travelcenteruk.co.uk - reliable?

The_Living_Coin · 28 January 2011 at 2:28PM

Hi
I'm travelling to Uganda in April. So far flights I've seen have been around £560 and upwards.
I just found these guys - travelcenteruk.co.uk (through cheapflights.co.uk), offering flights with Emirates for £437 with really good connection times too. Emirates own site prices them around £650.

They have the ATOL and IATA symbols on their site and an 0800 number to call.

Anybody used them? Too good to be true? Any thoughts please?

Thanks
Stephen

claireoregan · 13 April 2011 at 11:14AM

Hi Stephen,

I'm in a similar situation now with flights to Cuba with TravelCenterUK.co.uk.

Did you book with them in the end? If so, how did you find them? If not, why not? Did you receive any feedback from your post?

Thanks!

Claire

PaddyBoy · 27 June 2011 at 9:04PM

Noticed neither previous posters responded so I progressed with a booking. They have a bunch of "Promotional Rates" advertised on their website. When you click on choose flight, you enter certain mandatory fields one being your home phone number. As soon as you continue the screen jumps back to the choice of flights with a message at the top saying "oops those seats aren't available anymore." Then...and you can time this...within 1 minute I received a call from a guy called Jerome who explained he wanted to help me with my booking. In a well rehersed explaination of how July is a peak travel season which is why the promotional seats have all been sold he proceeded to try and sell me tickets a day earlier, from a different airport, with a different airline for £150 more per ticket. Just to be sure, I did this several times on different flights with the same result. [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

claireoregan · 27 June 2011 at 10:13PM

Just wanted to follow up on my experience too.

I also experienced the same thing with this crowd. After inputting my details I was redirected to a 'this offer is no longer available' page. This was followed by a phone call from Jerome the next day offering me a similar but more expensive option (This was only slightly more expensive though - not like PaddyBoy's experience.

I was a bit worried at having entered my credit card details before getting to the redirected page, but no unauthorised charges were made to my card.

[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

Best avoided in my opinion! We eventually booked our Cuba/DomRep trip with Trailfinders and was very happy with the service.

stefy2011 · 18 November 2011 at 11:29AM

My experience travelling with Travel Center UK

As am reluctant to book my tickets online I contacted them through the phone, I spoke to Mr Cherrubin he understood that am reluctant to give my credit card details, he firstly made me comfortable and he gave me the best cheap flights. I give them 5 stars.

akrishnan03 · 29 February 2012 at 7:04PM

Thanks to all for giving information on travelcenteruk.co.uk , you are so right, I almost got through booki ng my flight and did not complete as my debit card is expiring and I need to use my new card, in 2min I got a call from travelcenter.co.uk saying we got your details as you are trying to book a flight which is of lower standard... thats why it allowed you to book and he was trying to ask for more price, I said I read the reviews but I was wanting to try it myself ...And I wouldnt book it even if it is cheaper. I registered into the moneysavingexpert just to add comments on this forum which helped me and i wanted to give feedback to others... Guys beware

gori1983 · 31 July 2012 at 11:08PM

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE.
They are wholly unreliable and give you one price and then they say that deal is no longer available. Then they pester you like hell.
My grandfather was lead to believe he was getting a good deal and made a booking over the phone. When he got the itinery email, he realised there was a problem - he called them and they said that the booking had been made and if he cancelled there would be a £280 pound cancellation charge. The poor man is an OAP and has been really shocked by this whole fiasco.
I will certainly be giving my genuine opinion of this company on all the travel websites, relevant authorities and also complain to the ombudsman.

I would stick to the major players even if they aren't the cheapest.

DPmail · 23 January 2013 at 3:17PM

Travelcenter UK also known as Crystal Travel are con merchants. They will exploit you as much as they can and will quote you one price then raise it with some excuse about not having availability for the previous fare. They will do this subtly so you are unaware. They will also misinform you about the refund of the fare and whether there are any extra costs and the fare class. I recently booked tickets with them and was told i could change my return flights at no extra cost and the tickets were open and was also told i would travelling business class, and that's how they justified the excessive high fare they charged me for the tickets. When I tried to change the return flight they told me i had to pay more and could not get me back to the UK. I ended up purchasing tickets with another carrier.They also added extra charges to my visa card without informing me which i disputed with the c/card company. When I complained to their customer services they completely refuted everything and also refused to provide a recording of the conversation at the time of the booking. They are the perfect example of RIP OFF agents and do ignore their IATA or ATOL bonding as they will find some excuse to swindle you out of your money. I honestly can not see this company lasting long. My advice would be to go with a trusted household name - DO NOT USE TRAVELCENTER UK or CRYSTAL TRAVEL if you do not want to get ripped off and if you want peace of mind regarding your travel arrangements.

markthomas · 23 April 2013 at 11:15AM

I tried to book a flight to Accra for my family and my budget was around £1200. I tried with the big players and all of them wants to take me on a ride and even some agents were suggesting me to travel within the country for the budget I said. I didn't give up I saw a newsletter in which it says search for airfares market leader in Google, then I did so and found out Travel Center UK. Then I tried booking online for £1300 which was a bit more than my budget, but that was the best I found. I give them all 5 stars, go ahead with them.

tamiami · 23 April 2013 at 11:27AM

Is it not strange that Stefy2011 and markthomas both say "give them 5 stars" and they are the only good reviews given??!!

Obviously they work for the dodgy company.

IanDexter · 23 April 2013 at 11:28AM

Last minute flights means its Travel Center UK! Well I had a surprise wedding:eek: and we had to no time to plan our honeymoon out, that is when I hopped into Google and searched for honeymoon packages and came across a deal to Paris at Travel Center UK. I found Alister who was so polite to me and made me relax and assured me that he would find the perfect honeymoon for us! Within couple of mints my dream honeymoon package was ready! I give them 5 stars definetly

travelcenteruk.co.uk - reliable?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free