Early days in Soho. Who would have guessed that 40 years on we would be voted into the Travel Industry Hall of Fame

The story of the Lotus Group

Back in 1980, in a borrowed office, above a warehouse in Soho, four colleagues, who had been working for a Swedish travel firm that closed, set out to create a unique company.

And DialAFlight was born.

That seems a long way from today’s success story, with 500 employees based in four locations across England and millions of successful holidays and business trips taken by our happy customers. We couldn’t be more proud.

Unlike other travel companies of the time we chose to be solely phone based, meaning we could pass on to our customers the savings on premises.

We were the first company in the UK to open for business 7 days a week and we were available well into the evening.

Our philosophy, unusual for the time, was that convenience was for our customers rather than for ourselves and that holds true today. Of course, 40 years on, every other travel company has been forced to open longer hours but we led the way and still have a few customers from those early days.

We were told by many that a phone only business working long hours would never work but our customers proved the sceptics wrong and today we are one of the biggest and highest rated travel companies in the UK.

You will be looked after by the same person from your first call.

Our customers tell us time and again that they love the fact they can talk to the same person whenever they call, that our travel experts answer the phone in seconds and really listen to what they want, then set about getting the best deals to suit their requirements.

Many have been booking their business and leisure travel with us for years and are still talking to the same people that made their first booking. We have travel experts that have been with the company for over 25 years.

This is because we look after our staff just like we look after our customers. It’s so important to us to retain all that expertise so we can make your booking experience even better. Personal recommendations as well as professional ones are commonplace and are valued hugely by our customers.

Unique technology gets you the best value.

A few years on we developed our own in-house booking system which is so advanced it makes the whole process seamless. Its efficiency enables us to spend far more time offering exceptional service and amazing offers and less time with consuming paperwork. Everyone wins that way.

Our customers want to talk to a real person and over the years more and more people have come to realise the importance of this most simple measure of good customer service.

It’s when things go wrong that experience shows.

Since the pandemic we are seeing a new type of customer, ones who previously booked directly with airlines or online travel companies most of whom were not contactable once things went wrong. Some behaved quite appallingly.

As Warren Buffet says: ‘You only find out who has been swimming without a costume when the tide goes out.’

Your flight or holiday is supposed to go without a hitch. But sometimes the weather, or something else has a different idea. It’s only then you learn what your travel organiser is made of.

With your DialAFlight emergency phone number you have help all day, every day you’re away. And should you need to call, you’ll speak to one of us - not an outsourced service like most other companies use.

But doesn’t that mean higher prices? you ask.

Surprisingly not. As one of the biggest independent travel companies in the UK, we have incredible relationships with all our suppliers which give us huge buying power and exclusive prices that you will never find online or with any other travel company.

You get the best possible combination – great value and fantastic service.

In addition to flexifares and free cancellations your money is held in a Client Trust Account, which means it is 100% safe in addition to ATOL and ABTA protection.

We also think it is important for any successful business to give something back and we are very proud of our charity Make My Day Better which was originally set up to purchase new boats for the fishermen of Sri Lanka who had lost their livelihoods in the catastrophic 2004 tsunami.

Since then we have supported schools in Cambodia, enterprises in Africa, research at Kew, rescue missions across the globe with ShelterBox and much more.

However one of our favourite projects is our reading scheme here in the UK in partnership with Dolly Parton. We send underprivileged children a book in the post each month from birth until they are 5-years-old. To date we have sent out more than 327,500 books. Read more

Every booking you make contributes towards these worthwhile causes both here and abroad.

Between us we are making a huge difference.