Buying ticket on the Internet.
 

Be warned.
In the midst of putting together a fairly complex holiday intenirary involving 4 flight tickets, two train tickets, one mini-cruise, 7 different hotels and three ferry crossings I inadvertently managed to book two (2) flight tickets between Da Bang and Ho Chi Minh city, with two (2) different online travel agencies and two (2) different airlines. Don't even ask. 😵
In order to save a bit, none of them refundable, of course.
Tried to cancel the Flight with Viet Air Jet. No can do. Called Travellink (Norway), could do, flight cancelled, money to be returned. Hurrah!
In addition, managed to book one hotel one day to few, another two days to many.
SWMBO, not impressed, mutterings of Alzheimer's.
Be warned trying to be your own travel agent.
Per

................. sorry to hear of your woes Per ... there are several journeys that I've had to get 'professional help' with rather than book things myself where being 'off-continent' is concerned.

But for those of us out there who do DIY .... remember that you need to read and understand the Ts and Cs before booking .... how many times do I read rants against FR because of 'consumer disappointment' when everything is stated in the Ts and Cs IF one bothers to read it all!

You have my sympathy! We normally try to go with tour Cos for complex itineraries - Wendy Wu for Asia, Riviera for Europe, etc etc.
However, our 8 week trip of Aus n NZ was all internet researched/booked.
What could possibly go wrong?

Being retired gives me time to do the research, a paper-based timeline highlighted what I needed to do, and a simple filing system on the pc seemed to work. (Paper for the timeline - so I could see all the issues at once)
At least everyone involved spoke a sort of English!

Fortunately, it all worked. Other than booking a 5 star hotel in Auckland in error!!

Virgin Aus did their best to foul it up - they sent my bags to Hobart instead of Cairns, and then lied and lied and lied.

Otherwise, fine!

Not complaining, my mistakes and grateful for those mending my errors, and told them that much. I've always booked our vacations, OK, since the Internet. I find it challenging, and I'm always amazed by how much money can be saved by spending a few hours crosseyed in front of the 'puter. Sometimes, as proven, too x-eyed.
Per

You have my sympathy, recently each year has been a multi flight, city, hotel self researched tour, the only real issue was remembering when it was a overnight flight and to plan hotel days and arrival times and before any booking to present it to the people (6) and see if any see a glitch I missed

Did a similar thing with Agoda once. Booked flights from Bangkok-Mandalay-Bagan-Mandalay-Chiang Mai. A (too) cursory check on the internet said you can get a Visa on Arrival for Myanmar.


Got to Bangkok only to be told you needed to get a Visa first so you could use it on arrival and it was just a poorly worded government website. I would have understood if I'd paid more attention.


Bangkok Airways were brilliant and effectively converted the economy flights to two business class flights to Vientiane which was around the same price, so we went there instead.


But the hotel in Bagan would not back down on the non-ref bit, even though I said we would be back in a few months for a longer stay, so I told them to go and do one and left them several horrible reviews.

I have also made mistakes online but was content that they were MY mistakes! There are many reasons that I now book online and, usually directly with the supplier of the service - eventhough it will be more expensive.

1. I can do this at any time of the day or night that suits me.
2. I can pause the research and return to it days later - with call centre that is very difficult as they would have to go back over the draft plans. For a shop that is possible but I would have to visit the shop multiple times and, probably, have a queue backing up behind me.
3. I can spend as long as I like comparing destinations, routes, carriers and aircraft.
4. Decide whether to spend Mileage or earn it.
5. I can tweak each and every aspect and decide the schedule for us. The last time I booked an inclusive package was more than 20 years ago.
6. The spreadsheet can be extensive and complicated.
7. Take time to discuss my findings with my partner and when she can get holiday (I'm self-employed so can take what I want).
8. You learn to watch out for websites that, when you go back a step to alter one aspect, then reset one or more fields to their default.
9. I sometimes use the aggregation and 3rd party sites for research but, by paying the supplier directly, I know that, if something goes wrong - I have control of the booking and can deal directly with them.
10. If I cost me money by a mistake - I will forgive me!

Currently, we are discussing where to go with a BA 2-4-1 voucher and I can test availability and price for a destination in just a few minutes, as I did last night.

What Paxboy said!!!:ok:

I, 90% of the time, book thru the links provided by topcashback but before I get around to booking I check out which sites are offering the best prices not just for flights but for hotels also, before I clear my cookies and go buying via topcashback.

Just recently a guy in another thread was talking about spending some £20k on business class flares to/from PER, well generally I get some 1% to 1.5% cashback on flights, ! % or 1.5% of £20k isn't to be sniffed at, and on hotels I generally receive between 6% and 13% cashback, these are effectively direct discounts on the advertised prices.

And don't get me started on the cashback for such things as airport parking, hire cars, travel insurance etc. etc. etc., there's a small fortune to be saved :)

I'm generally happy with doing my own research and booking online. I prefer through the airline rather than some amalgamator, though. My wife and I are flying to Birmingham in a few days. Ostensibly w/ Delta, but it's actually KLM with a code share. Seat selection was not available online through the Delta website, but I simply called customer service and got seats. I looked at the seat map online while the clerk offered options. Worked well.

Minding the T&Cs is indeed important. I get two free 70-pound bags per person on international Delta flights. My wife and I will be taking a train from Birmingham to Edinburgh and flying Lufthansa from there to Frankfurt. The ticket class I picked lets us each take one 50-pound bag. Free bags on DL could become very expensive ones on LH! Winter in the UK and on the continent requires more layers of bulkier clothing than summer travel (Plus, no glider flying while in the UK) so careful planning will be required. I expect we'll have three checked bags between us, so we'll only have to pay for one on LH as long as I keep the others below 50. It's good to know these things in advance.

We'll have plenty of surplus capacity for Christmas Market detritus on the way home. (Train from Frankfurt to Stuttgart and flight to Atlanta from there.) Totally off topic, but flying westbound from Europe to the US totally bores me to tears. This will be my 56th trip across the Atlantic.

Birmingham (UK) is a lovely modestly sized airport, it was my local for a number of years and I loved it, very easy to navigate, from the terminal take the monorail for around a one minute journey to 'International' then downstairs to the rail station, if you'd like to know train times to Edinburgh, or indeed any other public transport services in UK, then try having a search on: https://www.traveline.info/

The only time I have bought a combined flight/hotel recently, is when I used BA. Again because I am dealing with the carrier. Last week I had to change a flight time and did it within 10 minutes on the phone, paid the fee and all fine. I have found their flight/hotel deals to be good value. But we tend to use them only for a city break once a year.