A Jetline Vacations Review: From the Good to the Bad

If you’re reading this, there is a good chance you have found a good deal on Travelzoo or some other platform and you are wondering if it is too good to be true? Should you book through Jetline Vacations? Here is an honest Jetline Vacations review!

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Why We Booked with Jetline in the First Place

As an avid trip-planner, it is out of character for me to book through a third-party/travel agent company. However, in May of 2023 I was in an international travel drought of about a year, I was super busy, I had invested a lot of money into a new business and I needed an easy, affordable trip to revive me a little.

Affordability: So, I went to Travelzoo (which I booked our honeymoon hotel deal through and it went fantastic). I found a deal for 3 nights in Athens and 3 nights in Crete for $1,099 including flights from NYC, flight to/from Crete, and hotels (Crete’s hotel was 5 star). Here was the affordability.

Ease of Booking: Also, this was in April and I wanted to go to Greece in May. Being busy, I didn’t have time to get everything booked and organized in that time frame and really didn’t think the price would be affordable in such short notice on my own. Therefore, I thought having someone else do all of the booking for me would be the best option and was the driving factor for using Jetline Vacations.

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Jetline Vacations Review: Booking Process

In all honesty, the booking process was pretty seamless. To book through Jetline Vacations, you call and talk to a representative who walks you through what you want to book and what is included in the package you want to book. The representative was friendly, didn’t sound annoyed by my questions and helped me adjust things that I wanted to adjust.

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What was Included in the Package

Again, the packages through Jetline Vacations often include flights, accommodations and transportation between different cities and destinations. So, ours included flights from the US, hotels and flights/ferries between islands.

Here is the deal about the price that is marketed, though. The flights will not be time-efficient and there is a good chance the hotels, though likely clean and very acceptable in those terms, may not have an ideal location.

Upgrades Available

When you book, you will be able to upgrade certain things if you wish, for a fee of course. The representative helped adjust flight times to have more suitable landing times and decreased layovers without a a significant increase in price.

I also added 2 nights in Santorini. So once you find an itinerary, sometimes there are options to add other stops to your chosen itinerary.

The original itinerary had a ferry from Athens to Santorini, but the ferry was 5 hours on a high-speed ferry and 7-8 hours on the traditional ferry (that was included in the price). I upgraded to a flight from Athens to Santorini that was less than an hour.

Price of our Trip

The original price, again, was $1,099 per person for 6 nights in Athens and Crete. After adding two nights in Santorini and upgrading the ferry from Athens to a flight, the total price was $1799 per person for an 8 day trip to Greece.

If we’re being honest, this is a good price for 8 nights in Greece. Granted we went in May, but that is still the just before peak season and the weather was fantastic.

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Jetline Vacations Review: Hotels Included

When you book through Jetline Vacations, you don’t choose the hotel. It is predetermined, but you know what the hotel will be before you opt to book your trip. So here is a general review of the hotels that were included in our package.

Athens

The Athens hotel was clean, had free breakfast, a rooftop that had a view of a distant Lycabettus Hill as well as a distant view of the Acropolis, both of which you can see glowing at night. The staff was super friendly and helpful.

• The location was acceptable. Had I booked a hotel myself, I would probably have booked closer to the city center. However, we were still in walking distance of popular places like Monastiraki Square and only about a 5 minute walk to the closest metro station.
• Overall, would recommend the hotel we got in Athens!

Santorini

I was SUPER excited to stay in Santorini. I had seen the epic views for years and it was a bucket list destination. The hotel was clean, the staff was super friendly, it had a pool (only complaint was the mattress was hard).

• However, the hotel included in the package was not on the coastline and as a first-time visitor to Santorini, I would have probably splurged a little more to stay in a hotel that was on the coast with an epic view.
• We made it work; we were able to walk to the bus station and get to Fira within 5-10 minutes and still enjoyed our time there. However, had I booked myself, this hotel wouldn’t have been high on my list due to location.

Crete

The hotel in Crete was a beautiful 5 star hotel! Honestly, the hotel was an A+ in regards to cleanliness, amenities, friendly staff, view from our room, etc.

• However, again, as my first time in Crete I wanted to see places like Balos and Elafonisi Beaches that are located on the western side of Crete. Our hotel was located on the East side of Crete, and as you probably know, Crete is a LARGE island.
• So, Balos Beach was a little over three hour drive and Elafonisi beach was a 3.5 hour drive from our hotel in Hersonissos. 🙃
• We ended up enjoying our time in Hersonissos and the hotel did a great job of offering free bus rides to nearby beaches and towns and even offered excursions. However, if I were booking a hotel on my own, I would likely have stayed in Chania as my first-time in Crete.

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Jetline Vacations Review: Communication

Again, as I said before, the booking process went smoothly; communication was good, I received all of the vouchers for our hotels, flights and ferries quickly and there were no problems.

However.

Communication declined greatly when there was a hiccup. Had everything gone smoothly, it would have been fine. However, we had received an email from Jetline Vacations saying our ferry from Santorini to Crete had been cancelled the day before we were supposed to sail, which was a Saturday.

I immediately emailed them back saying I would accept the new time, but never received a voucher for the new ferry. In the process, I was emailing back and forth with about 3 different people and it was chaotic.

• I was told that since I didn’t get the voucher and their office was closed on Sunday I should book the ferry myself and then get a refund back to my card.
• They came back to say that I should’ve went to the local office to get my new tickets, however, that email wasn’t sent to me until after I had booked our own ferry tickets.
• So, they agreed that I could be refunded the price of the ferry onto the credit card I used to book.
• Well that refund never came 🙃 And emails asking about the refund were never answered.

I think maybe if the hiccup hadn’t happened just before their office closed on Sunday, the rebooking process may have been smoother. But, alas, thats not how it happened. And, really, the lack of communication following was the most frustrating part.

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Pros: When to Use Jetline Vacations

If you despise the process of planning an itinerary, booking flights, booking hotels, etc then this can be a good option for you. You can pick a general itinerary and let them do the bookings.

If you are looking for a good, last minute deal, you can likely find somewhere to go for an affordable price in a short amount of time. We booked this trip just one month before we left.

Cons: Who Shouldn’t Use Jetline Vacations

If you have plenty of time to plan your own trip in your own way, this probably isn’t for you. You will likely get a trip that is more in tune with what you like and will be able to stay in places that you prefer by booking yourself.

If you like to be in full control of what you are going to experience on your trip, this probably isn’t the best option for you either.

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Jetline Vacations Review Recap

I think booking with Jetline Vacations has its place. For someone who is busy and wants an affordable trip in a hurry, this can be a great option. However, personally, I will likely not book with them again. I now have time to plan my own trips and I just like having full control over where I stay.

However, I took this trip with my mom and we REALLY enjoyed it! So, overall, I have no regrets of booking the trip!

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