Holiday Genie

[tootsbaloots]

Has anyone used Holiday Genie. We want to book a holiday to Florida and their holidays are very well priced. But I would like to know if their flights are non stop to Florida or do you have to go to another airport enroute.

[JK2]

It should tell you if the flights are direct when you put the dates in that you want to go and come up with a price.. It should also give you flight timings and you can tell from this. To Florida direct is approx 9 hours going & 8 hours coming back. If you factor in the time change of 5 hours you should be able to work out how long the flight is. Or you could just ring them up and ask them!

[ojread2]

There is a little box to click saying 'direct flights'

IF you click that et voila!

HTH
oj

[tootsbaloots]

No there isn't a box saying direct flights!!

[JK2]

Quite right you can only tick direct flights for the flight only section - not package holidays.

I just did a trial run on the website putting in a holiday in Florida on 10/4/08 for 2 people and it looks like you can't book on line. You seem to have to choose a package & then phone the freephone number they quote - in which case you can ask them at the time if the flight is direct.

[Piperall]

Hi We've just booked a hol to USA with holiday genie 3 days ago. Our flights to US aren't direct - they said they could only offer us the indirect flights as they nothing at all to Orlando that went direct (unsure if that's a permanent thing or just for the period we have booked for).
We therefore have to fly from Gatwick to Cinncinatti to Orlando outward and then home bound we fly Orlando to Atlanta to Gatwick.
On the outbound flight we have a two hour wait in Cinncinatti and on homebound we have four and half hour wait at Atlanta - and not allowed to leave airport at all!
Hope that helps with your question x

[Piperall]

By the way - I should have also said - I wouldn't use Holiday Genie again unless the saving was a REALLY huge one!!!
I'm regretting having booked with them.

Thomas Cook were offering us a huge discount but Holiday Genie were still �170 cheaper than Thomas Cook for the same package - 21 days Orlando - 'executive villa', heated pool, car & 14 days Disney tickets for each person etc ..................HOWEVER ...... Holiday Genie then added �10 booking fee PLUS 2% of the total bill to the final total just for paying by mastercard!! - which was a huge amount. The Thom Cook package had just been sold so I had no option but pay Hol Genie for their package.

We then got a phone call the day after asking did we want to drive to Kissemee to collect all of the Disney tickets from Genie office - I said no, I'd like them sending to me here so I knew I had them (call me cynical) - they then said there would be a �20 charge PER ticket to have them sent here!!!! I told them no way - we will drive to Kissemee to the office!! (I also pointed out that when I paid I asked was that EVERYTHING and were there any other fees/charges/bills etc - they had said no that total was final) So don't trust them - that would have been an extra �100 for the family tickets delivering.
I REALLY wish we'd gone with Thom Cook as we've already paid more now due to �10 plus the 2% and we've got to waste time driving for the tickets when we get there.

You have to be very organised, patient & methodical or else if you just leave it to Holiday Genie you'll probably find that you won't get to your destination!
You really HAVE to read the small print with them & ensure you push for all the correct documents to be sent!
((If anyone is interested & planning to book with them, then I'll gladly explain - otherwise won't bore you with the details!))
If you need someone to do everything for you regarding the bookings etc then

[floridagold]

Well do you realize that you would have paid the 2% using your credit card at thomas cook so dont feel too bad about it , although obviously you could have paid cash!

[didster]

Stay clear of Holiday Genie. I booked a holiday to Florida in January this year to travel in December, I was given a price and paid a deposit. I was told I had to pay the balance 10 weeks before going. I telephone them this week to pay the final balance and because we wanted direct flights (which we had asked for when booking and was told they would be with British Airways) they have tried to charge us an extra �1116.00 surcharge. I refused to pay the extra and now have had to get different flights. They also broke there contract on the villa we were supposed to be staying in and in the end I cancelled the villa and booked another one seperatly.

I can honestly say that I would never ever book another holdiay with Holiday Genie and want other people to be aware of the way they conduct their business.