Have you ever heard of edreams.com? It is a powerful search engine and online travel agent for flights, hotels, holiday packages, car rentals, and even travel insurance. Yes, they cover many aspects in the travel space.
But, it is this website actually reliable? Why is edreams cheaper than other sites? Same as with Kiwi.com, this is a big topic for frequent travelers. Therefore, we wrote up a big, detailed review of edreams.com.
Important: In this genuine, non-sponsored article, we share the good and the bad of edreams.com. Please read it carefully, so you get the pros and cons.
Personally, we do not use edreams (keep reading to find out why).
We always use Skyscanner when looking for flights. Our essential travel resources are Hostelworld, Omio.com and HeyMondo Insurance. We always use them on our travels!
Did/ do you have a great or bad experience with eDreams? We keep the comment section open for you. You should also know that edreams is actively sponsoring bloggers to write a favorable article and review on them. Again, this article is not sponsored and we did not get paid by anyone. We share insights you as a traveler should be aware of!
What else do we use at Hostelgeeks to find travel deals? We use websites like Omio.com, Skyscanner and even book with Emirates, for instance! In fact, we wrote more detailed articles:
- Omio.com in review – the best way to find flights, trains, and buses
- Skyscanner in review – the easiest way to compare flight prices?
- Qatar Airways in Review
- HeyMondo Travel Insuranace – is it worth the hype?
eDreams Review covers:
- What is eDreams
- Legitimacy of eDreams
- Booking Refund Process
- Why we do not use eDreams.com
- FAQs
- Alternatives to edreams
- Summary
1. What is eDreams?
eDreams is an online travel agent where you can book flights, hotels, holiday packages, car rentals, and travel insurance. It’s one of the old-time booking websites, starting in 1999 in Barcelona and becoming one of the biggest online travel agencies.
OTA is short for Online Travel Agency.
As a European company, you can usually find many holiday deals in Europe. eDreams doesn’t stop there, though… They operate across 40 countries worldwide with flight deals from 665 airlines.
In addition to the website, eDreams has an app with exclusive deals & discount codes, a hand luggage scanner, a flight tracker, a check-in, and boarding pass generator, and flight alerts.
We will run through everything eDreams offers and determine whether it is a reliable platform for buying flights. Continue reading for more information!
1.1 eDreams Prime Service
With eDreams, you can join their Prime service. This is a bit like Amazon, except with your subscription, you’ll benefit from a total preferential price with all costs included to say goodbye to hidden fees.
eDreams Prime costs €54.99/year (approx. €4.60/month), and you get the first month free. Ideally, you will book a holiday that equates to more than a €55 saving, and you’ll have made your money back on your first trip.
eDreams Prime offers you a discount across all available flights and up to 50% off on accommodation. The amount you’ll save on flights looks like this:
Based on these savings, you’ll make the membership money back on one long-haul flight and two to three short-haul flights.
Finding the best deals with eDreams Prime is pretty easy, too, and you can check them out before subscribing.
IMPORTANT: However, please note that there are many complaints online about getting charged the PRIME Fee although it has been cancelled. This is one of the most common issues at edreams.
Do we use eDreams Prime? No, we do not use this service.
1.2 Step-by-Step Guide on How To Book Your Vacation with eDreams
Booking a package holiday, flight, or hotel is straightforward as with many other sites. All you need to do is:
- Step 1: In the top menu, click on the page for what you’re looking for (e.g., ‘Flight + Hotel’)
- Step 2: Choose your destination or scroll down to ‘Top routes and holiday deals!’
- Step 3: Input your details & move through to check out
- Step 4: Compare the price for the same holiday with eDreams Prime
- Step 5: Complete the booking
- Step 6: Confirmation to your inbox or eDreams app.
Yet again, we do not use their booking service and do not recommend using it.
2. Legitimacy of eDreams
eDreams, run under parent company ODIGEO, is the largest online flight travel agency in Europe, with more than 20 years in the worldwide travel sector. As such an established online travel agency, it certainly is legit.
How can we tell? Here are some key ways to decipher genuine travel agencies:
2.1 Payment Certified
When paying for your booking, you’ll be taken to a security transaction pop-up to certify your transaction. This can involve approving the payment via your banking app, inputting a code sent to your email or mobile device, or answering a secret question.
2.2 Financially Verified
eDreams is registered on the Madrid Exchange – the largest securities market in Spain, also known as the Bolsa de Madrid. For a company to be written on the Madrid Exchange, it is a public company that has been accepted for trading after meeting several specific requirements.
In addition, eDreams has a consolidated tax base and public financial information that verifies that it is a legitimately operating enterprise. At least on a paper, eDreams seems legit.
However, their business practice has been criticed over and over again.
2.3 Well-Established
eDreams works with both B2B and B2C customers. As part of the ODIGEO Group, eDreams serves 18 million customers in 46 countries globally. With HQ in Madrid, eDreams has more than 1,700 employees worldwide. This is their official information.
Moreover, eDreams have over 115,000 reviews on TrustPilot, with more than 60% being four and five-star ratings. SiteJapper also rates it almost four stars.
That being said, these ratings are also being criticized by many independent resources.
3. Booking Refund Process (Don’t count on it)
If you need to cancel your eDreams booking, you will need to contact their customer service team to make the cancellation. Once you’ve done that, the refund will be processed if the following:
- You bought a flight ticket with free cancellation
- The airline cancels your flight (due to exceptional cases such as natural disasters, strikes, etc.)
If you meet these requirements, they will process the refund and e-mail you letting you know how much will be credited to the card you used to purchase the tickets. This credit will be automatic. However, every refund differs and depends on the ticket type and airline.
You won’t be eligible for a refund if the airline you booked with does not have a free cancellation policy (most low-cost airlines do not offer refunds if you want to cancel a ticket).
Always check the cancellation terms before you confirm your booking.
The booking refund issues is massive at edreams. After the prime fee, receiving a refund is another hassle many traveler struggle with. You can find many more details at Truspilot.
4. Why we do not use eDreams.com?
edreams today might be ok to book with. However, their history does not sit well with us. There were many hickups along the way and the reviews of edreams do not changed our mind.
edreams is a very big company in Barcelona and there are many employees living in the city. Since we lived there, we got in contact with a few people who consulted edreams.
Before edreams changed their business model to a prime model, they had a business model we personally did not like. They were always showing very low prices, even for Ryanair flights. Here you have to know that Ryanair does not work with any OTAs out there, let alone let them sell their flights for less.
However, edreams always showed cheaper flights. Usually around $40 cheaper.
This cheaper rate was only accessible with the edreams credit card. This credit card was impossible to get. Therefore, these cheap rates were not accessible for anyone.
Later, they changed this again. They kept showing very low rates until the very last step of the booking process. This is where they added their hefty commission of $60 on top.
This strategy resulted in 90% of their customer complaints which could have been found all over the internet. Around 2016, the European Union made this practice illegal and edreams (and other websites!) had to adapt.
And yes, many more websites did this. They were hiding fees until the last moment. Ryanair.com was a master in this back end the day. Luckily they started to care more about their customers.
We could go into more details about what this external consultant told us about edreams. But legally, we are not allowed to disclose this information without getting into trouble.
Judge for yourself if you want to book with edreams and if you trust them. Trustpilot is a great resource to check reviews for edreams.
For any spanish speaking users, make sure you check as well the Spanish reviews about edreams.com. They are eye-opening.
We do not think it’s good to go with a company covering so many fields like edreams. They cover: book flights, hotels, holiday packages, car rentals, and travel insurance.
Every single item is a massive industry and there can be issues with every single one. With renting a car, to stay at your hotel to insurance.
As a general rule, go to a specialist. For renting cars, check Discover Car Hire. For Hostels, check Hostelworld.
Why edreams is cheaper?
eDreams suggests cheaper pricer due to a trick. A dirty trick, some travelers might say.
They simply change the prices of the actual price, making them appear cheaper. In the last step, the final rate will be shown plus a big extra fee. You can find many complaints about this practice online.
5. Alternatives to edreams
So, let’s talk about the elephant in the room:
- Why is it cheaper?
- And is it trustworthy?
- is edreams ok and safe to book with?
As mentioned at the beginning, I compare different airlines and booking portals. The chances of finding cheaper flights with edreams or Kiwi.com are quite high. However, airlines websites could be even cheaper right?!
Always compare as there is no generic rule. Some hostels are cheaper on Hostelworld.com, others are cheaper on Booking.com. the same really goes for flights.
Almost every booking engine has their own agreement with the airlines. Some of them can give you a better price, sometimes there are special offers. I don’t know the background, and it doesn’t matter to a traveler.
All I want: a cheaper flight!
On our flight from Sri Lanka to Munich I used the website called kiwi.com. Before hitting the book-button, I compared the airline’s rate.
As it turns out, I saved a sweet 56€ – by using kiwi.com!
Again, I used them for several flights as I got the best deal with them. So far I have had no issue with missed flight connections or lost baggage. Let’s hope this continues.
What alternative websites to edreams are there? For Flights:
- flights.google.com
- kiwi.com
- skyscanner.com
- the airlines directly on the website like Emirates
- Omio.com
I use Google Flights for:
Google Flights covers the biggest range of airlines. BUT: They also do not cover all airlines in the world. I had to take a flight from Mexico to Spain, Google Flights did not show flights with Emirates.
Not sure if this was a one-time thing. But always keep this in mind. Always compare websites!
Type in your destination and let Google Flight do the magic.
I use Skyscanner for:
Skyscanner is fast loading and I love to check it out for comparing airline rates on specific dates.
Read: My full insider guide to how to use Skyscanner
It also comes with the multi city feature. They always add new features. One of my favorite one is their inspirational map.
It shows you cheap destinations in your area. You can filter by price and set the dates yourself. An interesting tool! Of course, since then they updated and implemented more and more cool features.
Skyscanner also shows now flights from Kiwi.com. So when you check Skyscanner, you might up ending using Kiwi.com anyways.
I use Kiwi for:
I use Kiwi for finding cheaper destinations and dates to fly. It is especially handy when I am looking for inspiration. Give me a good deal to a destination I’ve never been to and I’m in!
Obviously, I use all four websites to compare the rates.
Our final booking is made with….well, this really depends! We have used Kiwi.com in the past and had no issues. But when, we have received so many horrible comments, that in fact, we do no longer use them for the final booking step.
By now, we usually use the website of the Airline and check what Skyscanner recommends. So far we never ever used any discount websites for booking flights.
I use Omio.com for (update)
Since 2019, we are also using Omio.com a lot. It is a super fantastic tool to find transport, especially over Europe. So so so handy and easy!
You can compare flights, trains and buses. Pretty much any type of public transport.
I especially love the simple overview of your chosen flight. For instance, I checked a flight from Paris, France to Bangkok, Thailand.
It states:
- Your flight has a layover in Helsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)
- Your flight is an early morning arrival to Bangkok (BKK)
- This is an overnight journey
It shows you the bullet points on important information right away. See the screenshot below.
What alternative websites to edreams are there? For Travel Insurance:
We have a full review of Safetywings.
Make also sure you read our detailed review of Heymondo.
Other detailed travel guides you need:
How to book your accommodation like a boss? 15 booking tips for hostels, hotels and apartments.
We also wrote a big review about Hostelworld and review about Tiqets, a website to purchase tickets to sights worldwide like the Colosseum and Eiffel Tower.
Also check out Klook.com in review for fantastic experiences across the globe. Make travel easier – book transport tickets with Omio. Here’s a genuine review of Omio to help you out. We also wrote a big review about Qatar Airways. A review for Etihad Airline is also on the way.
6. FAQs
Who is Behind eDreams?
eDreams was founded by Javier Pérez-Tenessa de Block, James Hare, and Mauricio Prieto in Silicon Valley in 2000. In 2000, the company moved its headquarters to Barcelona, Spain. It launched in the Spanish and Italian markets, becoming the first online travel agency to offer its services in Spain. Javier Perez-Tenessa served as CEO from 2000 to 2015, when he retired. Dana Dunne now runs eDreams as CEO.
How Do I Get In Touch With eDreams?
You can contact eDreams customer support via the live chat on their website. You can also change or cancel your booking, request a refund, check your flight status, and lots more in ‘Manage my booking’ on the eDreams app or website.
Why eDreams is cheaper?
eDreams suggests cheaper pricer due to a trick. They simply change the prices of the actual price, making them appear cheaper. In the last step, the final rate will be shown plus a big extra fee. You can find many complaints about this practice online.
7. Summary
eDreams is a well-established and reliable online travel agent with great discounts on international holiday packages, flights, hotels, and car rentals. eDreams app offers a wide range of exclusive deals & discount codes, a hand luggage scanner, a flight tracker, a check-in, and boarding pass generator, and flight alerts.
But again, this only applies if everything goes as planned. They are many things that speak in for edreams, but also against using it.
What now?
- How to book hostels like a boss? Our essential booking guide for hostels and hotels
- The BEST hostels in Europe and the world: the 5 Star Hostels and how to book them
- Review of Get Your Guide.com – is it reliable?
- Sort out your iVisa and Onward Ticket before you book a flight
