Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
Air India, despite its quite recent privatisation, is simply awful in every way. I was at Gatwick for 11 hours , with zero information about what was happening. Apparently the previous two Air India flights to Kochi were cancelled. All very stressful, but no fault of DAF!
There is a great deal of reassurance in knowing that your trip has been arranged by people who really know what they are doing. And that you are not just abandoned to the anonymous machinery of an airline that doesn't really care, in spite of all their rubbish claims about caring! Also that if something goes wrong you can get advice with a telephone call that is actually answered!
Although my baggage was lost from Dubai to London Gatwick I was able to speak to DialAFlight and ask for guidance on how to process the forms to reclaim my baggage. This they did readily which was a comfort at the time. You'll be glad to hear I now have my lost baggage!
Archie was brilliant - sorted everything out. Will definitely be using you guys and recommending to friends
Great service, especially from Ray Taylor.
Zoe Lane is an excellent travel agent.
It's not until something goes wrong with your travel plans that you realise the benefits of booking with them. After sitting on the plane at Gatwick for a couple of hours our flight was cancelled due to a technical issue. At 11pm there aren't that many people in the airport to help. Fortunately a call to DialAFlight's emergency phone line had me talking to Korinna within seconds. She was able to see there were no flights from Gatwick the following morning but there were spaces on the Heathrow flight and she changed our booking to this flight. She also re-arranged our connecting flight for Dubai to Delhi. All this whilst my husband was trying to talk to the airline's customer call centre who were saying they couldn't do anything as the flight hadn't been officially cancelled! A big thanks to Korinna for her help.
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No hitches on the way despite the potential for this to happen. Radisson Blue Hotel in Connaught Place excellent service and very convenient for shopping and restaurants.
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Other than the changes with the flights everything else was great
Amazing customer care
Excellent service
None. Good service
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Excellent service and they were there for me when I needed assistance. Will definitely use again.
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Everything was handled promptly, professionally and it delivered an experience in India that was everything we hoped for. Great to have a team that were readily available to support us in both the planning and execution! Particular call-out for Brody Letchfield who was our main contact and ensured that, through liaison with Tamarind Global on the ground in India, everything ran smoothly
Connecting flight from Heathrow was delayed because of fog in Delhi, causing us to miss the connection to Goa. Seven hour wait for the next flight.
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Brody once again has provided excellent service and planned our holiday to perfection
Edward Scudder is a star - above and beyond. Quality service
Absolutely seamless holiday to Goa with all the flights booked with Rosie at DialAFlight Thanks again
As always, excellent service especially by Gino. If only BA could learn a thing or two from you about customer service.
Raphael was very helpful throughout the entire process, from initial booking to just before departure
Aiden is great and always most helpful as are all your team!
Thank you for your attentive services
The first time I saw the blazing lights and towers of Hong Kong island it seemed the most exotic place in the world. As a fiercely acquisitive 24-year-old, I hurled myself into bargain shopping like a child given a week of Christmases.
Today, the prospect of bargain shopping is long gone. Prices can be above even London's, and vanished too are the Union Flag and Governor's Rolls-Royce. Indeed, the former colony becomes undeniably ever more Chinese in character, coldly clasped in Beijing's embrace.
MY BEST TRIP YET
Yet in a week-long family visit, I had a better time as a Hong Kong tourist than in 20 previous trips. The weather was perfect. And I had forgotten that hiking is a local passion, with a surprising number of wild routes.
Climb or take a taxi to the Peak, then the tram down. Scale the steps to the Big Buddha on Lantau island. Take the ferry from Stanley to the traditional fishing village of Po Toi and eat at one of its seafood restaurants.
Stroll through the Bird and Flower Markets and, of course, take the Star Ferry back and forth between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
If you should visit between December and April, go strawberry picking at the Rainbow organic farm at Fan Ling in the New Territories.
Enjoy Stanley street market, though I'll eat my socks if you see any object a self-respecting British citizen would want in their own living-room.
If you seek an unusual hotel experience, stay in the old Tai O police station on Lantau island.
For the MTR underground railway, buy an Octopus card on arrival, then for a hairy shopping experience, ride to the end of the line towards Shenzhen, the vast new metropolis just over the border in mainland China.
Shenzhen is a global capital of fakes – Gucci bags, Valentino shoes and a cornucopia of other stuff including customised art copying. Some of it is rubbish, but some is nevertheless wonderfully seductive.
EATING OUT
The peak of my culinary experience was dinner at Hutong, looking down from a 20th floor window on the night panorama of Hong Kong harbour amid the best Chinese food I have ever eaten. And don't expect such a meal to be a bargain either - although I suppose it could come into that category if you put a high value on such a memorable experience.
But we did drink hot rice wine, which I love, rather than French vintages at stratospheric prices.
It is possible to eat more cheaply, but if you have bought tickets across the world it seems silly to opt for bargain-basement dining.
MORE MUST SEES
I have a few more suggestions for quirky outings. Jason Wordie's guided historical walks are raved about by everyone who has signed up for one. And my daughter, who lives in Hong Kong, highly recommends the fabric and ribbon market in Sham Shui Po, and a stroll in the Botanical Gardens.
And, of course, no visit to Hong Kong would be the same without experiencing the Symphony of Lights- one of the world’s most spectacular light shows that has set the harbour ablaze every night since 2004.
Although there is so much to see, a first-timer to the city can do a great deal in a four-day visit, which can be a suitable duration for an introduction. And this is not particularly a child-friendly city.
Most Chinese today display no great sentimentality towards the British, the former colonial tenants, and why should they? Hong Kong's residents of all nationalities have had only one purpose for the past two centuries: to make money – and that continues today.
The old colony is utterly different from when I first saw it in 1970. But how could it not be, when empire is long gone? What's more, plenty has changed for the better and it is fascinating seeing this evolution take place.
First published in the Mail Online - May 2018
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