glad to be of help sanji,so are you booked into the regente or not?its still available but price says £744

No, the problems I had at the end of the booking process made me phone them, this snotty bitch tells me the hotel is full for those dates and that's why after I hit the "pay" button the system collapsed, but I think she is talking out of her rectum, otherwise why did the system let me go through the process and press pay.?
It came to £762.60 with CC charges on.

Anyway, thanks to you I have got two flights to Alicante, just need to sort the Regente out when I know for certain I've got this £1,520 refunded.
But equally worrying is...who has cloned my CC card.? I never take it out of the house and I can pinpoint its use to 2 companies in the last 12 months...one of them being Thomson themselves.

Bleddy Nora what a palava doing DIY, I'm not going to approach the subject of transfers yet

Sanji. So sorry to hear of your loss. Try Resort Hopper for transfers, they have a website and we have always found them to be OK. You are making me jealous talking of Christmas in Benidorm. I am still trying to book flights with Jet2 from Blackpool but everytime I go on the website it tells me to try the next day or two....this has been going on since last week!
Hope everything goes better for you now.

Thanks Starkey.
Not done anything since my last post, still waiting until I've got rid of this £1,520, and with my card being cloned, we are having to watch the account very carefully until Mastercard send me a new card.
Transaction for the flights has gone through and I've received a confirmation e-mail, but somewhere in the system this £1,520 is hanging around, as my available amount to spend has been reduced by that amount.

Thomson don't exactly break out in a sweat and get their butts into gear, unless of course it's you that owes them money....then they're like a greyhound out of the trap
I hope all this is going to be worth it in the end.

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiii

Sorted Phew that was an ordeal....made worse by the card being cloned.
Got the flights and have booked directly with the hotel, I reckon we have saved £600 + by doing it this way and not paying Thomson's rip off prices, even calculating a private taxi for transfers into the price...all we are "losing" is one day in Benidorm, but the accomodation price is reduced, so we ain't losing anything really.
Thomson took the 12 nights off their system, so I didn't even bother to waste a phone call contacting them......they still haven't cleared this £1,520, although Mastercard assure me it won't be debited, but my available amount to spend is still reduced by that amount.
It's a good job I wasn't planning on going mad and spending a few thousands in the foreseeable future.

New card arrived this morning from Mastercard.

This is Thomson's price this morning, for having an extra day in the resort.

Flight + Hotel £ 2,000.00 Sub-Total £ 2,000.00 Online Saving: -£80.00 Total : £ 1,920.00

So, after all that, we are now booked to go to Benidorm for Xmas and the New Year and that's one problem off my list and out of the way.
I'd just like to thank everyone who has tried to help me, especially Kevin
Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

no problems sanji,so glad you got it sorted,wish we could join you for new years eve again,but theres no chance of me getting off work this year,have fun

Glad you are sorted, Sanji. I am still looking for Christmas & New Year! But first we have to book our September honeymoon.....thinking of Majorca.

Tonight I did something that I don't normally do...which is look at the price of the holiday/flight once I've booked it.
In light of the collapse of XL and hearing some pleb on the TV trying to justify the excessive air fares that they are charging those people stranded, on market forces, I decided to have a peek.
And I can positively say that we wouldn't have been going to Benidorm for this Xmas, had I not been the first off the starting line and got the flight booked early.....I dare not look at the package prices, they were bad enough at the time I originally started this post.

Flaming Nora...this is immoral ! Going on the 20th December to 1st Jan, I paid.....

Fare £ 260.44
Taxes & Charges £ 65.52
Baggage £ 20.00
Credit Card Fee(s) £ 6.92
Total Cost of Booking £ 352.88
Total Due £ 352.88
Mastercard £ 352.88

Tonight the flight is not showing so I presume it's booked up, but a flight leaving and coming back a day earlier than my dates from Doncaster is......

2 Adults at £423.46 £ 846.92
Taxes & charges (details) £ 63.04
2 1 Check-in item at £13.00 £ 26.00
Total Price £ 935.96

And the flight I was orginally going to book the 20th Dec to 3rd Jan, which was the same price as going for 12 days, £352.88
Tonight is......

2 Adults at £442.46 £ 884.92
Taxes & charges (details) £ 63.04
2 1 Check-in item at £13.00 £ 26.00
Total Price £ 973.96

There'll be no beggar in Benidorm at those prices !
Sanji

If you would have been flying from Teesside airport with Flyglobespan, I take it that it's for 2 adults it would have worked out the following, although the dates are slightly different:

21 Dec 08 21 Dec 08 Flight (GSM061) DURHAM TEES VALLEY - ALICANTE 2 0 0
10:00 / 13:45
03 Jan 09 03 Jan 09 Flight (GSM062) ALICANTE - DURHAM TEES VALLEY 2 0 0
19:05 / 21:00

Description Price Quantity Total
ADULT PRICE 227.98 2 455.96
TAXES/FEES/CHARGES 22.00 2 44.00
CHECKED IN BAGGAGE OUTBOUND 6.00 2 12.00
CHECKED IN BAGGAGE INBOUND 6.00 2 12.00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total Cost: 523.96

I don't know where they are coming from because it's £527.30 in total for 2 people on those dates from Leeds and Bradford with Jet 2 so they are just been very greedy and cashing in.

Sue

Sanji - That is ridiculous- Not a price increase like yours, but - I booked my brother and wife flights to ibiza thurs dinner £373,(Jet2), by the friday tea time the price had gone up to £501! - (The return flight had gone up, the outbound remained the same)

Also our flights to alicante 27 sep for 9 nights - £273 for the 3 of us (Booked last oct)- now the price is nearly double.

Also the flights my mum and dad booked to go to tenerife in march have almost doubled! - How many more airlines are cashing in?, and how many more people will stop going diy now, - with the fear of the airline they have booked with going bust? I think it will be the last time for me booking flights and accomodation seperatley.

Belly!

Belly.
Ridiculous was not one of the words I'd used last night, they were far stronger, blatant extortion?
Actually, now I come to remember, I did look at the price of that flight about a month after I'd booked it, and it had increased by £100, which at the time made me feel rather smug, that I had saved a few quid.

I posted that last night because it takes some believing doesn't it.? and the same price is showing this morning, OK regional airports and various airlines will be different on prices, but taking on average a fare of £500 for 2 people, Thomson really have taken the biscuit on that price.

I don't know how they're allowed to get away with it, is there no organisation looking at the price hikes and distinguishing between greed and operational costs.?
It's just daylight robbery IMO.

I was hoping to get back to Spain this month, either the CB or the CDS on a late deal, even the next day departure if I had too, but the prices were absolutely ridiculous and whilst I can afford it, I won't pay the prices on principle, I refuse to make the likes of Thomson rich at my expense"¦.so I'll just have to join the countdown thread to Xmas now.

Most of the Med resorts are going to suffer, but Spain is already feeling the pinch.
Unemployment rocketed by more than 103,000 people in August, bringing figures to a 25 per cent increase in the last 12 months, and the current unemployment figure now lies at 2,530,000, the highest since 1998, and the employment minister has warned this is not the last rise and that figures will continue to increase over the coming months to reach an expected 12.4% over active job-seeking population (the current rate is of 11 %).

The bottom has dropped out of the building trade, over half of the county's Estate Agent offices have closed down and the euro/sterling rate remains cr@p.

Will Benidorm survive all this.? I know plenty of people who have said "that's it, enough's enough" ......they're fed up of the airport cattle class palaver, the TO's ripping them off, private rentals going up and the uncertainty of which firm is going to go down the pan next, and you being left on your jacksie.

I noticed a distinct lack of British tourists in my resort in June, I expect Benidorm will be full of the Spanish, Dutch and Belgians at Xmas because they'll be the only beggars who can afford to go anywhere soon.

Looks like Cleethorpes or Blackpool isn't so bad after all

Sanji

We booked a week in October to Ibiza months ago for £347 each and looking at the price a week ago it had risen to £512 for the same holiday, don't know if it's gone up again. I know we wouldn't pay £512 for it.

Jean

We cant complain - we were in Benidorm last month (Aug) for a long weekend and paid a total of £389. We have just booked today for a long weekend Oct 17th and have paid a total of £329.

Sanji, if you want to go over in a couple of weeks then Ryanair have flights 02/10 Doncaster to Alicante at 10 pounds and 09/10 Alicante to Doncaster also at 10 pounds. Adding on all the usual charges it should come to about 100 pounds for the round trip for 2 people.

Edit - out 18/11 return 25/11 also available at that price from Doncaster.

Edit again, from LBA to Alc at 10 pounds each way,
out 13/11 15/11 18/11 22/11 25/11 27/11
return 25/11 27/11 29/11

Andy