Kingfisher

Is anyone else having trouble buying tickets on Kingfisher?

Kingfisher’s website will not permit tickets to be purchased ex-UK online. Go figure. Apparently they aren’t geared up for taking credit card payments in the UK. They ask you to ring the contact number and (if you can get through) you end up at a call center in India, which I’m told is only staffed by a small number of people. They’ll attempt to help you to make a booking, but if they can’t understand what you want they disconnect you, and you’re back to multiple attempts to speak with someone again. Once you connect and someone understands what you want, the fare only comes up in INR or USD. Then, if you want to use a UK credit card, they put you on hold, have to raise a block that Kingfisher has on most credit cards (to avoid fraud, I’m told), process your credit card details and once they have approval they reinstate the block. Strange. Only then will Kingfisher issue you with a ticket. By the way, staff in London are also unable to take credit cards for payment at the airline offices.

How can a company in this day and age make it so frightfully challenging to buy a ticket? It is as if they really don’t want your business. I have just made two Club return bookings via BA.COM, and it took me less than two minutes to complete a booking, online, without speaking to anyone. Business lost for Kingfisher.

Hi John,

Can you pls give me your proper email details.

Hi Stephen,

Can I ask what dates you booked your flights to India?

Just wanted to give you a comparison to what sort of rates I get – for example:

London – Bangalore with BA in Club Class:

Outbound – Monday 23rd March

Return – Sunday 29th March

Price on BA.com – £4917.20 per person

My price – £3439.20 per person (and this includes 6 nights at the 5-star Park Hotel in Bangalore with breakfast!).

That is a saving of nearly £1500 and that includes a hotel that roughly £100 a night – making a total saving of over £2000!

Just a quick heads up – booking directly with any airline will not guarantee you the cheapest fare. If you want to check with me next time (even if it is just to check), give me a shout on <a href="mailto:[email protected]“>[email protected] and I’ll hopefully be able to save you plenty of money.

For a bit more information, head over to the “Low Price Challenge” forum and see for yourself.

Thanks and happy travelling!

I actually booked out on 6th May, return on 20th May, and got a very good fare from BA for £1,098.00 plus £321.00 tax for a total of £1,419.00 GBP. Cheapest fare I could find in the end.

I did look at going via an agent to issue the Kingfisher ticket, but it was subject to a “booking fee” of £100 per ticket, hence turning to the website and going thru all the palaver and obstacles they throw in the way. Hence comparing with BA, getting a good fare and giving them my business.

Thanks for the offers for booking – will certainly enquire next time.