Free child places ???

Mishka

I am hoping to book Egypt for next May and after visting a First choice shop I was told that the free child places may only be in next years first addition as last year they did not offer them in a later addition. I have been watching the prices and the date we were going to book had a free child place at first then it went up £400 the next day with none ....just my look eh! Now looking they still have some child free places but other dates
I know nothing is life is free so can any one explain a little better how the free places work. besides them been free haha
Or has anyone got any other ways of getting prices down...
Thanks for looking

jillie1974

usually there is a limit either per flight or hotel. once the free places are gone they are gone.

woohoo

Hi,

I think the free child places are a bit random and depends on how the hols are selling. We looked at one holiday with First Choice last year - no free child places. Decided to leave it a while and looked again (around Xmas actually) and they were there. Booked for a bargain. Same again for this years hol. We looked when the holidays for this summer first went on sale. There was a free child place. We spent too long thinking about it and within a few days they were gone. Again, looked on Xmas Eve (just checked for date) and they were back on and the holiday was cheaper than the first time we looked at it. Pot luck. I think if you see it at the right price book - otherwise keep checking. Not much help I suppose - but that is my experience!

daveyjp

A free child will mean under occupancy in the room so you get charged an under occupancy charge - a few quid per night, thats how they recoup some of the money.

My sister is in Sharm now - they have done a DIY trip and saved a fortune.

Mishka

Thanks just what I needed others experience and I might go and price a DIY as well.:T

Pat2

Hi
I thought i would share with you a website that i found by chance and have booked my family holiday, it is FreeChildHolidays.com Good site with a big choice

Pat2

holidaysforme

We booked last June with first choice and got a free child place for this May.:j
I looked around October i think, and the free child place was still available, but the holiday cost had gone down by a bit. Went back up to price we paid for it in December, and now it is full price with no free child place.
Seems there is no pattern to it,- so my advice would be, if you see a price you are happy with,- book it.
Completely different to a DIY in this respect, as from what most people say, it is wise to book flights as soon as they have been released, as they rarely come down in price.
You then have time to look around for hotel/villa at your leisure.

bevvy

I'm not sure if it would be the same with First Choice but I know when I have priced holidays with Thomson, it sometimes works out cheaper pricing it with 4 adults rather than 2 adults and 2 kids, suppose it depends on type of accommodation, etc but may be worth having a play around with.

bishop_stoke

I've found First Choice's website and prices frankly mind boggling. I booked a holiday with *free* child place in December to travel in June. Booked then because it said 'last room remaining'. However, what I missed was the small print 'based on self catering', despite the search being filled out for All Inclusive. Misleading sales and marketing, and I'm kicking myself for missing it.

Anyway, the holiday is still being sold, and the price is up and down on an almost daily basis. I did phone First Choice to have it out with them about the sales ploy, but as expected they hid behind their terms and conditions. Also thought about cancelling on the principle of things, but despite the "Low Deposit, only £67 per person", it would have cost me the FULL deposit to cancel, nearly £500, so choose carefully and make sure you scan their small print and conditions. As any big company, they use these as a way of avoiding good customer care and in some cases getting something for nothing. Maybe Martin can take them on as they are little different to the banks!

bishop_stoke

Further to my last post, 'All Inclusive' doesn't actually mean all of your food and drink is paid for in advance. Again, despite what it says on the website which is misleading, we now discover on receipt of our tickets that we will have to pay for hot snacks during the day - cold snacks are included, but whats the betting that cold snacks mean crisps only?

With 4 days to go, theres not much we can do prior to the holiday, but my 'snottogram' email address is ready and waiting for our return.