when people booka holiday in advance basically you get to pick what you want, when people leave a holuntil last minute you have whats left, when you priced a holiday you were obviously happy with prices at the time of booking otherwise you wouldnt of paid the price to book it, if your holiday had gone up by a few hundred would you of paid the tour op extra because you had a cheaper deal??

basically i can t understand what you are complaining for you got the holiday you wanted and booked in advance to garentee your places

How annoying, Could you not ask Portland whether they can amend your booking, you may have to pay the £20 each amendment fee but it will save you money in the longrun. They were very good when I found out that I was paying more for 2 ad, 2 children than for 3 ad, 1 child. They offered to amend the booking so one of my kids could go as an adult and saved me £120

Pebble, I have never heard of a company increasing the cost of your holiday after booking with the exception of the occassional fuel surcharge.

Kind Regards
stewart

They havent done anything wrong.

You booked the holiday at that time to secure the availability, and you paid the brochured price at the time.

What they charge after that has no bearing on the price you paid, and they are quite right, market trends, lots of beds left, etc etc will all affect the future price of the same holiday.

What do you expect them to do? They are a business, and in order to get business their market and prices will fluctuate. They have substantiated this by providing you witha copy of your agreement which you should have read before signing it.

You havent been done out of anything, stop moaning and try and enjoy your holiday.

Thank you for the replies to-date. Although somewhat dismayed with the content, I believe that a company who reserves the right to increase the product, but refuses to pass on the reduction to a loyal customer, who paid up front eleven months prior, could have shown some customer loyalty.
Yes, we are looking forward to our holiday and yes we will enjoy.
On a general note. When touring these sites, Thomson group seem to come off poorly with customer relationship prior to, at and after the holiday when complaints arise.
Holiday Truths certainly bring these problems to the front and allow all to read about it. Good site.
Thank you for posting your views, it's nice to see other people's perspective on the points I raised.

Kind regards

Pebble

You havent been done out of anything, stop moaning and try and enjoy your holiday.

Fallenangel I don't think our member was 'moaning' as such rather seeking advice. Pebble can moan as much as they want to in this forum as, after all, it is the complaint forum

Having booked with Portland before and having two more holidays booked with them at the moment I was quite interested in this post. It surprised me that they could increase the price of the holiday so I checked my confirmation invoice and there it was in bold writing. I checked the terms and conditions in the brochure and it states that if the cost of them supplying the holiday to me increases by 2% up to 10 weeks before I get my Final Invoice they can charge me the extra plus an admin charge. They cite these changes as possibly due to transportation costs, currency fluctuation or Government action. Within the 10 weeks up to departure they cannot change price. If the increase is less than 2% they absorb the change. They advise you of the increase "about 11 weeks before departure". The Final Invoice is sent 10 weeks before departure.

They also state that any DECREASE in the cost of supplying my holiday by over 2% they will make a refund (less any admin charge). If the decrease is less than 2% they will not make a reduction.

If the increase is above 10% you can cancel within 14 days of the Final invoice date. How can you cancel in time if the increased invoice is sent out 11 weeks before departure and the Final Invoice 10 weeks before and you can only cancel 12 weeks before? Surely you wouldn't know you needed to cancel in the 12th week as you don't receive your increased invoice until the 11th?

Sorry if I've rambled a bit but have I missed something somewhere?

I've never known the price of my holiday decrease before I went - I usually book at least 10 months before I go. The price always seems to go up but I have never been asked to pay more and it's usually gone up by over 2%.

I have travelled with Thomson and Portland many times and never had any problems to date. I don't know whether other companies T & Cs are the same.

Deb

Thanks again for the further input.
We continue to write to Portland on this subject. I will post the final result when obtained.
We decided to air this on the site, as other peoples views and experiences assist to make sense of problems.
We thank all for the imput to our post.
Any observations are appreciated.
Kind regards

Pebble

We booked a holiday to Tenerife in May 2004. to travel April 2005. We paid the deposit and then the remainder at the alloted time.
We then received a brochure showing the holiday to be £350 cheaper fpr the same dates.
At the time of booking it stated in Portland documentation if the holiday price was increased then we would be liable to pay the difference.
Therefore I wrote to Portland and asked that the price should now be the reduced as shown in the brochure.
We received a reply informing us that market trends dictate the pricing and a copy of the agreement to fill the letter, finishing that they had basically had our money, hard luck.
Yes, On this occasion they have, but never again.
Any thoughts or suggestions of our lawful rights.
Kind regards Pebble

As far as I'm concerned, that's life, if booking early to ensure you get a particular accomodation or something occurs, then that is the price you have to pay, no matter how cheap somebody else gets it. The company have done nothing wrong that I can see, it's just sadly a part of life, for the days we get good deals, someone else gets a bad one

also most tour ops state the same thing in the booking conditions, especially thomson and skytours who are part of the same company, but after 9 years in travel im yet to see a holiday being increased, from the price quoated, dont get me wrong we have added people to bookings after the original has been made but thats just a fack of life

really common sense would tell you holiday prices go up and down all the time if you were looking for a cheaper deal why didnt you wait until now to book the holiday maybe if you did you might not of had your choosen accomodation

theese things happen all the time with different tour operators, really you never know when the best time is to book, but you choose to book 11 months brfore you wanted to travel and theres no going back now

Can't understand this post - obviously it must be very annoying to see a holiday you have paid for become £350 cheaper. At the end of the day it's a bit like the January Sales - you see stuff you paid a fortune for pre Christmas halved in the sales.

It's annoying, but one of those things.

We always look at the holiday 'sales' stuff each year and wonder if we've done the right thing booking early. Must admit, each year we have chosen to book early, which guarantees the holiday , hotel etc we want.We never look again just incase!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whatever, just have a great holiday - have a great time and don't let it spoil you're holiday.

If you think about recent events things could be far worse when it comes to holidays .

I used to work for Portland a few years ago. I have also taken a number of holidays with them.

I had any decrease on my holiday credited to my account. However, there wasn't any mention of percentage costs that I knew of.

Kath HT Admin

We've been holidaying with Portland since 1987, I've never had our holiday go up in price with them.
But a strange thing happened several years ago, we paid in advance (as you always do) and about 8 weeks before we were due to go I got a cheque from portland for £60.
As I was confused I phoned them, and they said it was part of their price promise if a holiday in their brochure was advertised cheaper after we had paid they would refund the difference.
Fair play I thought because I didn't read the small print.

A few years ago we booked to go to Tenerife with Portland, and a few weeks before the final payment was due, we gotr a revised invoice because the price had gone down, so it DOES happen sometimes

I booked with Portland to go away this July, we booked last May, got our invoice and I filled it away, a Month later another invoice arrived so I checked it with our first and the cost had gone down by 200 hundred pound, I was well pleased.

Cathy

Just to keep you updated.
I have written to Portland, took advice off this site, worded the letter accordingly.
I have informed the company that the problem is being aired on this site, and await their reply.
Regards.
Pebble

Can see both sides but hand on heart wouldn't we all be a bit miffed if exactly the same holiday as the one you booked was now available for £350 less?

Hope you get it sorted Pebbles and that Portland do the decent thing!

We have returned from our holiday, which was very enjoyable, not a rep in sight the whole holiday, so everything at the resort ran smoothly, hotel everything we wanted.
A letter from Portland was waiting for us on our return, basically wishing us a nice forthcoming holiday and they had reviewed the complaint and continued to uphold their original decision not to refund any monies.
I now turn to the journey out.
Arrive at Luton airport 6am for flight at 0835hrs. Flight was delayed due to problem with aircraft. Flight left 1050hrs
Departure from resort.
Arrive airport 1145hrs for flight 1405hrs to Luton. 1530hrs told that flight would not leave until 2030hrs, half of passengers to go to Gatwick and half to Birmingham, no choice of destination, would be dictated by handling staff. Reason was a technical problem with aircraft.
At no time did we see any staff from the tour operator Portland/Thomson, the British word of mouth from one to another carried us through.
We flew to Birmingham with Monarch, then a taxi to home.
Well done Portland/Thomson.
I have written to Portland to continue the saga, will be interesting, keeps me active.

Have you got any further pursuing this complaint??