BYOjet is an online travel agent that specialises in flight bookings. If you search for flights on an aggregator like Google Flights or Kayak, you may have seen BYOjet as an option for booking your tickets. But is BYOjet legit and is it worth booking flights through their site. Here is my BYOjet review for 2023:
Who Owns BYOjet
BYOjet is owned by Flight Centre. BYOjet was acquired by FlightCentre in 2015. Flight Centre also owns sister site Aunt Betty which uses the same booking engine. Both online travel agencies share the same overseas call centre.
BYOjet Review – Pros and Cons
If you’re planning to book flights on BYOjet, here are some things you should be aware of:
Booking Can only be Managed Through BYOjet
The biggest downside to booking flights through an online travel agent like BYOjet is all changes to the booking need to go through BYOjet and not the airline. If you need help with your booking, you can’t contact the airline for support. They will most likely direct you to call BYOjet.
Looking through the Google Reviews of BYOjet, it looks like most people’s complaints are with the fact they were unable to get help from the airline and had trouble with BYOjet support.
Extras Not worth the Price
BOYjet doesn’t make a lot of money from selling flights. They make money when you add upgrades to your tickets. This is standard on all online travel agents. Some of the extra upgrades are not worth the additional price.
For example, I searched for a flight from Sydney to Singapore. On BYOJet, I would need to pay a fee to select a seat on the Qantas flight. However if I had just booked through Qantas I would have been able to select a seat for free (as a qantas frequent flyer).
Some of the extra upgrades also overlap. You can buy both Travel Insurance and Baggage Protection as seperate upgrades, even though the travel insurance covers baggage loss.
It’s worth checking the Upgrades to see if they are really worth it.
Cheaper Prices
It’s possible to find cheaper prices on BYOjet. But it’s worth searching for flights through an aggregator like Google Flights which compares multiple booking sites. BYOjet may have cheaper prices, but they may also have more expensive prices.
Is BYOjet Legit? Are they a scam?
BYOjet is a legit booking site and they aren’t a scam. If you book a ticket through BOYjet you will get a ticket. Just be aware that you are booking through an online travel agent and if you need help with your flight you’ll need to deal with their support and you won’t be able to just contact the airline.
Would I book through BYOjet?
I’ve used a number of online travel agents like BYOjet in the past. The main complaint I’ve had is getting help with a booking. BYOjet offers email support which I’ve found to be fairly slow. They do have a call centre and there is a number you can call.
These days I prefer to book directly with the airlines. It’s much easier to make changes to an existing booking, especially when the airlines schedule changes (which happens all the time post covid).
Have you used BYOjet? Let me know in the comments what your experience has been.
I paid $54-85 for seat Allocation and when I checked in the airline had no notice of this and I DIDN’T get the seat I paid for. When I called BYO they REFUSED TO REFUND MY MONEY! THEY ARE A RIP OFF AND THIEVES! DO NOT USE BYO FOR ANYTHING!
SCAM SCAM BEWARE!
*DO NOT BOOK WITH BYOJET*
I’m trying to save you from the worst experience possible! Over $7000 tickets for my family 2A 4C (first time travelling) to be wasted. I urge you book directly with airlines, NEVER via BYOjet.
They will refuse to help you. Unfortunately the policy with other airlines (Virgin, QANTAS, Vietnam Airlines) is they are unable to touch the flights/bookings done via travel agency (TA).
We have been on the phone with them every 1-2 days for 5 weeks attempting to add an infant to booking (baby was born June 23 just after tickets were booked May 23) only because BYOjet assured us at time of booking it was easy to add infant (LIE).
Multiple times they rudely refused to help
Add infant to booking, stating that I must contact the airlines directly (LIE).
Qantas was helpful enough to say there’s an industry partners helpline or direct line of some sort (only accessible to TA not customer).
BYOjet finally conceded when we relayed this process and they requested their ticketing team to add infant by liaising with airlines (1 week wait). Still nothing. This was followed by more phone conversations, back and forth and each time them requesting 3 or 5 days to action anything.
1 month later…
They said it was done (LIE). However added baby girl as “Master”. When pointed out this mistake, they said it doesn’t matter (LIE). called airlines to confirm – they said it must be matching with passport therefore must change to “MISS”.
BYOjet said they’ve changed it (LIE).
Called Virgin Qantas and Vietnam airlines – SHE IS NOT EVEN ON THE BOOKING AT ALL.
And they continue to tell me there’s nothing they can do. The other airlines cannot do anything also.
I have given every opportunity for them to resolve and stretched my patience.
Worst Service Ever
I booked tickets to go overseas, received confirmation, and my credit card was charged, but no tickets were issued. After waiting for days, I called them (spent almost two hours on the phone) and was told the flight was not confirmed. They suggested either changing the dates or taking a refund.
I was extremely unhappy and questioned why no one contacted me about the issue. Why did I have to reach out to them? Why did they make a refund sound like a favor?
I requested to speak to a supervisor or manager, but that was impossible. Eventually, I was told the ticketing team might have the tickets, but I needed to wait for an email.
The best part? I received an email asking for an extra $700 per ticket to proceed with the booking. This was not an option for us, so I called again and requested a refund. I was then informed of a $200 plus cancellation fee per ticket and that the refund process would take 12 weeks.
So, the current situation is that BYOjet took my money (more than 5K) without providing the tickets. When you disagree with paying a hijacked price after the booking was confirmed and fully paid, be prepared to lose money to get a refund, and you’ll have to wait a long time for it.
BYOjet must only serve rich people who can afford to pay a hijacked price or make multiple bookings for fun.
You have been warned.