Secure Polly...

Jean of The English Armchair Abroad left an interesting comment on my last post.

If, like most people, you have occasionally tried to book an excursion on the internet I should imagine that at some stage you have encountered a well known internet travel agency known as e-bookers. Like many people; I decided to use this company when booking my fortieth birthday present to myself - the famous trip to Spain.

I found the site very easy to use; in relation to booking the flights. I navigated my way through the various pages and was pleased with the results. The price was reasonable enough; affordable at least, and everything had gone better than expected, bearing in mind that this was my first time.


Imagine my horror when; having gone ahead and booked the various hotels and a car rental for the week, I discovered that the credit card payment hadn't gone through and that I was being held to ransome by e-bookers. I had limited time to provide them with details of another credit card or they were going to cancel the booking.

"Fair enough..."; except for the fact that I had used my Mom's card to place the booking and there was no way she was maxed out! Eh-hmm! One investigative telephone call later revealed that there was actually no problem but that they had asked the offending travel company to ring for authorization on the card.

This is another example of how careful the security services at credit card companies are; and I for one am thankful to them. The request for authorization had been sent to the travel company because Mom's credit card was being used in an uncharacteristic manner...

10/10 for Ulster Bank Credit Card Services and 0/10 for e-bookers

To cut a long story short; being a typical Aries; ie a bull in a china shop, I got cross with the travel company; whose attitude I deemed somewhat cavalier. I took my custom elsewhere; vowing never to return.

In doing so I discovered Club Travel; which turned out to be very much to our advantage. Club Travel charged me €1.00 less and managed to get us on a direct flight; which hadn't been offered to us previously. When we reached our destination we were tired from being up early; but at least we hadn't endured a five hour stop over en route!

We had a super holiday, we missed all the infamous Easter Break traffic at the airport and discovered the delights of Spanish public transport, deserted beaches and a heat wave in May! We even went skiing...

Imagine that; Skiing on Sunday morning; lounging on the beach Sunday afternoon! And no problems with my own bank as I had advised them of my intended spending pattern whilst on holiday...

Bye for now,

Polly Peirce
Purveyor of Fine Hand-made Irish Greeting Cards & Wedding Stationary