Trifter

I’ve been booking flights through Mango Tours the past couple of years and I’ve never been disappointed when it came to how cheap the tickets were. I normally fly home to the Philippines around Christmastime, and I’ve gotten great deals from this travel agency every single time. My relatives who travel at different times of the year (families travel together around May, because the kids are on summer break) get great deals as well. To give you an idea of how cheap they are, I’ve been able to book roundtrip tickets to Manila from San Francisco for as low as $600!

I guess it’s safe to say that Mango Tours really offers its customers cheap airfare all year round!

The amazing thing about this travel agency is that they have their own call center (housed in the Philippines, of course) and anybody in the US can call them for inquiries, reservations, booking, etc. Good news is, it’s toll-free (1-866-2-MANILA). For a Filipino-run company in the US, I’m pretty impressed. Their marketing campaign’s pretty strong since they’re pretty well-known in the Filipino communities abroad. It also helps that their visibility on the web is pretty solid, too (they’re on Facebook, they have Twitter updates for their fare/hotel promos, an online booking engine on their site and of course, a blog).

It’s a well known fact around the world that the one thing that is very characteristic of Filipinos is their hospitality. The same goes for the travel agents that you talk to over the phone; they’ll make sure that you get the best itinerary, and they’ll even take the time to remind you if your itinerary has a long layover in some other country.

Aside from the cheap international airfare they also boast of tour packages around the Philippines, in both popular and exotic locations. I noticed that their recently uplodaded 2009 tour packages now included Bicol (the whaleshark capital of the world), Siargao (world-famous because of its Cloud 9 surf spot) and Northern Palawan (one of the best coral reefs in the world).

Lately though they’ve also been promoting tour packages around Asia and to different tourist spots around the world, including cruises.

You can visit their website at www.mangotours.com or if you want a more personal touch and some help in booking your trip, you can also call 1-866-2-MANILA for travel agent assistance.