Never Book Through BudgetAir

I had booked a return flight for my mother on the 15th of April 2019 returning on the 21st May 2019 from Durban to Shanghai using BudgetAir.com. The payment was made and she was ready to leave on the 15th April. When she got to the airport to Board flight Emirates Flight 776 on the 15 April 2019 she was told that her names were unfortunately not in a correct order as per her passport. Emirates informed her that she would not be allowed into China if the order of her name was not corrected to correspond with her passport. The airline then said that they could not change her details as this flight was booked through an agents. They then tried to call the agent until such time that the airline had to close and leave because the agent was not responding to calls nor emails that were being sent. I had to unfortunately book another flight because of this which was more expensive after numerous attempts to call or email them failed.

Even though I was booking the new flight I continually tried to get hold of the agent to inform them of what had transpired. My attempts were however unsuccessful. My mother traveled using new ticket. I sent an email to the agent asking them to change the name and they told me that this could not be done. The response that I received only on the 3rd of May was that the name could not be changed as the ticket was not transferable which I found very odd as this was not a transfer of a ticket but a correction in the ticket. And in accordance to the terms and condition of the ticket it clearly states that changes or cancellations are allowed. The refusal and the unavailability of agents on their calls ended up with me having to purchase another ticket for her return which was much more expensive.

The contact numbers in Netherlands and South Africa were not available. The assistance required for someone who has paid for a service was not offered. This even though the terms and conditions clearly allow for such changes. The willingness by Emirates to assist in making the changes and the terms and conditions clearly shows that it is possible to make such changes. And in my travelling experience the changes have been made in previous booking which has led me to believe that it was purely on the incompetence on the service providers side.