The Golden Rule. In travel, as in everything else, if it looks to good to be true, it usually is. You get what you pay for and travel is no exception.
GUIDELINES ON BOOKING TRAVEL
Passports. One human per Passport. Each one should be a Brit passport and have at least three months left on it (for some countries, 6). Any deviation from the above - ask. Now. Not 2 days before you leave.
Who Is Going? You will need the first and last names of all who are going. That is, the first and last name as written in each persons' passport. Not the name you know them by or their nickname or what they were called last Thursday down the Pub. The spelling must be precise and accurate. Now, which bit of this do you not understand?
Changes. Try not to. If you are not sure about who, what and where do not book and wait until you are. At best, you will have to pay an admin. charge of between £25/ £50 a head. At worst (if it is at the last moment) one may have to cancel and re-book which is expensive. That said, mistakes do happen so check the final invoice carefully and pay special attention to name spellings and dates. Like many problems, if they are caught early enough they can (usually) be fixed easily enough.
Changes (2) This is your operator changing your holiday and notices about works at your resort. Our advice is simple, be objective. If the flight has changed by a few hours, well, the flight has changed by a few hours and that is that. Flight schedules are planned a long way ahead and there are changes; but do be pragmatic before throwing the rattle out of the pram. A change of OVER 12 hours or so, however, may be a different matter for your party. Likewise building works. Read what is being said and again, be objective. Operators do inspect these things and they are obliged to tell you, nowadays, even if a Hotelier looks at a paintbrush! If it is serious they will move you and ask for your input. That said, show me a resort where some sort of work is not going on.....
Complaints. Ah! Yes! complaints! First off, make sure you have one. By this we mean if its all about one cracked tile in the bathroom, forget it. Things do, however, go pear shaped. You must take reasonable action whilst on holiday. If the room, say, is not as requested, speak to the holiday rep pronto and if they do not respond, call the UK tour operator - or us. Take notes, whom you spoke to, their name and position and when you spoke to them. If the problem is fixed, quickly and efficiently (which is the best solution) be prepared to give due credit.
How to try and stop your travel and holiday plans going a bit "pear shaped".....!
On-Line or On the High Street? The "book direct and cut out the agent" message is the biggest joke going. (As one of the adverts below will testify) It just means the "direct" operator pockets the money he would otherwise give to the agent. Given that it is difficult to work out who is and who isn't an agent (we are!) the only sure way to book direct is to, er..., call the hotel directly. Generally speaking, unless you are very certain and confident about what you are doing, using an agent will not do you a lot of harm. If you are spending a lot of money on an adventure, using a High Street agent is usually safer than online.
Insurance. You need travel insurance. An E111 is OK - it does the job from the health point of view but It is pretty basic stuff. It should not be confused with a full blown, all singing all dancing travel policy which travel agents (amongst others) sell. Contrary to popular opinion, travel agents no longer rack up the commission (well, independents don't anyway) and as they have been selling travel insurance since Thomas Cook was a boy, they do know quite a bit about it. So do ask your travel agent for a quote.
Bonding. This would need a page all to itself. Basically a traditional package holiday (that is, an all in job) is covered by ABTA. Start pulling your travel arrangements apart and it's a different story. For air tickets, look for an ATOL number (CAA) or an IATA number - but note that the most (financially) insecure way of buying an airline ticket is, well, directly from an airline. Low cost carriers are totally unsecured and if you are "dynamic packaging" (or split contracting as we call it) you may not be covered by your travel insurance. Oh! and just to confuse you further, just because an ATOL number is shown, this does not always mean that it applies to your purchase. Best advice? Ask us and we will tell you what applies to what bits of your holiday.
Offers. You see a lot of these all over the place, don't you! Many are there for a reason. Low cost airlines dump seats in peak Summer because they know very well that there are no hotel rooms available. Likewise, beach holidays in Dubai in mid-Summer. Frying tonight, one might say.
..dream holidays from the UK's leading independent travel agent
There is no requirement to decide straight away and most insurance companies/ agents give you a cooling off period. One thing you must tell your agent - if you have any ailments, past or present (or indeed, future). If you don't, you will come unstuck when it comes to a claim. There is a lot of small print attached to travel insurance - so read it! Yes, that's you! READ it. And remember, even with a good policy - look after your stuff properly, if something happens, report it and get something in writing to say you have reported it. Name, rank, serial number - bag and baggage....! If you do own two Cartier watches a platinum tiara and a diamond the size of the Koh-i-Noor - then lock them in the safe at home. No-one will believe you had them on a £78 two week package to Benidorm anyway.
Other cheap offers are "allocated on arrival" with these you should be prepared to go with the flow and make do. In season, AOA holidays can be very cheap and cheerful but out of season you can, to quote the vernacular "get a result".
So, if you want the best, by all means book business class and a five star hotel -everyone will bend over backwards to do your bidding - but there will be a big bill! A good agent, however, will help you find the right balance of cost and quality. That's what they do.
If you are not satisfied, then things must go in writing. State clearly and factually what was wrong, where and why. It also helps if you can state what you are looking for in terms of compensation. There are various routes for complaints if they are not dealt with to your satisfaction, the main one's being ABTA and the small claims Court. No matter who the complaint is against (even if it's us), do talk or write to us - we are obliged to respond under ABTA rules. The "Watchdog" approach, by the way, brings nothing but a yawn to most agents and operators nowadays.
A good agent should have a lot of knowledge of where you want to go and the advice - as long as you are genuine- is given freely and willingly. Online discounts can usually be matched by High Street agents, but then again, if you really enjoy spending several hours trying to get through to a call centre the other side of the world, that's your business. The biggest sin is to get a lot of help and advice from an agent, get them to organise a load of quotes and generally do a lot of work - and then book online. Getting a simple quote from an agent is one thing, taking up hours of their time is another. Do unto others.....
Before booking any holiday or travel (especially if it is at short notice) there are a few things you should do. This page is rather like the safety instructions given on aeroplanes before take-off. No-body ever takes any notice only to be sorry should the crunch come!
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