crystal travel = misguided prices

[bigbill340]

Hi all,

 

 I have just been in a rather heated debate with Crystal travel about them advertising a price of 508 pounds(sorry my pound sign seems to be broken) and I could get all the way to the card payment before it just kept coming up 'trouble with card authorization', when I rang them the first time they told me to use another browser, so I did this and then couldn't find the price again. I spent about 30 minutes to find it again and then the same happened again. When I rang them the second time I got annoyed with the person I was talking to, so asked to speak to a manager. He went on to inform me that all the seats had been sold at that price but I could buy one at the new price of 570.

 I had a rather large debate about how it's illegal to advertise a price and then have no intention of honoring it, to which he just kept telling me that I should book with another airline through them. I hung up and instead went back and searched the sites again, I managed to get a direct flight on BA in mid-may for 518.89 + 6 for ATOL protection.

 

I know this is a fairly common thing, but their attitude just sucked! I stayed calm until the last five minutes where he just kept saying 'you should get us to check with other airlines' and then just let rip!

 

I know that I will never use them again! I really don't care what price they offer as I think they would be a nightmare to deal with if you needed any form of assistance!!

 

 

 

Bill

[swamp donkey]

same same anytime I tried to book with them

now I just ignore them 

[JPL39]

Hi Bill

 

I know what you mean pal.

This has happened to me more than once.

Only this week ive booked a flight for £600 when only 24hrs earlier it was on my screen for £544.

I should have booked the fucker straight away.

 

But hey! Its only money (no pockets in coffins etc etc )  

 

Best regards

JPL

[jerry]

Jai jen jen ... don't let these a holes spoil your trip  .

[bigbill340]

same same anytime I tried to book with them

now I just ignore them 

 

Absolutely no way I would ever think of using them in the future!

 

I think I will follow your lead in the future and just ignore them!

 

 

Hi Bill

 

I know what you mean pal.

This has happened to me more than once.

Only this week ive booked a flight for £600 when only 24hrs earlier it was on my screen for £544.

I should have booked the fucker straight away.

 

But hey! Its only money (no pockets in coffins etc etc )  

 

Best regards

JPL

 

It just really annoys me when a company puts prices up that they have no intention of honoring!

 

I know it's only money, but it is the time I wasted and the fact that they had no intention of doing seats at that price.

 

 

Jai jen jen ... don't let these a holes spoil your trip  .

 

You are right Jerry!

 

They would never spoil my trip, just pissed me off a bit when they mess me about!

 

I've taken a few deep breaths now and feel a little better! 55555

 

 

 

Bill

[petermik]

Not just Crystal Travel-I had the same thing with Travelbag just before Christmas last

[JPL39]

Not just Crystal Travel-I had the same thing with Travelbag just before Christmas last

I dont think there are many outfits that dont do it.

Its just one of those things.

 

 

JPL

[sagitarius123]

Just had the same experience with a flight from Manchester with Turkish Airlines. I think Crystal Travel & Travelup are the same company. The seats are not available & they just want you to ring up so they can upsell. Sod em!!

[Bobdabilda]

Crystal travel are part of the Moresand Group which own Crystal Travel.

Check out the reviews for Crystal Travel......but as usual you have to take some of them with a pinch of salt

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews250268.html

 

also check the following report out.

http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2011/12/Moresand-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_172406.aspx

[bigbill340]

Crystal travel are part of the Moresand Group which own Crystal Travel.

Check out the reviews for Crystal Travel......but as usual you have to take some of them with a pinch of salt

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews250268.html

 

also check the following report out.

http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2011/12/Moresand-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_172406.aspx

 

None of that shocks me! they were just bloody terrible really!

 

To make myself feel better I went on to BAs site and booked myself a nice aisle seat! at least I would be able to stretch my legs during my flight!

 

 

 

Bill

[Bareback Bob]

yeah crystal travel and 9flights are p*ki rip off merchants, not much different from those undesireables selling 'cheap' watches in the souks in dubai, once your up the stairs the prices increase.... stay away.. ive found favourable rates on opodo, TG recently for 590GBP ..make sure to check them out

[Hungryjoe]

I have had trouble with Crystal Travels earlier.

I just do not use them any more.

 

Much safer to use Opodo & Just the Flight for flight tickets and Sawasdee for hotels.

Lately of course I find Sawasdee limited in choice... a bunch of hotels are not on that website any more.

 

Any suggestions on a good, reliable pattaya hotel website which has a wider choice?

[SLEUTH]

Perhaps it is the new "prices from" marketing ploy....Bangkok £399 ...ring up to find they have all gone but they have some at £650.

[wallchips]

I got a flight with crystal Travel for 488 return..After going through all the hassel you had... 

 

Sometimes the hassle is wort it ...

[TaffBill]

Hi all,

 

 I have just been in a rather heated debate with Crystal travel about them advertising a price of 508 pounds(sorry my pound sign seems to be broken) and I could get all the way to the card payment before it just kept coming up 'trouble with card authorization', when I rang them the first time they told me to use another browser, so I did this and then couldn't find the price again. I spent about 30 minutes to find it again and then the same happened again. When I rang them the second time I got annoyed with the person I was talking to, so asked to speak to a manager. He went on to inform me that all the seats had been sold at that price but I could buy one at the new price of 570.

 I had a rather large debate about how it's illegal to advertise a price and then have no intention of honoring it, to which he just kept telling me that I should book with another airline through them. I hung up and instead went back and searched the sites again, I managed to get a direct flight on BA in mid-may for 518.89 + 6 for ATOL protection.

 

I know this is a fairly common thing, but their attitude just sucked! I stayed calm until the last five minutes where he just kept saying 'you should get us to check with other airlines' and then just let rip!

 

I know that I will never use them again! I really don't care what price they offer as I think they would be a nightmare to deal with if you needed any form of assistance!!

 

 

 

Bill

 

Hi Bill, Bill here  

I'm glad you brought this up. I had almost the exact experience with these tossers on Fri.

Using SkyScanner I was searching for a flight for early June and spotted a BA flight for £508! Sounds familiar?  ;)

It was Crystal travel. I went on the website and it said there was 1 seat left at this price! Lucky me I thought  

But alas it was a load of bollox. I called their number and he said I could book another seat on that plane for £690!!

I had a mild go at him about advertising false prices etc but he wasn't interested and kept trying to sell me the £690 ticket.

 

I went back on Skyscanner and noticed that they were the lowest for prices in 3 other searches I put in. Obviously taking the piss.

It would be nice if you could leave a message with Skyscanner about these and other cowboys. I tried looking but couldn't see a way of reporting them. 

[bigbill340]

Hi Bill, Bill here  

I'm glad you brought this up. I had almost the exact experience with these tossers on Fri.

Using SkyScanner I was searching for a flight for early June and spotted a BA flight for £508! Sounds familiar?  ;)

It was Crystal travel. I went on the website and it said there was 1 seat left at this price! Lucky me I thought  

But alas it was a load of bollox. I called their number and he said I could book another seat on that plane for £690!!

I had a mild go at him about advertising false prices etc but he wasn't interested and kept trying to sell me the £690 ticket.

 

I went back on Skyscanner and noticed that they were the lowest for prices in 3 other searches I put in. Obviously taking the piss.

It would be nice if you could leave a message with Skyscanner about these and other cowboys. I tried looking but couldn't see a way of reporting them. 

 

Hi Bill,

 

Did you manage to book a flight?

 

 

Bill

[TaffBill]

Hi Bill,

 

Did you manage to book a flight?

 

 

Bill

 

Yes mate but through Netflights for £590 on Thai.

Not cheap but the cheapest I could find for my dates.

[bigbill340]

Yes mate but through Netflights for £590 on Thai.

Not cheap but the cheapest I could find for my dates.

 

That is about what I expected to pay for my flights.

 

I haven't had too good of a time with BA in the past, and that was in biz class, so be interesting for me to see if they have got any better? but I would of flown Thai if the price was the same!

 

 

 

Bill

[Roge]

I booked a flight last week  from Birmingham in mid may should have been £496 got it for £452 booked it direct with KLM 14,1/4hrs there15,1/4hrs return was advertistised on trip adviser and Kayak never had any problems when ive used those web sites and gone thru other agents ie lastminute opedo, budget air,

flights  still available now for £479 / £500 plus depending on flights and stopover times

[jinners]

Classic bait and switch. Had the same story a few times unfortunately with these rip off's. They seem to operate out of Hounslow and don't give a shit. I tend to use a general search engine now, or go to the airlines direct.

[zorro16]

ive just booked a flight via "Netflights" who seem pretty good..

[mooyai]

I use Dial-a-Flight almost every trip... have done for about 8 years or so. Really helpful guy called Spike (or in the past a girl called Sadie). I'm probably his most irritating customer, as everything is always really last minute with me, at the busiest times of the year, but he does a fantastic job of finding the best prices he can, often by breaking legs down into individual trips rather that as connecting flights. Last trip (2011~2012) I booked on Christmas Eve, and he found a flight for £690 that would get me to Thailand on the morning of NYE! I think that's bloody good going!

 

Unfortunately this trip he couldn't match the search engines so late, and I went with budgetair.co.uk, all done completely online. Booking again around Xmas Eve, and flying on the 29th, the price was about £650. It was via either netflights.com or cheapflights.co.uk, but I can't remember which. (I've used both in the past, but the best by far used to be the Greenbee site by John Lewis, and recommended by the Money Saving Expert website, but they've stopped trading now.)

 

One thing I will say though, is I flew with Jet Airways... never again! Baggage allowance is OK, at 30kg if you need it, flight times are OK, with quite short stop-overs, but the second leg to BKK was uncomfortable, Delhi airport is full of retards, with a ridiculous [air side] security system, and the food on the flight is crap! The Indians carry so much crap on board too, that I REALLY struggled to find somewhere to put my own hand luggage as they boarded my row number quite late. They also took forever to settle down, to the point that they actually missed our departure slot! The fuckers just wouldn't sit down, which in turn made it even more difficult to move about to find stowage space. I'm not looking forwards to the journey back to the UK, that's for sure!

 

MooYai!

[malifax]

I booked with Crystal for my next trip in Dec, the first time I searched Skyscanner the price of 538 came up went on Crystal website got all way through booking then guess what yeah old card problems started and when I rang price had gone. Hung up, but later that night thought sod it will try one more time, this time the card payment did go through for 538 +abit for ATOL. decent flight it seems KLM and China Airlines via Schipol. Here's hoping everything goes ok after reading Bills OP about this company.

[Billyp]

I think a good rule of thumb is as you said first check the price on Skyscanner . I use this method too but only to find out which airline has the best deal. Then I go straight on to that airlines website and book direct, the advantages here are you obviously cut out the scum agents who I never ever use. Also you can choose your seat online, with some airlines you can get your seat straightaway at NO extra cost.

[Dunmurry]

I'm coming over in a couple of weeks and booked a BA direct flight with Avios - a couple of days later I tried to select a seat on BA's website using my booking ref and it was asking me for 25 quid in each direction - is this normal ???

 

Thanks.. Dave..