Advantages/disadvantages of booking through companies like E-bookers etc?

cocoshovel

Hey all. I was wondering what the pro's/cons are of booking your flights through middleman sites like http://www.ebookers.com/

I have always booked directly with the airline on their sites, but recently I have been looking at e-bookers etc and have noticed that they actually have some good deals.

Can you trust these sites 100%? Have any of you ever had problems with them and if they go bust in the morning will my flight bookings still be safe or gone?

Sometimes I look at a booking where there is a transfer in between but it seems there is only about 30-40 mins to make it, is that sufficient time?

Any information would be appreciated.

tannytantans

I've booked through e-bookers and similar sites a few times now and I've had no problems.

A big advantage is that it's usually easier to get through to someone in customer services there, rather than trying to call the airline.

Any holiday packages booked with ebookers are ATOL protected and if you book your flights with a credit card, you'll be covered too.

Regarding the transfer time, I'd always make sure I have at least 90 minutes between flights, you never know when a flight is going to be delayed and it's not worth the stress

rossie1977

the obvious advantage is you might MIGHT get it cheaper on ebookers than booking direct with a particular airline, in march 2010 (booked in october 2009) i got san francisco return from dublin via heathrow with ebookers for €300 return, that was flying with united and nowhere on uniteds website were they offering that deal, when you book with ebookers they will email you the airline record locator straight away so even if ebookers went bust you are still booked with the airline as you can go into the airlines website and look at your reservation/change seats etc

the disadvantage is if you have any problems like airlines changing flight times :mad: you will have to deal with ebookers themselves and not the airline you are flying with

gronemeyer

I work for an airline reservations team (not a low budget one). I won't say which airline.

Pros:

Its still possible to make specials service requests via the airline

Sometimes its cheaper.

Travel Agents recieve special fares we don't get in our system which gives more scope again for a lower fare.

Schedule changes can still be dealt with via the airline.

Sometimes extra baggage allowence. Market fares to India from the UK for example get extra luggage.

Cons:
If there is a problem before departure or you need to cancel etc airline can't touch the booking. And often some agents won't help you and neither will we as the booking was made via the agent.

The agent doesn't always state the fare conditions correctly so if you need to change or cancel and they gave you wrong info which happens quite often well....

If its a market fare it can take days to change (if outbound has been taken, as a lot of ta's wont help a passenger when this has been done) and some of the fares aren't published in our system and we need to go via internal departments etc to change.

People are trained and an expert on the airline they work for, so if booking direct or via the website (in this a simple call), you can clarify everything about what your buying.

You may not know if the agent is real or not if it's IATA registered.

Mrs Fox

I've booked long haul flights with eBookers on three occassions, twice over the phone because I had credit card issues, and I found them extremely good, helpful and very quick. All was done and dusted within 4-5 minutes. AND I've always find them cheaper too. Initially I was a bit sceptical on giving the c/c details over the phone, but I haven't had any problems at all.