Do not use for any last minute bookings - USELESS

“Do not use for any last minute bookings - USELESS”

Written on: 20/08/2012

Last minute late booking for a holiday.

Wednesday evening I checked with Travel Republic that showed flights available to Athens for Saturday morning. I checked the EasyJet website and seats were availble - so went back to Travel Republic and booked Flights, Hotel and car hire.
Had confirmation soon afterwards for the Hotel and Car Hire - nothing on the flights. Thursday lunchtime phoned Travel Republic offices, asking why no flight confirmation - was told they have 12 working hours to get back to you before confirmation.
Thursday evening, still No flight confirmation.
Friday morning at 11:00hrs - Travel Republic phone to say that EasyJet is now full!!!!No seats left - well they are clever - the flight was departing within 24 hours.
Suggested that I go via Geneva and spend 10hrs getting to Athens - with SwissAir and Austrian - and it was £100 cheaper. Well No choice so please book it.
14:00hrs Travel Republic phone again - now trying to book the alternative flights, and as it is now 3hrs later, they stated the price has increased by £200 per person.
I then state I will have a search round and booked directly with British Airways myself - and Travel Republics inefficient way of booking tickets within their 12 hour window (effectively 1.5 working days) csot me an extra £205 per person on BA over the Easy Jet price on the Wednesday evening.
How stupid is this? You book something - and expect to have the service/goods, but NO - not with this company.
Please beware - I certainly would not use this company for a late booking - and would not recommend them either.
Also had a mess up with the car hire provided by Travel Republic in Athens.
Never again - this is not sour grapes, check the conditions of booking on their website, do not get caught out like I was.