cFares
A travel company to have a look at is cFares, which offers some services that are rather unique to the online travel market. We found a review of it on GigaOM.
We have in the past commented about our issues with online travel agents because we believe that there is a lack of good customer service in the event you need it. However, cFares is rather unique in its approach, and worth analysis. It has an option called cAgent, which will monitor fares on international itineraries for up to a week to find one at the price desired and hold a reservation for 24 hours, as well as send an email when the price is discovered.
As far as we know, there is no other site that will do this. Priceline’s Name your own price service charges the credit card immediately before you can even see the offer. Personally, we believe that excessive amounts of agencies and airlines holding seats without payment raises the price for those of us who are willing to buy right when we see the price we want, but any service that gives people an edge in saving money is something worth knowing about and experimenting with.
The premium portion of cFares requires a $50 subscription fee and offers access to wholesaler discounts. For frequent travellers, that may be worth it if they can deliver on their promise of wholesaler discounts. We are not willing to spend fifty dollrs to find out.
Posted: September 22nd, 2006 under Fares, Opinion.
Comments
Comment from JG
Time January 30, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Thought Cfares was a decent idea, but they turned out to be a third-rate ticket consolidator. Their site posted a “non-stop” that indeed had a layover. Cfares response was “not my problem”. I would suggest Kayak, Expedia, CheapTickets, etc. over these guys.
Comment from guru
Time January 30, 2008 at 7:38 pm
We appreciate your comments and interest. Bear in mind, our writeup came when the site was still very new. We may perhaps revisit the issue of site bookings in the near future, especially since our current favorite, Kayak, is in the midst of a merger. Check back.
Comment from bjo2004
Time February 24, 2008 at 4:16 pm
DO NOT USE CFARES***
The prices sound good, but they don’t actually give the discount to your credit card. Essentially, when you open up their window, every search is in a new window and you have to provide confirmation or reservation numbers from the actual website that you are bying the tickets from. Not to sound confusing, but not all 3rd-party sites provide reservation numbers and c-fares wil not connect the dots, further, no phone cusotmer care and no response to email, CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NON-EXISTENT*** BUYER ABSOLUTELY BEWARE!!!
Comment from hELEN
Time June 16, 2008 at 11:33 am
I have been a member for 5 months now and every time I send email or try to call the customer support number I get NOTHING! They never reply to my emails nor can you reach them by phone. “BEWARE”. Other then that I have gotten some good prices. The rebate page is very hard to fine so most of the time I dont get my rebait back even though it says that I get one. I would have never paid for the membership if I would have known.
Comment from IErden
Time May 16, 2009 at 8:03 am
cFares is bad news. Do not even think about using cFares to book a flight. Last year I tried to book a flight through them, signed up for gold membership with no annual fee (this is how they get your credit card info) tried to book the flight, unsuccessfully; tried again, again didn’t work (transaction failed or a message similar), so I gave up and booked the flight through Travelocity. cFares then charged my credit card twice for $50.00 booking fee. I contested these charges, and the credit company credited my account for $100.00. Exactly a year later, cFares charged my credit card again twice for $50 each, agin I have contested these charges. I called cFares and told them I would report them to the FBI and BBB for fraudulent charges to my credit card, and they were brash and unfriendly, and said that since I gave them two e-mail addresses they charged me twice for two memberships (now they say they upgraded me to platinum membership without my consent and claim I have two memberships, it’s of course absurd). Then they hung up on me. Ten minutes later, I received an e-mail from them that they dongraded my membership to gold (i chechek, there was no membership under my second e-mail address, it was my backup e-mail, they were lying). I went ahead and filed compliants with the FBI and BBB. When they learned about this, they used my e-mail address (a clear breech of the privacy agreement, and a case of identity theft) to subscribe me to hundreds of magazines and online newsletters. Upon my request, one of these magazines sent me the IP address of the party that requested my subscriptions online, and as it turned out, it was indeed cFares IP address. Now I will report them to the FBI and the local police for identity theft. These are con artists. Do not do business with them
Comment from Ericka
Time December 15, 2006 at 3:52 pm
I liked this article, but suggest you take a look (and maybe review) another company. This past fall some friends and I were searching the internet for discount rates to Hawaii and came across a smaller company called, Hawaii on Sale. Like Cfares being specialized in International travel, this company deals exclusively with travel to Hawaii from the US; but when I say specialized, I mean it! They are located in Hawaii and the agents know all the best insider tips which I could just ask them right away instead of searching the internet to find help. They are not just a company you can call, but some of my friends booked directly online (and were able to see and choose the flights, and entire price before paying)! The rates they offer are significantly lower than Expedia and Orbitz Etc. and they don’t have a ‘membership charge’ to get to their lowest fares like cfares does. I want to let everyone know how great this company was because they helped us so much and took the time to customize our vacation to just the way we needed it!