Michael

We are going on a tour to Tunisia in November which lasts 2 weeks and decided to extend our overseas stay by a few days before the tour and a few days after the tour. Before the tour we decided to stay in London and after the tour to spend a few days in Marseille. We used a travel agent because some of the bookings done on Kayak had us return from Marseille to the U.S. via Krakow and Oslo, taking 18 hours total, or even taking more than 24 hours if using TAP with a lengthy layover in Lisbon. The agent booked us on more reasonable flights including a non-stop Tunisair from London to Tunis and a non-stop Tunisair from Tunis to Marseille. I had read about long delays with Tunisair flights but had figured that we could live with that possibility as long as it did not include a transfer. But Tunisair refused to accept a credit card payment from the travel agency and I refused to consider a payment by check as suggested by the travel agent. The result is that we are taking the Eurostar to Paris and Air France to Tunis, and using another little known airline to get from Tunis to Marseille. We were lucky as the total air fares turned out to cost slightly less than the original total, but we have the added $150 cost for two of the Eurostar from London to Paris.

balthy

Bookings are not made on Kayak though, they just provide itinerary suggestions but the booking would be made on a travel providers website. They don’t provide timetable info either so you can’t see if you change your date by a day or two you get better options.

The TA could have paid on account to the airline then you could have paid the TA by credit card with the TA being the merchant instead of the airline. But they’d have to charge you the credit card fee. There isn’t just one way to pay for air tickets esp when you’re doing it thru a TA. Check would have been fine, not sure why that option was declined. Bank transfer is another, PayPal etc. Or you could have booked on Expedia esp if booking includes several airlines. Tunisia isn’t an unusual destination from U.K. or France, it used to be a very popular tourist destination so there are several options.

I had a situation many years ago with Hawaiian airlines where they would not accept a non US credit card on their website. I contacted Hawaiian & they told me to book on Expedia who would accept my credit card.

Michael

I declined payment by check because it would eliminate all recourse if something went wrong. Before the denial of payment there was a problem with the web site where one could only register with no luggage, subject to payment upon check-in? The web site did not say, but it appears that we would have had to pay $50 per bag. It turns out that the alternative is $17 cheaper for the entire package, but we have to take the Eurostar to Paris at a cost of $75 per person.

balthy

Tunis Air accept either euro or dinar as payment on their website, according to their FAQ. Maybe that was the issue. They have several fare levels, some with luggage and some without.
Probably would not have been any use anyway esp if you have to be in Tunis, but Easyjet & TUIFly fly direct from London Gatwick to Hammamet, Easyjet being about £35-£65 one way w/o luggage.Eurostar is great, it is just the faff to get to CDG once in Paris.
It will be a very interesting tour, nice to see someone going to Tunisia again.

Michael

No problem in getting to either CDG or Orly. The RER stops at the gare du Nord. It turns out to be probably cheaper than transportation to the London airports. The fare levels were not available to either me or the TA. If nothing is standardized on the web site it represents an extra hassle that makes you look elsewhere because it suggests potential problems such as cancellations down the line.