What 15753 DialAFlight clients thought of USA

Awesome customer service from Austin and his team yet again

Great experience. Easy, and questions quickly answered by phone… that funny old communication tool.

As always, excellent service from the first phone call to returning from our trip. Thanks Jerry and we’ll be calling to book with you again soon.

Fabulous staff kept me totally informed about my flight - great experience as first time solo. Thanks everyone

Always a pleasure to deal with a totally professional company - will only use you in future

The level of service we received from Declan and his colleagues was superb as always and we really liked the hotel that he recommended for us in New York. We look forward to booking with you again in the future.

Excellent service and excellent communication. We will use again

Would recommend your service to others

Excellent service

Excellent service again from Teddy. This is my 3rd booking to the USA in the last 12 months and looking forward to booking again. Your staff answer the phone within seconds which is amazing when you hear the stories of people being on the phone for hours. Keep up the great service.

Thank you Adam, once again our trip was organised perfectly.

Excellent service, always available on phone and superb price

Superb start to finish

Danny looked after us brilliantly

Thank you so much Samuel - you never let me down and always find me the best holidays and deals

Helpful when arranging my flights and very good follow up to ensure everything was in order regarding visas

Very reassuring to know there was someone I could call if I had any issues with travel or questions. Wayne gave lots of helpful advice and we had a fab trip away! We are now planning our trip for next July to Vancouver with him!

Fantastic flights and excellent service. Have always used DialAFlight for my flights and will continue to do so. Thank you for all your help!

Service, as always, was excellent.

Fast call answering with clearly spoken English staff, 24/7 staff availability in the unlikely situation of a problem happening, very competitive holiday pricing and lastly you know you are being looked after by a professional capable and caring DialAFlight team.

Your experience, service and follow-up is great

Boris and his team always look after us very well. Been using DialAFlight for years

Fabulous service from Barney who couldn't have done more to help me.

All went well and had a great time. Looking forward to my next holiday.

Fraser and Gino were brilliant throughout. I would recommend them to anyone.

Excellent communication keeping me informed of any changes!

Great service from Amy and the team.

Very good service Thanks Russell

Absolutely amazing service from start to finish. Will use you again and recommend

The assistance at Heathrow was a shambles and from landing to the arrivals hall took approx 90 minutes. In and out of a wheelchair 4 times. I know this has nothing to do with you. When I arrived at Logan I was out in 25 minutes

Back in the swing!

A decade on from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, Siobhan Warwicker finds that New Orleans is in prime party mode

Abigail Gullo, the New Yorker who runs the bar at the much-hyped new restaurant Compere Lapin, has a theory about her adoptive city - 'they say you have to be successful to live in New York, beautiful to live in LA, but in New Orleans you can just be yourself.'

A 6in fleur-de-lis tattoo on her arm, the official Louisiana symbol, tells of her Big Easy love affair. 'I cherish bartending in this city because it's all about community. When Hurricane Katrina hit, many of the bars stayed open and staff did what they could to help, offering locals shelter.'

The self-styled Abigail Gullo

I'm not surprised. Community spirit is different here. Drink in the streets in other U.S. states and you'll be pounced on by the police. In New Orleans, they will stop for some banter or shout 'have a good time!' at revellers clutching their trusty Go Cups – plastic beakers you can grab from every bar and have refilled anywhere.

New Orleans' disdain for the status quo goes back a long way – 90 years ago it was named Prohibition America's wettest city and in 1928, when the Atlanta mayor asked Louisiana Governor Huey Long what he was doing to enforce the Prohibition Act, he reportedly replied: 'Not a damn thing!'

Most places found ways around the ban. To enter Mr O'Brien's Club Tipperary there was a secret password, 'storm's a-brewing', while guests dining at Antoine's restaurant were given teacups for their tipples. Both venues thrive today (with legitimate licences).

Drinking is still a theatrical sport. Sipping a Ramos gin fizz – one of the many local concoctions – at the 21st Amendment bar, we watch the swing-dancing couples cavorting under a deco chandelier. Ladies wear flippy skirts and bobby pins, men sport pork pie hats and shiny shoes.

Maybe it's the alligator-head voodoo sticks on sale at the market (a gift from Haiti immigrants), the celebratory approach to death with giant headstones and festival-style funeral parades, or the feeling you've stepped on to a Spanish film set that makes it so surreal.

Before the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, when the U.S. bought the whole state, ownership of New Orleans was tossed between France and Spain.

Stylish streets in the French Quarter

Often, it seems more European than American, particularly in the French Quarter, where the grand porches of 18th-century townhouses are covered by cascading plants making their escape from iron balconies.

It's also the location of our hotel. Twinkling fairy-lights hanging in the courtyard of the Maison Dupuy catch the eye of people walking by. With its Toulouse-Lautrec mural in the bistro we could be in France but for the maids gossiping in their Louisiana drawls.

A short walk away is St Louis Square, the heart of the French Quarter, where street performers perform magic for the crowds and brass bands mimic the puffed-out cheeks of Louis Armstrong.

The city's multi-culturalism means it's managed to swerve the rest of America's bind to hamburgers and fries. Instead its staple is Creole cuisine, mixing French cooking and hearty southern comfort food.

Worth trying are the alligator sausage and crayfish cheesecake at Jaquamo's restaurant, blackened fish at Tujague's and the deliciously thick grits at Brennan's.

From the hum of adversity – hurricanes, heatwaves and poverty – has erupted an attitude that life's too short. There's always an excuse for a party, and there is a festival practically every week.

Like a permanent morning-after state of dress, trees in even the most hidden neighbourhoods are abloom with streams of coloured beads flung up over years of Mardi Gras.

St Louis Cathedral in the heart of the French Quarter

People stick together. Strangers greet you with 'how y'all doing?' Smart and reliable like old-fashioned butlers, streetcars are the city's only method of public transport. They create a constant soundtrack as they rattle past the mansions of St Charles Avenue and vintage shops of the Magazine district.

The French theme continues in the trendy industrial area of Bywater, where you will find Bacchanal Fine Wine & Spirits shop.

Enjoy a bottle of plonk and a cheese platter in its beautiful garden, listening to the lunchtime band.

Like alcohol, music is ingrained in the city's rebellious spirit. In the Twenties, jazz was associated with the underworld, with the prostitutes and gangsters who conducted their business at seedy Storyville speakeasies.

Today, world-class bands play across scores of venues every night and tiny Preservation Hall is among the most renowned.

Somehow, the drummer in the five-piece band doesn't break a sweat as he hits the fast-as-lightning syncopated beats of his solo. The city has a big birthday soon, its 300th in 2018. But in the city where age is just a number, it'll forever stay a naughty teenager.

First published in the Daily Mail - February 2017

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