Holiday Con?!

mattgod69

Hi all

I am looking at booking a holiday this summer..... i tried booking a holiday through the Thomas Cook website and the cost was circa £1850 for two adults and two children (for two weeks self catering). However, if i change the two adults to four and remove the children, the cost of exactly the same holiday is £1550..... what is all that about? lol

My brother booked a similar holiday in store at Thomas Cook this week and came accross the same problem. The staff changed the booking to four adults (rather than two adults and two children) and the holiday was reduced in price. The staff said it was because when children were in the room there was an under occupancy fee to pay.... even though of course this was not the case! She said it was fine and had clearly done it before.

I feel like i am being conned here and am not keen on it. It is bad enough paying through the nose because you have to book in a certain six weeks a year, but to charge more for two adults and two children rather than four adults is frankly unbelievable.

Has anyone else discovered this issue? I am not keen on booking four adults online as the children (well one of them) is still quite young (7) and it says childrens ages are 2-16...

I look forward to earing your views/comments....

Matt

DeeLasVegas

How on earth could the staff change the booking to 4 adults instead of 2 adults and 2 children? Doesn't everyone's passport etc have to be listed for flights?????

mattgod69

Good point.... you would have thought so..... his kids are a little older (13 and 16), but they are still really classed as children! It is a worry though.... !

photome

I dont see what difference it makes. I would book as 4 adults

mattgod69

Exactly, my feeling too..... but what will they say at the airport? anything?

daveyjp

Happens all the time. If the first child is 'free' it is classed as three people so you pay under occupancy charges, which can be hefty. If you book as 4 adults you may get a discount for having extra 'adults' in the room.

nearlyrich

I am sure the airport staff will not care about the room booking in resort...

DeeLasVegas

But when you book you give name, age and maybe passport number? So how do you circumvent this? You can't book flights without this info, can you?

bex2012

It doesn't matter if you book as 4 adults but have 2+2 going. The contracted price for the apartments will be based on 4 adults sharing. If you only book 2 adults and 2 children, you pay under occupancy fees to make up the difference in price between the adult price and the child price. Booking 2+2 doesnt necessarily mean cheaper. If doing it that way saves you nearly £300 then go for it. The only time it might make a difference is with the flights if you dont pre-book your seats together, as technically you could all be split up when the allocations are done pre-flight.

photome

DeeLasVegas wrote: »

But when you book you give name, age and maybe passport number? So how do you circumvent this? You can't book flights without this info, can you?

What difference does it make to the airline. It is a package holiday and the Op would be paying for 4 seats on the aircraft

agrinnall

photome wrote: »

What difference does it make to the airline. It is a package holiday and the Op would be paying for 4 seats on the aircraft

The only time I can see it might make a difference is if it's a TC holiday flying on a TC flight, but even then I don't see why the staff at the airport or on the plane would care.