Joined: 02 Aug 2008
Posts: 1
| I would warn fellow travelers never to use Southall Travel when booking their holiday. Using ba.com, I found a pair of business class tickets on British Airways to Hyderabad, India and called Southall to see if they would match the price. They first told me that I was looking at the wrong class. They next told me that I was looking at the wrong dates and asked that I refresh my browser twice. I hung up with them after that thanking them for trying to help me. Almost immediately, I received a call from their agent who said he had spoken to BA and was told that they had uploaded the wrong prices and asked me to go online and check the price for the dates I wanted to travel. Sure enough, the price had almost tripled each way. I panicked and booked dates around the ones I originally intended to travel. The dates were not ideal (it would mean my son would have to miss a day of school and we would return home on Sunday evening). I waited for an hour after my booking and rechecked the price. Amazingly, the price had gone down to the same level I had seen it before I called Southall. That's when I realized what had happened.
The agent, it appears, blocked off seats, artificially forcing the online price to go higher and forcing me to either change my travel plans and book online or book through him (he quoted a fare that was 1000GBP higher than the original price at ba.com). I complained to BA and they are now investigating the agency. They said they did see some suspicious activity and thought they could track it with Southall's IATA number.
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