Best at Travel — Poor Customer Service

I wish I had found this site BEFORE I booked my holiday with BAT. I could have saved myself so much stress and money chasing them. The short story is that I booked late 2011 for a holiday in June 2012 to Cuba. Straight away I had to chase for a confirmation and invoice. As a condition of booking I asked for the tickets to be posted to me in Portugal but was told they could only be sent to the UK address where my credit card was registered. It was agreed that my tickets would be sent 1 month before departure to give my family in the UK time to post the tickets on. One month before I reminded them by email and phone and was assured the tickets were on the way. After many more phone calls and emails they were finally delivered by courier to our Gatwick hotel the night before departure. Imagine the stress that caused.

The main reason given was that they had run out of visas for Cuba and when they asked for more from the Cuban Embassy were told that the person responsible for issuing visas was on holiday. What incompetence on the part of the BAT admin team in not realising the number of forward bookings they had and not ensuring that they had enough visa to cover. I am sorry but I have doubts about the other part of their excuse regarding the embassy. A Cuban visa is a preprinted form that has to be completed by the holidaymaker. Surely this can be issued by any member of staff.

I totally agree with previous reviewers that the staff at BAT are only interested in taking your money. After that you are on your own. I made many requests to speak to a manager who it seems was always 'out'. Perhaps if he were to spend more time in the office he could manage his staff more efficiently. He did eventually email me the day before departure saying that he was investigating my situation and would ring me later that day. Twenty days later and I am still waiting for his call.

We did meet one other couple on holiday who had also booked with BAT. They also did not receive their tickets in a timely manner and as he worked in London he says that he installed himself in their office and refused to leave until his tickets were handed over.

Please, PLEASE think twice before dealing with this company.