UK Travel Agents

[Guest]

I will have a little rant here on a subject dear to my heart.

 

First of all, I hate (probably despise) Call Centres.  Ever since my bank "restructured" and I ended up talking to some faceless wonder who didn't give a stuff about me as a customer I have tried to avoid them at all costs.

 

I have always avoided doing business with e-bookers (including the parent company Flightbookers) for exactly that reason.  If my travel is messed up I want to know who is responsible - not just lumbered with a fob-off from their "Customer Service" (an oxymoron if ever there was one) department.  So for years I have happily booked with Travelbag in Knutsford - 10 minutes from my house and I can sit down with the agent and go through what is available and suits me, not the agent.  I was always happy with this arrangement and put a lot of business their way.

 

To my horror I have just found out that Travelbag (including Bridge The World) has been taken over by e-bookers.  No doubt when I phone now I will be put through to e-bookers/Flightbookers/Bridge The World/Travelbag Call Centre which, unfortunately, is in Delhi and not Knutsford.  So it looks like the independent agents are going down the same path as Thos Cook/jmc, Airtours/MyTravel and Thomsons/Lunn Poly.  Not good news for travellers I suspect. :-/

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2680851.stm

 

Tom

[Eneukman 1]

Tom,

 

You're not alone in despising call centres. I do as well, particularly those that take you through 50 options with the option you want being the last one and then having to repeat the whole process 10 times before finding out that the area you want to speak to closed for the weekend 2 minutes ago.

 

I have booked tickets through Travelocity before, http://www.travelocity.com/  though only within Europe. This site promises to search various airlines for the best price to destinations all over the world though EVA and many of the budget airlines are conspicuous by their absence. One tip though, particularly if you have to fly from one of the provincial airports, is to make 2 searches i.e. edinburgh to heathrow and heathrow to bangkok as this could work out a hell of a lot cheaper than edinburgh to bangkok. Even at the BA Travel Shop it worked out a lot cheaper that way!

 

Travelocity have been very fast getting tickets to me. I booked tickets to Brusells from Edinburgh (flying in June) at about 8.00 on Christmas Eve over the internet and the tickets arrived on 28 December.

 

Alan

[stevemcm 1]

Tom,

I deal with Going Places they deal with consolidators for BR & CI etc. unlike Lunn Poly, Co-op Travel care etc. I have bought each of the last 3 tickets from them the last was eight pounds more than the cheapest internet price I saw and you get the ticket within a fortnight even, as in my case, the departure date is 6 months away.

 

Regards,

stevoh.

[MROLL320 0]

Booked with www.weflyco.uk last trip, £403+tax for Singapore Airlines, best "going places" £680+tax...tickets arrived here less than 48hours later..... never had a price anything like net prices in Uk agents.....

 

RD..  8)