Affordable Holidays

[florasmum]

Does anyone know anything about www.affordableholidays.co.uk? Their prices for flights seem remarkably cheap - is it too good to be true?!

Jean

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

Have you read the small print?

(In abbreviated form):
"The data displayed in this web site is NOT a display of AVAILABLE flights but is a database of prices and should be used as a means of researching the best fares for a given journey on a date or range of dates. Once a suitable fare has been found, it will be necessary to contact the travel agent to check if seats are available on the date you wish to travel. All airlines sell only a limited number of seats at the lowest fare on each flight. When these have been sold, you may be offered a seat at a higher fare. However, the price will NOT be removed from the fares database as the cheaper seats may still be available on other dates or subsequently become available again due to the airlines releasing more seats at the lowest fares due to fluctuations of supply and demand.

In some cases, certain fares are only available to particular types of passengers. Examples of this are student and youth fares, OAP fares, group fares and inclusive tour fares requiring accommodation elements"

[Buenchico]

So, basically, they're saying that the fares listed might only be available to, say, people booking a complete flight+hotel package with the relevant airline. If you phone to enquire about flights, you'll almost certainly be told that you can't have the cheap prices but that they'll 'try to find you a bargain'.

Affordable Holidays have the same address as FareWorld Travel, who don't exactly get rave reviews:
http://www.clik2complaints.co.uk/DPs/fare.html
and
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/itc/itc _publications/complaints_reports/advertising_c omplaints/show_complaint.asp-ad_complaint_id=7 76.html

They're not too popular under the Affordable Holidays name either:
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid =20070206051110AANvchw

Chris

[florasmum]

Thanks for that - I did in fact subsequently have a study of the small print and had come to the same conclusion!

Jean