Purchased airfare thru Ultimate fares to attend a very import family gathering. Arrived at the airport confirmation documents in hand only to be told Ultimate Fares had cancelled my tickets without notifying me. I was at the airport without a ticket, confirmation in hand, had to repurchase ticket on the spot, it cost me an extra $500.00. They blamed my bank, my bank blamed them, it was a mess and no one, no one reimbursed me for my loss. Fortunately, I got a good rate, but unfortunately, I ended up paying quite a bit more for the tickets than I should have if there had been proper ocmmunication and good customer service from this company. Risky.

I have called and I have written twice and then had to FAX a request for a refund of a charge that I did not make. On July 5, 2008 I made a purchase of an Airline ticket round Trip to the Philippines. I was advised to wait for 2 E-Mails to verify my purchase and booking. I received one E-Mail without a Ticket confirmation number. 48 hours later when I had not received a second e-mail I called the required number and was rudely advised that my name was not in the computer and I had not purchased a ticket from ultimatefares. I tried to advise the woman that answered the telephone that I was charged $63.48 by a company called Travel Guard for flight/Ticket Insurance. I was advised that they knew nothing of the transaction and I must have purchased it. Why would I purchase Travel Insurance when I had not even received a Ticket? I then called my credit card company who in turn called Travel Guard. Travel Guard International Advised me that I purchased the Insurance and should have received an E-Mail reflecting such. I assure you that I did not purchase the Insurance nor did I receive an E-Mail verifying such. (Spam File Either) I was then told that I had to FAX a letter to the company to cancel a Travel Insurance Policy that I did not purchase. Why did Ultmatefares give my credit card information to another company for flight insurance without even verifying my flight. At this time I have no flight and I am sceptical about visiting ultimatefares again or recommending them to friends. Below is a copy of the first E-Mail I received even though I was advised that I had never booked a flight through Ultimatefares.Com

Ticket Confirmation

Reservation Number / Reference Code : UNABLE

Dear Christopher m mercadel

Thank you for booking flight ticket in UltimateFares.com.

I attempted to purchase tickets on the ultimate fares website, but the website showed "website error, please contact agent at 1-800 number". I called their website and the agent said they were experiencing very high volume and to keep refreshing my browser until I got a confirmation. I never did, the error message kept coming up, so I bought the tickets directly from the airline. Then, I check my email. Three reservations had been made. I called them back immediately and explained what had happened and my discussion with the agent re: refreshing my browser which resulted in many purchases of the same ticket and told them I didn't need any of the tickets, since I bought them from the airline directly. They charged me $50 a piece for the tickets and $24 a piece for an 'agent fee' which means talking to agent on the phone. I challenged the fees on my credit card and they couldn't get UF to rescind their charges, so my cc company paid the $24 fees, but not the $50 fees. Now they hound me day and night, by phone, email and mail that they are going to charge me the full amount for all of the tickets, plus the $50 fee for each. Unbelievable. A total scam and dishonest business practice.

Your Credit Card Company will protect you against all the charges. Believe me. I was their Billing Manager and I would take all their Billing Calls from upset customers who have been ripped off from this company.

Ultimatefares.com, Cheapflightsales.com, Arcade Travel, and Travel Services are all the same company doing off the wall fraud activities to their clients. I am in close contact with the old employees in their Boca Raton Office and they just told me the latest news that American Airlines has just pulled their plates which means these companies cannot book any travel with American Airlines because they even tried to scam them. These companies are known in the industry for Fraud!!! They even charged their clients for Travel Insurance when they don’t even elect it on their website and they are immediately charged with Travel Insurance. The owner told me half of his customers won’t even look at their Credit Card Statement so he will automatically make money on the Travel Insurance. When I worked their I would receive approximately 50 calls a day from mad clients stating to refund the travel insurance. Travel Guard is so fed up with them it’s not funny. If anyone has further questions, please feel free to ask and I will advise. For starters, if you feel you have been ripped off, call your Credit Card Company and file a Chargeback. Secondly, please read "Pissed Consumer" and read about these companies. All you need to do is go to Google.com and type in Reviews on Ultimatefares.com and you will see the nightmare stories. Stay Away I warn you. The owner’s phone number is 818-518-3979 and their address is 7100 Camino Real, Suite 402, Boca Raton, Florida. They say they are located in Las Vegas but that is also bogus.