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Skylux Travel is a company that was founded in 2012, specializing in securing business and first-class flights for great prices. How do they get these great deals for you? Let’s explore all that and more in this post, and hopefully by the end of it, you’ll know if Skylux is right for you.
What can Skylux do for you?
Skylux claims that they can get you a discount up to 77% on business and 80% on first-class seats. That’s impressive. Plus, they have travel managers that can cater to your needs 24/7.
The average savings per ticket claimed is $2,100, and they’ve served over 45,000 customers with a return rate of 67%. Too good to be true? That’s what we’re here to investigate. Let’s take a look at how Skylux works.
How does Skylux work?
The company markets itself basically as an online travel agency that can get you unbelievable deals. As such, their goal is to get a sense of what you want your trip to look like and lock in the best deal for you. The upside to a standard travel agency is that they can do all the work of researching flights and finding you a price that you’re willing to pay while you go about your life as usual. Once they’ve got a solution or two, they’ll get back to you and all you have to do is approve and pay.
However, are they really a travel agency? Not really. What makes them different is that they are first and foremost an airline consolidator company.
What is an airline consolidator?
Airline consolidators are wholesalers in the airline ticket industry. They contract with airlines that are typically lesser known and not as reputable to sell seats that these airlines may otherwise not fill. In order to get cheaper prices for seats, the consolidator or wholesaler will agree to purchase airline seats in bulk. They then sell these at a slightly higher price to consumers looking to get a deal on a flight.
Are lesser-known airlines safe?
Even though Skylux may include lesser-known airlines, doesn’t mean they are not safe. Skylux does provide you with the name of the airline you will be traveling with prior to booking. You can do your research and see if the airline is a good fit for you.
Is Skylux a standard online travel agency?
No, they are not your standard travel agency due to the fact that they are airline consolidators. However, since they specialize in business and first-class seats at a discount, they are generally dealing with a clientele that expects more from them as a company in terms of providing solutions and smoothing out the experience for them.
It’s smart for Skylux to market themselves in a way that makes you feel like you are getting your own travel manager who’s available to you 24/7. And in a way, they probably are until you purchase the ticket. However, what happens after that may be different than what you’d expect from a standard travel agency, especially if hiccups occur or flights get cancelled.
Is Skylux the only airline consolidator?
No, there are other so-called travel agencies that partake in this practice. They include:
- Business Class Guru
- Cheap First Class
- SkyBird
- Wholesale Flights
Can you get refunds with an airline consolidator?
This is where things can get sticky. Typically, you should be able to get your refund with a standard travel agency. A refund should go directly back to the card that was used to purchase the ticket.
However, if the ticket was purchased through an airline consolidator, it becomes much riskier since the original purchase for the ticket was not made using your credit card. When that happens, there are some issues that can occur, as you can imagine. There have been reports of airline consolidators not giving refunds back to the customer, or having it delayed significantly, sometimes even up to a year later.
Are there any truly legit airline consolidators?
Hard to say. At the very least, if you’re really set on buying from an airline consolidator, a good starting standard would be that the company is truly based in the U.S. And by that, I don’t mean that their website states they are based in the U.S. Rather, they should have a physical presence with a building and actual employees working in the U.S. The only one I know of so far is Cook Travel. Their BBB profile isn’t super great at first glance with a B- rating. However, they have so many less filed complaints compared to Skylux. Cook Travel has a total of 2 complaints in the last 3 years compared to Skylux’s 348 complaints in the last 3 years. However, this could either be due to being a less popular company or simply a better company, or maybe a mixture of both. I plan to do a bit more research on Cook Travel and when I find out, I’ll let you know.
How is Skylux rated online?
Skylux has an A+ BBB rating with BBB accreditation, and an average of 4.33/5 stars based on customer reviews. Their number of customer complaints runs sky high though, and really leaves you wondering how on earth they managed to get such a high BBB rating and accreditation despite it.
Is Skylux legit?
At first glance, the Skylux website looks decently done. You’ve got BBB Accreditation with an A+ rating, and you’ve got the staff on display on their About Us page. However, things do seem off. They have had close to 350 complaints in the last 3 years. Keep in mind that customer reviews are not considered in the official BBB rating and accreditation. On top of that, if you reverse search the travel manager and supervisor images on their site, they’re all stock photos.
On top of that, it’s quite unusual that Skylux has their own separate website dedicated to reviews of their own company. You may have run into it if you’ve been looking for reviews of Skylux Travel. As expected, it’s seemingly an aggregate of all the positive reviews all stashed into one place.
However Skylux does have an amazing rating of 4.8/5 stars on TrustPilot, which has over 13,000 reviews.
Pros and cons of Skylux: The pros
Pros
- If things all work out, you get a much cheaper airfare than you would otherwise with standard search flight platforms
- Though the majority of these kind of companies don’t seem to implement the best practices, technically they could be run really well with great customer service if they should choose to
Pros and cons of Skylux: The cons
Cons
- You may not get to earn miles on your credit card as you’re not purchasing from an airline, but rather from airline consolidator company that your credit card may not recognize
- Any delay or cancellation in flights is a risky proposition as the chances of being able to change flights or get a refund are questionable at best since you’re not working directly with an airline
- Your travel manager is incentivized to be available to you 24/7 until you buy your ticket, and any help needed after that may not be as quick and attentive as one might like
- You’ll likely be flying on much lesser-known airlines that have not yet established a reputation of safety and responsibility
- Sometimes, by spending a bit more time and effort on standard flight search platforms, you can wind up getting the same or a similar deal yourself
- Reports of refunds not getting passed along to consumer by Skylux Travel, usually to the tune of several thousand dollars
In conclusion: Is Skylux worth it?
Skylux can help you score great deals. However, know the risk you take with third-party airline consolidators. If it goes well, it can be a great experience, but if there are any last-minute changes or cancellations by the airline, things can go south quite quickly dealing with a third party.
Personally, I’d prefer to use a standard flight search platform like Scott’s Cheap Flights and spend a bit more time trying to secure the best deal myself. The benefit of this is that you deal directly with airlines themselves for the ticket purchase and you’re guaranteeing rewards on your credit card for these purchases. You won’t be relying on a travel wholesaler that may skip out on you once you’ve made your purchase from them.
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