Mytravel or First Choice?

jude123_2

About to book a villa holiday and have a choice of flights, either early morning(which I would much prefer) with Mytravel or mid afternoon with First Choice. Travel agent has strongly advised me to avoid Mytravel because they are apparently notorious for long delays. I'm not sure whether to risk it or not. Has anyone travelled with either of them recently and could advise?

sloppychops

I have travelled with My Travel,Direct Holidays.Airtours all in the My Travel group and never had any delays or problems of any kind.

Have you tried the James Villa website or done it DIY,might save you money.

Travel agent could of just been saying that to get a sale from you.

richardw

Have a look at the check in/ check out times of the villa and pick the flight times that suit you best.

jude123_2

sloppychops wrote:

I have travelled with My Travel,Direct Holidays.Airtours all in the My Travel group and never had any delays or problems of any kind.

Have you tried the James Villa website or done it DIY,might save you money.

Travel agent could of just been saying that to get a sale from you.

Sorry, shouldn't have said "travel agent," I am actually booking through jamesvillas, it was them who told me to go for the afternoon flight. Now that I think back though, we flew with First Choice a couple of years ago and had a 6 hour delay coming home and we found them very unhelpful. Think I'll probably give Mytravel a try.

SandLake

I think you will find that James Villas are part of Thomsons (TUI now), they are not going to recommend the opposition.

They are all much of a muchness at the end of the day

If MyTravel have 100 flights and 10 are delayed and First Choice have 10 flights and 1 is delayed, which one is best, bearing in mind that you will hear 10 times as many complaints about MyTravel as 10 times as many people flew with them.

John_G66

First Choice Stink - END OF !!

pavlovs_dog

we flew with mytravel to florida and back sept 05.

aware that they were, in many ways, a budget airline, i was apprehensive about the service we would receive, especially as i had only ever flown with the big airlines before.

well the big day arrived,and i was more than pleaslantly surprised - they were absolutley fab, from the moment we boarded to the moment we got off. their planes are smaller than averge - 3 rows of three intsead of the 3-5-3 formation i was used to, but this is great if you are travelling as a family/group, because it felt much more personal being closer together.

legroom - well i have long legs, and survived the 11 hour flight comfortably. leg room was no more a problem than on any other plane. seats were comfy, the tv screens/radio was fab - espcially plane cam where you can free beneath you/in front of the plane , although beware, you do need to buy the headphones. IIRC, they were £2.50 a pair, with deals for large orders, to help keep the cost down for families. there was a real mix of entertainment, from kids, to comedy, music, and a variety of films.

the meals provided were delicious, really top notch, although breakfast wasn't the most filling. do take snacks with you, as although you can buy food/snacks/drinks on the plane, they are at the inflated price that you would expect. if you do want to buy things on board (there is quite an extensive range offered), take british currency to pay for it, not foreign. although they will accept foreign currency, their exchange rate is not as favourable as the type of places you'd buy currency from.

the toilets on their planes are downstairs, which was a funny experience the stairs can be quite steep for the elderly/very young, so you may wish to accompany them if you think they may struggle.

blankets/pillows are provided, although on the outward bound flight, there was a shortage of blankets, in which case priority IS given to passengers with children. do dress sensibly - although it will be warm at your destinations, the planes have a very effective air con system, which can be an issue if you feel the cold.

cabin crew - very friendly, professional, and really looked after everyone. we were delayed slightly on the return flight because of a turtle on the runway - they did a great job keeping spirits high whilst we waited for someone to remove it, cracking jokes about the freshly brewed turtle soup they would be serving for lunch :rotfl:

only our one flight was delayed, and that was for reasons beyond their control, and in all fairness to them we were only slightly delayed upon arrival in the UK , and not half as late as we thought we might have been. i have only flown with them the once personally, but those i know who've also travelled with them dont appear to have had any major problems. delays can happen whatever airline you fly, its just a risk you take.

thats all the advice i can think of off the top of my head. in short, i thought they were brill, and would have no hesitation about flying with them again.

hth, and have a fab holiday!

thedriver

avoid mytravel at all cost.

Went to Majorca for a week our luggage went to ibiza. Took 4 days for the luggage to arrive. No apology or compensation for the holiday ruined. Would only use mytravel now as a last resort.

IMHO

TRAVELMAN_2

Hi-from a trade perspective book whichever has the best flight times for you. ANY charter airline can be delayed/change-obviously know one knows till the day!

As richardw says-book the ones that are most convenient!

Have a good time! If you've not booked yet.......do check out https://www.thomsonhotelsandapartments.co.uk on their villa specials....booked 4 of their £100 a week (!-how cheap!) villas in Bodrom.....bargain!

Chris

sloppychops

My god Chris the prices of some of them villas in Turkey are fantastic.

TRAVELMAN_2

I agree...tied up a few people & some friends on these....whilst there is the media hysteria about bird flu (which is hundreds of miles away & has not been mentioned in the news for ages!) poor old Turkey is suffering....so prices are keen. Look at SARS-that was contained & never materialised....One of my best pals is a doctor & he said that IF the virus mutated it would be a huge problem....but in his opinion the world is so clued up in the prevention side of things it's unlikely & IF it mutated then the area of infection would be locked down so quickly in his opinion it would not spread...

Back to holidays.....(!!) yup-there are some fab deals out there on that site with villas & as ever if it's an ATOL package you are protected agianst.... ahem (!) 'errors', 'price should have not been there' etc...you know what I mean Fiona!

Must go...I'm sad I know but as a fellow Huddersfield chick (Zoe Lucker) is on tv in a few minutes (god damn she only lives 2 miles away!) I can lust after her & fantasise that she loves single travel agents (who make nice curries!)

Chris