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“Would not recommend booking through On The Beach...”

written by AnotherOTBVictim on 24/07/2008

Good Points
None.

General Comments
Would not recommend booking through On The Beach Holidays as we have had a very bad experience booking our flights with them this year. You get to the last screen and it asks you if you want to take hold baggage and then does not allow you to select the number of hold bags you wish to take. Our little girl has ended up with a 20 kg luggage allowance that she really does not need! To add insult to injury Monarch Airlines only charge £5.99 per bag each way whereas OTB mark this charge up to £10 each way. I'd avoid like the plague if I were you as I found their customer service to be awful - I can't find a customer service number on their website and if something does go wrong in the booking process you have to email them and hope for the best. I found a number for them on the ABTA website so if anyone has had any problems with them and needs to call them get the number from there. We were sent the booking confirmation from Monarch and it turned out that OTB had marked our flight up by £60, which on a flight that only cost £313 in the first place is a lot of money. When I spoke to them about it they said it was all in their T's and C's and there was nothing they could do. I don't find their terms and conditions to be written in plain English and I think they rely on the fact that no one, except maybe a lawyer, will get through the first couple of paragraphs.



Also, be so careful when you search for flight dates and times on their website. We wanted a flight for 8 days (7 nights) and we ended up with a flight for 9 days (8 nights). The website didn't make it clear to us when it displays results that it has changed the parameters of your search criteria. When it comes to check out, it says that the flight is for 8 days (rather than nights) and it is very misleading. Admittedly I should have double checked the dates myself, but I think they should make their website clearer, easier to understand and make sure they make it very obvious that the results that they are showing you are not what you originally requested. We have ended up having to stay an extra night, which is no hardship, but it is a lot of extra expense! There is nothing that they could do about this when I called them, in fact when I called their sales team number I found the guy on the phone to be down right rude to me as I did not want to buy anything from him.



I am an internet marketing expert and to me OTB have made every error in the book when it comes to transacting online in a manner that inspires confidence in their customers:



- I didn't find their website clear or easy to navigate



- The actual amount they were going to charge my card was not clear to me until after it had happened



- I couldn't find a readily available customer service number



- They didn't make charges clear to me and did not make it easy to understand what I was paying for.



I'd avoid at all costs!