longhaul online booking - how do I know which websute to trust?

[isitmidnightalready]

We are going to Thaillnd in the winter and know which airline we will use (Qatar airways) but don't know which website to book it through. I need one I can trust as I don't want to lose £3k flights if it all goes wrong. What should I be looking out for? Is there somewhere I can get reviews of the ones on offer?

The sites available are omegaflightsone, travelup, budgetair, majortravel, opodo, expedia, 9flights, travelpack, and qatarsirways itself. How do I assess which is the best? They all are within about £30 per person of each other so cost isn't the biggest deal. I just don't want to get stung and lose the flights / cash.

Any advice welcome - I am not used to booking something major like this online but there is no travel agent within reach for me to go to.

Help!

I would probably book with qatar airways if the is price is much the same. At least if you have any problems you can call them direct rather than dealing with a third party. Saying that if I don't book direct i have used ebookers successfully a few times.

If you are paying by credit card I'm sure you can get money back anyway and travel insurance would cover you for the whole holiday rather than just the flights.
ATOL is the bit that gives you your money back if the company folds.

If you use Expedia or Opodo have you looked on Easyfundraising? They will donate a percentage of your purchase to a charity of your choice. Our school had signed up and a parent did their summer hols through Expedia and got the PTA £300!

Thanks for these ideas. I will book by credit card. I did wonder if it wouldbe hard to talk directly to Qatarairways as they may not have too many staff in the uk (or maybe they do). Do I need to look for the little padlock inthe top bar, or is that just a UK secure thing?

I'll definately look up Easyfundraising!

Qatar do have plenty of staff in the UK. We flew business class with them to the Maldives via Doha and can highly recommend them. I wasn't involved in the booking but dh didn't have any problems.

I have heard good things about trailfinders. I got the feeling you will be lucky if you can talk to anyone in Expedia!

Though tbh I use STA travel on the high street because after a price comparison I find they are pretty competitive to online prices, after all the taxes added in. Most sites I have found don't do well on long haul, especially with specific stop over locations. For example I have struggled with sites with requirements like going to Tokyo with a stop over in hong kong, kind of thing. Unless you go to the specific airlines website ofc.

Good luck.

I would book direct with Qatar direct. Expedia really messed up my flights from Brazil to Argentina at Easter.

I always book direct with the airline unless I'm doing some kind of complicated round trip with multiple airlines, in which case I use a real travel agent (eg Trailfinders or Flightcentre).

I've also heard bad things about Expedia recently.

Well, thanks for all the advice. It seems I should be booking with Qatar airways then as we are quite straightforward.

Does anyone know about the padlock security symbol - I didn't notice it on their website.

Thanks

I generally use Flight Centre. They will price match anything you find available online, too, and take care of any hassle..... Just a thought.

Thanks Jenstar!

Trailfinders and Travelbag are very reliable...also might be advisable to book direct with Qatar
If you look on trip advisor you'll see all sorts of horror stories of people using these cheap 3rd party websites you've mentioned

The padlock symbol means the data between your laptop or computer and their website is encrypted.

Depends how they’ve written their website as to when it comes on.

At the point your supplying personal details and especially credit card details, you should be seeing the padlock.

Zombie thread, but agree with never using some third party site you never heard of, as you say there are loads of complaints about them and booking direct gives you direct contact with the airline if any issues instead of having to go through a third party all the time.

I've flown with Emirates & Quatar, book directly with them (why wouldn't you)
Join their air miles, which you use in the future for free or reduced flights

Don't forget buy travel insurance