Wingbuddy

Italian dream or a nightmare?

I had the misfortune of booking a trip to Italy, THE ITALIAN DREAM, package, with my wife through wingbuddy for June 6, 2024. After the first flight from Edmonton to Toronto went very well, when I was preparing to make my flight from Toronto to Rome, the airline informed me that I could not make the flight to Italy because my passport did not meet the necessary requirements.

The Transat airline told me to contact Wingbuddy to re-book my trip when my passport met the requirements, which I did immediately using Wingbuddy's emergency email.

I received the reply that they were very sorry but that I had to be patient because they would never re-book my trip or pay credits, and they canceled my trip to Italy on the first day, which for Wingbuddy means that the process ended there and the services ceased to exist.

I couldn't come to terms with the idea of losing a $7,000 trip, because most of the services were not provided by wingbuddy, such as the hotels in Italy, the bus trips, the meals, the visits to the museums, and even the return trip to Canada which, from Rome, was scheduled for eight days after they canceled my trip without informing me.

Despite the fact that wingbuddy and its partners never did most of the services, I was left without seven thousand dollars, which I had saved with a lot of effort over two years. This, was money that immorally ended up in the hands of people who only see the profit in front of them without caring how it is acquired.

Wingbuddy never proves that it pays for its services in Italy because it doesn't even know which hotels its clients are staying in.

I was out seven thousand dollars, but from what I've read in some reviews of other customers, I'm unfortunately not the only one in this situation. There are lots of concerns all over.

I just wonder how long our government will allow wingbuddy to continue having these non clear procedures about payments for services it never provided to its customers because it doesn't even have proof of such.

I will never recommend Wingbuddy, because it's an agency that specializes in selling products and then never takes any responsibility for what it sells. Wingbuddy's responsibility ends at the moment you pay them, a way before you take your flight.

Finally, I want to say to Wingbuddy that I don't need your whining as an answer, or that you weren't to blame for anything that happened, or that you paid for the services in Italy, because that Wingbuddy will never prove for the simple reason that in my case it never was paid.

If wingbuddy paid, use this space to prove that the hotel rooms in Italy were booked in my and my wife's name, and that Transat did not use our return seats to Canada to sell to other customers. Clarity of procedures should also be one of your priorities, so that you become a credible company that your customers can trust and feel proud of.

Until you do, you don't deserve the slightest trust from potential customers.

I think the best and safe way to visit Italy is to book our own flights and contact a local agency in Italy to do the same tour. As far as I know, it will be cheaper and safer.

Eduardo Mesquita