Joan’s advice on... online travel agents

What is an online travel agent?

OTAs are companies such as Low Cost Holidays, Budgetholidays, Gohop.ie , Travelcheaper, Travelfox, Expedia, Budgetair, Steintravel, Flycork.ie and ClickandGo.com. They operate under the same rules and regulations as normal high street agencies. They can be the online offering of an existing agency. However not all OTAs you come across are registered in Ireland.

Lately I have had a number of questions from people who used a non-Irish-licensed OTA. When things went wrong they did not know where to turn.

In one case, a family was travelling to Hong Kong from Heathrow. Their flight from Dublin was via London City airport with just a few hours to make the connection. In another case, a person got sick before their flight and Aer Lingus could not deal with them.

When you make a booking online, unless it is directly with an airline, hotel or car rental firm, your contract is with the OTA.

Beware, as well, of websites that seem like travel sites. There are a lot of comparison websites, but all they do is pass you on to another company to provide the actual travel services. They earn a commission on your bookings.

So be careful when you are making bookings with online travel agencies; recognise them for what they are. If prices seem very low, look carefully at what you are buying.

Irish online travel agencies have to comply with the Package Holidays and Travel Trade Act 1995. They must also be registered with the Commission for Aviation Regulation. You can check licences on aviationreg.ie. Generally you can trust them to sell you what you think you are buying. However, before you press send, look at the “About Us” part of the website to see exactly who you are dealing with.