Listed and first reviewed on: 10/21/16
My friends and I were traveling to South Africa for our medical electives. We had initially booked our flights on South African Airways but those reservations expired. Our visas finally arrived late, so we had to hurriedly search for cheap, affordable flight tickets. The cheapest tickets available were for Kenya Airways and they were available on Wakanow.
Wakanow is a travel agency that offers a variety of services including flight and hotel bookings, travel insurance and provision of international SIM cards.
Anyways, I was to book flights for my friends and I as soon as possible as our program was to begin in a few days. Booking was pretty simple. I selected our departure and arrival dates, the airports and placed the booking. The flights cost about 150,000 NGN (can’t remember the exact figure). We didn’t opt for any of their extra packages. I had opted for online payment however thanks to bank issues I couldn’t pay. Bookings are normally valid for 24 hours or more (depending on the airline) before payment must be made, however in about 2 hours, I got an “unbooking” mail. Wakanow literally unbooked me. After that, I got a phone call from one of their reps called Michael. He was really helpful and helped to rebook the flight but apparently, the fares had increased by another 30,000NGN! It was devastating.
Since we really needed to book and we had already started with them, we just continued the process. They explained it wasn’t their fault, but the airline implemented the increase. I also explained to Micheal that I couldn’t pay online as a result of bank issues, so he directed me to the branch closest to me. At that time, the Ikeja branch was closer to me.
On arriving at the Ikeja branch, the customer attendant I met was pretty upset that I had been handled by Micheal. I noticed that they have this inter branch communication pattern because Michael was at the Festac branch. I eventually paid 180,398 NGN each for the tickets via POS and the tickets were handed over to us.
This is the first travel agency I’m using and I would rate them an 8/10. Basically because the customer rep was very helpful and polite. I might use Wakanow sometime in the future if they have the cheapest tickets available for my trip, however the hike in fares plus the 2 hours “unbooking” was pretty annoying. I would definitely recommend Wakanow to others.
The most unreliable travel agent in Nigeria, its taking hours to get a booking confirmation after making payment!!! Just Useless…
i booked my flight through wakanow last year june, i couldnt use my return ticket so i had to place it on hold thinking that when i come back i would get my refund, i requested for a refund since November, its march now, till today they keep telling me come back tomorrow or call back next week, i have never seen such in my life, i regret ever using them and i have learnt my lesson the hard way.