Travel Extra Companies

Travel Extras - What are they?

Travel Extra firms have become very popular as a way of organising a trip through an airport - offering everything from parking and hotels to car hire and insurance - and the UK is dominated by two Travel Extra firms - Essential Travel and Holiday Extras, both offering a broadly similar product range.

Where they differ however is the results you achieve when you undertake a similar search through each firm. They both have exclusive suppliers in areas such car parking and airport lounges which means that whereas 75% of the results will be the same the rest could differ - so we recommend undertaking a search of what you are after with both companies so that you know you are covering pretty much the whole of the market(the exception is in their hotels range where results are identical).

An example we ran for a weeks car parking at Gatwick in July showed that of the five cheapest suppliers two were exclusive to one company and two exclusive to the other - only one was duplicated!

Links to both companies are below:

The main services offered are the following, each of which are covered in more detail on the companies pages (see index on the left)

Travel Insurance - Both companies are on the moneymaxim travel insurance panel - so do your search there and you will also get dozens of other policies to compare as well!

Airport Parking - Both companies should be searched - both have exclusive suppliers.

Airport Lounges - There are differences in their coverage - in the UK Holiday Extras cover Belfast, whereas Essential don't, and its the other way around in the Isle of Man and Norwich. Essential have far better coverage overseas. Be aware that lounges normally give you a three hour period of entry - which starts from the time you have booked from and not the time you arrive - so don't be late!

Airport Hotels - Both companies have the same base panel - both exclude Premier Inn, which if you are staying at an airport which has one (they have around 25 airport hotels, some on airport) can be a cost effective alternative.

moneymaxim - making money go further

moneymaxim always recommend you take independent financial advice before acting on any article. Any views expressed are those of the editorial team at the time of going to press, and should not be considered as either recommendation or specific advice. Readers should be aware that no warranty is given that the details are correct and are recommended to read any policy documents carefully before entering into any contract.