One site which has caught a lot of attention over the past few days has been Alpfly. The website claims to sell ticket subscriptions of sorts to customers, where you prepay for a bunch of tickets, and then can redeem them over a period of time. Needless to say, it got me inquisitive as well, so I tried to dig deeper.
Here are the deals they offer:
Their cheapest plan is the Star Plan, where one person gets 10 air tickets in a period of 12 months against a payment of INR 22,000. The cost works out to INR 2,200 per ticket. The Couple Plan offers tickets at INR 30,000, and offers you the opportunity to travel alone or both of you together. Going on, the family plan is for INR 40,000 which includes a couple and a couple of kids.
Here are the terms which we should look out for:
- There are no hidden charges. Prices are all inclusive of taxes and charges.
- The customer has to book his travel prior 21 days, and PNR will be issued before 7 days of travel.
- The customer can utilize one round trip in a month travelling anywhere in India.
- There is no option of flight/carrier selection by the customer.
- Tickets will not be issued for any Gazetted Holidays/Festive Dates. However, tickets can be issued 2 days prior & 2 days after to any
Gazetted Holidays/Festive Dates. - During purchase, the Names and Date of Birth will have to be provided. All the 10 tickets will be issued on the registered names. After the plan is purchased, names of the members cannot be replaced.
- Destinations not serviced are: Lakshadweep, Leh, Surat, Kullu, Bhopal, Jodhpur, Aurangabad, Andaman & Nicobar
To buy or not to buy?
The company is clearly a consolidator of fares, and trying to target the market where air travel is important, rather than the choice of carriers and timings. This means, they are buying bulk tickets from carriers at prices which are unpublished to the market, and then selling this inventory to the customer. I’ve had experience buying these kind of tickets from the bigger OTAs a few times, and it has never been a problem to fly on these tickets.
However, I won’t be buying into this deal! There are more than one reasons why:
- I see myself booking tickets sometimes a day or two out, and sometimes a week out when my plans are clearer. So, a rigidity on 3 weeks out does not work for me. Sometimes I book and cancel within the same day, usually on Jet Airways, due to
- My tickets are booked based on my convenience and perceived value of the ticket, and not the cheapest ticket to be bought. For instance, sometimes when I have to be in Mumbai one day and another city the next morning and I can’t be on the last flight out, I do the redeye flights. Another time, I may just want to rush out of work a tad bit early so that I can make it to the last flight. I lose this convenience on the times I want to pick.
- Airline ticket prices are at massive lows. Except for some segments where prices are high due to limited flights per day, between frequent airline sales and high number of frequencies, one would most often find a reasonably priced ticket if one looked hard enough.
- I don’t know anything of the reputation of this company. They were formulated about 6 months back as per LinkedIn
- I still love me a full-service airline to the extent possible. I have a feeling these tickets are going to be on no-frill carriers.
Those are some of my reasons to not look at Alpfly. Are you going to be buying one of their packages? Do share your experiences with them.
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Definitely, this is a Ponzi scheme. They have duped people like anything. whenever you book tickets, few days before they will tell that they can’t book tickets.
Fraud company.
Another example of a shit company.
Alpfly is a fraud and Ponzi scheme. I have heard several people getting duped by them.
Ye log chor hain. Apna paisa waste mat kariye.
Last moment, 1 day before the journey they will say that the ticket cannot be booked.
Don’t waste your money.
PEOPLE OPEN EYES- I AM WRITING THIS SO IT DOESNT HAPPEN WITH ANYONE & SINCE AE HAVE PROOFS & ARE TELLING TRUTH, I AM NOT SCARED OF THEIR FRAUD LAWYERS & LEGAL NOTICES
Today, I write without any fear that they are not only cheaters/scamsters but harass to last level. They gave us all the wrong combinations of tickets at 3 AMs in night & layovers of over 6 hours for which they charged double flights, inspite of giving us direct flight they charged double from us & tried to extort 8000 rs too in addition. But now they crossed all limits. Himani who’s the so called manager guided us to book tickets at month end to be on safer side as we were coming closer to package end. but their actual plan was to cheat us in their own way. I booked 1 way ticket for 28 Sep, but they inserted their own rules & locked dates for booking from 29–3 oct (as 30th is dussehra & 2nd is gandhi jayanti & they do not let book 1 day prior &1 day after the festival) hence 6 days blocked in 1 go, since my membership expiring on 3rd, they said now we cant give you return tickets unless you renew package or give us 7000 rs additionally to the ticket. at last, they said use – Make my trip or other portals to book tickets ourselves; Hence i was left with just one way ticket & all my hotel bookings at stake to which we said, we would write on all the portals about how they have harassed us in past 1 year & would visit their office too for justice as our 4 tickets have been seized by them. THE WORST, THEY SENT US A LEGAL NOTICE TODAY & DARED US TO WRITE ABOUT OUR SITUATION ON ANY SOCIAL MEDIA SITES. SINCE WE HAVE ALL PROOFS OF THEIR HARASSMENTS IN PAST TOWARDS US, WE HAVE ALL PROOFS & WANT TO ENSURE PEOPLE DONT FALL UNDER THEIR TRAP AT ALL. PLEASE GUYS, THEY ARE CHEATERS & WILL EXTORT MONEY AT EACH & EVERY STEP.
Alpfly is a Ponzi scheme. Once they have duped enough people, the company will silently shot down and the directors will flee away from the country or find a legal loophole to escape from the law.
Thanks for the feedback friends. I was about to contact the company to book 5 packages for our company’s 5seniors but now I have dropped the idea. I am not ready to take risk with company’s money.
BIG Trap indeed! my father purchased their flight package & gave up without exhausting the rest of tickets, The worst part they drop the bomb a day before when all your bookings are done.. Instead of 1 single flight, they gave 3 flights which took 14 hours instead of 2 hours to reach the destination & this has happened twice with him. Once it was Delhi-Hyderabad & once Delhi – guwahati 3 flights : (delhi-kolkata , kolkata-imphal , imphal-guwahati in a span of 16 hours). The only time they gave a direct flight was when the flight was timed for departure at odd timings of 3 AM. They do not care whether it is a senior citizen & how they harass & leave the person stranded at airport for hours. They do not help saying it is not there problem if flight was cancelled & they cant provide an alternate now & leave the decision on you. Its better to shell out some extra money & ttravel hassle free. DONT COME UNDER THEIR LUCRATIVE OFFER AS YOU WOULD ULTIMATELY END UP GIVING UP IN BETWEEN
I really would like Thanks to you. You are amazing and great. You saved lots of Money….. You aware the people and it’s really Good.
I am thinking for 10 packages
Thank you very much for the honest feedback. Something didn’t smell right and I am glad that I saw the feedback. If something too good to be true the usually it is not true
It’s a Trap indeed! my father purchased their flight package & gave up without exhausting the rest of tickets, The worst part they drop the bomb a day before when all your bookings are done.. Instead of 1 single flight, they gave 3 flights which took 14 hours instead of 2 hours to reach the destination & this has happened twice with him. Once it was Delhi-Hyderabad & once Delhi – guwahati 3 flights : (delhi-kolkata , kolkata-imphal , imphal-guwahati in a span of 16 hours). The only time they gave a direct flight was when the flight was timed for departure at odd timings of 3 AM. They do not care whether it is a senior citizen & how they harass & leave the person stranded at airport for hours. They do not help saying it is not there problem if flight was cancelled & they cant provide an alternate now & leave the decision on you. Its better to shell out some extra money & ttravel hassle free. DONT COME UNDER THEIR LUCRATIVE OFFER AS YOU WOULD ULTIMATELY END UP GIVING UP IN BETWEEN
Let me put a long story short. Please don’t get fooled by AlpFly. I do not want to call the AlpFly team as a bunch of ‘Cheaters’, they are rather clever folks who use their rule book to trap gullible people.
* They ‘Always’ book 48hrs prior; you will not even have a choice to re-plan at that last hour.
* They ‘Always’ make sure that give a hop over of more than 4 hours even between metros (I was offered Bangalore to Delhi via Tiruvananthapuram) there by consuming two tickets of ours rather than one.
* They make sure we fly out on the day we requested for; it does not mean that we should reach the destination on same day, right? I was offered a flight from Bangalore to Bagdogra in such a way that we leave Bangalore at 7 AM morning, go to Tiruvanantapuram, then to Delhi and finally next day to Bagdogra)
* They always say they do not have inventory of tickets and the one offered is the only combination they have. The inventory is not transparent at all; thereby they make sure they always give a hop over more than 4 hours so that they can consume more tickets from us at shortest possible time. Wah! Wah! What an Idea Sirji!!!
* None of the managers other than the call center staff are available. No direct numbers are provided as well to address our grievances. Staff mentions that they will arrange for a call back which will never happen.
* I thought we should encourage such nice startup ideas and had even referred friends to AlpFly; Alas, I have told all of them to refrain from buying tickets from here and rather spread a word to others be ware of such clever companies.
PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT FALL IN THE ALPFLY TRAP AND SUFFER…
This best for those who have fixed trip with no hours matter I have already did 4 journey through Alpfly it’s worth it
It’s a Trap indeed! my father purchased their flight package & gave up without exhausting the rest of tickets, The worst part they drop the bomb a day before when all your bookings are done.. Instead of 1 single flight, they gave 3 flights which took 14 hours instead of 2 hours to reach the destination & this has happened twice with him. Once it was Delhi-Hyderabad & once Delhi – guwahati 3 flights : (delhi-kolkata , kolkata-imphal , imphal-guwahati in a span of 16 hours). The only time they gave a direct flight was when the flight was timed for departure at odd timings of 3 AM. They do not care whether it is a senior citizen & how they harass & leave the person stranded at airport for hours. They do not help saying it is not there problem if flight was cancelled & they cant provide an alternate now & leave the decision on you. Its better to shell out some extra money & ttravel hassle free. DONT COME UNDER THEIR LUCRATIVE OFFER AS YOU WOULD ULTIMATELY END UP GIVING UP IN BETWEEN
hi all they have cheated me also took 30k for ticket and now they are asking 4 ticket will be charged for patna…plzz ake a group in whatsapp and file a PIL against this compsany…
my whatsapp number is 9798587637… plzz ping me and will teach this comapny
this is a cheater and fraud comapany…which charges to 4 ticket….for 1 travel from bangalore to patna..
Dont ever think to buy from them once u paid money u r gone..than they will charge according to there wish..
New policy- 7-9 days prior booking and 48 hrs before flight you get tickets. I know these guys during the conference Organization work which needed an airlines Partner. I did a whole lot of Research on this company.
Yeah! They are new. Innovative things re always new. Agree to that.
New changes arent always welcome unless it gets trending. They hardly spent on marketing but organic growth. Their new PR and Customer care tea is doing well. Mistakes happend with all , you just can’t kill any service or company for that unless they keep this as habit which I see that they didn’t till now.
I love trying new things and Startups service or products. I believe if you are not loose om pocket and can manage few small conditions of timing , it’s gonna be a good handy service provider for you.
Try and review and not just reviews and not let people try at all. I am saying this as I tried. And I travel monthly.
Don’t buy there plans. They have the most pathetic service. Customer care doesn’t reply.
Save your money.
It would be a pain buying their plans.
Hi All,
I have bought a Plan from Alpfly , they are Very good in Luring the people with great deals and making commitments which are all bogus . They are not capable of Fulfill any of their promises. I have suffered a lot by investing Money into it. I want to highlight few points here :
1) They use to change the Terms and condition very often please be careful.
2) They told they prefer only direct flights and if its not available they only they will provide a break journey tickets , I have bought 8 tickets till now and i never received a Single direct flight tickets.
3) They told they have tie-ups with all the airlines , but its completely false . They only have tie-up with Indigo.
4) They used to give very ODD flights in which i have spent 3-4 hrs halt in Night at airports.
Please be careful before choosing alpfly. Its a Totally Bogus/ Fraud company.
I was about to choose the deal. Thank you for being the eye opener. My frequent travel route is BLR-DEL, BLR-Kolkata. If they put me on break journey, I can’t even complete a round trip journey in a month
I like your blog and got to see the Indian flavor of real frequent fliers. However, sometimes you use terms that are not applicable to India. You said “and I can’t be on the last flight out, I do the redeye flights”. Redeye flights are usually late night to early morning (and hence can easily be the last flight e.g. last flight from SFO to EWR), there is timezone difference involved, and mostly when you are travelling west to east timezones. End result is that you are in a flight which cuts into your normal sleep time and is not long enough to have a good night sleep (something you can still get in over-night long hauls flights 8 hours or more) and ends up giving you the notional “red eye”. No Indian route covers far enough points to qualify as a possible red-eye route – not to mention entire India is in a single timezone. Again generally used term red-eye is not for referring to super late but short or super early but short kinda flight.
I have thoroughly enjoyed your blog learning about what it can be for a frequent flier / miles collector in India and would like to see you keep that Indian touch and not use too many inaccurate terms that are common elsewhere but not applicable to India. You certainly have taken the time and care to write about your travels, miles/points, FF plans, and how the overall system works locally which is valuable to many – including me and I cannot thank you enough.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
@Vikas, thank you for your comments which look similar to the Wikipedia definition ;). When I take a 3 am flight from Mumbai and Arrive in Delhi at 5:15 Am, I haven’t slept the whole night and hence the red-eye reference. Red-eye is not an exclusive term to define overnight flights in the USA and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-eye_flight has some examples.
It’s gonna take people on a ride soon! Don’t fall for things that are too good to be true!!
Yes i am a customer of Alpfly and i am totally convinced with their all terms & conditions. Firstly i was also not prepared to buy any of their plan but as of my personality i love to do some different things or curious to try Something really new so i became their member in june with star plan which is so amazing for a person who travels alone due to work demand.as now i have taken two round trips From them and with my own experience now i can say that yes it is true that air tickets could be this much of cheapest,so i’ll suggest to all take a chance and try atleast once so that u would not have any regrets and if we think about the prior period of 21 days so it is also for r benefit only because in this period of time they give us some options for timing nd carrier/flights according to our priority if available with them nd than they issue a confirm PNR in 7 days prior to r tavelling date.
Hi Renu,
Are you aware that the Policy you mentioned in your post got changed and you will get tickets 48 Hrs prior.
Thanks,
Kapil
Hi Renu,
Could you please share the current status of the service.
i wouldn’t buy this plan though its attractive but 21 days prior is a headache to plan, and on top of it the most important even if i plan i want to know my timings and my airline i just can’t think whatever they will give will be perfect.
I did not have any experience with them but what caught my eye is this line: “The customer has to book his travel prior 21 days, and PNR will be issued before 7 days of travel”. If i book the tickets before 21 days even why would it issue the PNR before 7 Days? If i book prior 21 days Is it confirm that i will receive my PNR? What if they are unable to allocate a seat to me? I was worried about these. Thought of clarifying by calling them. Did not get time.
Hadn’t DGCA banned opaque fares after it become a rampant practice during the fall on Kingfisher?