FirstChoice Holidays Cost More for 2 Adults 1 Child than 3 Adults, Same Holiday!

damianiw

Hi,

We went on holiday with first choice to the Lindia Thalassa Studios - Rhodes last year and had a great holiday.

So we looked to book this time for 2 weeks, from Gatwick on Wed 22 July 2009 for 2 Adults and 1 child Aged 9, the cost £2011 (confirmed as at 10 mins ago on their website).

But if I look for the same holiday as 3 adults the cost is £1893 (again confirmed 10 mins ago) !!!

Our local Bath travel agents said this isn't uncommon with First Choice or Thomson (they're now both 1 company) when we queried it before, I also sent First Choice an email asking why and for an explanation but they failed to reply.

I tried to call them but after 12 mins on hold on a 0845 number I gave up, so I've emailed them again asking for an explanation and also if it would be acceptable to book my daughter as an adult which should cost more.

I'm really unhappy as we've been on many holdiays with Thomson and First Choice in the last 4 years we've been lucky enough to go at least once a year and now I'm wondering how many times we've been ripped off (I asked them this as well - I'm not expecting a reply.

I'm so disgusted with this pricing structure that I felt I should raise it here, I'm a subscriber to the weekly email and watch Martin's show on channel 5 but have never seen this raised, I feel with the current climate the holiday firms probably don't need any bad press but this matter needs to be raised!

Does anyone know if other firms use the same shonky pricing ?

Ps. I have Screen shots in case they suddenly change this and anyone who's already booked wants to challenge them.

Regards

Damian

Travel_counsellor

damianiw wrote: »

Hi,

We went on holiday with first choice to the Lindia Thalassa Studios - Rhodes last year and had a great holiday.

So we looked to book this time for 2 weeks, from Gatwick on Wed 22 July 2009 for 2 Adults and 1 child Aged 9, the cost £2011 (confirmed as at 10 mins ago on their website).

But if I look for the same holiday as 3 adults the cost is £1893 (again confirmed 10 mins ago) !!!

Our local Bath travel agents said this isn't uncommon with First Choice or Thomson (they're now both 1 company) when we queried it before, I also sent First Choice an email asking why and for an explanation but they failed to reply.

I tried to call them but after 12 mins on hold on a 0845 number I gave up, so I've emailed them again asking for an explanation and also if it would be acceptable to book my daughter as an adult which should cost more.

I'm really unhappy as we've been on many holdiays with Thomson and First Choice in the last 4 years we've been lucky enough to go at least once a year and now I'm wondering how many times we've been ripped off (I asked them this as well - I'm not expecting a reply.

I'm so disgusted with this pricing structure that I felt I should raise it here, I'm a subscriber to the weekly email and watch Martin's show on channel 5 but have never seen this raised, I feel with the current climate the holiday firms probably don't need any bad press but this matter needs to be raised!

Does anyone know if other firms use the same shonky pricing ?

Ps. I have Screen shots in case they suddenly change this and anyone who's already booked wants to challenge them.

Regards

Damian

Hi Damian,
Sent you a pm

lynn44

This has been common practice for many years,I always price my son up for adult and child and book whichever is cheapest.

crowlands

As per Lynn's post this extra cost would be for the under occupancy for the child. When booking in a travel agent they should always cost for 2 adults and child and for 3 adults - I only learnt this from a friend who did a travel agents course. Go ahead and book at the 3 adult price.

toadyfrog

I tried book a hotel in Spain that we've been to before and all holiday firms here charge for children. When I looked to book directly with the hotel no matter what time of year the 1st child goes free and a 2nd child is nearly half the adult price.

Pandaqueen_2

We found this out too. Its cheaper this year, our daughter being 13, as we get more discount for her as third adult in the room. Of course we only found this out this year, so thanks for pointing it out.

Quentin

A child is more costly than an adult to the operator, as the holiday company provides complimentary child minding services etc by way of their clubs.

damianiw

Quentin wrote: »

A child is more costly than an adult to the operator, as the holiday company provides complimentary child minding services etc by way of their clubs.

I disagree with this statement, the hotels do not receive more money and in this resort the club is run by the hotel, I can see your point but still I consider it wrong.

With age discrimination laws I find it hard to swallow this, if they said over 65's must pay more or less because of their age then there would be an uproar, just like if they tried to discriminate on any other grounds.

The biggest problem for us here is we like the resort and it is FirstChoice exclusive in the UK, I did speak to the hotel and they may start doing direct bookings in the future but not yet :-(

Interestingly all inclusive to the Dominican Republic the Children are cheaper so it looks like this isn't accross the board and I've wised up a little

damianiw

Travel_counsellor wrote: »

Hi Damian,
Sent you a pm

Unfortunately I'm told you're not accepting replies so here is my reply to your PM

Travel_counsellor wrote:

Hi Damian,
It is common with The big Tour operators to do this,
it is well known in the industry,
You are better choosing an independent travel agent
as first choice or thomson will only try to sell you one of their holidays where as an independent will look at the best options for you with lots of tour operators,
If you require any more help,

Please PM me.

Regards,

Michael.

Thanks for the advice, we did get a quote for this hotel, we want to go back to the same one and it was far more expensive with our local independant, they couldn't match the first choice online discount.

Also more interestingly in the post people have suggested they should have shown me the price for 2 adults 1 child and 3 adults and have offered me the option of paying adult price for my daughter - they did not they just confirmed she'd cost more than another adult!

Is it common practice for people to get around the costing by taking children as adults or could we come unstuck ?

Quentin

Travel_counsellor wrote: »

Hi Damian,
Sent you a pm

All this poster ever does is post "sent you a pm"

It seems Travel counsellor is a travel agent who is scouring this forum for posts where he can abuse the Board's pm system and use it for spamming/advertising purposes.

sloppychops

Quentin wrote: »

All this poster ever does is post "sent you a pm"

It seems Travel counsellor is a travel agent who is scouring this forum for posts where he can abuse the Board's pm system and use it for spamming/advertising purposes.

Yep and i reported his posts earlier today.