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CheapOAir

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5.5

Overall Score

Author: Kalicia Bateman

LAST UPDATED: March 30th, 2022

Founded in 2005, CheapOair is a travel booking site with a unique search engine that allows users to search over 450 airlines simultaneously to find the best possible ticket prices. CheapOair offers 24/7 customer service and is frequently featured in worldwide publications such as the New York Times, Travel and Leisure, and The Huffington Post. 

The company does not sell its own products or services, but rather partners with third-party vendors in the travel industry to provide a single travel booking location for customers. These vendors include airlines, hotels, transportation companies, experience providers, cruise lines, car rental agencies, tour operators, travel insurance providers, and more. If you are looking for a place to book your entire travel experience and make each reservation through one central travel site, CheapOair could be just the company for you.

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The Good

  • Technology
  • Travel Accommodations
  • Search Engine Functionality
  • Reviews
  • Competitive Rewards Plan
  • Customer Service Policies
  • Award-Winning Service

Technology

CheapOair has created an online travel agency platform that allows travelers to find affordable and complete vacation deals at a discounted rate. CheapOair gathers and filters travel information through its innovative data collection technology and presents the most relevant search results, making it an easy travel site for travelers to navigate and book their reservations.

Travel Accommodations

CheapOair allows travelers to book nearly every aspect of their pending travel online, over the phone, or through its mobile app. Those who use CheapOair to book their travel accommodations can reserve the following:

  • Flights
  • Hotels
  • Car rentals
  • Cruises
  • Vacations packages

CheapOair gives its customers the ability to book online or over the phone, though users should know that a service fee may be larger if booked over the phone. The company also offers forms of travel insurance for travelers who want it.

Search Engine Functionality

CheapOair's search engine functionality is one of the best in the industry. Many customers have reported that they saved money with a cheap flight by using this functionality. Other site features that travelers may find useful include the following:

  • Flight Watcher — Look for the cheapest flights at the most desirable departure/arrival times
  • Seat Selector — Pick and reserve your seat on designated flights with participating airlines
  • Trip Manager — After reserving trip accommodations like a vacation package, manage tickets and other booking details from a mobile device
  • Deal Browser — With mobile-exclusive deals, travelers can browse discounts on vacations and reservations

The site also offers a way to do a flight search with flexible travel dates. This feature helps users to find the best deal possible, three days before and after your selected travel date, and usually results in a cheaper flight. 

Reviews

Both CheapOair's online and mobile platforms allow users to read and conduct further research through the help of reviews. Reviews are left by travelers who have stayed in prospective hotels or traveled using specific airlines and can help customers narrow their search and find the best accommodations for their trip.

Competitive Rewards Plan

Customers can earn travel discounts and gift cards by consistently booking with CheapOair’s rewards program. Once you sign up, there is a tiered rewards points system. Users can earn more points per transaction with each successive booking. They can even get $25 for referring a friend. 

Rewards members get up to 20 percent off flights and up to 55 percent off hotel bookings, six times reward points for every booking, and an account history to easily reference your upcoming or previous reservations. 

Shoppers planning to return should know that you can earn two to six times more points when you book through the mobile app. 

A CheapOair credit card is also available to help earn points towards future airfare or reservations in addition to the rewards program. Both options, the CheapOair Visa Credit Card and the CheapOair Visa Signature Credit Card issued by Synchrony Bank, offer several benefits: 

  • Earn 1 Member Reward Point and 6 Credit Card Reward Points for every $1 spent with the card on CheapOair.com
  • Earn 4 points for every dollar spent on dining
  • Earn 2 points for every dollar spent anywhere else

Six months of special financing is also available. 

CheapOair Visa

  • Emergency card replacement
  • Emergency cash disbursement
  • Roadside dispatch

CheapOair Visa Signature

  • CheapOair Visa Benefits 
  • Lost luggage reimbursement 
  • Trip cancellation/interruption
  • Travel accident insurance

Cheapoair Customer Service Policies

Price match promise: A price guarantee allows users to make sure they are receiving the lowest prices on their travel itinerary. If you find a lower online price, the company will credit the difference on your next round trip flight ticket or hotel reservation made through the website. 

Flight and Hotel Inconvenience: If your flight is delayed for over an hour, you encounter baggage delays, or your luggage is lost, the company will issue each ticket holder a $5 coupon for future booking, for up to five people. 

CheapOair Promo Code: CheapOair will also offer a promo code for different reasons each day. Some examples include senior discounts, student discounts, and military discounts. Travelers can use a promo when booking to save a little more on an airline ticket.

Award-Winning Service

To add to CheapOair’s many accomplishments, the company has received countless awards since opening its doors in 2005. The company’s has received rewards for everything from customer service and the CheapOair App to tourism and business practices. Most recently, in 2020, a year without much travel needs, the company received two Gold Stevie Awards for its communication department and its product management team.

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The Bad

  • Limited Car Models
  • Customer Service and Fees
  • Rewards Restrictions
  • Cancellation Policy 

Limited Car Models

CheapOair doesn't have many options available when it comes to rental car models. Most of the cars offered are economy class, which doesn't give customers the option to select a more luxurious vehicle if they want to be a bit more comfortable during their ride. 

Customer Service and Fees

Even though CheapOair has tried to keep the feel of agency booking, it does cost to do this. CheapOair has 24/7 customer service, but the issue is, while getting immediate, human-based assistance, you may rack up some fees. It costs more money to book over a phone call with a booking agent than through the website, as well as a few other things, like cancellations or attaining a refund. Trips booked over the phone may incur more significant service fees. 

CheapOair charges service fees on its transactions: 

  • Air tickets up to $35 per passenger, per ticket
  • Hotel reservations up to $32 per night, per room
  • Car rental up to $25 per rental

The booking fees may be much more if you book over the phone with a customer support travel agent, choose specific vacation packages, upgrade to business class or first-class fare, or plan on multi-city airfare trips. Fees are also subject to change. 

Reward Restrictions

CheapOair does offer a rewards plan to those who enroll in its membership program (enrollment is free and can be completed entirely online). Still, there are some restrictions and a point system that travelers should be aware of. The point system is broken down as follows:

  • Flights — Earn 1 point per every $1 spent on a flight
  • Hotels — Earn 3 points for every $1 spent on a hotel room
  • Car rentals — Earn 3 points for every $1 spent on a car rental
  • Vacation deals — Earn 1 point for every $1 spent on trip "extras"

Points can be earned simply for signing up (up to 500 points upon enrollment), but a high number of points is required to save on hotel reservations. Further, points can only be redeemed on certain hotel chain reservations. 

Cancellation Policy

CheapOair and its contractors charge a cancellation fee ranging from $100 to $250, making it very expensive to cancel bookings and thus limiting the size of the refund you can get when you do cancel.

Most airline tickets available on CheapOair are non-refundable. It is up to the airline. If cancelation is approved, a credit can be put toward a future ticket. However, most of the time, this type of credit comes with an expiration date. So, if you don’t book within the proper time frame, your refund is gone. 

Additionally, most bookings and service fees are non-refundable after 24 hours. 

Trip protection can be canceled within 10 days of purchase if your travel hasn’t happened. 

Within 24 hours of booking, customers can contact a CheapOair representative to cancel and get a refund, but they will pay $50 in cancellation fees for domestic flights and $75 for international, first-class, or business class flights. After 24 hours, economy tickets cost $50 to cancel with a future credit, while business and first-class tickets cost $100 to cancel, with the rest being refunded to future credit. 

If you don’t want credit for a future flight, the cancellation fee is $100 for the domestic economy and $250 for international economy flights and all business and first-class tickets. Additionally, fees for changing your tickets range from $100 to $250. 

Special offers, discounts, or cancelation rates are available for military personnel, natural disasters, the bereaved, and the visually impaired. 

Cancellations with the company can only be handled over the phone with customer service or a cancellation request form. 

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The Bottom Line

CheapOair uses innovative data collection technology to help customers book several different travel accommodations, including flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises, and vacation packages. The company provides search engine functionality and traveler reviews to help users find exactly what they are looking for, so finding cheap tickets and hotel reservations are easy. CheapOair stands out from the competition because it has a vast network of resources thanks to its parent company Fareportal, which has been in business since 1976.

Joining CheapOair for the rewards program can help you get a great deal while getting the credit card offers you the opportunity to earn even more points towards future online booking savings.

However, if you do end up booking travel accommodations and then decide to cancel the reservation, you can expect to pay a steep fee. Also, CheapOAir's car models are limited, and its rewards program is somewhat restrictive. 

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Star Rating

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3.8

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475 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

52%

4 grade

18%

3 grade

5%

2 grade

2%

1 grade

23%

Sentiment Criteria

Value

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Quality

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Service

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Dianne

CheapOAir made good on a mistake on my ticket and refunded the charge of name change which I thoroughly appreciate. They were very helpful. They followed up on a complaint I had with a sales rep and I am happy with the result.. The reason I gave a 3 instead of a 4 was the sales rep had put me through a lot of anguish during a difficult time. Thank You for correcting his mistake.

6 years ago

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Connie Koumjian Las Cruces, NM

The opportunity to choose seats and low priced airfare are positive. Customer Support was silly. They did not answer my appropriate question. I assume if my name is correct I can ignore the red writing which says to verify my name on my itinerary. That was my question, which remained unanswered. The first two times I asked the customer support person just tried selling me other add-ons.

6 years ago

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Kimberly LeBaron Delta, UT

CheapOAir is a very difficult way to book flights. Their website and app are not user friendly, their customer service isn’t great, and there are lots of hidden costs. When I booked my flights, I kept having to re enter information, and I made a spelling error on a name. They charged my $50 to repair it, which I thought was ridiculous. Still, I give it 3 stars because, if you are will to go through the hassle, it is one of the cheapest ways to fly.

7 years ago

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Ray Branch Philadelphia, PA

I shouldn't have had to call about whether a backpack was considered luggage, but with an understanding that they're a lot of information that others would want also. I'm just glad my call to the service was able to answer this question

6 years ago

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Julia Diaz West Palm Beach, FL

I like the easy payments options...Affirm is great. I do not like that even when you confirm or pay extra your seats remain "pending". Otherwise they have pretty good prices like Expedia does.

6 years ago

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Blake Hirschi Salt Lake City, UT

CheapOAir's user interface is not near as clean as some other flight comparison websites. It's messy and hard to navigate and has weird amounts of load times as you switch back and forth to change your flight search criteria. Ultimately the information is useful but it's not a clean, efficient experience.

5 years ago

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Tom Gourley Pleasant Grove, UT

I have looked at CheapOAir several times but never found their prices to be lower than other sites. Their site was easy to navigate, however, and I only wish their pricing was better. I also don't like the fact that I can't receive "frequent flyer points" if I use them.

6 years ago

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Rischelle Mikkelson American Fork, UT

CheapOAir is easy to view all the different options for air travel. However, I don't like that they suggest a bunch of different days that are not the days I entered into my search. Because of that, I've not ever ended up finding a deal good enough to purchase from them.

7 years ago

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MindyV Lubbock, TX

CheapOAir is a decent website. But you don't really save a lot of money using them compared to the airlines websites. Also, they don't include Southwest as an airline choice.

5 years ago

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Jaida Williams Tallahassee, FL

A good thing is that it is quite easy to search for tickets at a discounted price. However, when trying to have money refunded there is a lot of run around. It took me one year to receive my refund.

6 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Jacob American Fork, UT

CheapOAir can be a helpful resource. Be careful of scams. I always cross check my findings to ensure they are real, and most often they are. This can be a great resource for saving money on flights!

6 years ago

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Daphne Brown Riverton, UT

I never can find better deals here probably becuase I am working other tools so hard. The advertised price is always not available. It just makes me not trust your website for the bait and switch.

6 years ago

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Clark West Sacramento, CA

I want to know how to make it easier for me as a customer who has used this site many times to collect my points and use them for future flights.

6 years ago

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Luciano Villanti Fort Knox, KY

All good, apart from being able to choose, or at least see the sit on the plane. Info about number of luggage not clear until after payment done.

6 years ago

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simone

why cant I get points for recently booked trips . these were booked after I downloaded the apps. but they were done iwthin the last 6 weeks.

6 years ago

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Rocio Diaz Tallahassee, FL

Although CheapOAir ensures you get the cheapest airplane ticket possible, it does not take into consideration comfort when finding these seats and the airplane companies.

6 years ago

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Liana Colorado Springs, CO

The site is kind of a nightmare to navigate, and wasn't built for ease of use. I compared it to other sites, and they weren't significantly cheaper, either.

7 years ago

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Taylor Larson Nakhon Sawan, 60

I like how CheapOAir has good deals and makes them easy to find, but the customer service is always hard for me to reach.

5 years ago

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Tony Riverton, UT

Was hoping CheapOAir offered a better, more thorough selection on flights. Turns out it was just an average travel site. Probably won't use again.

6 years ago

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Charles Peery Columbus, OH

It was alright. I had problem understanding my confirmation numbers However the problem was solved.

6 years ago

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Ilirjana

easy to select the flights I wanted but not very clear about the baggage's permitted.

6 years ago

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Ryan El Paso, TX

Its ok. A little cheaper than others but a little more confusing when booking rentals.

7 years ago

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Gene A May Mentor, OH

Not to good on the boarding pass. I have not gotten it yet.

7 years ago

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Louis Nardozi

too much upselling for my taste but the fares were right.

6 years ago

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Solario2019 Rosedale, MD

Pretty good booking site, it shows cheap air flight tickets

6 years ago

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Carrie Upper Marlboro, MD

CHARGES ON TOO MANY ITEMS AND INSTRUCTIONS ARE NOT CLEAR..

6 years ago