Booking.com wants you to book flights with its £15 voucher offer – here’s why I wouldn’t
Booking.com’s current offer of £15 off for customers making their first flight booking sounds like a straightforward bargain.
The site’s new promotional email explains that customers can activate a £15 voucher – received via an email newsletter – and use it on any flight booking costing more than £85 until 19 February 2027.
But on flights we checked, Booking.com wasn't only charging ‘third party fees’ but also higher fares than the airlines. When I did the maths, even with the £15 Booking.com voucher, it was usually more expensive than booking direct.
That’s not the only downside of booking a flight through a third party. In cases of disruption or cancellation, it's almost always far more difficult to get your money back than if you had booked directly.
Why we don’t recommend using Booking.com's voucher
Reason 1: We found it’s often cheaper to book direct.
When we checked the price of return flights from London Stansted to Barcelona on 8-15 March and chose Ryanair’s ‘regular’ fare, which includes priority boarding, two cabin bags and a reserved seat directly, the price was £92.68. Via Booking.com, the exact same fare, including the same baggage, boarding and seating options, cost £112.53 — that’s £19.85 more. So, even if you used the £15 voucher, you’d be left out of pocket by £4.58.
Part of the difference in price was because Booking.com charges ‘third party fees’, which were £16.85, but the base fare itself was more expensive too: £95.68.
The worst example we found was on Virgin Atlantic flights from London to Cape Town, 8-15 March in Economy. The price when booking direct was £1,487.79, whereas via Booking.com it was £34.87 more. That's still £19.87 more, even with the voucher applied.
In other cases, the savings were just a few pennies. For London to Budapest on 8-15 March with Wizz Air, taking only a small cabin bag, the price when booking direct was £78.98. The exact same fare booked via Booking.com came to £90.88 – £11 more. Adding Wizz’s ‘Smart’ booking option, which includes an extra 10kg cabin bag, priority boarding and seat selection, brought the total to £159 directly with Wizz, but £173.62 if booked via Booking.com – an increase of £14.61, and a overall saving of just 39p.
Reason 2: Booking direct puts you in a better position if something goes wrong
Which? always advises passengers to book flights direct, except when booking a package holiday. To redeem Booking.com’s voucher, you must add it to your Booking.com wallet and book your flight via the site.
Booking a flight via any third-party company means that if anything goes wrong, it can be much trickier to seek assistance and – if it comes to it – get your money back. So, while the initial saving could feel like a great incentive to book flights via the company, think twice.
Booking.com told us: ‘We provide travellers with the ability to compare flights to thousands of destinations, with deals available from more than 300 airlines, all in one place. Costs and prices are clearly shown and communicated upfront, including any third party fees applied by our partners, as well as discounts, like those available through our Genius loyalty programme.’
Reason 3: Booking.com's scam crisis
I also wouldn’t book with Booking.com because of how many times we've heard from travellers who have been targeted by scammers on the site, and in some cases have been left waiting months before getting their money back.
When we asked 237 Which? members who used Booking.com whether they’ve seen scam messages sent through Booking.com’s messaging system in the past two years, 9% said they had.
These are often very convincing messages sent to Booking.com users by third-party scammers, that appear to come from Booking.com itself. Such scams have been used to steal thousands of pounds from unsuspecting customers of the site.
Booking.com says that security is a top priority – and that it does monitor and block suspicious activity. You can see its full response and read more about Booking.com scams here.
