Holidayextras - guaranteed cheapest or free- Don't bother just use MSE

[Deleted User]

Must admit I wonder if they ever pay out on this.

Fair enough the T+Cs do say that they won't match special or discounted or staff discount prices.

I booked a hotel and parking at Heathrow for £130 with them.
Shortly afterwards, I tried the link for BookLHR here on MSE - Came up £5 cheaper.

Claim got turned down - screenshot I sent them had the word DISCOUNTED on it so it didn't count.

Found another one via MSE on aph.com. Turned down again because it was via a link.

My argument is that its not a discount, its something available to the general public and not a special discount so should be allowed. Because it rather goes against they're idea that they're the cheapest when all you've got to do is go via MSA.

Moral of the story - don't believe holiday extras and use the MSE links to check for an even better price.

SW17

Such price guarantees are usually meant to be against their competitors, not against themselves. Although you have a point that MSE links are available to the public, Holidayextras would likely consider this a "closed user group" whereby they offer a discount.

I don't know the financial relationship between MSE and these companies, but would suspect that the deal is that they give customers a small discount in return for paying a lower commission to the referrer (in this case MSE) than they would pay for "normal" referrer traffic such as via Google or commercial price comparison sites. It's all about their cost of sale.

In a that case they would consider this a discounted rate, and probably rightly so, as if everyone started gaming the system, it would not be in their interest to continue providing "closed user group" discounts. As I said, MSE is a bit of a grey area as it is an open site, but I'd guess they put it in the closed user group bucket.

The alternative would be that they remove the discounts for MSE referrals...IMO the best advice is for people to use the MSE referral, as that's a win-win for MSE and the consumer.

[Deleted User]

Yes I agree. But I still think its misleading that holidayextras claim they can guarantee to be the cheapest.

tomtontom

Book through this special APH* link and we've blagged 12% off at most airport car parks, plus 20% off APH's own car parks at Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, Luton, Manchester and Birmingham.

Even MSE refers to a special discount.

Moral of the story - read and abide by the terms and conditions. Not difficult, is it?

LABMAN

Visiting your ex-cleaner?

silverwhistle

Shouldn't that be plural?

[Deleted User]

Sad cases who have nothing better to do and cant post ON TOPIC #ignore

[Deleted User]

tomtontom wrote: »

Even MSE refers to a special discount.

Moral of the story - read and abide by the terms and conditions. Not difficult, is it?

Thats me told :T