Flying under the radar

Sometimes we have to relearn lessons the hard way.

I have always known that “it’s not a deal until it’s deal.”  And armed with my paper documentation, I had no qualms about our upcoming family trip to the Isle of Man.

Until last night. 

I had wanted to make a last minute change and add another flight to our master trip, only to discover that the airline we’d booked with had gone into liquidation.

Not only that, they did so just three days after I booked our flights.  Wow.

With the way our travel works these days, a paper document is usually all you need, not even an e-booking ticket with some airlines.  Can you imagine our surprise if we’d gone to the airport to discover that not only was there not a plane, there wasn’t an airline?!

I can’t tell you how relieved I am that we discovered this in advance.  As it is, thanks to Sarah Boville, Barefoot Travel, we have managed to get ourselves on another flight, with another airline, but few fly to the Isle of Man.  So we were lucky.

All of this speaks to using a travel agent to book your travel arrangements. Sarah had booked the bulk of the trip, but I’d booked this part myself, which means it is not covered under our travel insurance. Our best hope at getting our money back is through our credit card company, but there are no guarantees and we are considerably out of pocket.

So what have I learnt:

• Never take things for granted.  
• Don’t make assumptions. 
• Check and double check all is arranged.  
• Have it in writing. 
• It pays to use travel professionals when you want to travel. 

Let's hope this is the only glitch we experience on our trip.