CheapTickets

Just wanted to relate my experience with CheapTickets. We are on the Carnival Freedom from Miami to Rome on 4/26/08. We were looking for the best airfares for our return from Rome on/about 5/14/08. According to Kayak, CheapTickets showed Aer Lingus available (through Dublin) from Rome to JFK at less than $500, and fitting our schedule. Went ahead and booked the flights, and printed out the computer screen with the itinerary. When I got the email from CheapTickets confirming the flight, it only showed the flight from Dublin to JFK--at the same total price. Didn't do me a whole lot of good since I wasn't going to be coming from Dublin. On calling CheapTickets, I was told that Aer Lingus hadn't confirmed the purchase from Rome to Dublin--told me to call back in about an hour. When I called back in about an hour, I was told that Aer Lingus rejected the purchase from Rome to Dublin. Looking at the Aer Lingus site after the fact, it looks like they don't fly out of Rome on the day we were looking at (even though CheapTickets was the one that gave us that itinerary). When I told them I wanted to cancel my tickets, they said that they could do that, but the service fee (totaling about $45) was not refundable. I told them that this was unacceptable--they can't charge me a service fee for their screw-up. I had to talk to a supervisor in order to get them to agree to refund the service fee. Even then, the refund of the service fee did not come through on my credit card, and I had to call back once or twice more to get the refund.

Ended up booking different flights through Orbitz, at a higher cost.

Everything worked out in the end, but it was a pain in the butt to get resolved. Not sure how CheapTickets ended up with incorrect information in their database, or why the whole thing happened. Not sure I would ever consider CheapTickets again. Has anyone else had an experience like this with CheapTickets or any other online travel site?