Travelzoo is a middleman, vetting travel deals and then posting them on its website as well as sending them to their members in promotional emails. (Companies pay for their offers to be included.)
I had written to Travelzoo since you mentioned you heard about the package tour there, and Rhea Saran, the company’s global head of brand and content, got back to me quickly. She noted (as you had told me) that you had complained to Travelzoo in February. At the time, she added, Travelzoo had contacted Jetline and were told the matter was being resolved. But this time, she said a Travelzoo colleague got in touch with Mr. Roberts directly, and that’s when the complaint got some traction. We compared notes, and it turns out that Travelzoo’s contact with Jetline was less than an hour before I spoke to Mr. Levy. “Having learned now that a resolution had still not been reached,” Ms. Saran wrote, “we’re glad we were able to jump back in to help push it to a positive solution.”
Problem solved. But the question, as it so often is in these columns, is whether your experience was a one-off problem, or is Jetline to be avoided, despite its attractively priced packages to Europe and beyond?
Ms. Saran said Travelzoo stands behind Jetline. “We have not received a significant number of complaints from members about them when compared to other travel companies,” she wrote. “On the flip side, we have also received feedback from many members who were satisfied with trips booked through them.”
But as you yourself noted, a lot of complaints about Jetline appear in online reviews, both old and new, as well as in some poor press coverage of them during the pandemic. It’s hard to know how much stock to put in these — despite my snark, things were chaotic in 2020 and 2021 — and Jetline fares much better on Trustpilot, one of the sites Travelzoo monitors to evaluate the packages it promotes.
Which brings us back to a constant theme in this column: the nettlesome issue of middlemen. Unless they offer some clear advantage, advice is to book travel services directly through airlines, hotels and car rental companies. This practice can take a bit of extra time, yes, but saves considerable hassle when something goes wrong or plans change. My inbox is littered with countless versions of “I called Company A, and they said it was Company B’s problem, but when I called Company B, they sent me back to Company A.” (And that’s when the companies are legit. Don’t get me started on what happens when people book a flight through companies with names like UnbelievablyImpossiblyLowFares.com.)
But exceptions exist, and one of them is that online travel agents both large (say, Expedia) and small (Jetline) can put together packages that are not only convenient to book, but often cheaper than what you would pay if you booked everything separately. And local travel advisers can offer even more customization and valuable advice.