I will never use Hotwire again
Written: Oct 16 '01 (Updated Oct 16 '01)
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The Bottom Line
I do not recommend Hotwire. My experience was a very negative one. Staff was not helpful.
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| Full Review |
Introduction
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I have read some other reviews, which were mainly positive. I have made several very negative experiences with Hotwire. Those experiences may be exceptions, but I thought it might be helpful to have another point of view about Hotwire here on Epinions.com.
What Hotwire does
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Hotwire is an online service that tries to find you a cheap flight by comparing prices the airlines give them.
On their website, you give them the dates you want to fly on and the place you want to fly from and to. You can not define the times, those will be given to you after you purchase a flight.
The layout of the website is pretty nice and easy to understand. It usually takes a little bit for the results to come up, but no worse than other services such as Qixo.com.
My experience with Hotwire (It sucked)
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After I had searched several other sited such as Qixo.com, Travelocity.com, and Expedia.com and after bidding for a flight on Priceline.com unsuccessfully, I gave Hotwire a try and was amazed since their prices were lower than all the previously mentioned.
So I went ahead and tried to purchase a flight. The first thing I got was a system error. That's how it all started.
So I called the Hotwire support. I got through after about 5 minutes on hold.
Customer service was friendly but not really helpful. They told me to try again in a few hours.
So I did, and guess what, I got another message that their system had a problem.
So I called again, another 3 minutes on hold. Same advice, try again.
So I did. Guess what. System error.
This time, I did not call but waited and...
tried again.
This time, I got the error that something was wrong with my credit card. So I called my credit card company.
They told me that Hotwire had put the amount of $449 on my credit card three times and that my limit was overdrawn, so I could not make any further purchases.
So I called Hotwire, asking them (after 5 minutes on hold and another 2 minutes on hold for a supervisor) to take those charges off my card. They said that would not be possible and I would have to wait about 48 hours for the charges to disappear.
I called my credit card company again. They told me the merchant needed to fax them a statement that no purchases had been made, so that I could use my credit card again.
I called Hotwire again, waited again, told them what they needed to do.
They said that could not do that.
So basically, I sat there with my credit card not working. and no flight, either. And no possibility to get a flight somewhere else, since I was unable to use my card.
Conclusion
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That concludes my experience with Hotwire. I will not use this service again and can not recommend it.
The staff was always friendly but never helpful.
Qixo, here I come!
Recommended:
No
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About the Author
Location: Edmond, OK
Reviews written: 66
Trusted by: 116 members
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