Expedia

Anyone used them?

I'm looking at going to the Great Barrier Reef/Cairns in October and
they do a couple of packages that look very interesting.

 

but only to book hotels, not complete packages. That said, the service
has been fine and they're competitively priced.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Ben

They gave me major hassle a while back with a very slightly complicated
Indian itinerary. They sent me a booking confirmation, then a day later
an email saying that the booking had been cancelled because they
couldn't get one of the flights. Then they did exactly the same thing
on the next try.

Then they tried to charge me a tenner for "Customer Service" in sorting
it all out.

I haven't used them since.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
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Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

We used them for St. Lucia. Wasn't entirely happy with a couple of
things, such as them telling the rep over there that our transfer from
airport to hotel was to be in a taxi with the aircon switched off[1],
but would probably use them again.

[1] Cheaper apparantly - would've been nice to be given the choice
though. 1.5 hours sweltering in a taxi after 9 hours on a plane is the
last thing you want.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i (for sale) '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

Yes, but only for flights. I can't think of a reason not to go with
them tbh, so would use them again.

Nice. I stayed in a place called Coral Reef Resort[1] in Cairns which
I have recommended to friends who have recommended to friends...

[1] http://www.coralreefresort.com.au/

 

We've used them for all our hollidays. Never had a problem with them.

 

Good show.

 

Ta.

 

Hmm, so 2 connections on the way there (Singapore and Darwin) and the
same two back might pose problems.

On the flip side, it's six months away and we're flexible on the dates
so it should be ok.

 

Thankfully, Cairns to where I'm looking at staying is only 9km and the
temperature is like to be around 20ish degrees.

 

I'm looking at Sanctuary Palm Cove a bit south of Cairns...

http://www.sanctuarypalmcove.com.au/

 

Ah, your budget is quite a bit higher than mine was!

 

Also booked St Lucia through expedia a couple of years ago. I did all
the searching for deals, flight availability etc online then followed
up to book by phone. This gives the advantage of being able to ask
specific questions etc - so best of both worlds. IIRC though we had to
pay all of the flight fees at the time of booking - so not brilliant
for cashflow - dunno if that's still the same.

Same with us - driver asked if we wanted air con, said yes please then
he asked for more money - was really surprised. The taxis though were
all (mainly it seemed) Toyata minivans lacking in creature comforts -
but actually with the windows open it made it a very pleasant (if
somewhat scary at times) ride.

 

The return transfer was much nicer - 20 minutes in a helicopter rather
than 1.5 hours on those manky roads.

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i (for sale) '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

http://www.cairns-australia.com/101933.php

Hmm, ok, make that high 20's.

 

Well, it's our second anniversary present to ourselves.

And I'm skimping on the flights in order to have better accommodation.

 

Yeah, I've already twigged that one, thankfully the kind of hotels
we're looking at all have it.

 

Any of them base you in Port Douglas rather than Cairns?

 

I'm more specifically looking at Palm Cove or Port Douglas.

 

I just had that with ebookers

Gulf Air cancelled the flight to Jakarta cancelled 10 days before the
flight, rebooked on the monday with Emirates, cancelled on the tuesday
for a flight on Saturday

Had to rebook another flight costing several hundred quid more

They "waived" the booking fee out of the goodness of their hearts

.... bless 'em