SmartFares Reviews
SmartFares is an online travel booking website that states their aim is to provide customers with the most affordable travel reservations available.
How Does It Work?
According to their website, SmartFares.com is a travel reservation service that is dedicated to providing their customers with the best fares available in each day’s marketplace.
To do this, their company employs more than 600 call center agents at multiple locations who are available 365 days per year.
SmartFares encourages their customers to contact their call center agents, as they have the experience necessary to help their customers make the most affordable arrangements while still meeting all their travel needs.
Unlike other companies which rely on a single Global Distribution System (GDS) to find prices for flights, SmartFares actually uses multiple different GDS, which means that they are able to find the lowest fares more quickly than their competitors, if they are able to find them at all.
Cost & Price Plans
Costs and prices of flights and other travel arrangements will vary depending on your personal needs, preferences, and choices.
This company does offer their customers a Lowest Price Guarantee, however, which states that customers who find a lower rate than SmartFares’ within 24 hours of booking their flight may be eligible to get a refund of the difference.
This policy is incredibly strict and this website has a long list of criteria that customers must meet in order to qualify for this Guarantee.
This criteria includes contacting their Customer Service team within the first 24 hours of making your purchase, the lower price must be on the exact same flight (including same airline and flight number) as your SmartFares reservation, and the total price must more than $10 lower than what you paid.
This Guarantee is limited to flights traveling within the domestic United States, and there is still many other restrictions and limitations on this offer. Customers will need to refer to the website for a full understanding of this policy.
Refund Policy
Once you find the travel arrangements you would like to make and finalize them, it appears that SmartFares.com only gives their customers 12 hours in which to cancel their reservations without any kind of a penalty or fee.
Other than that, this website provides almost no information regarding refunds or cancellations of any kind. Concerned customers will want to contact their Customer Service team for more information.
Customer Service Contact Info
Customers who have questions, concerns, or complaints they would like to direct to their Customer Service team can contact them by phone at 877-245-3755 or by submitting them directly to their website through their Contact Us link.
Reputation
Unfortunately this company doesn’t seem to have many customer reviews at this point, and many of the customer reviews which can be found are negative.
These travelers are generally unhappy with the fact that this company offers such a short window for free cancellations; after the initial twelve hour cancellation period is past, customers will be charged fees for cancelling their reservations.
This is a small window for cancellation even when compared with the airlines themselves, who generally offer customers a 24 hour window for free flight cancellation.
Customers who are concerned about this strict policy may want to go with another source for making their travel arrangements.
Competitors and Alternatives?
As anyone who has tried to book a flight online before is aware, there are so many other options for booking online airfare that it almost becomes overwhelming and unhelpful at times.
Customers who are looking for websites that operate similarly to this one will have many other options, including OneTravel.com, Travelation.com, BookIt.com, and more.
If you have any experience with SmartFares or their services, please leave your reviews below.
SmartFares Customer Reviews
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Useless
Don't book a flight with smartfares
DO NOT USE IT IS A SCAM!!
SCAM!
SCAM!! DO NOT USE Smartfares! They will offer a deeply discounted airfare and send you a confirmation number to your email. The a couple of days later you receive an email to call them immediately because they were unable to confirm your flight.
When you call them back, they will try to sell you another flight at a much higher price. In my case, I missed out on a really good fare from another airline because of this scam! DO NOT USE!
AWFUL! Avoid at all costs!
Worst Ticketing Company
Don't ever use these guys to book a ticket. I had a very bad experience, I didn't get anything from what I paid for. Even the meals were included when I booked the reservation, but it wasn't mentioned on the final ticket. Don't use these guys and don't recommend them to anybody.
Highly Likely a Scammm
I bought a ticket for an employee through Smart Fares. Then oddly at 4:00 in the morning I get a call from a so called immigration person who did not speak English checking on the status of the traveler. Then I called that number back and they answered speaking English.
When I asked why they called, they hung up on me and then would never answer again. So, I felt there was a leak. When Io called Smart Fares, they said why would they know of another company calling me? I said, maybe your company is leaking customers information. The agent was acting non shallot, so I called back and he answered again. Then he hung up on me.
I then called from another number and a lady answered. So, I asked to speak with a supervisor and she hung up. Now, wither number I call from, they pick up the phone and hang up on me. Very shady and I feel they are leaking customers private info.
find another
Don’t use them!
Scam
Very bait and switch. They do not have the fares they advertise.
Do not use these scammers!
This place is the worst, they are scammers and customer service sucks. They sell you tickets and then you receive something completely different. The company will be at fault and will continue to tell you that they have no solution.
They never have a solution for the issue and are of no help! Never use this website they are scammers and will not refund your money when they are at fault.
They are scammers stay away.
They charged my credit card and didn’t issue ticket! Isn’t this stealing?
Scam Alert!
Terrible. Smartfares.com will send you a "reservation code" which is in no way the same thing as a ticket confirmation code. You'll have to wait hours to see if your ticket is booked, and there is no way to cancel the purchase once started--even though the ticket has not been purchased!
And the "Low price guarantee" is a total scam. If you read the fine print it tells you they will switch you to the lower price if tickets are available, or else give you a coupon to use against THEIR OWN SERVICE FEES- NOT TRAVEL, on your next purchase with THEM.
STAY AWAY FROM SMRTFARES
I booked a ticket with Virgin Atlantic Airlines through Smartfares.com. Then Virgin Atlantic cancelled the flight. Someone, either Virgin Atlantic or Smartfares, tried to book an alternate flight but messed it up. We would have missed our connection by three hours. I contacted Smartfares multiple times to reschedule but they never helped me.
Finally, after endless calls, they said they couldn't reschedule and suggested that I cancel the flight and apply for a refund. The refund was denied by Virgin Atlantic. So now, I am out $418.00 and the ticket has been cancelled.
There is something very wrong going on at Smartfares! Do not have anything to do with them!
SCAM SMARTFARES.COM
2019 Scammed by smartfares.com bought a ticket, they sent a confirmation with a "booking number" and the itinerary I checked a couple days later in the airline website and there was no flight booked under my name.
Then, I chatted with smartfares customer support and they just told me, sorry but your ticket wasn't able to proceed as the price changed up. Therefore, they were asking me to pay 30% more of the price that I bought that day, I could have got it for an almost similar price in the airline website just to save a few bucks I went to this website and now they are telling me I don't have a ticket.
They told me to call and talk with a supervisor, who didn't do anything different than the one before, just promised me that if I pay the extra amount I could get the ticket straight away (why they didn't do this the first time?) .
At the end I asked for a refund as the new price they were offering was way higher than the airline price. NEVER BUY FROM THIS GUYS, THEY WILL TRICK YOU.