Is it better to use a credit card to book flights during this pandemic?

bagand96

blindman said:

This pandemic has shown what a load of scumbags OTA are.

I'm no fan of OTA's and also advise against using them.  But they are businesses that operate on wafer thin margins making a tiny % on what they sell.  The business model only allows for minimal staff and support infrastructure, and often levies fees for everything to make up for the tiny profit margin on the main sale.

They were left in difficult positions with airline cancellations - customer rightly wants the cash back, but the airline hasn't refunded them yet.  In normal times this wouldn't be an issue, but in the pandemic this would have left many agents insolvent.  As the pressure grew on airlines to get their act together refunding consumers, business to business refunds lagged far behind.

I'm not defending them, I'm not apologising for them either, some of the larger ones have acted very poorly.  But consumers make a choice to save maybe £10 on a £500 air ticket without doing any research.  With the exception of maybe the Expedia group, those agents that have come out of Covid poorly had a poor reputation long before the pandemic!

blindman

bagand96 said:

blindman said:

This pandemic has shown what a load of scumbags OTA are.

I'm no fan of OTA's and also advise against using them.  But they are businesses that operate on wafer thin margins making a tiny % on what they sell.  The business model only allows for minimal staff and support infrastructure, and often levies fees for everything to make up for the tiny profit margin on the main sale.

So how come Trailfinders have a business model that puts the clients money into a pot that is UNTOUCHED until the holiday is over so can refund if cancellations happen?
There is no excuse for a shoddy business model that favours the business and not the customer.
They con people into booking with them for supposedly" offering" a £10 of fare-which of course gullible people, their target audience fall for.
However even gullible idiots should be able to get refunds under the OTA T&C's 

bagand96

blindman said:

So how come Trailfinders have a business model that puts the clients money into a pot that is UNTOUCHED until the holiday is over so can refund if cancellations happen?
There is no excuse for a shoddy business model that favours the business and not the customer.

Because they operate a completely different business model to the OTA's and are targeting a very different segment of the market.  They partake in both their own and industry financial protection schemes.  Trailfinders are a quality outfit and not comparable to the shoddy OTAs.

blindman

bagand96 said:

blindman said:

So how come Trailfinders have a business model that puts the clients money into a pot that is UNTOUCHED until the holiday is over so can refund if cancellations happen?
There is no excuse for a shoddy business model that favours the business and not the customer.

Because they operate a completely different business model to the OTA's and are targeting a very different segment of the market.  They partake in both their own and industry financial protection schemes.  Trailfinders are a quality outfit and not comparable to the shoddy OTAs.

That's my point.
You seem to be defending the OTA's, and their "business model",but agree that there is another (proper) way to be a Travel Agent.

Which side are you on?

The shoddy OTA's who showed themselves to be corrupt or the proper Travel agent, of which Trailfinders I believe is one.?

Upsidedownandaround

There's nothing that will be done or can be done about OTA's.

If people go online and purchase things on the internet from companies on the internet without doing any research on the company or where they are based or reading what they are actually agreeing to or buying because they want to get a 'good deal' then unfortunately whether it is travel related or not there is always going to be someone there to take their money.

It's perfectly legal to run a crap business model it's up to the consumer to protect themselves against these OTA's in the same way most of them would if they found a company selling a TV online for a tenner cheaper.

bagand96

blindman said:

bagand96 said:

blindman said:

So how come Trailfinders have a business model that puts the clients money into a pot that is UNTOUCHED until the holiday is over so can refund if cancellations happen?
There is no excuse for a shoddy business model that favours the business and not the customer.

Because they operate a completely different business model to the OTA's and are targeting a very different segment of the market.  They partake in both their own and industry financial protection schemes.  Trailfinders are a quality outfit and not comparable to the shoddy OTAs.

That's my point.
You seem to be defending the OTA's, and their "business model",but agree that there is another (proper) way to be a Travel Agent.

Which side are you on?

The shoddy OTA's who showed themselves to be corrupt or the proper Travel agent, of which Trailfinders I believe is one.?

I'm not really on anyone's side, I don't need to be. As I said I wouldn't recommend OTAs, and wasn't really defending them, just stating that the way their business operates meant the customer's money wasn't there to refund. Those ticket settlement rules and processes between agents and airlines have been around for decades, it's just technology that's made it incredibly easy to do it on a scale like the OTAs.

As you say Trailfinders (and others) is another way to be a Travel Agent and I agree they are a quality outfit.  But they are not operating in the same market segment as OTAs and have very different ticket settlement terms with the airlines they deal with.

The OTAs business model isn't illegal, even though you may not like it.  Some of them have absolutely failed to meet their obligations to consumers.  Whether they have to face any consequence of that is up to those that regulate them, if indeed they are regulated.  There is an argument for mandatory bonding of travel purchases. Forcing flight only bookings into the ATOL scheme is a conversation that comes up periodically but it's never gone anywhere. The airlines would likely oppose it.

As long as someone is willing to save £10 on their flight booking then shoddy resellers will exist.  People are happy to hand over hundreds or thousands of pounds without even checking if they are doing so to a UK regulated business, let alone what it's reputation might be!

Thrugelmir

Upsidedownandaround said:

It's perfectly legal to run a crap business model it's up to the consumer to protect themselves against these OTA's in the same way most of them would if they found a company selling a TV online for a tenner cheaper.

Nothing wrong with the business model.  The consumer has the choice as to where to buy from and what option they choose. Which normally is driven by only one thing.......... price.  As cheap as possible. If people were interested in quality. Ryanair, for example, would have gone bust many years ago. Personally I started to avoid them 20 years back. 

Upsidedownandaround

Thrugelmir said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

It's perfectly legal to run a crap business model it's up to the consumer to protect themselves against these OTA's in the same way most of them would if they found a company selling a TV online for a tenner cheaper.

Nothing wrong with the business model.  The consumer has the choice as to where to buy from and what option they choose. Which normally is driven by only one thing.......... price.  As cheap as possible. If people were interested in quality. Ryanair, for example, would have gone bust many years ago. Personally I started to avoid them 20 years back. 

It may be succesful but it's pretty crap. It pretty much relies on mugs buying without thinking.

Ryanair on the other hand has a great business model. They make it well known what their customer attitude is and you are buying 'no frills' and will have to pay for everything else and that is what a lot of people want.

Thrugelmir

Upsidedownandaround said:

Thrugelmir said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

It's perfectly legal to run a crap business model it's up to the consumer to protect themselves against these OTA's in the same way most of them would if they found a company selling a TV online for a tenner cheaper.

Nothing wrong with the business model.  The consumer has the choice as to where to buy from and what option they choose. Which normally is driven by only one thing.......... price.  As cheap as possible. If people were interested in quality. Ryanair, for example, would have gone bust many years ago. Personally I started to avoid them 20 years back. 

Ryanair on the other hand has a great business model. They make it well known what their customer attitude is and you are buying 'no frills' and will have to pay for everything else and that is what a lot of people want.

I'm sure that a considerable amount of goodwill has been lost in the past 11 months.  Hardly been a model of customer service. Yet again. 

Upsidedownandaround

Thrugelmir said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

Thrugelmir said:

Upsidedownandaround said:

It's perfectly legal to run a crap business model it's up to the consumer to protect themselves against these OTA's in the same way most of them would if they found a company selling a TV online for a tenner cheaper.

Nothing wrong with the business model.  The consumer has the choice as to where to buy from and what option they choose. Which normally is driven by only one thing.......... price.  As cheap as possible. If people were interested in quality. Ryanair, for example, would have gone bust many years ago. Personally I started to avoid them 20 years back. 

Ryanair on the other hand has a great business model. They make it well known what their customer attitude is and you are buying 'no frills' and will have to pay for everything else and that is what a lot of people want.

I'm sure that a considerable amount of goodwill has been lost in the past 11 months.  Hardly been a model of customer service. Yet again. 

No they haven't, but they have never made any pretence to having good customer service. Even going so far as O'Leary calling customers idiots if he thinks they are. That effectively is their business model. We are cheap, you only get what you pay for and we aren't going to make special allowances for customers even it looks bad. It's worked very well up until now.