if I could give zero I would

On 11/2/2022 I booked a flight to Johannesburg on 6 March 2023 via eDreams. I was billed with additional expenses, flexi-booking ; cancellation, and service fees, even though I was never asked to confirm those extra expenses before payment. As soon as I clicked to book, I was charged, and I was not expecting this as I wanted to check the amounts first when I received my verification code from Discovery. I received no PIN code verification from my bank to OK the payment. I immediately got hold of eDreams on their online chat as there is no telephone number to use to contact them. After an hour of chats, it became clear that they would not refund me for the extra services, flexible booking and cancellation and blamed me for selecting them on their site. I never selected the service fees, it was pre-selected for me, and according to eDreams, I should also have worked out and known to click off the service block, not to get charged.

Even when I explained that I was expecting a breakdown of all the charges before I paid, I was told that I had selected those items, which was my problem. eDreams was not interested in refunding me for the three extra items even though I explained I'd been expecting a verification and didn't want those products. I left it at that.

If I had booked directly with the airline, the flights would've cost me about R2400, but by now, I had already paid over R3000 to eDreams, and I didn't have more time to waste on chat agents without the power to do anything except tell me it was my problem. I did complain directly to eDreams customer care via email but never received a response that meant anything, only platitudes. I have these emails.

On 3 March, I decided to invoke my Flexi-booking rights, and I submitted to change my flight and made an online application for a flight on 14 March 2023. I received a note saying that the application was in progress. After around six hours, I decided to get hold of eDreams on the online chat as nothing had progressed. I knew I had to make the changes within 24 hours of the flight, about 60 hours away. I have a transcript of my conversation with the eDreams agent online. He told me someone would get back to me within 72 hours. I explained this was not good enough as the flight would already be over. After much discussion, he agreed to ramp up the request to a team to get 'right onto it'. He could not tell me when I would get an answer. I also sent an email to eDreams customer care. I went to sleep as it was late. On Saturday morning, 4 March, I awoke to an email from customer care stating they have tried to get hold of me "several times", but couldn't get hold of me and that I should contact them. No telephone number is given, and the email is from a no-reply address. I checked the eDreams app and website, but the application to change my flight I had made about 24 hours before had disappeared, and instead, my flight was confirmed. I checked my phone, and there was one call at 23H56 from an unknown number, but local, being +***0. I tried calling that number a few times since, and it doesn't ring through to anything.

I was getting worried at this stage as my flight was now 48 hours away. Given my last futile attempt to use my flexi-booking rights ( which I had paid for ), I decided that I should rather try to cancel my flight by invoking the other rights that I had paid for! I knew I'd only get 80% back after about 90 days, but I felt I'd rather do that than lose my full fare. I had paid R3202.73, but I'd only get about R1900 back. I went onto the site and clicked to cancel my flight, but I received feedback from the site that I could no longer invoke this right. I checked the terms and conditions on the site, and it said that a flight could be cancelled before the flight with no time limitation.

I immediately app**** to the eDreams site/app for another flight change, but it went into the same modus operandi, stating they were working on it and someone would contact me in due course, so I should wait for them. From previous experience, I knew that I could not simply leave it, nor was it worth going through the same pattern I had gone through the day before.

I decided that the only thing I could do was get hold of the airline directly; otherwise, I would lose the entire R3202.73 I had paid. I researched the flight booking code that I got with my booking confirmation, and I found that I was travelling with FlySafair. I sent them an email requesting assistance, and within 30 minutes, I received a quote from them to change my booking to 14 March 2023. I had to pay a further R1001.00 to FlySafair to change my flight as they stated, "Unfortunately, FlySafair doesn't offer Flexi booking, which is a service offered by the travel agency; I will have to charge according to our fare rule if the changes are made directly with us."

I have written to eDreams and requested a refund of the service charges, flexi-fare charges, cancellation charges and the R1001.00 that I had to pay to FlySafair. I have no doubt they will explain that their call to me, at midnight ( if it was indeed them), is in their opinion, sufficient to show that they did everything they could to assist me!

In total, this fare cost me double what it should have. Documentary evidence is available.

eDreams didn't ever respond to my last request to change my flight time. Luckily, although it cost me another R1001.00 I did not wait for them, and I will fly on the 14th.