Anyone had good/bad experiences with Ovago

[rodi]

Google flights keeps showing significant savings if we book our flights to Asia through Ovago (vs AA).

A search of the forum shows Bamaman had an issue with Ovago over a cancelled flight - two posts, but clearly the same incident... This was during covid cancellations.

Only searches show a slew of bad reviews... but also good reviews.

The total savings is over $1k... so worth it if the company is legit.

 

[fh2000]

Google flights keeps showing significant savings if we book our flights to Asia through Ovago (vs AA).

A search of the forum shows Bamaman had an issue with Ovago over a cancelled flight - two posts, but clearly the same incident... This was during covid cancellations.

Only searches show a slew of bad reviews... but also good reviews.

The total savings is over $1k... so worth it if the company is legit.

I do not have experience with this particular 3rd party online company that sends your order to airlines and get a commission, while you get a discount. But I did use similar online companies such as Ovaga quite a number of times when I used Kayak.com to book airline tickets. When I did, I would call the airlines and check if my reservations are indeed made. One time I had to call to cancel (within 24 hours) and it was fine. The customer care person is in India.

Now that I am retired and had more time to research on airline issues, I found that if you do not book direct with the airlines, in the event of any issues you may be out of luck trying to get support from these online companies, so I do not use these companies anymore. I consider spending extra couple of hundred dollars, I might get better support from airlines directly.

You can go a google search for "Ovaga review" and see what others said.

YMMV

 

[brett]

Never used them but I do agree with booking direct whenever possible.

Sometimes though the brokers offer prices that are incredibly attractive. We have booked one way consolidator fares on cheapoair.com a few times. Incredibly good rates on one way BA flights to Europe. One route in particular. Toronto-Istanbul on BA with a change at LHR. Or BCN-YYC.

Sometimes getting good one way fares to Europe or Asia can be a challenge from anywhere other than London.

We have done the same once on a return flight to BKK from Orbitz. Same dates, same fare code as the airline (AC) but $1K instead of $1.5K. Picked up the fare on matrixit. AC would not sell it, orbitz would complete with an AC locator code and a seat selection page. Could not buy it on about three other sites that I tried prior to Orbitz. Not certain why. We always pay attention to the fare code, to the connections, and to frequency of flights.