth.com\/21061\" target=\"_blank\">visit SquareMouth.com for a super quick travel cancellation plan quote<\/a>\u00a0to see if they can help you.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.squaremouth.com\/21061\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"SquareMouth\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/SquareMouth.gif\" width=\"240\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>SmartFares charges a service fee, which we assume is just another word for &#8220;booking fee&#8221; 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.<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">SmartFares Fees<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Cancellations: \u00a0Most airlines will allow SmartFares.com to void an airline ticket within 24 hours of purchase. \u00a0A &#8220;void fee&#8221; will apply to each ticket, and the amount of the void fee is not specified and varies per airline. \u00a0After 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. \u00a0In addition to any penalties imposed by the airline, SmartFares will charge a &#8220;processing fee&#8221; of up to $100 per ticket.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.squaremouth.com\/21061\" target=\"_blank\">Purchase insurance from SquareMouth.com<\/a>, which may help you to avoid cancellation fees<\/li>\n<li>Service fees to SmartFares.com are non-refundable (this is including in the &#8220;taxes and fees&#8221; portion of your ticket purchase. \u00a0The amount of their service fee is not specified.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>*<em>Based solely on research done by TravelSiteCritic.com, these figures may be inaccurate and are subject to change.Verify policies<em> with the website before you book.<\/em> Please\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/disclosure\/be-aware-of-airfare-fees-taxes\/\" target=\"_blank\">be aware of airfare taxes &amp; fees<\/a>, applicable to any booking that includes airfare.<\/em><br \/>\n<a onmouseover=\"window.status='http:\/\/www.priceline.com';return true;\" onmouseout=\"window.status=' ';return true;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jdoqocy.com\/click-3040923-10392984\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Chose Your Exact Flight &amp; Time!\" src=\"http:\/\/www.awltovhc.com\/image-3040923-10392984\" width=\"468\" height=\"60\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p><em>Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are \u201caffiliate links.\u201d This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Read our\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/disclosure\" target=\"_blank\">review disclosure<\/a>\u00a0for more information.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Please\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/disclosure\/be-aware-of-airfare-fees-taxes\/\" target=\"_blank\">be aware of airfare taxes &amp; fees<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"social-essentials\" class=\"se_left\"><div class=\"se_button se_button_small\" style=\"width:85px;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-url=\"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/1-2\/smartfares-reviews\/\" data-text=\"SmartFares Reviews | SmartFares.com\" data-via=\"pamela_jones\" data-counturl=\"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/1-2\/smartfares-reviews\/\" data-count=\"horizontal\" data-lang=\"en\">Tweet<\/a><\/div><div class=\"se_button se_button_small\" style=\"width:72px;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px\"><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/1-2\/smartfares-reviews\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"button_count\" width=\"90\" show_faces=\"false\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"se_button se_button_small\" style=\"width:60px;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px\"><g:plusone size=\"medium\" href=\"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/1-2\/smartfares-reviews\/\" count=\"true\"><\/g:plusone><\/div><\/div><div class=\"clear\"><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">#call_to_action h4{padding:0px 5px;}<\/style>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":525,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4273","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4273"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6716,"href":"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4273\/revisions\/6716"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelsitecritic.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}