All posts in Travel rants

A good example of poor customer care after Bryan & Sarah Asburgh and their two kids were left stranded at their hotel after My Travel failed to arrive to take them to Majorca, Palma airport.

Bryan told me last night.

It was a late night flight, and we were left stranded at the hotel with two young children, and when we called the My Travel representative, his attitude was that they were en-route to the airport and it wasn’t fair delaying all passengers for the sake of us.

We took a taxi to the airport, which cost us near €60 and I wouldn’t mind, but they charged us for the airport transfer on top of the holiday anyway. We are waiting for a response from My Travel with regard to our refund.

Surely, it wouldn’t have hurt for the My Travel representative to contact a colleague to arrange alternative transport to the airport, and someone apologise on resort for the mix-up.

I contacted My Travel today for their comments but they were not willing to comment until the case had been investigated. Leave a comment if you have had a bad experience with airport transfers on your holiday.

Travel companies create affiliate programs so people like me can include a banner on their site and earn an income when a consumer books a holiday – this I have no problem with. What some individuals are doing through is creating complete holiday websites, and it’s these sites that I think should be scrapped.

Today, I found one site which displays the ABTA logo on every page, but the site is an affiliate site, which links through to various travel companies, including First Resort, who are a member of ABTA through the TUI group, but the site where the consumer made the search is not an ABTA member.

Travel companies should be made responsible for monitoring sites using its affiliate programs to ensure that these sites aren’t being created to trick the travel consumer into thinking that they are using a site of an established and bonded travel company.

Interesting article in the Daily Express today which quoted that 2.5 million holidaymakers will be leaving the country over Easter for sunnier climates abroad, and that many will be disappointed because the weather in Costa del Sol will be gloomy.

I wonder if the reporter realises that it’s 2007, and we don’t all head to the Costa’s of Spain anymore, and that there’s a big world out there. Travel consumers are adventurous and are taking trips to long haul and unknown destinations.

I paid a quick visit to the Daily Express Travel section, which is badly designed, with annoying popups, very little in the way of content, and not a great deal to inspire me about travelling, just compare this with Guardian, and the Times.

Come on Daily Express; inspire us to travel, not to sit in our back garden.

In 2004, I booked my trip around Australia with Travelbag, and was impressed with the knowledgeable travel agent that was assigned to my trip. Despite visiting six destinations in four weeks, the holiday went without any hiccups, and the hotels, flight times were just perfect.

Today, I was disappointed to find out that the high street shop where I had booked my trip has closed, and when visiting the website I became frustrated by the slow page loading speeds, and blank screens.

Then there’s the confusion of jumping from one travel brand to another. I choose hotels and was sent to Octopustravel, I chose travel insurance and was sent to insurebookers, thank god I don’t want to hire a car because I would of been sent to carbookers

Isn’t booking online in the comfort of your home supposed to be easy and enjoyable?