Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. A few weeks ago, I read Frequent Miler’s article: Klook lets you book flights, car rentals, trains & more (stack with Amex Offer) and thought it would be a good way to get a discount on an upcoming flight. Nope! Klook turned out to be a nightmare, and I wanted to write this post to warn others and prevent them from experiencing the same issues I faced.
Long story short, there is a Klook AMEX Offer for $80 off $400 and you could stack that with a Klook promo code to take an additional 10% off your flight. Unfortunately, Klook sells Saver / Basic Economy flights and there is no notification anywhere on their site or through the booking process that says the flight you are booking is a Saver / Basic Economy flight. Cancelling a flight booked on Klook is also a frustrating experience.
Here is my Klook booking confirmation screen where it appears that the 2 Alaska Airlines flights I booked were in Economy.
The 10% Klook promo code worked and saved me an additional $45.75.
Unfortunately, when I pulled up the reservation on the Alaska Airlines website, it showed that the flights were booked as Saver / Basic Economy. I immediately went back to Klook and started an online chat. I asked the rep if Klook could book me into Economy class instead of Saver / Basic Economy. The rep said no and instructed me to request a cancellation. After more than 48 hours passed, I finally received an email response from Klook saying that they couldn’t cancel the reservation:
Dear customer,
Thank you for your patience, we hope you’ve been well.
We’ve gone ahead and pulled up your booking to run a few quick checks on the below purchase:
Booking Reference ID: BTA#####
Activity: San Francisco – New York City
From your message, we understand that you requested a cancellation – as much as we’d be happy to assist you in doing so, we’re unable to proceed with this due to strict operator policies. We sincerely hope this is understandable.
We certainly see that this may be frustrating. However, the booking details on your original voucher will remain the same and are still redeemable!
We hope this doesn’t cause too much inconvenience and appreciate your support and patience while we looked into things for you.
Do let us know if you require further assistance.
Your Experience Specialist,
XXX
I shared my experience with Stephen Pepper at Frequent Miler and he said: “I just checked the rules regarding refunds within 24 hours and it turns out that’s only the policy when booking flights directly with airlines. If booking through an OTA, they’re not obligated to provide a refund, although some – but sadly not Klook – do.” I assumed (incorrectly) that all OTAs had the 24 hour cancellation rule. Just another reason never to use OTAs for flights. I then went back to Klook and my reservation now said “Refund Failed.”
I clicked the Refund Details link above and it also said “Refund Request Rejected.” Thanks for nothing, Crook Klook!
By this point, the original $411.78 charge posted to my AMEX Biz Gold Card along with the $80 statement credit, so I was out a total of $331.78.
My last hope was to contact Alaska Airlines directly and see if they could cancel the reservation. I explained to the rep that I booked this reservation through an OTA and thought I was booking Economy, but when I pulled up the reservation on the Alaska Airlines website, I learned that I was booked into Saver / Basic Economy. The rep was understanding and told me that several OTAs do not properly display Saver / Basic Economy flights correctly on their website and that many customers end up in this situation. I asked the rep if they could cancel the reservation and they said yes, but there would be a 50% penalty for cancelling Saver / Basic Economy flights. I said that was fine, I would rather have 50% of something. The rep checked my reservation and said it was originally ticketed for $451.80, so I would receive a $225.90 travel credit. I told the rep that I would gladly accept the $225.90 travel credit and they processed my cancellation request. A few days later, I received the following Alaska Airlines Credit Certificate by email and loaded it to my Alaska Airlines travel wallet.
After subtracting the $225.90 Alaska Airlines credit certificate from the $331.78 I initially spent (after the Klook AMEX Offer statement credit posted), I ended up with a $105.88 loss. Sometimes, you have to learn lessons the hard way, and I’ll definitely remember this when I see a deal from some random OTA in the future. If you have any questions about my Klook experience, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
Thanks for letting us know Grant. I wish more blogs were up front and honest about stuff like this when they posted deals instead of just looking for clicks and money. A little research on their part before pimping offers would be a tremendous thing!
Hi Pam, I think the blame falls mostly on Klook. They deceive users by showing “Economy” when they are actually Saver / Basic Economy fares. Thank you for reading :)
Sounds like false advertizing to me. In airline (double)speak, “Economy” does not equal “Basic Economy.” Small claims court, Grant?
Hi Jack, false advertising for sure. I don’t have the energy to go to small claims court over this issue. Live and learn… and try not to get burned by OTAs again.
Grant – why was it so important for you to be in regular economy and not basic economy, so much so that you took a $100 loss. Was it that miles would not be credited or that you needed to carry on a bag. Not sure I saw why Basic Economy was so unworkable for you. Sorry if you explained it in the post and I missed that part
Hi Arny, I didn’t mention it in the post, so you didn’t miss it. I hate basic economy because I usually change flights throughout the year and I like having the flexibility to do that if/when necessary. The small cost savings to be locked into a basic economy ticket is not worth losing out on that flexibility. That might not be a dealbreaker for some people.
In that case wouldn’t it have been better to just keep the BE ticket for now – if you end up traveling as scheduled, great, but if your plans change, you can change it at that time.
Hi Glenn, that is a good point and good advice that most people should follow. Unfortunately, I hate Basic Economy tickets and want nothing to do with them, so the small loss to cancel the ticket was preferable to me.
Hi Grant – testify! While I have had a lot of success getting cash back & stacking offers on big sites like Viator and Expedia, we had a frustrating experience with Agoda in Sydney booking the bridge climb. After purchasing $800 tickets for a specific date and time – I received an email stating that I would be hearing confirmation soon. Two days went by and we were approaching our departure from Sydney. Agoda chat and their customer care line are closed on weekends. We walked to the Harbor Bridge Climb and asked them in person to find that we had no reservation. We rebooked directly with them and spent the next 2 weeks trying to convince Agoda that WE were not no shows because there was no reservation to show up for – the date & time are not even scheduled tour times. After they finally admitted their error – it took them 8 weeks to refund – which due to a fluctuation in currency – was $48 less than what we paid. We’re Team NOgoda from now on!
Hi Mary, that sounds terrible. I’ve never used Agoda, but I will add them to my NO-OTA list. For context, I’ve had very good luck with Trip Advisor and Viator booked activities *knock on wood* so I plan to keep using those sites for activities and tours.
How was the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb? That’s on my bucket list if I ever made it to Australia.
The name KOOK airlines or KOOK OTA’s speaks volumes to me.
I used Klook just last week in Kuala Lumpur to book a private city tour. And it was fantastic as we got a super cool driver to drive us around in a nice roomy air conditioned van, all for about $42 USD. So, thumbs up for Klook, very smooth app experience I must admit. I learned that Klook is great for activities but not much else yet. Fwiw.
Hi George, I’m glad to hear about your positive experience with Klook for activities. Was this your first time using Klook?