Skyscanner

hilton

When searching for cheap flights many of us use Skyscanner,the links from there usually direct you to the cheapest price of a flight.

What I suggest you then do is a Google search for reviews of the agent,whilst i'm not suggesting that anyone is doing illegal just for example look for reviews of budgetair or netflights and for there does seem to be a lot of unhappy customers.

So whilst we are searching to save money, something as expensive as a flight might be worth going through a company that applies good customer relations even though more expensive.

mgdavid

hilton wrote: »

When searching for cheap flights many of us use Skyscanner,the links from there usually direct you to the cheapest price of a flight.

What I suggest you then do is a Google search for reviews of the agent,whilst i'm not suggesting that anyone is doing illegal just for example look for reviews of budgetair or netflights and for there does seem to be a lot of unhappy customers.

So whilst we are searching to save money, something as expensive as a flight might be worth going through a company that applies good customer relations even though more expensive.

eh? sorry, don't understand. I've always understood the way to do it is use skyscanner to find cheapest airline & flights, then book direct with the airline.

hilton

Today I was looking for flights to Thailand,the cheapest flight I wanted was coming in at £12 cheaper than the flight being offered by the airline not a lot of money but as the saying goes "every little helps".

So I went for the cheapest option which turned out to be budgetair,having never heard of them decide to a google search of them where i ended up at www.tustpilot website which gave them a rating of 8,8 out of 10.thought to myself this is alright should be no problems.

Then I started to read their reviews most of them giving 5stars then the more you read the reviews the more you realised that they where all self promotion,"hoping that you book your ticket next time as me" full quote. "Budgetair offers brilliant service" full quote."Goodservice and an effective service-try them" full quote and so on and so on.

No mention of what led them to give 5 stars or why their service was better than other agents or how much through booking with them what savings where being made.

In Saturdays 26/01/13 Guardian there was an article titled "Fake reviews plague consumer websites" and after looking at Budgetair website where 66 out of 75 reviews were writen by people with only 1 review,alarm bells started ringing.

By all means if you have had a good experince of this company please ignore the above all I'm trying to do is alert people to the fact that sometimes a little investigation into these companies can throw up unexpected results.

hilton

Just been reading the reviews on Budgetair again,and found a 5 star review titled "GREAT service from this company" the third paragraph down reads "Even when I got my husbands birth date wrong (been together 40 years)"

Bet you can not guess his wifes name? Richard Bekon

mgdavid

you still don't make sense - did you read my post especially the bit about booking direct with the airline?
Budgetair are not an airline; from the 'About us' on their own website -
"BudgetAir.co.uk is one of the largest online travel agencies in the UK."

richardw

Save £12 to get a travel agency's terms and conditions in addition to the airline's ? No thanks, a false economy.

hilton

In reply to mgdavid,when you go on skscanner to search for a flight it will will come up as the cheapest flight,for example if you put in East Midlands to Kracow going out on the 07/03/13 returning 10/03/13 it will only give you one price,as there is only one airline(in this case Ryanair) that will give you this service.

However should you put in London to Bangkok going out on the 07/03/13 returning on the 17/03/13 it will show you the cheapest price as there are many airlines to chose from,if you look underneath this you will see where it says details where a whole bunch of agents are listing this flight all at prices higher than the one skyscanner is showing as the cheapest.Not as this is skyscanners fault as it will only give you the details that are given to them

What I am trying to point out is that just because someone is showing the lowest fare does not mean that they are giving you the best service.Seeing as you are making a considerable investment in your flight sometimes peace of mind and confidence in who you have booked with should probably override the urge to save a few pounds .

Sounds a bit confusing but hope that clarifys it for you.

mcc100

I regularly use Skyscanner to compare flight times and costs on the dates I want to travel, but ALWAYS book directly with the airline.

Doshwaster

hilton wrote: »

Today I was looking for flights to Thailand,the cheapest flight I wanted was coming in at £12 cheaper than the flight being offered by the airline not a lot of money but as the saying goes "every little helps".

Personally, if I was booking a flight to Thailand I wouldn't be going through a 3rd party agent that I'd never heard of just to save £12. If there were any problems then you are much better off booking direct with the airline or at least a reputable agency.

miduck

To summarise - when going through any search engine, check the chosen agent is legit.

mgdavid

hilton wrote: »

..........What I am trying to point out is that just because someone is showing the lowest fare does not mean that they are giving you the best service.............

no offence, but I think that is called common sense and I cannot believe anyone does not know it - in fact lowest price and best service are usually mutually exclusive.