Carlton Leisure - Flight Questions

benxg

Hi,
Used Skyscanner to do some holiday planning and noticed the links to various travel agents to price up the flights I'd "scanned" for.
Checked out the top one - from Carlton Leisure - and was quite surprised how cheap it was. 
Did a comparison direct with the airline - Emirates in this case - and the price was almost double.
So...is it too good to be true? :-) 
I see the other posts about Carlton Leisure on here are about changes/refunds - which I imagine would indeed be less hassle/cost by booking with the airline direct.
But, if everything goes OK and no changes needed - is it a genuine bargain?
Can agents really offer substantial discounts to the airlines' own fares?
And on a slightly related question - can one still use Amex reward points to part-pay (/potential upgrade) if an agent like Carlton Leisure is used?
Thanks!
Ben

Westin

Personally, I would not use them.

Have a look on Trip Advisor or do a google search Carlton Leisure + reviews.

As you say, providing all runs to plan then you might be fine. If you subsequently need any post sale support or if the airline cancels the flight and you would like a refund, you may find the fun will start.

Caz3121

many third parties do not have live pricing
you would make a booking request and then you would find out whether they can sell you a half price ticket or not (I would suspect not as they would still need to buy it from the airline)
Their terms state they would contact you within 24 hours to advise of price errors (and I assume ask for more money)
A saving of up to £50 would not be unusual for long haul flights from a third party (as they will factor in the amount they may make from customers with fees on top)...still not worth it in my opinion

daveyjp

Use google flights instead.

Skyscanner has so many bait and switch operators it isn't a reliable source of information.

bagand96

The potential problems of using third party agents:

- May not be live pricing, so after you’ve booked they call you back say that price isn’t available.  You’d have the choice to pay extra or take a refund, which could take some time

- When you book via an agent they have control of the booking.  Any schedule changes etc will be notified via the agent and you’ll have to go via the agent to resolve any issues. The airline won’t deal with you directly. This can add complications depending how good or bad the agent is.

- Agents often have their own admin fees which you will agree to when booking.  For example, airline cancels the flight they refund the agent the full cost. But the agent may charge their own admin fees to process your cancellation/refund so you don’t end up with a full refund. 

That said there can be big savings. Although there are plenty of examples when it transpires not to be a live price, there are occasions where agents may have access to certain fare classes that the airline isn’t offering on their website, so a real saving is there.

You just need to go into it eyes wide open and know the potential issues. The vast majority of airline ticketing is an automated process and people have very few problems, even with third party agents. It’s only when there are problems when people find out how good or bad an agent is. 

Murphy_The_Cat

daveyjp said:

Use google flights instead.

Skyscanner has so many bait and switch operators it isn't a reliable source of information.

But then be certain that you are making your booing with google flights/direct with the airline/with a quality OTA, as some of the OTA's that are on google flights put the shonk into shonky.