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Why do travel companies leave it so late to send tickets ?

We're flying out on Monday. Virgin only posted our tickets out last Monday, and the website says allow 7 days for delivery ! I phoned them on Thursday and Friday before they finally agreed to send them again by special delivery as they hadn't arrived. Finally got both sets today (Saturday) - 48 hours before we're due to go. Then when we looked at the tickets, they'd made a mistake so I had to spend an hour on the phone sorting it out. Of course being Saturday half the departments weren't there so it took longer than usual to sort out.

Can anybody who works in this industry explain to me why they can't just send your tickets as soon as you've paid the full amount, i.e. 6 to 8 weeks before you go, instead of giving their customers this last minute stress ?

Public Comments

1. Because they're all sadists, it really annoys me when they do that. It happened to me last year and I thought I would never get them, Ihad to go to the company and get them myself. Grrrrrrrrr

2. It's because airlines regularly change their schedules, which is also why you should check your return flight about 2-3 days before you are due to return.

3. I would guess that the travel companies do not order the necessary tickets until they have to. This allows them to bank your payment, earn some interest on it, and then pay out for the necessary tickets only at the last minute.

I doubt that it is much stress to the company, as they will have mastered the art of ordering and mailing tickets out to their customers, but you are going to get a bit hot and bothered as you are left waiting.