Advantages of booking with a Agent

[MargaretMouse]

I was going to book direct with WDW for a split stay 9 nights in all star music and 6 nights in AOA and then with BA one night accommodation in Hilton DTD and flight to get ATOL. Protection my husband wants me to book it, with a agent eg Ever After Holiday or Charter travel, I would like to no, what the advantages are of doing it this way, he feels we are more protected and we have someone to help us given the current situation, not planning on going to September 2021. Any advice or help, please.

[82lcm]

I agree with your husband, I booked via an agent so that I had the protection and someone to sort out any problems for me, especially if that were to happen while we were away. I haven’t got on my holiday yet, but I have to say that I have had a couple of issues as I was booked with Thomas Cook flights and we are due to go this August. Honestly I cannot tell you enough how thankful I am that I booked with someone to get the answers for me and put my mind at rest. I do think it matters who you book with, you need someone with a good track record, lots of people have the protection of an agent but can’t actually get any help as staff are furloughed so no-one to speak to. I’m booked with Ever After Holidays, they are knowledgable, helpful and customer service has been above and beyond, also they’re not furloughed.They weren’t any more expensive than my DIY price so for me it was a no brainer and I’m so glad I did it this way. I’m waiting for this years holiday to be sorted but I know that as soon as they can help, they will be in touch. Hope this helps x

[racheal244]

821cm we are also booked through them but they won't let me cancel even though our dining plan has been cancelled. Our holiday provider is TUI but booked through my magic holidays /ever after. I have until tomorrow to make up our minds for the 15th August at a loss of £1000 after tomorrow we loose 30% and will loose more the later we leave it.

[mskitty]

We have also booked with Ever After Holidays. After the Thomas Cook collapse that we were sadly impacted by I can vouch for their customer service. They updated us daily via live Facebook videos and we had our money back in less than 2 weeks. They then worked hard to get us new flights sorted.

We are just waiting to hear about the Disney offer for our cancelled dining plan now.

They were no more expensive than us booking it all ourselves and we only have one person to deal with about our whole holiday instead or 2/3/4 different providers if we had booked it ourselves. We are protected by atol and so it is a no brainer to us to be booked with them.

[Gill H]

We have used a Travel Counsellor previously - Cinders Mum on here. Superb service and very reassuring.

[Donaldfan]

Someone on a FB group I go on booked with Ever After Holidays for this year. She paid for the dining plan. She wants to cancel but EEH are refusing to refund her the money she paid for the dining plan. She posted proof that she's paid for it on the FB page.

[racheal244]

Donaldfan that was my Facebook post.
They are saying although my holiday is booked through them my holiday is bound by TUI terms and conditions and they're allowed to pull the deal

[Ever After Holidays]

Originally Posted by racheal244

Donaldfan that was my Facebook post.
They are saying although my holiday is booked through them my holiday is bound by TUI terms and conditions and they're allowed to pull the deal

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Hi guys

I just want to clarify a couple of things

There are 2 types of bookings.

1. A “Ever After Holidays” package under our own Atol. This is something we put together ourselves which is 99% of our bookings.

2. A tour operator booking for example like Tui or back last year Thomas Cook.

A “Ever After Holidays” package is basically one of our own packages under our own atol and is under our control with the suppliers involved. This gives us much more flexibility. All bookings with Walt Disney World hotels going forward for 2020 we are still awaiting an update from Disney before we give people options on what they would Like to do in case Disney give guests an offer to keep their booking or move it. Referring to the comment about someone on a Facebook Page I doubt this is a “Ever After Holidays” Atol booking, as I speak to our team every day and know exactly what happens with customers holidays on a daily basis. When we know we will start calling our customers who have our own “Ever After Holidays” Atol packages. We have asked on social media for some Patience until Disney get in touch, which everyone single customer has been. We have NOT refused any of our own ATOL package customers ANYTHING. We have delayed balance collections and kindly asked them to patiently wait until Disney get in touch.

Tour operator packages - When a package is booked with a tour operator, we are the middle guy, the holiday is bound by the terms and conditions from them not us. Every single other customer in the whole UK has the same Booking conditions when booking with a tour operator , for example all Jet2 customer have the same terms and conditions and so do Tui. Unfortunately we have little to no control over Tui’s terms and conditions and we would always give the customers the best advice in the current situation. Unfortunately a tour operator package gives us little flexibility as we have no control over the booking conditions, only they do.

We literally have a couple of bookings with Tui but going forward we will NOT be supporting Tui as they have been horrendous to deal with and we have had them on stop sale for a while. This will give customers less booking options going forward which I think shows we work pretty transparently and to the best of our ability what else can we do? Tui clearly cannot support our customers to the same service levels we expect on our own “Ever After Holidays” packages and this is why we have made this decision. We understand what’s happening with Disney, we’re not sure Tui do at this moment.

I feel as though these comments are a little unfair to a degree as we have explained how this works and it implies it’s us being unreasonable under the circumstances. While we agree under the circumstances That a Tui holiday with free dining or paid dining isn’t what was originally booked, this isn’t our fault that Disney have not made a statement yet and Tui don’t seem to have any understanding of the situation and we are doing everything we can for the tiny amount of customers that have a package with Tui. Tui will reduce the holiday price if the dining was paid for and not free.

It’s also worth noting every customer up to 20th July who has booked a “Ever After Holiday” package with us and not changed their holiday to 2021 has had a full refund within 7 days.

We had 1 Tui client who’s holiday was cancelled as it didn’t travel. Tui has different terms and we had to wait 28 days for a credit voucher to come through and as soon as we received it we applied for a refund for our customer which they are now having to wait for.

While not ideal no one ever expected what’s happened to happen , but I can assure everyone we do and are doing a stellar job , following all Guidelines, the package travel regulations and going above and beyond at this difficult time.

I always look at this page, and if I see anything that isn’t factually correct I will make sure I advise how things work, because I think it’s important that we stay transparent and honest like we always have been.

Again if anyone has an issue please call us ...

Thank you

[racheal244]

Hi I don't believe any comments made are unfair I have stated what you have told me and what you have just written.
You have always been polite, accommodating and responsive but that dosent alter the fact that I'm not getting the holiday I signed up for and according to TUI I'm not entitled to cancel for a full refund.
As I have booked through you as a middle company I have had no correspondence from TUI only you as Ever after holidays as it is you I have booked our holiday through

[Ever After Holidays]

Originally Posted by Donaldfan

Someone on a FB group I go on booked with Ever After Holidays for this year. She paid for the dining plan. She wants to cancel but EEH are refusing to refund her the money she paid for the dining plan. She posted proof that she's paid for it on the FB page.

See more...

That’s factually incorrect, we are not refusing to refund. Please see above on a Tui holiday, it’s their terms and conditions unfortunately just like if a Tui holiday was booked at any high street agent.