Leave all the package holiday companies

Hello all

I am sooo shocked about your expereinces with VH, although I hav'nt used them for 3 years I got married through them with no problems have been been of to america a few times - never any problems

I think I left as they started to send there call agency to India - I leave ALL companies that do this e.g America Express, or put the phone down and try again and wait till it gets put through to here e.g NTL any way Im sure thats on another thread!

I have to ask the following question - apart from weddings as these are quite specialist and it needs to be perfect why do you use a travel agency when the world is yours on the world wide web,

Since leaving Virgin I now book flights direct with VA and sort out hotels mostly before, I go online missing out the 7 hours on hold with VH and can put in the notes any specail little bits eg aniversary etc.

That way if there is a problem with the hotel etc they cannot hide behind the holday rep which they do do! and now become completely answerable to you as the booking is with you not an agency

I have been to South africa, Canada, Australis Europe without the use of these agency and gain much helpful advice from the lovely people on here and at fodors

Leave VH, Going places, Thomson Hoidays etc they are all offering the same louisy service these days and have a go on your own its fun (always have insurance though)

take care and happy holidays for the future
luv

British

[Scrooge]

for the most part we book everything ourseleves.There seems to be no cost advantage to booking packages anymore unless it's to the med.

The only time we use an agency is when we are going somewhere exotic where I have never been then we book with my wife's aunt who is a travel agent,we also use her for all cruises.

I think there's a certain level of protection when the package is booked through an ABTA/ATOL bonded TA unlike when it's booked independantly.

This is the piece of mind aspect I like when travelling with my young family.

Regards

John

[Nottingham Nick]

Whilst I agree with most of the sentiments expressed by British, and I have yet to use VH, I 'never say never'.

If VH or any other TA can offer me a better deal than I can get 'doing my own thing', then I will go with them.

Sometimes TAs have access to room rates and fares that are lower than are available direct to Joe Public so, if you have the time, it is always worth shopping around.

Nick

Seems fashionable to knock VH at the moment so thought I might say that I have had 5 long haul hols with them and been happy with them each time.

thats not to say that all went according to plan, but in all instances when my expectations were not lived up to or operational stuff delayed me I have always had my concerns treated with a professional respect and been retained as a happy customer.

If its just me and my partner going away we find it exiting doing everything seperate, but my next holiday is for my mum and dad and 6.5 year old nephew and I prefer VH to take care of everything for me.

when you look at it most things that go pear shaped are spontaneous or not really the tour companies fault, its how you find a professional solution to a problem that counts, not always the problem itself.

EGG

Sorry, but don't necessarily agree with your...'its how you find a professional solution' etc comment. If there wasn't a problem in the first place, would there be any need to find a solution[?]:)

in an ideal world prehaps

We booked though VH for our recent trip to SFO & LAS, this being our fifth booking through them. As mentioned on posts I made a few months back I had a dreadful uphill struggle just trying to make some basic amendments to the booking, problem was that the moment you've booked you no longer have access to the UK based team.

Enough of that, would we use VH again? To be honest I don't think so. Our tickets didn't turn up until the Mon when we were departing on the Wed, the last thing you need is stress just before you're due to go. The documents that accompanied the tickets stated that for both the SFO & LAS stays we would "be notified of the VH welcome briefing on arrival". That never happened, not like on prior occasions when there has been an envelope waiting for us at the SFO hotel or a phone call direct from the VH rep in LAS.

As far as car hire goes I steered clear of using VH for that from the outset, purely because you can obtain 'all in' platinum car hire for half the VH rate by booking through Airline Network, who also partner with Dollar.

All in all we may as well have not bothered using VH, although I should end on a positive by saying that the VH rep who greeted us at SFO and waited with us to until the limo arrived was fantastic, a real asset to VH's team. I think in future we'll be "self assembling" our hol's, much more fun and at least you end up dealing direct with the parties concerned & cutting out the middle man

[RichardMannion]

Well I can kind of see where people are coming from on this....

Today my parents decide they want to go on holiday at short notice for the week, so obviously they decide to call me.... what am I like the family travel agent?

Anyway, I look at multiple options but end up back at VH as there is the 10% discount to figure in. And whilst we ar eon the 10% doiscount, what a bunch of nonsense that is - I am a FVC member so I called up to see if I can use the discoutn for my parents holiday. No is the answer. So I then ask, do you still give 10% discount for Flyign CLub members? Yes - so off I trot to MilesMoreFriends and refer my mother and get her a nice 006 number and get 10% discount. The stupidity. Anyway I digress.

They want soemwhere really nice so I find a hotel in the Platinum collection, yet depending on which page you initiate the search from on the website will give a different proce or actually not show the hotel in question. Basically the VH website is useless.

Anyway after spending 30 minutes trying different permuatations (and boy is the site broken, as I could get Caribbean holidays for a week flying in PE for £600!) - I found the best option and was all ready to book. So I phoen up and spend 10 minutes holding. Give up. Try again later, another 10 minutes holding. Give Up. So I phone the FVC and the very helpful lady there tells me that there is currently a 30 minute wait but tips me to book online and then give them a call abck and they will sort out the adjustment of discount. Cool, looking good.

So off I go back to the website and the silly session has timed out so I start all over, get to the final step for payment. Click on the drop down list for card type. No AmEx. But I know they take AmEx, check the FAQ's for payment. They don't take AmEx for online payments. FFS. So I phoen FVC back and the lovely lady there sorts out the booking and is very efficeint. She even helps out with the Clubhouse lounge invite I need for my mother seen as my father gets in on my main supp Centruion Card and I would never hear the end of it if he left her waiting outside whilst he swans around inside.

I'm so glad I was able to speak to a human after all, but thankfully a really nice friendly one based in the UK.

Thanks,
Richard

...but they did they sting you with a CC surcharge [?] I had the same problems when trying to settle the balance of our hol using AMEX, tried doing it on the site but AMEX wasn't an option.

Another frustration is that the useful ability to call up your booking on-line, check itinerary etc disappeared once we had paid!

[RichardMannion]

Hey the 1.5% is a sting, but when the sting comes with thousands of miles to my account I don't mind so much

Thanks,
Richard

Originally posted by Treelo
If there wasn't a problem in the first place, would there be any need to find a solution[?]:)

Well, yes, that would be the all-round perfect solution - but things can (& do) go wrong from time to time. IMHO, I agree with EGG - it's how a company rescues itself from a bad situation that can make a customer more loyal to them afterwards

(Note, the above is in general terms of customer service. I can't comment on VH, since I've never used them)

Cheers

Michael

I totally agree Michael. However, when the company in question doesn't even have the grace to reply to any of 8 (yes eight!) e-mails other than to send a holding reply.......................[:(!][n]

Originally posted by Treelo
I totally agree Michael. However, when the company in question doesn't even have the grace to reply to any of 8 (yes eight!) e-mails other than to send a holding reply.......................[:(!][n]

Oh absolutely - sometimes there are occasions when a company just can't redeem itself from a bad situation...in which case, you're fully justified taking your business elsewhere

Cheers

Michael