The mobile travel application Hopper has experienced significant challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as travelers canceled plans and airlines reduced flight schedules. However, difficulties surrounding airline credit and refund processes have evolved into a substantial customer service issue for the airfare prediction and ticket booking company, which was previously valued at $750 million in 2018 and achieved unicorn status through an undisclosed funding round during COVID-19 lockdowns this year. Currently, a large number of Hopper customers are expressing their dissatisfaction with the app in app store reviews, labeling Hopper as fraudulent, indicating intentions to pursue legal action, and advising others to avoid using the service.

A common concern among these users centers on the cancellation of their flights by airlines and the subsequent inability to obtain refunds, coupled with a lack of accessible support from Hopper. User reviews frequently mention the absence of a direct phone number for assistance.

These negative reviews on app stores have created a public relations challenge for Hopper’s brand image.

To illustrate the nature of the feedback, consider the following examples:

• “Reaching them by phone is impossible, and email responses take a week or longer.”
• “Customer service is unreachable, and my inquiries have gone unanswered. The help section leads to a never-ending cycle.”
• “Caution. This company will take your money. Refunds are nonexistent, and there is no one available to speak with.”
• “Customer support remains consistently poor. We submitted support requests a week ago and have received no response.”
• “Hopper is reliable for flight cancellations and the non-refund of your money. There is absolutely no customer support available.”
• “I understand the app is experiencing high traffic due to COVID, but having to post a review to get any attention and being unable to contact support through the app is incredibly frustrating.”
• “There is no way to contact anyone. The Contact Us page only provides a list of frequently asked questions.”
• “I never received a refund, and my outreach to their ‘need help’ section resulted in a generic email promising a response. After a week and a follow-up message, I still haven’t heard anything. Hopper took my money for a flight that was canceled by the airline and failed to notify me.”
• “There is no available customer support. If you require assistance, your only option is to ‘read a post.’ Buyer beware – it’s a complete scam.”
• “I’ve contacted them multiple times regarding a flight credit from April 2020 and have yet to receive any information or assistance with using it.”
• “This company is fraudulent! Do not use Hopper! I will be consulting with a lawyer!”
• “I cannot express how dissatisfied I am with this service…Having to wait 15 days for a response is unbelievable.”
• “I booked a flight in June that I still haven’t been refunded for because the airline will only refund the agent directly. Customer service is nonexistent.”
• “I spent over $3,000 and, three months later, I’m still waiting for a refund.”
• “I have been waiting seven months for a refund.”

As of late, users have submitted over 550 one-star reviews on iOS and 302 on Android, according to Sensor Tower data. A significant portion of these are visible when sorting by “Most Recent” reviews on iOS, which negatively impacts the reputation of what was previously a trusted and respected travel brand.

Hopper has acknowledged to TechCrunch that it is facing substantial difficulties with an unprecedented surge in customer support requests since the beginning of the pandemic, representing a 2.5-fold increase compared to its normal volume.

The company reports receiving over 100,000 support requests monthly, as both consumers and airlines modified and canceled flights. Since April, it has processed more than 980,000 customer service inquiries.

Many of these requests concern refunds due to COVID-related cancellations. Airlines typically offer alternative flight arrangements when schedules change, and many customers accept these modifications. However, some customers prefer refunds to rebook different flights or cancel their travel plans altogether. The pandemic has intensified this situation, resulting in cancellation rates approximately five times higher than usual, according to Hopper.

Another source of confusion is determining responsibility for processing these refunds. Hopper states that customers can either contact the airline directly for a refund or request assistance from Hopper. It also notes that a limited number of airlines only offer travel credit instead of refunds, and these policies are dictated by the airlines, preventing Hopper from issuing refunds in all cases to maintain financial stability.

“We would have had to disburse approximately half a billion dollars,” explains Hopper CEO Frederic Lalonde, describing the situation to TechCrunch. We contacted them to understand the situation, given the significant negative feedback regarding the previously popular app.

“The airline system operates in a way that if I refund a customer who booked through us, I won’t receive that money back. We would have jeopardized our business if we had done so,” Lalonde states.

Furthermore, Hopper typically does not directly receive the refunds; they are issued directly from the airline to the customer. Many customers experienced delays in receiving refunds this year due to COVID-related issues. However, there are exceptions. For certain low-cost carriers, such as Frontier and Spirit, Hopper is responsible for processing refunds from the airline and then distributing them to customers. In these instances, Hopper’s lack of response to customer support inquiries left customers without recourse. (We are tracking how the airlines are responding to our inquiries about Hopper refunds here. The process is complex, to say the least.)

However, the core of Hopper’s customer service challenges wasn’t the disruption caused by the pandemic and airline cancellations themselves, but rather how Hopper managed the situation.

“We let down our customers,” Lalonde concedes. “We had people who placed their trust in us.”

He indicates that Hopper has addressed many of the customer complaints and issues. However, a substantial number of problems remain unresolved. “There’s no scenario where that was our intention,” he adds.

Throughout the year, as the customer service crisis escalated, Lalonde reports that his personal email address and mobile phone number were publicly shared online. He has since processed several thousand – or potentially tens of thousands – of emails and voicemails from customers seeking assistance.

In retrospect, a misstep Hopper made was failing to hire additional customer service representatives to address the anticipated impact of the pandemic. In fact, Hopper initially furloughed agents in an effort to reduce costs and ensure business continuity. At the time, Lalonde explains, there was considerable uncertainty regarding future prospects. Essential goods were scarce. International travel had ceased. Vaccine development typically takes years. This appeared to be a prolonged, worst-case scenario.

“We had to develop an operational plan based on zero revenue for four years. That’s what I presented to my board,” Lalonde says.

When travel restrictions eased and demand began to recover, some of Hopper’s agents were reinstated. However, the customer service issues had already escalated significantly as airlines canceled and changed schedules frequently, and began issuing Future Travel Credits (FTC). Instead of increasing staffing to address customer service concerns, Hopper opted to implement automation, aiming to empower customers to resolve issues independently. Throughout 2020, Hopper automated flight exchanges within the app, redemption of airline-issued FTCs, management of schedule changes, and introduced self-service cancellations, along with follow-up emails to customers after they requested a cancellation.

Lalonde believed that automation would be more crucial for long-term survival than hiring additional agents.

“Would adding more agents have made a significant difference? Honestly, I don’t believe so. It might have resolved 10% more cases,” says Lalonde. “Could we have assisted thousands of customers sooner? Yes. But would it have substantially impacted the million inbound requests we received? No.”

Another area where Hopper fell short was in customer communication.

This is particularly evident in the App Store complaints.

Customers are frustrated by refund issues, but they are even more upset by their inability to reach anyone for assistance. Hopper did not improve this situation by sending emails promising a response within 24 hours – an unrealistic expectation (see below).

However, customers were unable to locate Hopper’s help features.

“Was our communication strategy flawed? Yes,” admits Lalonde.

He explains that he redirected the team to focus on resolving FTC and refund issues, rather than engaging in communication. “This made us appear much worse, but we accomplished a significant amount of work…because, ultimately, after the fifth repetitive email, people became just as frustrated [as when they were ignored].”

Hopper has since apologized to customers and issued an additional $1.5 million in travel credits, in addition to processing refunds, to compensate for the issues. It is still working through the backlog of customer service requests and anticipates another six months of disruption as the rollout of vaccines does not immediately resolve the airlines’ travel challenges.

Over the next two months, Hopper also plans to increase its support team by 75% now that the future appears more stable. It also intends to introduce in-app updates, including a resolution center, escalation path, status check to prevent duplicate requests, and in-app structured requests, along with improved email campaigns, in-app messaging, and website access to check booking status.

It is remarkable that a company facing such a crisis could even survive, let alone secure funding, while its brand reputation is being damaged and numerous customers are dissatisfied.

As it turns out, Montreal-based Hopper will survive, at least in the short term, thanks to a government bailout.

In early May, Hopper raised $70 million from institutional and private investors. The Canadian government chose to support promising technology businesses impacted by the pandemic through direct financial assistance. The majority of the $70 million round (more than half, but not 99%) came from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Investissement Quebec. Additionally, all of Hopper’s existing investors participated, joined by new investors Inovia and WestCap.

The Canadian government – which Lalonde describes as “more socially oriented than you might expect” – facilitated this by mitigating risk for other investors by leading venture rounds in technology companies that had performed well before the pandemic.

“They did this on a large scale and it stabilized the technology sector in Canada,” he says. The new funds now value Hopper at approximately $1 billion, Lalonde adds.

One factor contributing to Hopper’s difficulties during the pandemic was the considerable uncertainty surrounding the U.S. market, which Lalonde describes as “very concerning.”

“We never knew what would happen. If there had been a clearer plan, we might have been able to prepare more effectively. But we had no idea. Lockdowns varied by state,” he explains. “When trying to determine the level of investment, spending, emergency funding, or recovery planning, predictability at the government level makes decision-making easier. The U.S. was not the most predictable environment,” Lalonde says.

While Hopper’s business has been stabilized for now, the app’s brand reputation has suffered significantly.

The question now is whether that reputation can also be restored?

“I don’t know,” says Lalonde. “I will say this: the only correct approach is to continue doing the right thing, one customer at a time.”