Probably because they cant give holidays to here away let alone sell them at the moment, make the most of it and put in your requests upgrade to first class, al la carte menu, free champers etc etc lay it on thick!!

Ask them for a four poster bed there should be plenty of room!

I can just vision it!

I''ve had several phone calls and e-mails from first choice. they are asking me if i want all sorts of different things. like upgrade on the plane, extra legroom and some other stuff. don't know if thats what they're doing to you or not.
probably if you ask for something it will cost you money. we have in the past upgraded, but they've never bent over backwards to offer anything other than the standard upgrade.
BOB

Hi Bob, we had already booked the premium service in January, that's really what my question is, is this all an extra service of premium or totally out of character?

As an agent we are literally having to beg for the bookings and to try and switch sell to whatever possible to increase the margins. Sounds like first choice have what is called an outbound department and will ring customers to offer champagne/chocolates etc etc to get as much revenue as possible. They are also probably radomly calling economy passengers and asking those who haven't yet pre booked their seats whether they would like to reconsider it. at £10 per pre booked seat together, there is alot of extra revenue to be made for very little work.

To the customer it sounds like they care about your booking and some people do appreciate it. But mainly, i hate to say it but its just a money earner.

Ta

Inclined to agree that it is probably a money making ploy, although have in the past heard of people being offered reasonably priced upgrades to premium, but this cant be the case in this instance as it is what you have booked.

I do agree that the sitting together for £10 per person, is money for old rope for the tour operators as they would probably have sat you together anyway.

I would ask for some kind of special room upgrade, it makes them look good although the poor old hotel probably gets nowt out of it.

I have booked to go 3rd January premium economy.. haven't been offered any extra services . I did call FC to ask if we could prebook particular seats, only to be told not possible,, no seats are ever allocated until check in! He did say that as we had booked premium seats we would be guaranteed seats together, but I have read of people being put behind each other and across aisles, not quite the same. .

Miccie - Have they mentioned 'Priority customers'? 2 years ago we booked long haul with them. We had a phone call from them asking if we wanted to upgrade to star class premier and declined. They then went on to say we were priority customers Think it was because we had booked 2 or 3 holidays with them within 12months. Anyway, they went on to offer free sitting together. We received a letter from the priority team etc. Once in resort, we received a gift of a bottle of wine, candle and photo frame (very bizarre, think the Reps had to buy them!)

Booked with them again but haven't had any phone calls yet - don't think I've spent enough money this year!

Starry, yes they have mentioned 'Priority Customers'. This is our 3rd trip to Goa with them in a 12 month timeframe, perhaps that has something to do with it then. Perhaps there lies my answer.

To be honest, each time they have got in touch I have not felt that they were trying to get more money from us.

It will be interesting to see what happens once we arrive

Yes, definitely sounds like you are a 'priority customer' You will probably receive a letter with that on. They did keep asking if there was anything else they could do.

When our package arrived it was all done up in red shiny paper. The kids thought it was chocolates - they were so disappointed

Starry I can't wait to get there now to see what happens, we'll probably be given the obligatory bottle of port that everyone gets in their room

Just seen this thread - we were "priority customers" of First Choice a couple of years ago - we had already booked SCPremier - I phoned the "special " number for a couple of things, day before check in and room selection at the hotel-neither of which they could help me with! As far as I am concerned its a waste of time.

being a former employee, i can tell you that the only time first choice contact you is to advise either a problem with your holiday, or to ring to offer you "extras" which will only make first choice more money! i.e seating, champers on the flight. whatever it is to make your holiday more special, I guarantee it will also be to make first choice more money!

Well they definitely didn't get any extra money out of me. They gave us sitting together with no charge and then our little welcoming gifts.

Being a cynic they probably had you sitting together anyway!!!With day before check in (which had to be booked in advance)they told me I had to deal with the airline direct and THEY advised me to contact the hotel direct re room selection - I actually asked the girl what she COULD do for us that we didn't have to pay for - to be met by an embarassed silence!
And we didn't get any little pressies either!!!

We flew out from Gatwick on 3rd January, using premier service we got two seats together at the window, but ,, welcoming gifts??? what welcoming gifts?

Thought I would also post a review of the premier service here too,, sorry if its in the wrong place. Going out,, just walked up the check in desk, no queue, great stuff. On the plane were given on take off a glass of "sparkling wine".. search party is still out there searching for those bubbles, it was beautifully chilled, that is all that can be said about it. Pretty good leg room comfy seats etc, nice amenity kit and headphones. Staff very attentive with drinks service, had to wait quiet a while for the food which was pretty ok for plane food, as nicely presented as they could, no complaints there.

On return, Sun 18/01/09 Had to join the scrum to actually get into the airport building, they should make that bit clear, or maybe let us get to the airport earlier, we got a bus at 6.10 am from the airport but due to other pick ups that included people who kept us waiting for at least an hour between them, (only 3 hotels) it was almost 9am and people from practically every other flight that day were already there, not sure how many bags had to be xrayed. I will never again get on an arranged airport bus that has to do pickups, we are always early, wish other people had the courtesy to do the same. On the plane, as before totally flat sparkling wine,, what do they do to it??? open it a week before....? Again good drinks service and eventually food, we had a glass of wine with our starter.. and that was it,,, main course arrived no wine, at least not in our aisle.. the other aisle had someone going up and down pouring wine, no one came near us until someone came with "an extra roll, , crackers and cheese", anything else. I said a glass of wine with my meal would have been nice,,,, 5 minutes later someone came out with a bottle of white wine.. said they had run out of red, by the time they got to us in row 8.. I got a half glass of white, and,, that was it, no more was offered. There was not much in the way of service after that people were asked to go to the galley for any drinks they wanted, that was fine,,,but I am not looking for wonderful service but the service we paid for..and that should at least include some wine with my main course it looks like the only way to be sure of what you get is to go to economy and buy some. I am pretty sure they were still selling red wine to the people in economy, don't believe there was no more red wine on the flight. Rant over... the premier comfort is much better than economy, and I would do it again, but I was disappointed. Crew were very nice, but not exactly going for great service on that flight