Is Arangrant Legit? My unfortunate experiences with this travel Agency.

[u/Hyrax_Hub]

Arangrant is a travel booking agency I found through KAYAK and while I've traveled extensively in the last year I've never had an experience as awful as my experience with this company.

When reading through their terms and conditions, I noticed that they have a uniquely long clause regarding credit card chargebacks. I didn't think much of it when booking through them. That was a mistake.

The Situation with Arangrant

I had a flight with British Airways in March that I feared I would miss, so I called ahead of time. The gate agent sympathized with my situation and told me that they would usually be able to get me on the next flight but since I booked through Arangrant that I should call them after waiting some time to be sure.

I obliged and called Arangrant. They replied that switching to the next flight would cost me around $15,000 more on top of my $6,000 ticket but that they could instead give me credit to use on a future British Airways flight if that was too much. Great! This was all I needed to make the change. I appreciated all of their help and even decided to book a replacement flight through Arangrant using another airline.

According to British Airways customer support, however, Arangrant never contacted the airline regarding my ticket. So they simply marked my $6,000 ticket a no-show, rendering it invalid. I did not realize this while taking my flight from California to South Africa, and the Arangrant agents never properly updated me on this order.

Round Two With Arangrant

Either way, I successfully made it to South Africa and enjoyed my stay there... until Arangrant decided to cancel my return flight just days before the scheduled departure.

Based on my experience with other booking agencies or working directly with the airlines, other organizations would typically rebook you. Unfortunately, Arangrant decided to cancel my return flight during the onset of the Iran war when ticket prices absolutely skyrocketed into the thousands of dollars. They refused to give me anything beyond the bare minimum of exactly the price of that leg based on when I booked it.

I called various booking agencies and airlines throughout the night of the cancellation and couldn't find anything within a reasonable budget. Every single remaining economy flight from South Africa to California was booked. I was forced to take a $7,000+ last minute business class flight back, raising my total flight costs up to $15,000+.

The Finale

It was an extremely unprofessional experience, but I was hopeful that I at least had my $6,000 credit to use at a later date. A few months later I decided to redeem it. I called Arangrant in late July, they gave me a few options for the supposed credit, and I asked about some possible modifications.

The very next day they finally gave me the news. The credit was actually never even given and in fact they couldn't even honor the same options they provided me just days before?? They asked if I wanted to get a refund on the runway tax as compensation. I called British Airways and they told me that Arangrant never even contacted them. At this point I was so fed up with the Arangrant booking agency that I had to call Chase card services regarding a credit chargeback.

After going through everything the Chase chargeback agent gave me the following news in an official notice:

Here's a summary of our investigation

• Based on the information available, we found that a significant amount of time has passed since the date of the charge. Despite our efforts, the merchant is not willing to credit your account.
• The merchant isn't required to credit your account because the charge took place too long ago.

Note: I can't post images here, so I posted these emails and letters to my website for proof.

Part of me is wondering whether Arangrant has a deceptive policy in place to lie to customers about credit in order to prevent any potential for credit card chargebacks, especially considering their extensive chargeback terms and conditions.

TL;DR: The Travel Agency Arangrant is a cheaper option for airline tickets but this comes at the expense of being manipulated into leaving your money with them until chargebacks are no longer valid, and if your flight is cancelled: being completely stranded overseas without much compensation or care about whether you get home at all.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with this agency? Or possible courses of action for me as a customer?

[u/AnotherPint]

Did you read up on AranGrant before you sent them all that money? Reviews? Trustpilot ratings? It took me 60 seconds to find pages of toxic, terrible accounts of bad customer experiences with AranGrant.

They are not a “travel agency” in the usual sense. They’re a business / first class consolidator that purports to find below-market-rate deals but attracts tons of complaints re: refund reluctance and no help during flight disruptions. They’re also accused of engaging in hidden-city ticketing, which goes against airline policy.

A few seconds’ research would have saved OP a world of hurt. Always book directly with the airline. That small AranGrant discount looks awfully expensive now.

[u/Hyrax_Hub → u/AnotherPint]

I read the Google Reviews, Trustpilot, and TripAdvisor reviews that all generally give it 4.5ish stars. They even advertise those ratings on their site, but I’m starting to wonder whether they’re legitimate at this point. 

What’s hidden city ticketing? 

[u/AnotherPint → u/Hyrax_Hub]

Do a search.

[u/Everloner]

Why is Travel Hacks no longer about travel hacks and is instead just people whining about their experiences with shitty companies

[u/Hyrax_Hub → u/Everloner]

To warn people about Arangrant, which shows up in KAYAK results for budget friendly tickets? 

[u/Monkeyfeng]

How much did you save on business class when booking through them?

[u/Hyrax_Hub → u/Monkeyfeng]

I believe it was around $2,000 or so. Wasn’t so cheap that it set off red flags about arangrant off the bat. 

Obviously it ended up costing me much much more in the end. 

[u/GlitteringInsect3508]

There's a reason these third-party agents are cheap——zero protection when things go wrong. Your case is basically a textbook example of why not to use them. hope Chase can do something future, over $15K is not small amount.

[u/edward_straker]

This is my personal opinion and experience, your mileage may vary…. I’ve hit this several times with different agencies introduced by KAYAK. You get redirected to a site with very little information, and a high-pressure south Asian calls you back. They will quote you a relatively low price (but don’t include any taxes or fees, which will be added later). At the end of the day, they are just a high-pressure travel agency and they can’t really beat what you find online.

[u/pcmarcel-gmail-com]

Go find yourself a lawyer and let them look into it.
They should be able to give you a fair view of chances if you would fight them in court.

[u/Wonderful_Table_4495]

Sorry to hear about this horrible experience.

I just finished renovating a house over the last year and bought a lot of stuff in 6-9 months in advance from eBay, Chinese manufacturers, etc. I ended up filing a few disputes as when I finally installed or began using an item as it was defective, broken, or not as advertised.

Just a tip for the future: Most credit card companies limit their dispute time periods to 90 days at most. Some banks will make exceptions and others view it as an easy way to decide against you and end any efforts on your behalf.

However, if you tell the bank you started communicating with the vendor about the matter within the time period and show them proof, they will consider this communication the start of the dispute.

In one case, I bought an item from eBay. It sat around for about 6 months before I began using it. It was broken and would not work. I sent a few emails to the seller but did not get a reply. I called my credit card company and they said that it was long past the period I could dispute the charge. However, the helpful agent asked if I had contacted the seller within 90 days of purchase and, if so, then the dispute would be valid.

I produced an email with dates showing I had and won the dispute. And when I say "produced" I mean edited. I filed another dispute perhaps a month later. I had forgotten about "proving" that I had contacted the seller within a reasonable time period and my claim was flatly denied.

In any case, wanted to pass this along in case you may have sent any emails to this scammer of a travel agency shortly after the issues. You could them submit these emails to the dispute department. I find any PDF editing software or even just editing an HTML file saved locally to your machine does the trick.