Hi all.
I often come across these tripadeal.com.au adverts in the sunday paper and I'm a bit skeptical about their trips (it reminds me of the scoopon like deals which some people have been having issues with - plus an array of restrictions).
I'm interested to know from those who have booked a trip on tripadeal.com.au, and how they found the trips and overall reliability / booking process.
I'm also interested to know how they manage to advertise eg 40%+ off trips - which could be using local cheaper tour operators etc? (Is this correct)?
Would like to hear your thoughts and insights! As they say, the best source of wisdom is from previous travellers who ahve been there and done that!
Thanks.
Anthony
I purchased a trip to Nepal for my husband as a birthday surprise. The deals are certainly cheap and seem good value but you don't get any choice as to which airline you fly. Their deal was flying China Southern and if you wanted to arrive early or stay behind after the tour, you are charged an extra $600 each way. We didn't want to fly with China Southern and we wanted to overnight in Bangkok as we are both getting on in age and don't like the long flights. However to do this, even if we arrive & depart Katmandu on the same day as the rest of the group, Tripadeal wants to charge us each an extra $1282! I acknowledge that they may have to pay more to go with a different airline, but cannot see how they can justify charging $1282 extra just because we don't fly out of Sydney and home again with the group. We are happy to pay the extra cost in airline ticketing but this only amounts to $82. I am told they have to cancel the original ticket with China Southern to rebook with Thai Airways, and so the $1282 covers this cost - I find that hard to believe as flights return to Katmandu from Sydney are available for $840!
I am sure the tour will be wonderful but I am not happy with the above, nor the booking process as I did explain to Tripadeal that I didn't want to make any decision about the flights and go early/stay behind until after I had given my husband his birthday present. I knew that he doesn't like long hours spent traveling but TripaDeal kept putting the pressure on me to make a decision, which I did, and now regret. The flight they have us on with China Southern departs Sydney and stops over in Guanzghou for a couple of hours before the flight to Katmandu which arrives at 2215 - very late in the night! This makes a very long day for us! So my advice to anyone thinking of booking with TripaDeal is to make sure your flights are suitable before they get ticketed or it will cost you! They will go with the cheapest airline and don't worry about their passengers comfort when booking long haul flights, etc.