Booking via Flight Centre or Online?

BuddhaBoy on 13/06/2019 - 21:16

Hi Everyone,

Need some quick advice.

I am looking at booking three flight flights from Melbourne to Mumbai in Dec.

I checked online via Skyscanner and found couple of fares around $1300-$1400/person

Realised I have $500 FC gift voucher that I got via rewards points last year.

Called FC and spoke to a consultant. She asked if I have looked up fares online to which I said yes and gave her the details. The exact same flight is costing me $1620. I asked why was that and the consultant told me the online price is not the full price you see. I told her nope that’s not right, I literally went right till then where I could have paid the $1360 and book the flight. Included all fees and charges.

She didn’t had an answer and advised she’ll get back to me tomorrow.

Is it worth waiting for the consultant to assist or should I just go ahead and book online and maybe use the $500 FC to travel domestic next year.

Note- I didn’t talk about price beat at all.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

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Comments

  • monkeybusiness on 13/06/2019 - 21:31
    +3

    I think FC has a "price beat guarantee" where they will beat the lowest price you can find by $1. The only problem is that you got to do all the work and prove that you can get it for cheaper.

    Unless its a super emergency, there is no need to book now and can wait till tomorrow to see what they come back with.

    • BuddhaBoy on 13/06/2019 - 21:35

      Good to know they still do price beat.

      Have recently read somewhere that they will only price beat if you book $500 worth of accomodation on top of the flights. I couldn’t find that info on FC website.

      I’ll wait till tomorrow to see what the consultant comes back with.

      The only concern is as it’s a flight in December I can see the prices have been going up very quickly.

    • tranter on 13/06/2019 - 22:29

      They don't have a straight price beat guarantee any longer. As OP said, they still appear to do it if you book accommodation as well, but it wouldn't be worth it most the time.

    • waterbottled on 14/06/2019 - 09:08

      FC only price beat airlines' prices - nothing else.

      FC's sister company Student Flights, however, price beats online sites if they have an ABN.

  • JetBombat on 13/06/2019 - 21:42
    +4

    Direct with airline is the best bet. Rest is risky. FC shop is just riddled with tricks to get extra money out of you, I would avoid as much as possible.

  • salmon123 on 13/06/2019 - 21:52
    -2

    Melbourne to Mumbai

    Probably some racial profiling going on there…

    Is it worth waiting for the consultant to assist

    I wouldn't wait. They may call back, but probably wont. It's generally painful dealing with a travel agents in pricematch/pricebeat situations - it's a skinny deal for them, so they're not really interested. Recently, FC started making up stuff like they'll only price match if you buy other services through them.

    Realised I have $500 FC gift voucher that I got via rewards points last year.

    What were you thinking?! Even hotels are overpriced at flight center.

    maybe use the $500 FC to travel domestic next year.

    That might work. You'll have a different experience with each consultant you speak to. Try another one, if the first one doesn't want to sell you a ticket at the right price.

    Or just sell the gift card, save yourself the hassle.

  • Donaldhump on 13/06/2019 - 22:08

    Fc rep today told me they don’t match online site, sounds like she was bullshi*ting me, is that correct

    • SnoozeAndLose on 13/06/2019 - 22:44

      they have stopped price match a while ago, but people said if you buy $500 or more for accommodation they will match

      • Donaldhump on 14/06/2019 - 07:42

        Yeh that sucks given the barrage of price match ads on tv

    • waterbottled on 14/06/2019 - 09:09

      Yep that's right - they only price match online prices directly from the airline's site.

      FC's sister company Student Flights however, does price beat online sites (but only if they have an ABN, such as Aunt Betty).

      • salmon123 on 14/06/2019 - 09:24

        such as Aunt Betty

        Aunt Betty is owned by FC

  • toniyellow on 13/06/2019 - 22:49
    +1

    There was a discussion last year about how they got rid of the price match guarantee off their website https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/428005

    I tried instore in Jan this year and the guy there was dismissive but then had an alright experience trying the "genie" feature in their app, uploading a screenshot of a flight online and they did end up matching it after some emails back and forth. Randomly that was allocated to a flight centre in a different state but they did it all over email and it worked fine.

    • tranter on 14/06/2019 - 08:05

      Yeah they removed the price match guarantee from the website but the policy still existed. Not any more though.

  • AlanJ on 14/06/2019 - 08:34
    +1

    Flight Centre's price match was never worth much anyway…. the two or three times I used them (before I learnt to do better), they only beat the fare by a dollar, anyway. I used to treat Flight Centre as if it were a travel agent, but I finally realised that it is nothing of the kind; in the days when we used to have REAL travel agents, the customer wasn't charged any extra, and the agent got its commission from the seller.If you look at how Flight Centre works nowadays, you will see that YOU are where their money comes from. For instance, check its own cancellation fees… not the ones the airline charges when you cancel or change a flight, but the ADDITIONAL cancellation fees that Flight Centre inserts into its contract with you, carefully calculated so that you are unlikely to get anything back in the event of a cancellation or even a change of date. There is a previous Ozbargain post about one customer who found it necessary to cancel a flight booked through FC, and then found that he was liable for cancellation fees (two sets) which resulted in him owing hundreds of dollars as well as forfeiting the full price of the ticket! He was still fighting with Flight Centre over that issue when I last saw the post… I don't know whether they agreed, finally, to absolve him of the extra; but it would seem to me that if you book and then cancel, you shouldn't have to suffer more than the total loss of the money you paid!

  • BuddhaBoy on 14/06/2019 - 22:21

    Hi Everyone, I got the quote from FC consultant. Here’s what I got -

    1) The dates I requested was 2nd week of December for departure but the quote was given for the first week.

    2) Overall the cost of the fare looked pretty okay (still expensive than what I would pay online) on the first page. But as soon as I scrolled though and went to the last page the total price just up by more than $600.

    3) I read every page to realise the consultant had included $49/p Captains Package.

    4) They also included travel insurance for the three of us and the cost of it was I think way too expensive - $500 for the trip!

    So the total quote I got was like $1500 more than what I would normally pay.

    Anyways, I am done with FC and won’t bother price beat. Will just book online and sell my FC voucher or use it for domestic travel if I see any future holiday deal or something.

    This process was a pain. Lesson learnt.

    • vetopower on 18/06/2019 - 10:22

      Redeeming points for a FC voucher provides terrible value.

      I guess you found out the hard way.

  • yoyo6 on 17/06/2019 - 13:42

    Some airlines do price guarantee such as Qantas and Cathay Pacific. I just booked a flight direct with Cathay and they price matched a very dodgy looking website called best price travel.

    • xxau on 05/09/2019 - 14:21

      Hey, just wondering can I get Cathay Pacific to refund without information of subclass on other website?

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