Ebookers > Reviews (54)

It's that time of year again, when everyone in the country goes "aaaaaaaaaaaaa!" simultaneously.... you've got no holiday yet and time's running out. Meanwhile, all the people that booked about 50 years early sit around looking smug. Well, this year I'm proud to say my holiday is going to match theirs, and it's partly down to ebookers.com!

Actually, my family is usually pretty organised about holidays. Unfortunately, this year both my parents changed jobs, which made things a bit chaotic. This is the last year I'll be going away with them so we were looking for something good, but flights are hard to come by at the last minute - we needed to fly out on August 19th and come back a week later to fit into work and school stuff. After unsuccessful visits to several travel agents, I decided to try the internet. lasminute.com didn't come up with the goods, so I tried ebookers.

Overview

ebookers.com offers internet booking of flights, cars, hotels, insurance, holiday packages and cruises. I only used the flights section, so I'll concentrate on that in my review.

Layout and Navigation

When you load the homepage, wham! You're hit with a clutter of stuff - it's a bit confusing at first, and I think they've packed too much stuff into the homepage. However, if it's flights you're after, look no further, the search bar is right at the top of the page. If you don't panic when you see the messy screen, it's not too hard to find your bearings. The search facilities for all categories are fairly self-explanatory, with simple options and intuitive menus.
When you enter the stuff and hit 'search', you have to wait about 20 seconds for your results. When they appear, they are sorted by price, displayed per person and as a total. All transfers are clearly indicated, which is very welcome. There follows a six-step booking stage, which is very easy to use. All in all, easy to navigate, but layout could be a lot better.

Choice of flights

A very large amount of results - 30 in all for my flights, compared to less than 15 from lastminute.com. All major airlines seemed to be represented - no bias there. I was having real trouble finding flights at the right time for a good price, and ebookers were the only site I found who were able to do it.

Customer service

Unusually for an online shopping site, a customer service phone number is clearly displayed at all times. This is a breath of fresh air, very welcome, and it actually puts you through to a human.

Prices

Similar pricing to other last minute travel sites. The real draw here is when you need to get flights fast, and ebookers does this at competitive, if unspectacular, prices. All major cards are accepted.

The Verdict

A great way to get flights at the last minute - availability is good, and prices are nice. Customer service is very impressive. The only downside is the layout, which is a let down, not user friendly at all. Overall, one of the best travel sites out there. Recommended. I'm now eagerly awaiting my beach resort holiday to Miami!