Delhi here I come again!

Today I took the next big step towards the India trip. I bought my ticket !!! Now the trip feels a little more real even though I have  been making extensive preparations for months.

I had hoped that my old travel buddy the travel agent Trailfinders would come through with the goods, sadly that wasn't to be.

My thinking was that as a past customer the ticket purchasing journey would not only be a little less convoluted but that I would also be offered a decent deal.

Before heading down to their Edinburgh office I did my due diligence here on the net and found through the excellent 'Kayak' website that the exact flight I was interested in was available at a very reasonable £440. With this in mind I gave the  same dates to the the Trailfinder branch rep who tapped in the numbers and came up with a price £40 more expensive.

Also he didn't look into any alternative plus or minus dates that might have reduced the cost. So a quandary. Was there any good reasons why I should pay over the odds for  a flight I knew was available cheaper from a reputable source? Not being inclined to make instant decisions I allowed the rep to make a provisional that would be held for 48 hours. Then made my goodbyes and headed out in the direction of the the Edinburgh India Visa office VFS (but that will be  the subject of another post)

Once home I sat with a cup of coffee and  thought about the Trailfinder dilemma, running through  several pros and cons. The 'provisional' booking thing is really an old sales influencing trick that is designed to  lock the potential customer into the sale. Like most folks I'm sucker for it and I still wanted to give Trailfinders the business but knowing what I knew I also wanted them to meet me  halfway.

I did another online price check and bejeez the cost I had obtained in the morning had actually dropped by about £10. OK time to get on the phone. Trailfinders quickly answered. I explained my dilemma and told them I was was prepared to take a hit on cost (e.g. pay  more over the odds) if they were also prepared to meet me half way and reduce the price they had quoted me.

I was emphatically rebuffed and told that Trailfinders don't  do 'match pricing'. I expressed my regret explained that it's a duty to myself to ask for a discount. I'm pretty sure that Trailfinders senior negotiators are never shy about asking for discounts from carriers and hotels.

At the end of the day it is Trailfinders who have unnecessarily lost a sale and a once loyal customer.

The provisional booking was cancelled and ten minutes later I was proudly viewing at an e-ticket confirming my flight with Quatar Airways  to and from Delhi