CHEAP
FLIGHTS
Increasing numbers of holiday
makers are shunning travel agents and package deals, and making
their own holiday arrangements on the internet
According to retail analysts Mintel, We will book about 24 million
independent holidays this year – 55% of the market. This is
a rise of 60% since 1998 with spending more than doubled to an estimated
£11.7b
But booking a cheap flight
on the internet is quite a nerve-wracking process! Keying in dates,
flight times, different routes, and then the really scary bit, putting
in your credit card details and waiting for the confirmation!
Elaine, a Spanish teacher, and her pupils are heading off for a
trip to Barcelona. But when she tried to book on line with jet2.com
her computer crashed and she didn’t get a confirmation e-mail,
she assumed it hadn’t gone through and booked again.
She ended up with two seats in her name, on the one flight and in
spite of many calls and e mails to jet2.com,she’s been unable
to get it sorted.
A spokesperson for Jet2.com said:
“The internet
booking service at www.jet2.com is both easy-to-use and secure so
customers can be confident of purchasing travel online. What’s
more, to ensure travellers cannot make an accidental booking there
is a five-stage process.
“As is consistent with other low cost airlines, both domestically
and internationally, our tickets are non-refundable. Under certain
circumstances we offer discretionary refunds and, just like changing
tickets on other forms of transport, such as, say, coach or rail,
there is a £15 administration charge per flight. Again this
is a standard policy within the airline industry, though some airlines
do charge more.
“Where customers are unsure if their booking has been processed
due, for example, to their computer crashing, we recommend they
contact our call centre.
“Our policy, which is clearly outlined on our website under
the ‘Questions’ tab, states that email confirmations
are automatically generated by our booking system following successful
completion of the booking process and should be received within
20 minutes.
“There can be several reasons why an email confirmation has
not been received. Sometimes a wrong, or incorrectly spelt, email
address has mistakenly been entered.
“Our recommendation is that if, for any reason, a customer
does not receive their booking confirmation after 30 minutes, they
should contact our call centre and we will confirm whether their
booking has been successful.”
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