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.
Efficient and helpful
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.
Always very helpful and a pleasure to book with.
Other than the changes with the flights everything else was great
Amazing customer care
Excellent service
None. Good service
Alfie was very helpful, as usual and ensured all went smoothly
You didn't have to rearrange a flight home for me after a last minute international flight cancellation on this holiday, as you did on the last, but it was so good to know that - far from home - you were there to help me should I find myself stranded. Thank you so much for being there.
Excellent service and they were there for me when I needed assistance. Will definitely use again.
Always had good customer service from Michelle
Flight suggestions worked really well
All perfect!
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.
Great service yet again
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
Trailing vines and creepers brush my face as I scramble over tangled roots and fallen logs. The rainforest is hot and steamy, and the only sound is the shrill cries and hoots of birds calling to each other high up in the treetops.
Suddenly I hear a rustle of leaves and look up to spot black faces peering down at us. Vervet monkeys are checking us out before they leap off through the branches and disappear into the dense vegetation.
Earla is leading me along a nature trail at Stonyhill on the tiny Caribbean island of Nevis. Some 3,000ft above us, the summit of the dormant volcano, Nevis Peak, is lost in cloud.
It takes a gruelling five-hour trek to reach it so I have opted for a shorter hike, learning about the healing properties of plants and trees.
As we pick our way across narrow ravines, Earla points out the prickly soursop fruit (anti-carcinogenic) and the creeping charlie ground ivy (good for high blood pressure). She picks up large brown and white leaves lying beneath my feet.
'They are from the trumpet tree,' she explains.
'We make tea with them to cure coughs and colds.'
Nevis itself is quiet and unspoilt but is easily accessible with direct British Airways flights to St Kitts, its larger sister, followed by a short speedboat transfer. The only traffic jams here are caused by herds of sheep and goats.
I am staying at the Nisbet Plantation, a former sugar plantation and the only one situated right on the beach. Its rocky groynes are used as diving boards by pelicans on the lookout for breakfast.
Pretty clapboard cottages are scattered among the palm trees and dinner is served in the Great House, where guests are greeted by Patterson, the flamboyant maitre d', who has a collection of 6,000 ties. Afternoon tea is served on the terrace beside the croquet lawn, and with friendly staff who all address you by name, it is easy to see why guests return time and again.
The ruins of a sugar mill stand at the entrance and the old stone oven is still intact with a plaque in memory of Fanny Nisbet, whom Horatio Nelson met here and eventually married in 1787.
Their wedding took place at the Montpelier Estate, now the deluxe Montpelier Plantation Hotel situated in the mountainous interior, and you can learn more about his life in the Nelson Museum in the capital, Charlestown.
The remains of sugar plantations are dotted across Nevis. The New River Coconut Walk Estate was the last to close in the 1950s and will soon become an open-air museum.
Others have been converted into hotels. My favourite is Golden Rock, which has fantastic gardens and panoramic vistas of neighbouring Monstserrat.
For an authentic Caribbean meal, head to Sunshine's on Pinney's Beach. I opt for spicy jerk chicken with rice and peas, and the owner's signature Killer Bee cocktail. Back at the hotel I flop into a hammock strung between the palm trees.
Most who venture to Nevis also take in the white-sand beauty of big sister St Kitts, which lies just 50 miles - but a breathtaking world away - from the glitzy enclave of Antigua.
Little St Christopher, as it's sometimes called, was the first Caribbean island to be spotted by Columbus and he gave it the name of his patron saint and namesake. Visually, it's a seductive fairytale island of dark forests and cloud-capped mountains, a tiny landmass in a crystal clear sea.
Columbus showed a little more imagination when he named Nevis because he thought the clouds surrounding its peak looked like snow. Its original name was Nuestra Senora de las Nieves (Our Lady of the Snows).
Less touristy than Nevis, St Kitts has a down-to-earth feel and in its quieter spots you're more likely to encounter wildlife than you are humans. There are more monkeys on St Kitts than people. The Green Vervets brought here by the French as pets look cute but they can be tricksy, with thieving a problem.
Key sites on St Kitts include Brimstone Hill, the island's one-time fortress. Play soldiers at this former British stronghold and you'll be rewarded with stupendous views and a site so pristine that the troops could just have moved out.
When night falls, head to the famous Strip for a rum punch stumble; home to Mr X's Shiggedy Shack and a string of other beach bars. Drink, dance and enjoy the stars in the big skies above.
And the perfect way to shake off a night on the tiles Caribbean-style? With one of those hammocks strung between palm trees, of course…
First published in the Mail on Sunday - June 2016
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