Question about winning holiday prizes

FrugalTopCat

Hey all,

I hope this is OK posted here as it's a kind of general theoretical question. So..... I have been entering lots of travel and holiday comps, and many of the ones that are to the US, for instance, are only for a few days. Now if I am going to go all that way thanks to free flights, I'd quite like to stay a bit longer (at my own expense of course) and see a wee bit more of America (for instance). :cool:

Has anybody any experience of this and whether the companies are willing to give you flight dates that are, say, three weeks apart even if you only spend a few days at the "prize" accommodation (if any) and then go and do your own thing? It just seems such a waste when the main expense is the getting there. This is all purely theoretical, mind, as I haven't won anything like this and probably never will!!

Matryoshka

I have heard of compers who have extended their stay

enderit

I'm sure they won't turn down your offer, you'll probably need to talk with the operator, rather than with the comp's people

emmajayne1982

FrugalTopCat wrote: »

Hey all,

I hope this is OK posted here as it's a kind of general theoretical question. So..... I have been entering lots of travel and holiday comps, and many of the ones that are to the US, for instance, are only for a few days. Now if I am going to go all that way thanks to free flights, I'd quite like to stay a bit longer (at my own expense of course) and see a wee bit more of America (for instance). :cool:

Has anybody any experience of this and whether the companies are willing to give you flight dates that are, say, three weeks apart even if you only spend a few days at the "prize" accommodation (if any) and then go and do your own thing? It just seems such a waste when the main expense is the getting there. This is all purely theoretical, mind, as I haven't won anything like this and probably never will!!

Hi there,

I won a holiday to LA and Santa Barbara recently. The woman who has been organising it was fantastic. the holiday was for 7 days but we are staying for 11 (quite a long way to go for a week). She booked the flight for us on whatever day we wanted to return and even booked the travel insurance for the entire time we are in the USA.

Also, the competition was for LA and Santa Barbara but she said we could basically stay where we wanted...so we are having 4 nights in santa barbara, 3 in vegas and 4 in LA!

I really think it depends hugely on who you won the competition with but my experience was very positive! xx

Lsfun84

I won a holiday to Canada for 7 nights recently and we are going in September we considered staying some extra nights as it is a long way to go for 7 nights. The company was fine about it but I did feel that I should book any extra time through then. We ended up deciding we could not afford it and we wanted to enjoy the days we had there without worrying about money. I was also limited on holiday from work!

1972

I won a 7 day holiday to Florida last year and I was able to extend it for another 7 days. The organiser booked the flights for us and the hotel that was part of the prize for the end of the holiday and we booked the first 7 nights hotel.

Good luck with the competitions!

mellypops

We were lucky to win a 4 nights trip to the US last year and the organiser suggested to us that we could extend it if we wanted, they were very accomadating and just asked us what dates we wanted the flights on and when we wanted the 4 nights in the hotel and we sorted the rest. We booked the extra nights with airmiles and so didn't end up costing too much more - we felt that it was a long way to go for just 4 nights!!
GOOD LUCK x:beer:

Helga14

I've been on four won trips. I was offered to extend one to rio but decided not to. I asked and was going to extend one to Panama with a stopover in New York which they were happy to do but decided not to in the end. The other trips one I think if I investigated would have been happy to extend as it was through virgin holidays. The other one probably wouldn't have been possible as they had flights booked straight away.

jujugaboo

I won a holiday to New York last month for 2 nights but I felt another night would be needed and I asked them if I could pay for the extra night at the hotel and they said yes they were fine with that. Had amazing time and it was all FREE.

FrugalTopCat

Thanks for the feedback everybody, that sounds pretty positive. So now I can keep on entering even more travel comps, here's hoping that one of them comes up one of these days!

Cheers

emmajayne1982

FrugalTopCat wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback everybody, that sounds pretty positive. So now I can keep on entering even more travel comps, here's hoping that one of them comes up one of these days!

Cheers

Best of luck with it!! x:A