Comments on: Australia Vs United Kingdom – The battle of the package

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:06:19 +0000

It's more if the airline goes bust, no one at the travel agency has mentioned to the consumer that they could be stranded abroad without any assistance. They only realise the dangers when it's too late. .-= Darren Cronian´s last blog ..My concerns about booking holidays on eBay =-.

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:06:14 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by Grayum_ian: Australia vs UK travel- Did packages make the difference? Would love to hear some thoughts on this http://bit.ly/7VyRD7...

By: Graham Robertson

Graham Robertson — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 00:34:00 +0000

Thats a really good point. From my own experience working in a an operation capacity, I know that my company offers 24 hour assistance to all bookings. Some others don’t offer anything, but it would be up to the agent to know the difference.

Basically, pros of packages are: Stable, safe, quality controlled.
Cons: A bit plain, same experience as everyone else, weak business model against economical changes.

DIY- SOMETIMES cheaper, more options, customization, more resilient to changes in the economy
Cons: No quality control, possibly no help from supplier

Its no surprise that DIY holidays have given rise to the UGC review sites!

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:27:59 +0000

Good post Graham. I agree that there isn’t a right or wrong way to sell travel but, what I would like to see is when a consumer goes to a travel agent, and they book them on to a DIY holiday that they ACTUALLY tell them about the dangers of doing this, i.e. offering options for financial protection.

Consumers (including myself) are so fixed on price nowadays that they do not realise or know the potential issues that they could find themselves in. This is one of the messages that I am really trying to hit home to UK consumers this year, as holiday protection is such a massive issue right now.