Haggle Down Your Holiday Costs Discussion Area

bosschap

I booked a cruise with Thomsons in October 2006 to sail in August 2007. At the time I got around £450 off the price for booking early! A Deal?

In January I looked at another cruise with Thomsons on the internet. The price offered included upgrade to a fully inclusive drinks package for free. I rechecked my original booking dates and found this now included for free the same package for new bookings.

The drinks package for the 2 weeks criuse for 2 adults and a child was worth just under £1000. (Because of this price did not include it in the original booking)The overall price of the holiday was also nearly £100 cheaper.

I spoke to the Thomsons travel agent and in the finish I cancelled my earlier booking, losing my deposit of £390. I rebooked with the extras and after adding the £390 lossed deposit to the bill in theory get a saving of around £700.

Booking early does not always get the best deal.

shughesnerys

Just to advise to follow Martin's advice!! I have just saved myself over £600 on a holiday to Crete. I had no idea it would work, but I got three quotes from three advertisers on the Teletext ads and the Co-Op Travel came in at the best. I am so happy to have got all this money off!! Thanks Martin!

Vindiesel

Hi all

not read Martins article, but I have been tailor mak,ing my break...thought hotelscomparisons.com was the best for cheap decent hotels, but actually- shock horror- travelsupermarket.com has provided MUCH better prices. Then, when combined with quidco, I have managed to save £70 off the best price, for two nights 5 star!
brilliant! oh, and thanks to my partner too for suggesting TS


V

chatter-box-charlie

diddydi wrote: »

Hi Martin see my rant on post 26 on Package Holidays or DIY.
You are earning a salary so why try to deny me and all the other independents from doing the same in a profession in which I, and most considerably the others, have vast knowledge and expertise which can be passed on.

I totaly agree..... and 15% is a little ambitious as the majority of operators dont give us that much commission to discount by. The only way you would get that much is if two or more operators were doing that hotel and there was a difference in the price. I myself check all operators for customers for the same hotel to get the best price for them.

paul2468

Do you think that if i got a price on the web with thomsons...the local thomsons shop in our high street will beat it, and also if they did beat it could i go to the next town and try the same in thomsons there ?

walkswithmagic

Yes i agree with linden!!
More deals for singles, i haven't had a holiday in two years abroad as i refuse to pay the single suppliment and why should i?? couples don't!!

bullyyyyy

booked holiday last week to corfu using teletext way and price went from £680 in thomson small & friendly for one week s/c for 2 to £474 with no plane meals & own insurance with small & friendly and better flight times. so thanks martin this shows this way can work

budgetflyer

walkswithmagic wrote: »

Yes i agree with linden!!
More deals for singles, i haven't had a holiday in two years abroad as i refuse to pay the single suppliment and why should i?? couples don't!!

er thats because couples arent single !:p

Why dont you just buy a flight and pick your own accom. That way you arent paying any supplements.

Singles are like families of 5 They get wacked too. You just have to get more creative when booking a holiday. Its no reason not to go one

Quinny_2

We've just booked the Asena Village Hotel,in Hisaronu,Turkey,through On the Beach. (Top rated hotel on nearly all the online report sites like Tripadvisor etc.) The hotel is opertated by Medhotels,amongst others.

Quotes elsewhere,for our departure date of 2nd August,were well in excess of £2k,but we got it for £1734 for half board,with an evening flight going out at 19.30hrs,and a day flight coming back,arriving at 19.00hrs.

And here's the best thing:

It's from Teeside and not Manchester,where we usually fly from.Manchester came out about the same price,but with both flights being night flights.

However,what you have to watch,is the fact that they give you an online price,which is not guaranteed until they ring you back up to 48 hours later,which includes a discount,but no inflight meals.However,if you ring them straight away,they give preference to phone calls when booking,and instead of the online discount,they give you meals on both flights,so it's swings and roundabouts really.

Finally,our price included the tranfsers to the resort,so bear in mind that any prices you see on any online site,may not include all the extras that we all used to get when booking a holiday.If in doubt,ask.

We also had quotes for a minibus/taxi to Teeside from Wakefield,and were quoted up to £200 for a return trip!!!!!! I have managed to find secure parking next to the airport,for £54 for the 2 weeks.Guess which one I'll be using?

And finally.

If you ring On the Beach,they use an 0870 number,but if you ring their sister company,Ibookholidays.com,they use an 0800 number.Guess which one we used!!!

paul2468

We went back to thomsons with the price we had got the holiday down to and said can you knock anything off, they matched the price and gave us 11 days parking at Manchester...so all in we saved about £300.....can't be bad.