Anyone had experience with holiday genie.com

SLNZUK

Booked a flight from London to New York through them. Got an email saying it was all confirmed etc. Flight day came and found out my partner's ticket hadn't been processed correctly and thus did not have a seat on the plane. Had to wait 3 hours for the next flight with all the added hassle/stress of getting things re-issued.

Obvious incompetence/laziness from the staff at HolidayGenie, as while they processed one ticket correctly the other was left half-arsed. Maybe it was just pushing an extra confirm button on the computer that could've avoided a lot of problems.

I'd rather roll the dice at the roulette tables than book through these guys again.

CashConserver

Booked Virgin flights from Manchester to Orlando in March 2012, as their price was the best. Their booking screen asks for middle names, which we added. After booking, went to Virgin site and put in e-ticket number and it looked as if the first and middle names were joined together to make one first name. As terms state that both booking and passport names should match, we got worried. Phoned holiday genie and got a very rude guy who told us it was all our fault and we'd have to pay an expensive admin fee to change it. When I began to object and say that it was entered correctly in their website, he got extremely antsy with me, spoke over me or cut me off then put the phone down on me! Ended up using virtual chat on the Virgin site, who were very helpful, and advised the middle name issue happens a a lot and to just enter the names as per the booking (ie joined up with first name) when we came to check in online. We did that and everything was fine. However, I would never book again with Holiday Genie due to the terrible customer service received!

astasinim

I`ve just booked a flight to Orlando for next April. Making the booking was straight forward enough, even if the lady taking my booking wasn't as customer friendly as im used to (very robotic/uninterested). However, if everything goes as it should, I wont lose any sleep over it.
We`ll just have to wait and see until next April.

EdCov

I know this is an old post, but if you have a number of newbie posters all saying the same thing you have to ask the question can you trust them. Beware.

astasinim

To report back on my experience with Holiday Genie.

All I can say is, everything went as planned. No missed flights. I checked with Virgin prior to going, that we were on the flight after reading the horror stories.
All accommodations were as described with absolutely no problems at all.
As an experienced independent traveler, I always check with who I am traveling with (e.g. Airline, hotel etc), if I have gone through a third party.
Sometimes, people have to take responsibility for themselves, or pay more and book through a high street agent, safe in the knowledge they will hold your hand all the way.
I am not saying that is the experience of all board members, but, some posts do read as though they should have used a bit more due diligence.

As regards the above post. I can understand your cynicism, but in my case you couldn't be more wrong. I am a genuine customer who enjoys making savings on my travel, as I don't like paying extra for things I neither want, nor need.

spursman

Funnyish story concerning HolidayGenie, I booked a Florida holiday with them Christmas 2008, just me & my 12yo daughter, they asked if I had any requests & I like an idiot asked for window seats I was given seats 21A & 33K outward & similar back. Quick word at the desk & we were able to get seats together
all the best
Larry

NafiArl

AVOID!!!! AVOID!!!! AVOID!!! You are right, Alex Carter is never around to take calls, nor to return them. Agent I dealt with was unscrupulous and did not act in the consumer's best interest at all, would seriously doubt their knowledge and experience except in the area of selling the most expensive "package" deal they can with the most unsuitable flights.

Would NEVER use them again!

Jeffpybo

Hi there we went Florida in December with holiday genie and they were absolutely fantastic no problems at all and they were very cheap as well we stayed in the Rosen inn at pointe Orlando it was our first time in the U.S. And it was great

Grumpelstiltskin

Some of these first time posters saying how wonderful this company is must think we are stupid, We are not, you just make the company look even worse than it probably is be making these sort of posts on a thread that hasn't been posted on for more than a year.

rubyure

Okay so it may seem like I've been 'payed by HolidayGenie' or whatever people will say about this post as I'm a first time poster, but as a matter of fact I just created the account a minute ago in order to write this review! In September last year I booked a holiday to Florida for that summer for much cheaper prices then I could find anywhere else, the thought didn't even cross my mind to check reviews about HolidayGenie (rookie mistake, I know) and a few months after that, I decided to do some snooping. Obvioiusly 90% of the reviews I found were bad and it freaked me out, as an 18 year old girl who'd invested all of her savings in this trip, a lot depended on HolidayGenie not being as dodgy as people made them out to be! We had a lovely rep named Richard, who assured us that everything was legitimate and so I decided to put my major concerns to one side, and just be extra precautional and call up the hotel and airline to make sure my bookings were correct. What can I say besides that we had an absolutely amazing holiday? The hotel wasn't amazing, but we could've told you that before we went!

I thought I'd find the first forum about this to put my experience out there so that people can weave their way through the bad reviews to find someone who actually had a good experience with them!