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| - If you're anything like me when you travel in that you do a ton of research beforehand and like to book your own itinerary (vs buying packaged vacations), I wouldn't recommend flightnetwork.com. It may be for you, I don't know, but I'm not a fan.
I'm all about booking online and also finding the best deal when it comes to certain things. I LOVE to travel and I go away as much as I possibly can. I've never gone on any packaged vacations, largely because I can be quite fussy when it comes to the little details: which airlines/hotels I use, the type of amenities I can/'t do without, etc. Quite often, I've found that it can cost far less to do the legwork (I tend to go overboard, but that's me) and make individual bookings. Of course, knowing where to look is key.
I am also a firm believer that if you're not going on your honeymoon, certain luxuries really don't matter that much when it comes to hotels. I tend to travel alone and not to sound snobby, but I don't do hostels (no offense to those who do) so paying out the butt can be a real problem at times, especially in certain cities and countries that don't come cheap. I know some people enjoy the hostel experience as they get to meet a lot of people, etc. but I meet plenty during my travels so no problems there.
I really wanted to like Flight Network, not just because they're a Canadian company and their biggest competitor owns pretty much all the other major travel vendors, but they grew quickly from being a tiny company to "Canada's #2 Online Travel Site" according to their website, which I think is laudable and deserves some patronage. Competition is good, after all.
FN boasts all kinds of amazing deals (most of which can actually be booked directly via hotel/airlines' sites) and even offer Price Drop Protection. I recently booked two tickets to Asia using FN. I didn't bother trying to take advantage of either of the offers as the trip was sudden and there was no time to be waiting around checking for price drops. Their price was more than that of the airline, but I had a voucher, which still yielded a higher price but I decided to give these guys a go anyway.
What irked me was this:
(1) The site wouldn't accept the voucher so I called and spoke to a woman whom I could barely understand. She told me to go ahead and book, then call back to have a credit applied to my credit card. Sneaky. I did as I was told, but it never happened. I followed up once, never heard back and finally decided it just wasn't worth the effort. After booking, they sent me an e-mail with a $25 off code for my next hotel booking or $50 off a vacation package, but I don't intend to bother. It may work, who knows, but then again, who cares.
(2) And this one is IMPORTANT to note: Most (if not all) of their fares are non-refundable so if anything should change, nothing can be done and you forfeit your purchase entirely unless you buy their insurance. Having said this, you're much better off booking directly via the airline's site because if there is any chance of a change/cancellation, they will often honour it for a fee, but sometimes not (be sure to check the fare type/fine print before finalizing your purchase).
(3) I don't have travel insurance through work anymore. I've never actually used it anyway, but I've learned that it's when you don't have it that things tend to go wrong (which they did but I was OK). I don't usually sweat these things in advance because I figure whatever happens, I'll tough it out and deal with it when I get back. FN obviously didn't see it that way because everyday until I left (~10 days), they'd call, e-mail, AND EVEN TEXT me, urging me to purchase their insurance! I kid you not, these people were badgering me NON-STOP to the point where I wondered if I ought to peek out the blinds everytime I left the house in case they were waiting in the driveway! I was running around everyday trying to prep for the trip and they'd call me at the worst times, always the same woman with the dead-pan voice who wouldn't take NO THANKS for an answer. She'd draw up these worst-case scenarios and end them with "so you reallly should think about buying our travel insurance". This woman was relentless, even after I told her I won't be buying from them as their packages didn't suit my needs and were also more expensive than other places. I finally ended up getting insc from AMEX; it was so easy-breezy, much cheaper and they offered several options AND gave me a discount!
I know things could have been worse but for a simple purchase of two flights, I found things way too complicated and irksome and will never bother with FN in the future.
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