I have just run into this with Bravofly. Bought two tickets with Singapore airlines. 4 legs were booked. 14 days before the flight I get an SMS saying Singapore Munich is cancelled.
I ring through to Bravo and ask them to reschedule a the flight as is required under EU law. No problem sir we are into it. I think nothing of it. 5 days pass. No email and my booking has not changed.
I ring again. Why is this taking so long. I was rudely informed to be patient as the "relevant department" ( note this term ) is processing it and it takes some time.
10 minutes later I get an email from bravo. All my flights are cancelled.no to information is provided about the reschedule.
I find their webchat app and get in touch.
"How can I help you sir?" Starts the conversation which quickly goes downhill. The man informs me that Bravo is not responsible for rescheduling the flight. My contract is with Singapore airlines. "Have a nice day sir"
No no no and no....I argue with him for over an hour. Eventually he agrees to escalate and then hangs up on me.
I try to contact Singapore airlines but they tell me to go back to Bravo. It's their ticket booking.
A day later I call back to Bravo and ask them the status. They just stonewall me. Everything is handled by the "relevant department" and I will get an "email as soon as possible" They refuse to divulge any information.
They start pressuring.me to cancel. They promise me a full refund. I say no I want a reschedule. "Ok sure but you will have to wait for the RELEVANT DEPARTMENT."
This is nine days before I fly. I've waited now 6 days for any actionable information from Bravo. Nothing comes. Eventually I give in..I book a new flight direct with Singapore airlines.
I contact the bravo chat again and ask them to cancel. "Ok sir but we can only refund you the part of the ticket that was cancelled". That is 1/4.
I explode..I post the chat log I'd recorded from yesterday showing that I'd been promised a full refund. "Yes sir ... Of course sir.but there will be a 35 euro handling fee"
No the fuck there won't be I responded and posted the recorded log where I'd explicitly the day before asked about handling fees and were promised there would be none.
I asked when I should expect the refund.
"I've notified the RELEVANT DEPARTMENT and they will contact you as soon as possible"
At this point I realise their business strategy. They can offer cheaper flights because when everything goes well the customer gets the flight. If however the airline cancels one flight Bravo can then dick the customer around and attempt to find excuses not to pay up.
I somehow doubt I will get much of the 1000 euros out of them they owe me.
That's... a bit extreme even for my experience, but I guess 4 legs and bad luck can do this to you, max I've ever done was 3 (and they lost my big luggage for a week without any info about it but that's another topic).
But yes that's exactly why we buy directly. Compare it to our trip to Bolivia via Miami few years ago. Come to the airport, do you have US ESTA visa? Nope what is that? We dont' travel to US so don't know its policies, just want to fly to Bolivia. Yeah but you go via Miami, its not secured airport unlike most airports anywhere, you need full tourist US ESTA visa. OK we go to airlines helpdesk (British airways) by their recommendation, they do quick ESTA for us based on our passports.
All good, we fly to London, but then flight to Miami is a no-go at the gate, can't find our ESTA code. Some US personnel on the airport in Heathrow found out the person who made ESTA selected incorrect country in our application. 30 minutes to departure. Sorry no-go. Straight on the airport within 20 minutes we got free tickets for same flight next day and other remaining leg and did ESTA correctly ourselves.
I have few similar stories, but they all point to the same conclusion - its not worth the extra risk, especially if there are more legs and multiple airlines are involved. It all looks nice till first cancellation happens. The amount of frustration and stress can easily ruin any mental benefits of (usually quite costly due to 4 of us) vacations.
I can add a bit of clarity to that. When you book connecting flights direct with an airline, or with that airline's codeshare partner, or with an authorised reseller, you've got one ticket all the way through which the airline is obliged to fulfil by getting you to your end destination or pay expensive compensation. If they cancel part of the flight, they might have to get you to your end destination on a different route, possibly with a last minute ticket on a different airline (which is very expensive... for them)
When you book with Bravofly and equivalent, they book separate tickets for each leg with no promise of connection. That's how they get the cheapest possible fares. In the event of a cancellation of one of the flights the airline is obliged to offer you a rescheduled ticket between two destinations, but has no obligation to ensure the passenger gets from the start point to the end point of the original itinerary. So none of the alternative tickets SIA was obliged to offer Bravofly were any use to you. Bravofly don't have any obligation to reroute you either and even if they cared about goodwill I doubt their margins are big enough for them to volunteer alternative flights at their own expense.
Or put another way, I booked a cheap flight back to London via Zurich on their airBerlin's website. Couple in front of me booked the same route via Bravofly (as two separate tickets) for about £5 less. When airBerlin decided to cancel the flight to Zurich without telling some of their passengers until they arrived at the airport I got back to London around when I'd originally expected at airBerlin's expense on a better airline on a different route. The other couple got told they could have a flight to Zurich later that day if they still wanted it, but they'd miss the other flight back to London without compensation regardless. Or they could ring Bravofly and see if they'd help...
Long before the point you're at, I'd have let my credit card company know to charge back that transaction and the details why. (I do give companies one solid effort to correct things on their end.)
I ring through to Bravo and ask them to reschedule a the flight as is required under EU law. No problem sir we are into it. I think nothing of it. 5 days pass. No email and my booking has not changed.
I ring again. Why is this taking so long. I was rudely informed to be patient as the "relevant department" ( note this term ) is processing it and it takes some time.
10 minutes later I get an email from bravo. All my flights are cancelled.no to information is provided about the reschedule.
I find their webchat app and get in touch.
"How can I help you sir?" Starts the conversation which quickly goes downhill. The man informs me that Bravo is not responsible for rescheduling the flight. My contract is with Singapore airlines. "Have a nice day sir"
No no no and no....I argue with him for over an hour. Eventually he agrees to escalate and then hangs up on me.
I try to contact Singapore airlines but they tell me to go back to Bravo. It's their ticket booking.
A day later I call back to Bravo and ask them the status. They just stonewall me. Everything is handled by the "relevant department" and I will get an "email as soon as possible" They refuse to divulge any information.
They start pressuring.me to cancel. They promise me a full refund. I say no I want a reschedule. "Ok sure but you will have to wait for the RELEVANT DEPARTMENT."
This is nine days before I fly. I've waited now 6 days for any actionable information from Bravo. Nothing comes. Eventually I give in..I book a new flight direct with Singapore airlines.
I contact the bravo chat again and ask them to cancel. "Ok sir but we can only refund you the part of the ticket that was cancelled". That is 1/4.
I explode..I post the chat log I'd recorded from yesterday showing that I'd been promised a full refund. "Yes sir ... Of course sir.but there will be a 35 euro handling fee"
No the fuck there won't be I responded and posted the recorded log where I'd explicitly the day before asked about handling fees and were promised there would be none.
I asked when I should expect the refund. "I've notified the RELEVANT DEPARTMENT and they will contact you as soon as possible"
At this point I realise their business strategy. They can offer cheaper flights because when everything goes well the customer gets the flight. If however the airline cancels one flight Bravo can then dick the customer around and attempt to find excuses not to pay up.
I somehow doubt I will get much of the 1000 euros out of them they owe me.