Has anyone used booking.com for flights?

[kiwitripper64]

Hi
I am looking at some flights in Europe later this year and google flights show

Booking options​

Book with Turkish Airlines
TK 1850, TK 2008
NZ$395 €229
Book with Gotogate
TK 1850, TK 2008 NZ$366
Book with Booking.com
TK 1850, TK 2008 NZ$390
Book with Kiwi.com
TK 1850, TK 2008 NZ$395
Book with eDreams
TK 1850, TK 2008 NZ$397

Has anyone used Booking.com to book flights and was it a good experience. What happens if there is a change of flight times etc if using them Vs TK or travel agent?
Just interested in experiences or thoughts

 

[Kerrodt]

The first question that I’d be answering if I was in your position is “Who will offer the best protections if something goes wrong with the booking.” I’m not sure that booking.com would be at the top of that list. I’ve never used an online TA for that reason. Booking direct with the airline would be my first preference.

 

[AIRwin]

Booking direct with the airline would be my first preference.

Only $5 difference

 

[dajop]

For only $5 difference I would book direct (although if booking in Euro with TK it could add another 3% depending on the sort of card you pay with) .

For future reference booking.com whilst historically is a accommodation booking service, the booking holdings group which it is a part of, has a variety of brands, including Agoda, kayak, Priceline and cheaptickets. Make of that what you will.

 

[DejaBrew]

As others have said, for $5 difference, I'd personally go with the security of booking direct with TK.

For what it's worth, another thing to consider is that when using one of these services like Booking.com, there's always a possibility that they're selling you inventory that no longer exists.

To give you a real-world example (albeit not one specific to plane tickets)...

Earlier this year I booked accommodation directly with a motel via their website and secured a room. Upon check-in, the motel manager mentioned they were in fact fully booked for the night and that I'd secured their last room. She then proceeded to explain that the fact I'd booked directly with them rather than via one of the other (e.g. Booking.com) sites is the reason I'd secured the room. In fact, she'd had 3 other bookings that had come in after mine, where the booking site (i.e. not their website) had indicated availability and accepted payment for rooms, however she was now needing to contact those customers with the bad news that their "secured" booking was in fact... well... not.

In summary? Book direct (or via a licensed TA), or be fully prepared to wear the risks and hassle if it all goes wrong.

 

[Buzzard]

I'm curious as to the reason for your question. Are you trying to save a few dollars?

 

[Archipelago]

I'm curious as to the reason for your question. Are you trying to save a few dollars?

This is the million dollar question (or five dollar question)

 

[Batterytraveller]

I have used booking.com and other online TAs to get itineraries that aren’t achievable on airline websites, or to use things like Amex points as cash. eg. Some JAL itineraries with Tokyo stops are hard to achieve with the JAL booking engine but booking.com or Expedia. I expect them to be terrible during any kind of change situation and then I can be pleasantly surprised when they aren’t.

For 5 dollars on a point to point flight, I would book direct.

 

[kiwitripper64]

I have used booking.com and other online TAs to get itineraries that aren’t achievable on airline websites, or to use things like Amex points as cash. eg. Some JAL itineraries with Tokyo stops are hard to achieve with the JAL booking engine but booking.com or Expedia. I expect them to be terrible during any kind of change situation and then I can be pleasantly surprised when they aren’t.

For 5 dollars on a point to point flight, I would book direct.

 

[kiwitripper64]

Thanks everyone
I had never seen booking.com selling flights before and I was in the community comments. I have booked direct with TK for all the reasons above. I don’t want to turn up and find my flight changed and then have to deal with a OTA chatbot.
I do mix booking accommodation with them and direct with hotels. Sometimes they offer a much better deal with a much tidier webpage than the hotel
Thanks again everyone, it’s great to have people to bounce ideas off.

 

[Batterytraveller]

I think I wrote it on another thread, however if you access booking.com from the BA shopping portal you can get 8avios/£ on hotels, which keeps me topped up on QF flights.

 

[Quickstatus]

I refuse to pay for anything through these aggregators as a matter of principle.

Direct with airline or bricks and mortar travel agent for the tricky bookings and always directly if possible with accomodation provider.

 

[justinbrett]

I have booked flights through Expedia a couple of times where I want to combine several airlines on a single booking. They have a fairly decent service department and don’t charge for changes (just the airline fee, if any). I’d do so again if I needed to.

I wouldn’t use them for single airline bookings though.

 

[JohnK]

My experiences with Expedia and Webjet recently were poor.

Our Scoot flight was delayed 16 hours and I'm talking to Expedia real time and they have no idea about delays and wanted to charge me to change to the delayed flight.

In saying that though I'm doing the same thing again next trip as Webjet has Afterpay and a Flybuys account has $800 that I want to put towards one of the bookings. So potential for trouble but I'm going to make sure no Scoot flights this time around.

 

[BRINDYLALI]

Hi
I am looking at some flights in Europe later this year and google flights show

Booking options​

Book with Turkish Airlines
TK 1850, TK 2008
NZ$395 €229
Book with Gotogate
TK 1850, TK 2008 NZ$366
Book with Booking.com
TK 1850, TK 2008 NZ$390
Book with Kiwi.com
TK 1850, TK 2008 NZ$395
Book with eDreams
TK 1850, TK 2008 NZ$397

Has anyone used Booking.com to book flights and was it a good experience. What happens if there is a change of flight times etc if using them Vs TK or travel agent?
Just interested in experiences or thoughts

Gotogate is a scam.They take your money and then tell you your flight is no longer available and the next available is much more expensive.Getting your money back is very difficult.Avoid them at all costs.

 

[Forg]

Gotogate is a scam.They take your money and then tell you your flight is no longer available and the next available is much more expensive.Getting your money back is very difficult.Avoid them at all costs.

I have experienced this sort of thing … the online seller has old information, good deals sell out quickly & hence tickets can be sold-out before this old information is updated, and you buy tickets that no longer exist.

I (probably stupidly) chose to believe the online seller was legit as within minutes of the online order I had a call from a guy with a New York City accent telling me the tickets I’d bought were not actually available but that Alternative X still were (same price next day). Lucked out, as it was a legit seller, and still got J tickets to London return for ~$3k.

 

[clifford]

Last year I needed to make a Ryanair booking, but their website was having issues.

So, in desperation, I decided to book the flight via booking.com, who I'd always had good service from with hotel bookings.

Big mistake. Firstly, the booking was made via gotogate and secondly, Ryanair does dislike intensely 3rd party bookings. So, they made it impossible for me to check in online, thus incurring a EUR 55 airport check in fee.

This was more than the ticket was worth, so I decided to book elsewhere and dispute the charge with Amex, who eventually sided with me, as the product was subject to deceptive marketing (and Gotogate made a hash of their response).

So I now steer clear of OTA's.

 

[AIRwin]

How an error with travel booking site left Aussie dad out of pocket:

MSN

 

[CaptJCool]

How an error with travel booking site left Aussie dad out of pocket:

MSN

Booking.com a shopfront for gotogate
Wow

Mind you; I did think re-booking at a second separate “agent” before chasing the original up first seemed the wrong order of events

That said a friend who I travelled with in Europe for some weeks used Trip.com and had the issue of “sorry, your airfare has sold out”. We can rebook you on another airline. This happened 5 or more times within weeks and eventually Trip bought a tic (at a higher price) than he paid and didn’t charge him the difference.
However, when he needed to fly back early, the return sector had in effect been booked as a non-refund saver/red-e deal instead of a flexi (the outbound had been booked as easy to change which IMHO ought be done the other way round and I’d seen someone else stuck with that problem too) so it was a real mess and next to nothing refunded after the OTA cancellation fees plus recouping their initial loss and the airline fees all