Anyone booked a vacation online?

[red82gt]

Just wondering if anyone has been burned by this. My wife and I want to o to Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) and the prices on Itrave2000.com and Selloffvacations.com are $250 per person less than the local travel agent. These both seem to be pretty reputable companies. Anyone have any bad experiences with either of these companies?

[shakes]

from what i've heard, ITravel2k is a good company. I've had a couple friends use them without a problem.

[Not4you]

iTravel is okay. I use expedia alot as well. FYI - avoid flyzoom!! We just booked a trip back to London (then on to Liverpool) about 2 weeks ago. Since then, flyzoom has charged us an extra $90 per person for some new tax and has changed the time of our return flight out of Manchester!! I cannot believe that travel companies/airlines can get away with this crap!!

[Darren5.0L]

The only problem with booking these trip via online companies is you are always are getting fleeced on your accomidations. My wife works as a consultant for the Ramada and Chip Hospitality, she mentioned every person she has seen that booked with these services (expedia being one of the worst) gets a special registry card when they check in.

It has their room rate blacked out and keeps the guest from realizing that these companies negoitate for an excellent rate with the hotel, and then proceed to mark it up to easily $35/night over rack rate.

Rack rate is the base price someone can get without any special discount or treatment, and because of her knowledge, I've gotten some excellent room rates or upsells just by asking for a better rate/deal. She tells everyone that if there is more than 1 room left in the hotel, you can almost always come out with a better rate/stay.

[Blue coyote]

I haven't booked vacations online, but I do know that there's no way in HELL I would ever use Travelocity. Someone entered my email on their account so they started sending "me" rate updates. I tried asking them nicely to stop sending them to me. Over two years later, they still hav4en't figured out why they keep spamming me.

I shudder to think of what the service would be like if I were to book through them and had a problem....

[red82gt]

Originally Posted by Darren5.0L

Rack rate is the base price someone can get without any special discount or treatment, and because of her knowledge, I've gotten some excellent room rates or upsells just by asking for a better rate/deal. She tells everyone that if there is more than 1 room left in the hotel, you can almost always come out with a better rate/stay.

Only problem with that is I don't want to arrive in Punta Cana-bags in hand-hoping that the resort that the wedding is at still has one room left. No way that my wife would allow that! If I was driving somewhere and could just drive to the next hotel, I've got no problem doing that but for a trip like this, I'd better stick with a tour operator.

[Darren5.0L]

Understandable situation, however just letting you know where some of your cost going when booking with these online companies like expedia, opposed to the travel agent or the above mentioned tour company.
Cheers and enjoy your trip, it's always a nice to go somewhere warm during the wintertime.

[Fosters82GT]

I booked a package (air and hotel) two Christmas' ago to San Diego through Expedia and other than being convenient to book, I probably wouldn't go that route again. For some reason, booking through Expedia meant changing planes twice on the way down (Calgary to Seattle, Seattle to San Diego) and three times on the way back (San Diego to LA, LA to Seattle, Seattle to Calgary).

Going down was okay but coming back, the scheduled connection in Seattle was cancelled and by some miracle another flight was delayed until our plane arrived. We were greated on the tarmac and made to run to our connection. No surprise but my luggage didn't "run" to the connection and it was three days before I got it back.

The hotel, however, was exactly as represented on the website so that was pretty good I guess.

That was my only experience in booking online and I really couldn't say there was any advantage to doing it this way. Next time, I'll book my vacations abroad through a travel agent.

[red82gt]

Originally Posted by Fosters82GT

I booked a package (air and hotel) two Christmas' ago to San Diego through Expedia and other than being convenient to book, I probably wouldn't go that route again. For some reason, booking through Expedia meant changing planes twice on the way down (Calgary to Seattle, Seattle to San Diego) and three times on the way back (San Diego to LA, LA to Seattle, Seattle to Calgary).

Going down was okay but coming back, the scheduled connection in Seattle was cancelled and by some miracle another flight was delayed until our plane arrived. We were greated on the tarmac and made to run to our connection. No surprise but my luggage didn't "run" to the connection and it was three days before I got it back.

The hotel, however, was exactly as represented on the website so that was pretty good I guess.

That was my only experience in booking online and I really couldn't say there was any advantage to doing it this way. Next time, I'll book my vacations abroad through a travel agent.

Quite often if you don't book a pre-packaged vacation, you'll be stuck with a bizzare bunch of connections. We had a trip to Vegas this summer-booked through a travel agent-that saw us on 3 different planes on the way home. If you book a packaged vacation through a tour operator, the flight will be chartered and will be nearly a direct flight.

[red82gt]

Booked the Vacation yesterday on Itravel2000. We'll be staying at the Majestic Colonial and we paid $883 less than our friends did through their travel agency. We're leaving on march 13th for one week, should be a week full of rum and women in small bathing suits.

[j-roc]

Sounds rough, I guess I need to get married soon if I want to go anywhere.

[red82gt]

Originally Posted by j-roc

Sounds rough, I guess I need to get married soon if I want to go anywhere.

It's funny-if you're not married but are with a girl for a while, everyone's always buggin "when are you guys getting married?" so you marry her to try and shut them up but then it's "so when are you going to start having kids" .
It's a vicious cycle :beat:

[j-roc]

Originally Posted by red82gt

It's funny-if you're not married but are with a girl for a while, everyone's always buggin "when are you guys getting married?" so you marry her to try and shut them up but then it's "so when are you going to start having kids" .
It's a vicious cycle :beat:

That's why we're doing things backwards. :p

[shakes]

Originally Posted by red82gt

It's funny-if you're not married but are with a girl for a while, everyone's always buggin "when are you guys getting married?" so you marry her to try and shut them up but then it's "so when are you going to start having kids" .
It's a vicious cycle :beat:

I can relate there

[Violator]

Did that in reverse also. Works better I think.