Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
Great service all the way through. Always friendly and helpful. Greg, thank you
I am always happy with the level of service received from you.
When you’re paying lots of money for first class, it’s a poor show when you can't get your first, second or third choice of food. Lots of people were complaining. British Airways should do much better
American Airines had a a delay and I lost a connecting flight but all resolved in 3 hours.
First Class service and very personalised too. Thank you
Tommy Ellis was exceptional - he was patient, kind and very helpful when trying to book a flight following my father's death. I felt I was in the best hands possible during a difficult time.
Faultless holiday
Could have reminded me initially about different seats available e.g. premium economy as well as finding the cheapest seats.
Efficient as always
Everything worked out beautifully. Thank you, Lee.
Excellent booking service, unfortunately BA left one of my pieces of luggage at Heathrow and I got charged to get it to my final destination 3 days later! Not impressed...
Always there when you need them. Takes the worry out of travelling. Thank you
Joey was very friendly helpful and knowledgeable
The whole holiday was perfect - everything that was organised by youselves went like clockwork and we would certainly use you again.
I would not think twice coming back to use you guys - everything that I’ve requested was dealt with promptly and was clear in the email
Kept well informed
Christian and DialAFlight were very helpful and we had a great trip. Our room was not great when we got there but after 24 hours the hotel gave us a new one and after that it was fantastic. I would recommend DialAFlight any time. It’s a very personal experience and great help for anyone travelling around the world
A hassle free way to organise what was a fairly complicated trip.
One stop shop - everything on one phone call
DialAFlight are perfect partners for perfect holidays. We couldn’t imagine our holiday without DialAFlight.
After many years of being a client. You just get better and better. Keep it up guys. You are the best
Love DialAFlight. Daniel is so helpful and nothing seems too much trouble for him. We always book through him and he goes out of his way to find us the best fares.
Travel manager Katie Wallis was tremendous throughout, especially when a seriously delayed flight from Grenada to Gatwick meant we missed our easyJet connection to Edinburgh. One call and we were rebooked on a later flight. I have used DialAFlight over many years and have never been let down by their great service and professionalism.
Second trip booked by Ashley and again everything was organised perfectly. Great customer service from start to finish.
The person I deal with was excellent, friendly and very efficient.
Delighted with our first trip through you - already started the ball rolling for the next one.
Another great holiday through DialAFlight. Tony was superb and a great help throughout
Clear communication from start to finish. Excellent service thank you.
All good, app great addition. Thanks Sean for fantastic service
Five stars
Some of us simply can't do a whole English winter any more. For me, there is the added business every December and early January of being on the panto treadmill, three shows a day, in Guildford.
What's more, this year, the Grim Reaper had been scything like Poldark through my address book. I needed a break. I needed sun. Then someone suggested Goa is a goer. 'Goa?' said our son. 'Isn't that where you take stimulants and rave?' Well, excuse me if I rave.
THE LEELA HOTEL
The Leela Hotel is wonderful - despite the fact that Putin visits. Sir Mark Tully, the BBC's voice of India, stays, as does Sonia Gandhi, who arrived shortly after we left.
My wife Kate and I flew there non-stop and then had an easy 75-minute transfer.
Many of our fellow passengers were heading for package hotels up the coast, rather than sweeping into The Leela's discreet gates at the end of the peninsula.
A BIT OF BACKGROUND
The Leela was built 26 years ago and has benefited from less strict planning controls than exist now. It was able to secure a private beach then, not possible now, so that means it can put as many sun loungers on the sand as it wants.
Hotels now, fronting public beaches, can park no more than a dozen loungers. But for Leela guests, there are more than enough loungers for everyone.
Croquet is the only nod to the Raj, but the guests nevertheless are 50 per cent English: you can tell by their Boden linen. An elderly lady archaeologist from Pimlico, an accountant from Bromley, a yoga teacher from Hampstead. All regulars for decades. 'What makes this place,' they chorus, 'is the staff.' The astonishing ratio is 3.5 staff to each guest, lifting your finger before you're even aware that it needs lifting.
Of the rest? Russians (in bling), Euro-randoms (Italians leading the charge) and wealthy Indians. Their children are perfect: well-behaved and virtually invisible.
AT THE BEACH
The beach is perfect, too – no lacerating coral, the breeze cooling without sandblasting. At sunrise, there are dolphins. Sea eagles frame themselves beautifully between palm trees.
Sandpipers dart. Beach guards keep hawkers away. At night, you watch the lamps on the fishing boats and owlets hunting.
The huge rooms are scattered around 75 acres, overlooking lagoons where pink lilies bloom.
There are private villas, too, within the – yet more exclusive – Club, for Bollywood stars and Mr Putin. Silent buggies convey the elderly from joy to joy.
Conferences are discreetly arranged, wedding pavilions erected and down by morning. Indian ceremonies are welcoming and their tribute bands do a creditable Radio Ga Ga.
We attended not one, but two, Punjabi weddings of radiant couples we had never seen before, nor shall again, but may blessings rain upon them. My meditation class was too singsong to be intelligible, but the four-year-old Indian boy in front of me had it sussed. The gym is so deserted that the trainers are truly personal. In the top-flight spa, Kate had a magnificent holistic massage, with oils, bells and probably whistles.
CULINARY DELIGHTS
All You Can Eat was never like this. Thyme-scented lentil soup with roasted walnuts? Goan kingfish? A bewildering vegetarian menu, creamy dhals, dhingri palak? Desserts? How about rabri (cardamom condensed milk) and dates in soft, white fudge?
Trips to the Goan capital Panaji with your own driver are astonishingly inexpensive and you can shop there for textiles, paper and incense.
Ten miles on and Old Goa, with its Portugese churches, is unmissable. 'Another day in Paradise,' says the daily Leela newsletter. Nonsense. Paradise can't compete with this. Paradise won't have so many staff.
First published in the Mail Online - July 2018
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