WanderlustNZ
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2012
- Messages
- 3,132
It’s only early afternoon here in NZ and it’s already been a day of highs and lows.
For those with neither the time and/or interest to read about it, I’ll provide a short version along with a longer one.
Short Version
Flights to Sydney are booked meaning this cruise is definitely going ahead.
I discovered again why I really dislike dealing with travel agents.
We are flying return to Sydney Business Class on LAN.
Longer Version
When I booked the cruise I was aware how scarily expensive flights at that time of the year would be. I had checked prior to booking the cruise, and the cheapest return flight I could get was about $600 p/p which was a special with Emirates. It’s not the flight there that was the issue, it’s the flight home. We’re flying home just a few days before Xmas day so I think it’s unlikely that this flight will get much cheaper.
However, I went ahead with the cruise booking deciding that the very cheap price of the cruise still made the whole trip good value for money.
I’ve been checking flight prices daily over the last week and the cheapest I could find this morning was NZ$650p/p with China Airlines. I started to get worried that not only would the flights not get cheaper, but they might get much more expensive.
After exhausting every airline combination and every flight route, just for the fun of it, I decided to price up business. I was really excited to see that LAN had a special on Business Class for NZ$790 p/p. For just $140 more p/p over the cheapest economy, we could get business class including access to the Qantas lounges, and lie flat seats. The flight times aren’t the greatest, but LAN do get pretty good reviews. So I decided that this was the way to go.
The only problem is that I did not have enough reward dollars to cover return flights for both of us. I would need to pay the remainder out of pocket using the CC.
I went on to the travel agents website to try and book online, but the website would not allow me to use 2 different payment methods for the same booking. Plus they wanted to charge me an online fee of $15 p/p.
So I packed the family into the car and we drove over half an hour to the nearest physical store. The lady priced up the flights and quoted me $120 more than what I had found online. I had a print off from the LAN website to show them what they should be quoting me and even said that their own website didn’t ask for that much. She explained that booking in store required a fee of $50 p/p. $50!!!!
I was horrified and asked how they expected to keep business with fees like that. Especially when websites such as Expedia will match the airlines.
I could hear her getting grumpy and she started putting on the 'hard sell' to try and get me to book something. She first tried to tell me that everyone charges fees these days, including websites such as Expedia (Lies). Then she said that people were booking for this Christmas back in November last year (also Lies) so there wasn’t much availability left. And then she tried to sell me on the merits of economy on China Airlines (perhaps lies? I’ve never flown with them).
So I left the store grumpy and we drove home empty handed. I count that as 90mins of my life I’ll never get back.
Once home, I sat for ages trying to work out how I was actually going to be able to use these reward dollars, when I had a brainwave. I would book my seat using reward dollars through the agent's website, and I would book DH's seat out of pocket using the LAN website.
So using two computers at once, I made the bookings simultaneously to avoid a price rise between bookings. It was a bit stressful, but it worked.
I didn’t quite get to use up all my reward dollars, but I would rather that than get stung with horrendous fees. I had to pay $15 in fees for myself, but that's nothing to loose sleep over. It could have been much worse.
So it worked out in the end, and I now have business class flights to look forward to.
If you managed to read all of this, you deserve a big
For those with neither the time and/or interest to read about it, I’ll provide a short version along with a longer one.
Short Version
Flights to Sydney are booked meaning this cruise is definitely going ahead.
I discovered again why I really dislike dealing with travel agents.
We are flying return to Sydney Business Class on LAN.
Longer Version
When I booked the cruise I was aware how scarily expensive flights at that time of the year would be. I had checked prior to booking the cruise, and the cheapest return flight I could get was about $600 p/p which was a special with Emirates. It’s not the flight there that was the issue, it’s the flight home. We’re flying home just a few days before Xmas day so I think it’s unlikely that this flight will get much cheaper.
However, I went ahead with the cruise booking deciding that the very cheap price of the cruise still made the whole trip good value for money.
I’ve been checking flight prices daily over the last week and the cheapest I could find this morning was NZ$650p/p with China Airlines. I started to get worried that not only would the flights not get cheaper, but they might get much more expensive.
After exhausting every airline combination and every flight route, just for the fun of it, I decided to price up business. I was really excited to see that LAN had a special on Business Class for NZ$790 p/p. For just $140 more p/p over the cheapest economy, we could get business class including access to the Qantas lounges, and lie flat seats. The flight times aren’t the greatest, but LAN do get pretty good reviews. So I decided that this was the way to go.
The only problem is that I did not have enough reward dollars to cover return flights for both of us. I would need to pay the remainder out of pocket using the CC.
I went on to the travel agents website to try and book online, but the website would not allow me to use 2 different payment methods for the same booking. Plus they wanted to charge me an online fee of $15 p/p.
So I packed the family into the car and we drove over half an hour to the nearest physical store. The lady priced up the flights and quoted me $120 more than what I had found online. I had a print off from the LAN website to show them what they should be quoting me and even said that their own website didn’t ask for that much. She explained that booking in store required a fee of $50 p/p. $50!!!!
I was horrified and asked how they expected to keep business with fees like that. Especially when websites such as Expedia will match the airlines.
I could hear her getting grumpy and she started putting on the 'hard sell' to try and get me to book something. She first tried to tell me that everyone charges fees these days, including websites such as Expedia (Lies). Then she said that people were booking for this Christmas back in November last year (also Lies) so there wasn’t much availability left. And then she tried to sell me on the merits of economy on China Airlines (perhaps lies? I’ve never flown with them).
So I left the store grumpy and we drove home empty handed. I count that as 90mins of my life I’ll never get back.
Once home, I sat for ages trying to work out how I was actually going to be able to use these reward dollars, when I had a brainwave. I would book my seat using reward dollars through the agent's website, and I would book DH's seat out of pocket using the LAN website.
So using two computers at once, I made the bookings simultaneously to avoid a price rise between bookings. It was a bit stressful, but it worked.
I didn’t quite get to use up all my reward dollars, but I would rather that than get stung with horrendous fees. I had to pay $15 in fees for myself, but that's nothing to loose sleep over. It could have been much worse.
So it worked out in the end, and I now have business class flights to look forward to.
If you managed to read all of this, you deserve a big
Glad you figured it all out in the end and got your business class flights 
IMO the 12 Apostles are not the best part of the Great Ocean Road. Besides the fact that there are not that many left, it was ridiculously crowded, and over-touristy. It's worth seeing if you are doing the GOR, but I certainly wouldn't go that far out of my way to see it. And driving inland, there's not much to see on the way either.
Perhaps if my holiday savings looked a bit healthier I'd feel differently 
