Need a bit of input.

Family of 4 flying to Aus/NZ. Total cost is more than either of us can put on one credit card (and can’t increase as have done so in the last 6 months). Therefore paying by debit of bank xfer.

Cost is slightly cheaper through a large agent (ebookers, booking.com, etc.) than direct (Emirates due to connections etc.).

Given that the extra protection afforded by credit card payment won’t be there, should we book direct with the airline at a roughly 4% increase? Or once the booking is made, is it all down to the airline anyway and I needn’t worry?

TIA for any input!

can you buy 2 flights on each credit card?

I think agent vs direct is less relevant than credit vs debit except if you are buying multiple items from the same agent which then also gives you cover from ATOL.

Bear in mind that you only need to pay for part of the item on the credit card to get Section 75 protection for the full amount.

So you could pay some (more than £100) on a credit card and the rest on debit and still get the full protection of using a credit card.

For belt and braces, I’d put it all on a credit card or multiple credit cards though.

Edit and for those that say you get charge-back protection with debit, yes you can, but it’s determined by the bank’s rules and not underpinned by law.
https://www.money.co.uk/current-accounts/is-debit-card-protection-the-same-as-for-credit-cards

just thinking aloud without actually checking the facts, but cant you just put say £100 of it on a credit card and that protects it the same as the full amount?

EDIT:  beaten to it by a minute 😀

Just call someone like Flightcentre with the flight details you want. They will likely be able to match and let you pay over multiple cards.

+1 on get Credit Card protection no matter what.
I personally go via Airline or a *known* quality agent – I have had staff stuck in Europe with some oddball ticket company they booked through to save £14 have no office open at an evening or weekend and be absolutely no use what so ever, same when it came to arguing the refund / EU flight compensation. If it does not add much, go with the airline direct.

What exactly is the question?

I’m guessing you’d want travel insurance if booking the flights separately to accomodation as the airline won’t be repsonsible for lost hotel bookings, just flight cancellations/onward travel costs.

Reading in the Guardian and Simon Calder about the palaver between airline and agent when flights go wrong I’d book with the airline, especially if they put the whole journey on one booking – that makes them responsible for you if delays make you miss a connection. And part paying by CC gives you that extra protection.

I always book direct with everything (unless I have no choice.)  often better deals with hotels etc and much easier to undo problems.

Every single hotel in the USA refunded me my money in 2020 no issue. Whereas you hear many horror stories with booking.com and the like for that period.

Always use a credit card and have decent insurance. Job done.

Checkout autoeurope.com for car rental. Used them loads and you can rebook if the price changes closer to the date with no penalty.  Recent trip to Colorado – car started at 1275 and eventually came down to about 700. They just refund you.

Book with the airline

My sister in law is in a night mare hole having used an agent. Basically booked flights to Perth via an agent. 3 weeks to go they find the flight isn’t going Perth it’s going to Darwin.

Airline and agent can’t agree on whose fault it is. Insurance say they aren’t paying as it’s the airlines liability. I think they got the flight money back after a huge fight but out of pocket expenses like covid tests have not been covered

Exactly as Ampthill says. Think a lot of these middle men are twisters adding money on top of the booking in my experience.

Example lanzarote secrets hotel flight with jet 2 package £1600

Booked sep/flights  £1320

Booking.com managed to mess up my trip to Ukraine and had no room when I got there. Hotel response was obviously pretty apathetic.

I don’t get the value of an agent unless you want the cleanest booking experience at the expense of things mentioned above. (But seriously booking two items. hardly a problem is it.)

Ask Trailfinders for a quote – they seem to have unusually good customer service when it comes to screwed up flights. My sister works there and did explain to me how they’re structured, which I didn’t really understand, but she spends a fair amount of time rebooking people when things get cancelled. It seems like you’re not left to deal with it yourself.

And then I’d try walking into your local travel agents and seeing what they can do. I’ve had a couple of times recently when they’ve been the same price as the booking.com offers (which have rarely actually been bookable/the same price when you get to clicking through).

After that, I book direct with the airline.

direct with the airline if you can, if the limit is high enough on one of your cards, just pay the balance off with your debit card and use that card to pay for the flight.

although if you have travel insurance (which you need anyway) the credit card isn’t adding much value

Thanks all. We’re staying with family, friends and mooching around when we get there – no hotels to bother about – it’s just the flights.

Trailfinders etc. haven’t been able to match the Emirates price but booking.com has the cheaper price.

Emirates seem keen to steer you away from credit cards (they keep on mentioning Emirates Pay!) and booking.com also claim to have a protection deal with Visa.. But yes Travel Insurance will be bought immediately after the flights.

Has anyone using either Emirates or booking.com been able to split payment between cards or is it really only over the phone they’ve facilitated that? We’ve tried several agents on the phone and they’ve all been more than direct!

Cheers

Standard cancellation/long delay compensation rules would apply to direct booked airline tickets.

otherwise buy some insurance against it beforehand.

put the flight details into both skyscanner.com and flights.google.com and they should find the cheapest way to pay. I’d just sling it on a debit card and get good travel insurance

You can usually overpay a credit card, eg if you had a 2k limit and wanted to spend 2500 on it then overpay 500 beforehand.

I’d always go direct if possible, have had bad experiences before where a flight has needed to be changed but the airline need the agent to do it but the agent can’t/won’t.

Phone your bank and ask for an increased limit on the cc?

I’d always go direct if possible, have had bad experiences before where a flight has needed to be changed but the airline need the agent to do it but the agent can’t/won’t.

Yeah, I had a similar experience, the first flight changed and meant I wouldn’t make a connection (with the same airline booked as a single journey) this was the day before I was leaving, the airline wouldn’t deal with it the agent had to rebook, and the online agent had no telephone support. Emails were getting no reply and I was getting increasingly jumpy, eventually I managed to get it sorted about 6 hours before I was due to leave contacting them on facebook (which I rejoined just to do this) .

It would have to be a very good saving to book with an online agent again now.