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[tvor]

Airlines can suck sometimes, can't they? Got notice the other day that British Midland has canceled the flight from Heathrow to Amsterdam. It's a Sunday afternoon flight. There were two others available, one where we'd have a 6 hour wait or so in T1 Heathrow and the other would change the Manchester to Heathrow flight but we'd then not get into

Comments

[tammihayne]

Well doesn't that just rot your socks off? :(
I only booked through a travel agent once and even then I told HER what flight I wanted from doing my own research as the options she gave me were not the time or price I wanted, even after giving precise preferences. I can see how for you with multiple legs, hotels, etc that having someone assist you would be helpful for sure but not when you can source your own flight better...grrr!
Hopefully the weather does cooperate for you as I know on previous occasions it hasn't!

[tvor]

A lot of what i had her book was stuff i found anyway, i just gave her the names of hotels etc. When there's so many different things to book, i almost prefer to have it come from one source that i can go back to if there's a problem. Booking yourself online is fine but then sometimes you really get snarled up if there's trouble. I guess i could have asked about other airlines at the time but to be fair i did say i'd have to talk to G. about the long layover and after i got off the phone, i thought i would see what i could find.

This trip, i booked my Air Canada flight myself, booked the London hotel as i got a deal she never could have got, and booked my train ticket from London to Manc. myself as well. Also to be fair to her, she found the original Man-Ams. flight for a really good price and worth a layover, even a long one if there wasn't a viable alternative for that price.

I know lots of people use expedia but i'm never completely confident about them if there is a problem.

[tammihayne]

I guess the main thing about travel in this day and age is that you, as the consumer can do your own research and find options that they might not tell you about or research themselves. It gives us the upper hand I feel in that we usually end up getting pretty much what we want. There was a time when we said we wanted to go here, on this day and return on this day and they booked it and gave us the tickets. :)

[tvor]

Yep. And they can't always book everything you find on the net either, hotels in particular have to be "in their system" or booked through an agency which is stupid. You'd think they could just call up or book online as well as you can but apparently they don't.

[girfan]

If it was me, I'd go via Eurostar, but that's because I really enjoyed the trip to Antwerp a few years ago. I don't mind it taking a bit longer when it's done with style. :)

You may want to join fifty_something. The people are nice and it's low traffic.

[tvor]

We're coming back from Brussels via Eurostar. If we were starting in London, it probably would be easier but we still have to get from Manchester down to London, shift to another station, Eurostar to Brussels, another train to Amsterdam. Nope. one journey a day is about all my nerves can handle.

Will check out the community, ta