Anyone heard of TerminalA.co.uk?

bcl999

Quite agree with what you are saying,mirrorsaw, but if I read haggybaggy correctly, his ticket was changeable/cancellable but he lost more than he should have as teminala didn't respond quickly enough and his cancellation charges grew.

I am trying to book a ticket at the moment and during the booking process on both expedia and ebookers, it says the ticket is non-refundable and then tells you to click on a link for the "rules & restrictions for this ticket". When I read that page, it says ticket is cancellable before departure for a $150 charge. So how am I supposed to know which is right i.e non-refundable or refundable minus $150? I've e-mailed ebookers and they won't say it's one or the other as "the ticket rules are not set until booking is complete" Now, if that isn't an unfair contract term, I don't know what is!

grable_2

Have just returned from a holiday with flights booked with Terminal A, so thought this might help others.

I'm a Brit living in Germany & I booked 10 days before departure through their German website (British Airways Luxemburg/Gatwick/Jersey & return) The initial hiccup (which turned out not to be a hiccup) was my own fault. Must have had a blackout, because I typed my mother's address in as my own. Was worried that , as it wouldn't match my credit card, the booking might fall through. Couldn't get through to the German Customer Service Helpline AT ALL (never seemed to answer it), but I got through to the British helpline immediately & they were very friendly & told me not to worry.

I think my later "problem" (which, again wasn't a problem really, but it seemed as if there was one) came from the fact that they don't make it clear how their system works. As I understood it, I was to receive an initial confirmation, then an invoice confirming the payment had gone through via my credit card without any problems & then I'd get the tickets by email. That all went smoothly....but no tickets arrived. Two days before departure I tried to phone the number they give you (a Spanish call centre....but you have to be wise to that because they don't include the Spanish dialling code)..they answer in Spanish, but if you press 1, they put you through to an answering service in English (not sure if this is the same as the British Helpline).....but no one answered. I tried the British Helpline & had the same problem (don't know if I'd just got a bad day/time.

They had an automated message saying you could check your flights at checkmytrip, so I looked there, but there seemed to be something wrong with the site because you couldn't type in your booking ref number where you were supposed to. I then looked at the FAQ section on etickets & it said you could take your reservation&/or/ your eticket to the airport.

I phoned BA & they confirmed the booking & said it would be fine to simply bring along the original email of reservation., even though it was sent before payment was confirmed...etickets weren't always issued.

So, in the end, I had to rely on BA's general information helpline, but, on the other hand, nothing was really wrong (maybe on another day I'd have got straight through to Termina A & they'd have explained the system).

So I guess it depends what you want .....shouldn't really have to go through these hoops....the initial email of confirmation was misleading about their system. & I was getting worried. Of course, now I know how it works, it's OK.....but I don't know what would happen if you had to contact them re cancellation or if you took their cancellation insurance & wished to claim on it etc.

Hope this helps

bcl999

Well, the terminala price for my ticket dropped again yesterday and was 15% cheaper than expedia so i went ahead & booked. I got the same e-mail as grable (makes you think that it isn't confirmed till they say payment has been Ok'd with credit card company) and then shortly after another one with a link to checkmytrip site and it's showing there as confirmed etc. Even the topcashback £8 is showing as tracked.

grable_2

Hello bc

With me it wasn't quite the same, because their email in German said that I would get tickets, which never arrived. (after the confirmation of payment)...which was what got me worried (my husband's German, so I didn't misunderstand it)....but the confirmation/reservation (issued before the invoice/confirmation of payment) was enough....obviously, I took the confirmation of payment to the airport too, just in case.....

The German email didn't give me a link to checkyourtrip.com either....it gave me a link to Terminal A's own website. I picked up on checkyourtrip from the pre recorded message while you're waiting on their phone helpline (the British helpline)

The differences are probably just because of British/German websites, but it would have saved me a bit of worry & phoning if they hadn't told me I'd be getting tickets after the invoice

bcl999

This is part of my 1st e-mail -
Within the next 24 hours we will process your payment; if your credit card isn’t rejected, we will issue your ticket and send you the corresponding receipt plus the instructions you need to fly by e-mail.

If I hadn't seen your post I would be expecting the "corresponding receipt plus instructions", so it saved me worrying about that as the 2nd e-mail, although it contained the link to checkmytrip, wasn't a receipt as such, didn't say it was the e-ticket or "contain instructions to fly"..

grable_2

Glad it saved you a bit of worry (I know what it's like, especially as we stood to lose the money for the hotel) It was looking at the checkmytrip site that made me think what I'd already had could be enough...although I'd have probably phoned BA in the end to check, anyway. To be fair to Terminal A, although I could NEVER get an answer on the German helpline, I didn't spend ages & ages hanging on the British & Spanish ones......I gave up after 5 or 6 minutes on each & phoned BA instead

bcl999

JUst a quick update on this - I've now received the "payment receipt" e-mail (more like 96hrs after booking rather than 24hrs and no different "instructions to fly" than what they have already supplied.) It looks like it is just the German site which is missing it, as you said.

casnbs

I have booked with them lots of times before especially scheduled flights to the Canary Islands. The flights have always been fine and the service from them good. If they do business in a slightly different way it is because they are based in Spain.

yvonne_bullen

Hi,
I booked a flight with Terminal A to South Africa in November 2009. I received confirmation of my faxed bank receipt (no visa accepted!) via sms and when I tried to get my e-ticket a week later they said they hadn't received my fax and they'd cancelled my flight. After requesting a refund of my money I booked another flight. When I got back from my holiday and still hadn't received my refund I called them up - they're response was to send information through again. Anyway, after approximately 4 attempts of requesting my refund - I was informed they had gone under Administration. Now I can't even speak to anyone. So, they still have my money and I have no way of getting it back as they are not registered with any governing body....
This is a very expensive learning lesson for me! To top it all they appear to be still trading? Can anyone verify this? Can anyone offer any advise - other than the obvious book direct in future!

STAY AWAY FROM THEM - THEY'RE TOTALLY CORRUPT!
cheers
Yvonne