Booking & Departure

I started looking into this in September 2006. I wanted to go to the Maldives in August 2007, but didn’t have a clue which resort I would like. I spent 3 days on the net looking at details and they *all* looked lovely! Went to the local travel agent to pick up some brochures, then went back to Google to see if I could get better prices, including looking at the option of booking flights and hotel separately.

I wanted to spend 2 weeks somewhere “superb” and fancied August just because it’s my birthday. Prerequisites were:

• · It has to be Maldives, and “all inclusive”
• · Has to be a water bungalow
• · Has to be 4 star or higher
• · Flights from any London airport

Thanks to Google, I find that the weather is not the best in August. Thanks to the travel agent, I find that even a year in advance, I cannot get any dates in August as they are already booked up.

In the end I ask my lovely travel agent Cheryl to be flexible with the dates and see what she can find for me. She find exactly what I want, but in March not August. Gulp. The only other option was to go in 2008 and me – being me – doesn’t have an awful lot of patience – 2008 seems like an eternity, so I ask her to quote me on the March dates available.

I ask for pricing including valet parking, upgraded seats, decent flight times, best accommodation, all inclusive, sea plane transfer etc etc etc.

Suffice to say, I was not born yesterday. I spend days on the net pricing it myself on every single travel website you can imagine. My local travel agent STILL came back over £500 cheaper that I could have done it myself, so I happily confirmed with her and paid the deposit.

Flights from Gatwick, leaving after lunch on 5th March 2007. Excellent.

“Maldives – here we come!”

And we're off! yay! The links to the left will give you my comments on Meet & Greet parking, the Lounges and Customs at Gatwick, and my experience of flying with MyTravel.