Beware Travelbag and Ebookers

Jolly_Roger

I am trying to organise a one-way flight from Tenerife to Gatwick in January.
I found a good Iberia/BA flight on Last Minute.com and got all the way through to almost confirmation when they demanded a £30.00 additional payment so that the ticket could be sent by DHL. Not wishing to pay this, I declined the offer and sent them an email pointing this out and explaining why. They said all overseas-originating flights require despatch by courier. Thanks Last Minute, but no thanks...
I then rebooked on Travelbag (which is part of ebookers). They initially accepted my reservation, then emailed back to say there was a problem and that I should rebook. So, I did. Confirmation arrived by email, but instead of a flight at 16.15, I had been booked on a flight at 19.00. Fortunately, I had taken a screen shot of the booking, which showed the flight times, which I sent back to Travelbag, pointing out the error. Two emails later, it was clear that whoever was responding to my complaints hadn't a clue what was going on!! They endlessly kept showing an itinerary that I had not booked. In frustration, I phoned (not using the 0870 number, naturally!!) and spoke to a call centre in India (groan....). They again tried to persuade me to take the 19.00 flight, pointing out that the 16.15 flight was no longer going, despite the fact that it is still on the Iberia web site.... The girl explained that if you tried to book on the Iberia web site, the 16.15 flight is automatically changed to 19.00 and that Iberia often changes its flight times backwards and forwards apparently without informing anybody. She did say that, given my flight leaves in January, there is a good possibility that my flight at 16.15 will be reinstated and I agreed to wait and see, with my order held "in limbo". The 16.15 depature is the only one I can take that day, anything later is a no-no, because of onward travel. However, I did ask her to put this in writing in an email, which she agreed to do. If it doesn't arrive, I threatened to go to my credit card company and cancel.
Question: did I do the right thing?
Question: did Travelbag do the right thing in simply bumping me up to a later flight and then insisting that the ticket was "non-refundable"? I think there is some very sharp practice going on here!!! Don't you?
Beware Travelbag and Ebookers seems to be the moral of the story -unless you know better....

Saint_Chris

http://www.flymonarch.com/skylights/cgi-bin/skylights.cgi

have return flights for as cheap as 71 euros. totaling 130 euros with taxes on. Those are not bad prices.

jakemuk

ive used travelbag loads for longhaul to aus no problems excellent service in my experience

Saint_Chris

Or even better as these fly into London Gatwick and are the flight times that you want.





Web fare Adult Discount £42.99 GBP
Adult Price £47.99 GBP
Fri, 13 Jan 06
Flight 262L 15:00 Depart Tenerife (TFS)
19:15 Arrive London Gatwick (LGW)



Web fare Adult Discount £42.99 GBP
Adult Price £47.99 GBP
Sun, 15 Jan 06
Flight 813L 14:40 Depart Tenerife (TFS)
18:50 Arrive London Gatwick (LGW)

http://www.flythomascook.com/skylights/cgi-bin/skylights.cgi

I didn't know what day you wanted to fly.

Jolly_Roger

Had already looked at Monarch and they fly from Tenerife South airport and not the North one, which is where my business meetings will take place.

As for not having had any problems with Travelbag, that may well be the case, but any company can give a positive impression when things are going smoothly. In my case, they are not and the real test of a company is how they sort problems out, wouldn't you say?

jakemuk

yeah ineed, are you local to one of there branches ? maybe pop in if you are where i did all my dealings ?

nearlyrich

I booked a holiday with Travelbag to Australia, they booked flights and some accommodation, I was impressed with the costings as it was cheaper than booking the room direct with the resort.
When we received the itinary they had booked the lower grade of room in the resort, when I rang to query it they accepted that their operative had made an error and they rebooked it with no fuss and more importantly no extra charge.

Last year we used them again for a holiday to Malaysia with a decent discount for being a repeat traveller. I will be getting their quotation for our next holiday.

I have absolutley no problem recommending them and as they have no control over an airline changing their flight times I think it's a little unfair to blame them for it.