Hajj and umrah both remain the largest religious gatherings in the world. Millions of Muslim pilgrims travel all-round the year through their cheapest umrah packages 2022 for the holy rituals in Makkah. Catering to the individual travel demands of such a huge number of pilgrims is a challenging task and frauds can happen. Through the Saudi Authorities try their best to avoid scammers, several travelers fall a victim to Hajj and Umrah fraud.
How does scamming happen?
Hajj and umrah travel frauds can occur for a person in many ways.
- Paying for your travel package in advance by online bank transfer or cash payments and then hearing nothing from the travel agent.
- Arriving in Makkah/Madinah and realizing that no transportation or accommodation bookings are made by your travel agent on your behalf.
- Poor quality of air travel services offered by the agent.
- Hidden costs.
- Unauthorized/unregistered travel agencies themselves are a big problem.
So, in order to ensure that your hajj or umrah trip remains efficiently managed and securely booked with all the necessary facilities; here are some tips to consider.
1. Hire only from Legitimate travel agencies.
Always hire, in fact, pre-book your hajj or umrah travel packages through the channel of a legitimate travel agency. But how one can identify a credible travel agent? Well, getting recommendations from your friends or relatives who have recently performed Hajj/umrah and getting reviews of their travel experience is advised.
Despite, always visit multiple travel agencies and get different quotes. In this way not only, you would get to know about the booking phase in a detailed manner but also have a better understanding of what type of facilities different travel agents are offering for different budgets. Ultimately, helping you in decision making.
Check for Legal associations.
Another way for validating the credibility of a travel agent is by checking the travel record/history of the agency.
- What do their clients have to say about them? Consult their reviews and testimonials.
- Whether the agency remains authorized by the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah or not? Ask for their membership certificates.
- How many successful hajj/umrah trips they had operated in recent years? Check their records.
- Does the company offer any travel insurance? Always consider this particular point.
In fact, everything else of the sort must be taken into consideration beforehand to avoid hassle later.
2. Get everything in writing.
Once you’ve chosen a specific travel package for your hajj/Umrah pilgrimage and narrowed down the travel agency you are going to hire the services of; get everything in writing. Following things should be considered as a priority.
- The payment/billing and transaction details; better to do it through a bank than paying in cash.
- Travel itinerary fabricated by the travel agent for your trip.
- Flights, hotels, and transportation booking details.
- Valid visa and documentation.
It’s necessary to do this to know better what you are paying for. Thus, having a legal right to sue the agent if he/she doesn’t commit to its word.
