Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
I was surprised that we made a stop in the DRC en route from Nairobi to Ndola. I would want to avoid that on a future trip but it wasn’t a problem on this occasion. Loved the App for doing check in and being able to see all flights in one place. Many thanks for all of your help. Will definitely use DialAFlight again.
Everything went well. With your company I always travel with peace of mind that if things do not go well I have you to help - as has happened before. Thank you, you will always be my travel partner.
BA's holding area for passengers needing assistance must be upgraded and must be made rodent free. it was quite disturbing seeing rodents running around on the floor and under the furnishing. No bottled water was provided while passengers waited in the holding area, when the flight was delayed.
Huge thanks to Zoe Lane who went above and beyond yet again. I’m so pleased I deal with DialAFlight as her service is of the highest quality.
Wonderful trouble-free holiday arranged by Sarah. We have used your company many times and will continue to use you.
Thank you Glen - everything ran smoothly
All went well. We were kept informed and there were no problems
Only suggestion is to have a WhatsApp or chat to communicate with DialAFlight especially during out of office hours in case client has no roaming access.
Not sure we would opt to fly with Qatar again - not what it used to be. It just didn’t have that professional / customer service edge over other airlines that it used to. DialAFlight 10/10 as always!
Really good communication from arranging the trip to completion
Great service from Donovan as per usual
Theo was a star. It was really reassuring that he was in the background on what was anything but a straightforward trip.
Thank you for a great service - always on the end of the phone when we had a query and able to help.
Lucy McNab was excellent!
Staff in the lounge and onboard were friendly and helpful
Helpful and efficient as always! Many thanks.
Really appreciated the call the day before we left to ensure we had all docs and reminding us to check-in. Thank you!
Stacey Rayner is a Rock Star !
We trust DialAFlight always - and staff so friendly polite and efficient - well done
Amazing holiday to South Africa and the service from DialAFlight was first class. Flights and hotel were perfect.
It would have been very helpful to have had the literature given at the "meet & greet" on arrival in Windhoek a month before departure to familiarise with routes between accommodation.
Thank you for your help with this booking
Excellent service as always
Always select a great hotel and good flight options. Fantastic service!
Always use DAF - have done for 20 years - that says how pleased we are.
Alfie was an amazing holiday organiser. Very helpful and found me the best venues. I really enjoyed my holiday.
I was very happy with the service provided by DialAFlight and would recommend them to family and friends
Kieran and team are amazing
Everything went smoothly and to plan. Another excellent trip thanks to DialAFlight
Good to include baggage allowance in the DialAFlight app rather than a link to the airline site…particularly for smaller airlines where this info isn’t easy to access nor correlate with the flight booked
I am not an adventurous traveller. I would like to pretend I'm an intrepid explorer. But no, when I'm on holiday I like a nice pool and menus written in English.
Recently, however, my 17-year-old daughter decided she wanted to study Chinese at university. If you ever want to be President of the World, which I suspect she does, then speaking English and Mandarin is the right place to start.
However, she then decided that she actually wanted to study it in China. To make matters worse, she then suggested we all go and visit China first, so we could experience it before she disappears there to study.
What to do? The two of us, and my 15-year-old son, decided that a week in Shanghai, meeting the people, seeing a bit of the country and sampling the culture, would be a grand idea.
Shanghai has packed an awful lot of history into the past 175 years, most of it bloody, and much of it illegal. Founded and funded through the opium trade, run by gangsters, overrun by the Japanese, ground down by communism and torn apart by the Cultural Revolution - and yet it stands today vibrant, happy and booming.
A local guide is incredibly useful in China, and we were lucky to find knowledgeable Miki Wei. She showed us the traditional sights of Shanghai; the extraordinary riverside architecture of the Bund, the ancient oasis of Yu Gardens, the bustling shops and markets of the French Concession.
But she also made sure to take us to the alleyways and cafes that tourists don't usually see and talked in great detail about life growing up during the Cultural Revolution.
My favourite stop was the amazing Propaganda Poster Art Centre, a beautiful archive of original Government propaganda spanning the second half of the 20th Century, hidden away in an apartment block in the French Concession. It is a fascinating place to spend an hour, and a neat way to understand recent Chinese history.
With 23 million inhabitants, Shanghai seemingly stretches on for ever. It is, however, an easy city to get around. The subway works like clockwork, is mind-bogglingly cheap, and, best of all for me, has clear English signage.
There is plenty of opportunity to venture further afield, too, as Chinese trains are also a treat; cheap, fast, comfortable and reliable.
We took the wonderful bullet train down to Hangzhou, a beautiful, far less Westernised city about 90 minutes south west of Shanghai, to walk by the ancient West Lake, visit the working Buddhist temples and climb among the green tea plantations that cover the surrounding hills.
As Westerners, you will receive your share of stares, gasps and smiles when you walk in Hangzhou. Be prepared for a lot of selfies with delighted locals.
We also had an amazing time visiting some of the extraordinary 'water villages' about 30 minutes' drive west of Shanghai. The most famous, and most developed, of these small towns clinging to canal banks, is the beautiful Zhujiajiao.
Be sure to visit the less developed end of Zhujiajiao, where ram-shackle cafes and shops overhang the water. We very happily pottered through dusty antique shops in people's front rooms.
Back in Shanghai, our hotel, the fabulous Mandarin Oriental Pudong, was world-class. Beautiful rooms, incredible staff, and the option of a full English breakfast.
I need nothing else. It tells you so much about Shanghai that the Pudong district where the hotel is based is now one of the largest and most spectacular financial and business centres in the world, a buzzing, bustling, neon-lit wonderland of commerce, and yet as recently as 1993, the entire place was farmland.
Miki told us how, as a teenager, she watched as the district rose out of the fields, floor by floor, at dizzying speeds.
The food throughout the trip was also superb. We had many great meals in Shanghai of dumplings, noodles, Szechuan hot-pots and, yes I admit it, one KFC. Best of all, though, was dinner at the Mandarin Oriental's Yong Yi Ting restaurant. It was far and away the finest Chinese food I've ever eaten.
There were downsides, of course. However friendly and welcoming the Chinese are as people, you can't ignore the shadow of an unelected government and the abuses and corruption this fosters. And the toilets are awful.
Apart from lavatories and democracy, though, I couldn't find fault with this beautiful, immense, unconventional country.
So I'll be back in China next year, visiting my daughter, and I'm already looking forward to it.
First published in the Mail on Sunday - July 2016
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