Travel City Adverts are a joke!

[codge90]

On teletext they quote £269 for flights to Florida in June.

I phoned up and asked if these prices are true and they said yes.

Well here is my quote from them:

Fly Drive from Manchester 7 June for 14 nights

2 Adults
1 Basic Smallest Car with Full Insurance

£1097

There advertised prices don't include booking fee's, meals, anything by the sound of it.

The car must be £500 or so!

 

[pegasusEH]

To get an idea of what Travel City really charge you can e-mail from their website and get a quote with a breakdown.

I have done this recently, just to compare prices for what we are paying Virgin for our trip this June.

Car insurance with Travel City is £298 PER WEEK for a 7 seater van (just had to go back and check the e-mail I had in reply as it seems so high!).

We also made enquiries with them a couple of years ago when we thought about trying to go without a car - they were going to charge an extra £200 a week because we weren't having a car????

Travel City would probably work out a couple of hundred less than Virgin - but is the saving worth it? I don't like the thought that we would be ripped off for the car insurance.

Then there's the £10pp booking fee.

All those hidden extras!

 

[Hilary]

I'm sure it's the car rental and insurance that's making the quote so different from the advertised flight-only price.

With companies who include 'free' car rental with their fly-drives or holidays (such as Virgin) you'll still have to pay around £350 if you take out their car insurance package for two weeks.

I also remember a few years ago that Virgin wanted about £20 or £30 per person if we didn't want the 'free' car - although I have a feeling this may no longer be the case.

 

[Astrid]

Interesting reading ....

I'm travelling with Travel City Direct in May and have just checked my invoice and my Car Hire Package for the two weeks is only £388 which I thought was reasonable.

I suppose it all depends on the deal they offer at the time.

I nearly got 'stung' by Virgin in '99 as Hilary says, as I decided not to have the 'free car' and they wanted to charge me a phenomenal amount for transfers etc. In the end I kept the car!!

I don't know why the Tour Companies stop this 'free car' malarky it's so misleading to a lot of people.

Astrid

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

If you are offered a 'free' car, but then are asked to pay a ludicrous amount for insurance there is another option. At the risk of repitition I'll recommend the American Express Premium travel insurance policy. This INCLUDES cover for car hire in North America, and means you can decline rip-off prices charged by all the travel companies but take advantage of discount flydrive prices.

More details at www.americanexpress.co.uk You do not need to have an Amex card to buy their insurance.

I have no connection with Amex (other than as a satisfied customer!).

Regards

Rob

 

[pigby]

I rang up Travel City prior to booking my forthcoming July trip - stay on site and don't want a car. Virgin were coming up quite a bit cheaper, but we did take advantage of the free child offer that was running till the beginning of November with Virgin. We ave travelled with Virgin 3 times and have always not taken the hire car but have taken the free coach transfers instead.


Sue

 

[Claire44]

We went with Travel City last year and have just booked again. Before booking we went into town to get quotes with other companies. For exactly the same hotel, departure dates and airport Thomson wanted over £700 more and Airtours wanted £600 more. That's for 2 adults and 1 child. With Travel City we have also got double baggage allowance which wasn't included in the other quotes. We are more than happy with Travel City.