jane

Has anyone used this service? Do you think that it is worth it to pay the $49.95 membership fee? They are advertising $500-600 fares to Europe in the summer months but to get access to the fares you have to pay a membership fee of $49.95?

Don

$500-$600 Summer fares to Europe (specifically Brussels and Amsterdam) are readily available currently. Try Travelocity's best fare finder to see available dates, and to see when this fare sale ends.

Sandy

I've posted this before so I'll make this short (you can search this site and probably find the long version). If they make a mistake, they won't fix it. I bought a ticket to San Jose, Costa Rica and they sent me a ticket to SJ, California. They would not even return my calls. I ended up protesting it (successfully) w/Visa. <BR> <BR>You can get just as good deals usually by surfing the net. <BR> <BR>Good luck, <BR>Sandy

j

I have thought about using it before, but haven't. a) because there is no deal I could get there that I couldn't get from smarterliving, or another source b) i am lazy. c) my brother in law is a member and tells me that the phone line you call to purchase the ticket is ALWAYS busy/rings and rings/puts you on hold and that you have to put aside a few hours to get the ticket.

Vicki

I used economytravel.com and got a good price to London from Salt Lake with a change of planes in Chicago. I looked at the specials they had on the internet then called their 800# because Salt Lake wasn't one of the airports listed. They were really nice and my tickets (real tickets not vouchers) came by Federal Express in 2 days at no extra charge. (There is an $8.00 charge per order but no extra for fast shipping.) I have been watching since then but have not found a lower price anywhere so I still feel good about it. They may be worth a look.

jane

Vicki, <BR>did you have special access to economy travel? I am getting a no permission to access message to their site?

steve

I used bestfares to book my family of 4 to england in 1999 at a savings of over $1000. Last year I booked round trips phoenix-london at $405 for march travel.I also booked for my employees twice - Phoenix - Columbus, Ohio and Phoenix - Hartford, Ct - also at significant savings. Last week I tried to book Phoenix - Louisville at savings of over $100, but the seats were gone. I have always gotten in to their phones right away. They often work with consolidators so seats are limited and you might be able to get as gooda by trying other consolidators. But their recently revised website makes it real easy to find the good fares. I wholeheartedly recommend it

top

to the top <BR> <BR>because it had a real actual post tonight, and was getting otherwise buried...

Celeste

I joined almost a year ago and regret it. I haven't gotten anything from them that I can't get by surfing the net.

ldsant

I agree with other posters. I paid the membership fee and never realized a penny back. Plus, you really need to use the net anyway, so just do it yourself. Not worth the hassle. I tried using it to have an elderly aunt come and visit. They were routing her through 3 different cities and it was going to take over 12 hours in travel time. They said that was the best they could do. Savings = $20 over a non-stop! I wasn't impressed at all, but maybe they've changed since last year.

J

I joined for one year and it was a TOTAL WASTE of money. Their agents are the worst on the phone, the customer service is unreachable, and their offers are available in dozens other websites FOR FREE. I attempted to use them about five times, always ended up frustrated and buying the tickets from the airlines directly. Do yourself a favor, invest some time surfing this and other sites for tips on cheaper internet fares and it will be worth it. I recommend travelocity.com, qixo.com, and cheaptickets.com.

John H

I have been a member and used their service only once -- saved $600 on an otherwise $900 ticket. This was for booking a fare more than 3 days but less than 7 days in advance. They have 3-day advance fares with airlines that seem to be exclusive to them. But, I waited over 50 minutes on hold trying to book this ticket -- service is absolutely awful in that regard. If you plan ahead more than 7 days, it's not worth the money in my mind.

texasgirl

i have had a membership for two years, but will not renew it. feel that the service is getting worse and the fares no longer present much of a savings. I tried to book a mexico flight last month and it took me 30 minutes on hold to get through, and then by the time they added in all the taxes, special fees, etc., it was about $150 more than advertised fare _ and more than aticket found elsewhere online. Also, they once booked me on a trip to italy on TWA, which stopped going to rome about two months before my trip. Luckily TWA was nice about it and got me on another flight but i think that was out of their generosity; i think i could have been stranded.

Donna

I joined last year. Getting through to an agent on the phone is beyond by limit of patience. The rep was a flake. Insisted I'd have to connect in St. Louis going from Boston to Paris at first. Flights were at very inconvenient times and they had no direct flights available. By the time she finished adding on charges and fees, the fare was higher than my preferred direct flights on American, so I booked those through my local travel agent. The good news was that my fee was promptly refunded, even though the request was several days beyond the 30 days (the start-up kit was slow in coming).

Bob

DON'T Waste your money. I tried it. You can never get through on the phone. When I did, sale fare were never available. Just check the internet and save the $49.95

Maira

to the top.

Umbriana

I am one who is very happy with bestfares. We've been members for the last 6 years and get our money worth every year, more than the $50 annual fee. We always travel a lot, one or two long trips a year plus several short hauls. Since I've moved to Europe, the traveling has been increased sharply among all the members of our family to 8 trips this year. We do check airfares from all sources available and do buy them from whomever offer us the best deal but mostly from bestfares for the majority of the time. We use one membership to purchase tickets for everybody so the saving is greatly enhanced. In regard to the busy phone line, they have mulitiple offices and since we've been with them for so long, we found a few alternate numbers that we can call direct if the main one is busy. There was only one incident when my daughter was upset with the attitude of one of their reps, she wrote a letter to Tom Parson and was very pleased with the result. I wholeheartly recommend bestfares.

Jon

I paid the moeney and joined about 5 months ago before a trip from DC to LA for a wedding. They got me a roundtrip direct non-stop for $230 which I thought was a good deal. Could I have found it myself if I was willing to put the time into internet research... of course. I must add that I HATE bad customer service and I am therefore willing to compliment a company when they actually do a good job. I called them with a very complcated travel arrangement. The rep was very knowledgable. She even took my number and said "let me work on this a while and call you back" She called 15 minutes later with all my options. I was pleasantly surprised!