Tutu.ru

Tutu.Travel – is one of the most advertised airline reservation services and vacation spots. In addition to the standard services for such sites, it offers a variety of excursions and tours: “female”, adventure (extreme), beach, etc.

But is this resource really that good, and is it worth trusting the company’s experts? Is Tutu.ru a scam or a really worthwhile project? Let’s find out now.

 

Why Tutu.Travel?

After the recent reforms, the website Tutu.Travel looks very bright and modern and, in our opinion, is quite capable of competing with tourist resources.

 

Especially since it absorbed almost all areas of recreation and entertainment:

• Transport – rail (trains, electric trains, air expresses), air, bus.
• Accommodation in hotels.
• Transfers (cabs).
• Entertainment – story and traditional tours, excursions.

The corporate sector will also find many useful features here: special booking conditions for business travelers, quick registration through the Tutu.ru customer database, reporting for the accounting department, dedicated depository accounts for each company, and other features.

The provider has an interesting bonus program and always has a couple of promotions for regular customers. And there is a fairly serious security system in place: all payments are made using secure protocols and comply with the international standard PCI DSS 3.2.

 

How to register at Tutu.Travel

To register on the website Tutu.Travel click the link in the upper right corner and first enter your email address and accept the terms of processing personal data. Authentication via your VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and Facebook accounts is also available (consent to access public data on the page will be required). E-mail must be confirmed by clicking on the link from the letter you received. The system will ask us to think up a password (login now is the e-mail address). Now we have access to a personal account.

 

Personal account of Tutu.ru

The service’s Personal Cabinet looks quite laconic. In the left menu:

• Setting up personal data – change email, password, linking social media profiles, connecting to the loyalty program and deleting the account.
• Personal orders – purchase history.
• Bonus balance – the current number of points and how to increase it.
• List of passengers whose data (full name, passport, passport, date of birth, etc.) you specified in previous bookings. Just add the necessary people through the LRC, they are automatically saved after each new order.
• Additional services (“Will come in handy on the trip”) – transfers, car rental, parking, hotel rooms, insurance).
• Connected bonuses (“Bonuses and discounts”).
• Contact support via the online form.
• Switching to a corporate profile.

The top menu duplicates the individual sections of the profile and provides links to the main booking destinations.

Mobile application

The provider also has a mobile application. It is adapted to devices with Android (from version 5.0) and iOS (11.0 and higher), can be downloaded free of charge from the markets. Mobile does not require registration and only works with booking tickets for trains, planes and buses. Users rate the software at an average of 4.7/4.9 out of 5 depending on the smartphone/tablet platform. There are, of course, also negative reviews, mostly related to technical errors in the display of the online schedule.

 

 

How to buy tickets on Tutu.ru

Let’s look at an example of a flight between Moscow and Kazan for two passengers traveling in economy class. Click the “Air tickets” link in the top menu of your account and see a typical form: point of departure (“From”), destination (“To”), departure and return dates, number of passengers of different categories (adults, children from 2 to 12 years and children under 2 years) and class.

We enter everything and move on to viewing the options. The system analyzes offers from 320 carriers and produces almost two hundred available options. To simplify the search, you can set the filter by departure/arrival time (intervals between 06:00 and 12:00, 12:00 to 18:00, 18:00 to 24:00 and 00:00 to 06:00), airport, airline, and choose routes without transfers, with free baggage and exchange/return. The default is to sort the results in terms of the best price and the most sought-after airline.

 

Choose the right option – for us it was Nordwind, departing at 18:00 from Sheremetyevo and with all the additional options: luggage, exchange, refund – and proceed to the booking. By the way, the number of seats available is displayed in the description.

How to book airline tickets

Booking a ticket on the website Tutu.Travel begins with the choice of fare: the service offers all the options that you would see on the carrier’s website. They differ in the options included in the package: hand luggage, luggage, exchange, refund.

Then we specify the type of trip: personal, work. Enter contact information to send a booking confirmation and online ticket, as well as information about the passengers: last name, first name, sex, date of birth, number of identity document and bonus card, if any. In the future, these passengers will be saved in the lists of personal account, and you can just select them, rather than entering all the information again, risking a mistake.

Taking into account possible discounts, the cost of the order will be adjusted. We check everything (this is an important point, since incorrectly filled in data will lead to the invalidity of the ticket, and not every airline will be ready to change it, and Tutu.ru washes its hands of such circumstances). And if desired, we connect additional services:

• Guaranteed refund in case of cancellation 3 hours before or before the flight.
• A ticket for the Aeroexpress from the train station to the airport.
• Health insurance from “Alfa Insurance” (medical insurance, sports insurance).
• Insurance against loss of luggage by airport representatives, accidents or flight delays. Also offered by IC “Alfa Insurance”.

Confirm the reservation, reread the restrictions on exchange and return. And you can move on to payment.

 

How to buy cheap airline tickets?

To find cheap tickets Tutu.ru offers options for nearby dates (in case the departure date should not be strictly fixed, for example, when planning a vacation when the hotel is not yet booked) and departures from nearby cities: perhaps even with the trip to them with other transport the final amount will come out lower than when departing from the initially selected airport.

Ticket refunds

Air ticket exchange and refund conditions are displayed in the booking details from the beginning of the booking and even before the confirmation of the latter. If they are available, you will get a refund after deduction of airline and information service fees – the amount is set according to the date (how many days remain until the flight), the conditions of the particular carrier and the amount of the warrant.

 

To guarantee a refund, you can connect a paid special option of the company – “100% ticket refund for any reason”. However, it is valid only if at least 3 hours before departure, that is, it does not apply to delays. The cost of the option is usually about 10-15%% of the ticket price. So, in our case it was 2194 rubles for an order amount of 15,719 rubles, which is about 13.9%.

Additional features of tutu.ru

In addition to the main direction, booking tickets (trains, trains, express trains, airplanes, buses), the operator offers entertainment tours and a variety of tours, hotel room rental, car and corporate support – the organization of business trips “turnkey” without extra fees for service:

• Accommodation, food, travel.
• Reporting documents and corporate online agreements.
• Writing off payment from the allocated depository account.
• Different levels of access for employees and management.
• Employee databases for autofill.
• Merge corporate and personal user accounts.

 

Pay and receive tickets on Tutu.ru

Paying for tickets online Tutu.Travel Available only by bank card. Supported by Payment Systems VISA, MasterCard, Maestro and MIR. An electronic version of the voucher will be sent to your e-mail address specified during booking. The order number and an individual code are indicated, which you will use later for online check-in (starts one day before departure).

How to pay for airline tickets online?

After confirming your reservation, the system will redirect you to the bank form. You will need to fill in the fields of card number, expiration date, name and surname of the holder (in Latin letters) and the three-digit CVC-CVV code. The transaction is confirmed by entering the code from the SMS – a standard check of any bank.

 

 

Tutu.ru bonuses

The provider’s bonus program is extensive: it includes a system for accumulating bonus points, discounts, gift certificates, and promo codes for purchases. Let’s talk about each area separately.

Gift certificates

Every Tutu.ru user can issue a certificate with a nominal value of 100 to 1000 rubles in increments of 100 rubles, and from 1000 to 10 000 rubles in increments of 1000 rubles as a gift for a dear person. They are activated immediately after the sale and are valid for six months from that moment – at the end of the announced period, everything is reset and is not refundable.

Certificates for payment of railroad tickets are valid. If the cost of the order is higher than the face value of the certificate, the customer pays the difference from his funds, below – the difference is not refunded. It is not allowed to use several certificates for total payment for one operator’s service. Just like you can’t pay for 2 return trips with one certificate.

 

Coupons

For active customers, or simply as a holiday gift, Tutu.ru provides promo codes (coupons) that give a discount on certain services. You will see a special field for entering them when placing an order. An important point: only one coupon can be used per order.

 

Loyalty Program

All service customers who tick the appropriate box in their personal account settings become participants in the loyalty program. When making purchases, they earn bonus points, which can then be exchanged for discounts on tickets (or a refund) and additional benefits such as luggage insurance, health insurance, etc. In addition, Russian Railways, S7, Aeroflot, Ural Airlines, Utair and Rossiya miles are earned.

 

Airline discounts

In the “Special Offers” section of the tutu.ru website (switch from the footer), a selection of discounted airfares regularly appears. Everything is categorized by destination: domestic flights within Russia, international flights to neighboring countries, and travel to Europe. There is also a filter by airlines and cities. About a hundred options are available daily.

Referral program

The company offers cooperation on the White Label program: you take a travel agent’s software and create your own resource or place its widget (cost calculation form, booking search, “hot” tours, etc.) on your own resource: website, blog, online magazine. Then you get a reward from each check people have clicked on your unique (referral) link on tutu.ru – they are considered as your referrals:

• Up to 10% with their bus ticket purchases.
• Up to 2% from airline ticket purchases.
• Up to 6% with train ticket purchases.
• Up to 4% from tour purchases.

Some destinations may be temporarily closed. In our case it was railway tickets. All statistics on transfers and accruals is reflected in a partner’s personal cabinet.

 

The company also cooperates with the CPA network Adv.Cake. The merchant pays a commission for bringing new customers to his site. Partner receives up to 2.91% from each paid order.

 

Complaints on Tutu.ru

In general, the reputation of the service is quite good. However, there are still complaints about it. There are those online who are dissatisfied with the provider’s fairly high service charges for purchases and refunds, as well as problems with compensation. To be fair, we should note that in some situations it was not the fault of Tutu.ru, for example, when buying a roundtrip ticket, if you missed the first flight, the second one is also cancelled, and this is stipulated by the carrier itself, whose rules the intermediary has no right to violate.

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Tutu.ru supervisory bodies

New Travel Technologies LLC, the owner of tutu.ru, is included in the All-Russian Unified Voluntary Register of Travel Agents under the number 2826 – the certificate is posted on the website of the service provider itself. It is also included in the official registers of Rostourism and the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (Federal Tax Service of Russia). In the latter case, the activity of travel agents is listed as the main type of activity. Thus, the service provider acts officially.

• Check the registration of New Tourist Technologies LLC in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities by name/INN

Tutu.ru User Agreement

The conditions of booking are described most fully not in the standard provider’s user agreement, but in appendix 1 to the public offer to conclude a contract for the provision of services – “Terms of ordering e-tickets”. Therefore, we will examine this document. So, already in clause 2.5, the service provider reminds us that he is not an air carrier and is not responsible for the implementation of the flight and possible changes.

Only you are responsible for the consequences associated with incorrectly filled in data in the order. And familiarizing yourself with the fare terms and conditions, including those related to refunds and exchanges. If the airline did not cooperate with you after you provided incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information about yourself, Tutu.ru is of no help (p. 3.5.)

Once your reservation is complete, you will be sent an itinerary receipt/reservation confirmation within 24 hours. You must check it. If something is wrong, it is your responsibility to resolve this with the operator. Simply put, even if Tutu.ru made a mistake and you didn’t notice it right away, it’s still your fault. Generally, the service is considered fully performed as soon as you have received the itinerary receipt/voucher (clause 3.12).

Security of Tutu.ru

As the provider assures you in its personal data processing policy, the provider does not disclose the information you provide to third parties or distribute it without your consent. Exception: required by law. And payment security, as we mentioned at the beginning, is ensured by compliance with the PCI DSS 3.2 high-security standard.

Customer Service

There are several communication channels for contacting Tutu.ru’s support team, depending on the purpose of the request and the line of business the question concerns. So, if you want to get advice on future or current rail ticket orders, you can call the federal “hot” line 8-800-505-51-73 (free in Russia), on a Moscow number +7-495-587-41-05, or write to e-mail: [email protected].

Advice related to air reservations is available at: 8-800-505-51-83, +7-495-587-43-05 and by e-mail: [email protected]. For bus tickets: 8-800-505-51-39, +7-495-587-44-05 and [email protected]. Among other things, a feedback form is available in official Facebook, Odnoklassniki, VKontakte and Instagram groups, whose administrators will answer your questions. Claims can be submitted in the following ways:

• Phone: +7-495-587-42-05.
• E-mail: [email protected].
• Paper correspondence is sent to the following address: 10, 1st Nagatinsky pr. 1, floor 12.

Each service has its own schedule: the contact center is available from 09:00 to 20:00 from Monday to Friday, the physical office – from 08:00 to 19:00 on weekdays, all others – around the clock.

 

Is Tutu.Travel a Scam?

Tutu.TravelLike any intermediary, it offers no guarantees of service and refers to the carrier at every opportunity: whether it is a flight cancellation, a change in departure time or cost, or the settlement of issues related to order adjustments. And yet, among the many reviews of the provider, there are significantly fewer complaints of incorrect behavior on its part than on the part of its competitors.

The company is registered in all official registries and is included in the All-Russian Unified Voluntary Register of Travel Agents, which shows that it takes regulatory issues seriously. So it is quite obvious that Tutu.ru is not a scam, but just another service that, due to its focus, cannot take on unnecessary responsibility.

 

Conclusion

Tutu.Travel, in our opinion, can be called one of the most worthy representatives of the segment:

• The operator has a wide choice of destinations. In fact, he organizes the trip on a turnkey basis.
• This is a well-known and proven company that has been on the market for a long time.
• The tutu.ru website and mobile app are convenient and functional.
• There is a guaranteed refund service for canceling an order, though it’s a fee.
• Reviews of the resource are quite good and definitely better than the analog suppliers.
• There is an official registration and license.

Of course, this does not cancel out the high fees and lack of responsibility, but still, in our opinion, the picture is not a bad one.

 

How to find a ticket on our website

Find a train, plane or bus ticket through the form on our website. To do this, simply enter the departure and destination points, choose a date and the number of passengers. The system will automatically select the appropriate options and offer to book a ticket.