Only florida on sale the same as thomsons.

DAZZNUTS,

Thats exactly what my First Choice shop told me and all their brochures and Thomson brochures will become available too.

Have now been told only long haul are on sale along with Turkey, T/A doesn't know when rest of the destinations will be available

Oh sorry yes meant to say Long Haul only, my daughter is after going to Majorca to Holiday Village May 2010 and they told her those brochures Summersun etc wont be released until June this year but they have taken her name and number to contact her when prices go live on their system around that time.

Me, the wife and her parents had booked to go on a First Choice Nile Cruise (actually Nile Cruise 2 - The Tulip) departing BHX on the 9th Setember. We had booked premium seats on the plane and deluxe cabins on board. However, 2 weeks after I had booked, I started to notice that the Tulip was not showing as available for any week during 2009 and suddenly Premium seats were not showing either.

Smelling something fishy, I pegged it down to the First Choice shop (where I had booked the holiday) and explained all to the manager. He said he had heard nothing but would check with reservations. They had heard nothing as well, so the shop manager contacted "Contracts". They assured him there was no problem and that the cruise ship and premium cabin was totally sold out until next years I don't have to see bullsh1it but I sure could smell it.

1 week ago, a letter comes through to the shop saying that our cruise had been cancelled and we were being transferred to a Thomson Nile Cruise ship in a standard cabin. (No news about the premium seats). First choice actually said I was being upgraded. (Now I can see the Bullsh1t as well as smell it). I said "What about the premium seats on board the plane?", Manager said "Don't worry, you will still have premium seats"

2 Hours after leaving shop, I get a phone call to say there is no preium cabin, but I can have extra leg room instead. I inform said Manager that x Legroom is £25 less plus no free drinks - will I be compensated. A deal was then struck and somehow we only ended up being £35 better off each after losing premium seats, different ship, (actually a worse ship), standard cabin instead of deluxe cabin.

Needless to say, we have cancelled and are awaiting our money back.

The morale of this story is, since First Choice merged with Thomson, no0one at First Choice has a clue what the parent company is doing.

I have since heard that a party who were doing our original nile cruise with premium seats in June have just been told that there is a change of ship, downgrading of cabin on-board and no proium cabin on the plane. They are 1 bunch of unhappy bunnies.

First Choice used to be very good until the amalgamation into Thomson. We have been on 5 First Choice holidays without problem but will never book with them or Thomson again.

We have now decided to up our budget and are flying scheduled from LHR to Cairo, then overnight train to Luxor to join our Oberoi cruise vessel. A lot more money, but we get to see the Pyramids as well - and we don't have to deal with Thomson/First Choice/TUI

Hi Garym1308.

Funnily enough i've heard about this happening to other people who had booked the First Choice cruise for summer 2009. When did you book your holiday as the people I know booked last July and were swapped over to the Thomson Cruise two months after booking so they have probably known about this since last summer.

From what i have read on the Trip Advisor forums there have been a LOT of complaints about the First Choice Tulip boat (mainly due to the Schedule which differs from that printed) and if you had posted before you had cancelled I would have advised you to jump at the chance to go on the Thomson boat as there is no real difference between a superior cabin on the First Choice Cruise and the Thomson Cruise boats apart from a tad extra space and a table and chair, the food is far superior on the Thomson boat's too. I know the Thomson boat's dont look as new or fancy but believe me there is a marked difference.

When I was on the Orchid (the sister ship to the Tulip) in October i mentioned to the Rep that people I knew were getting transfered from the First Choice cruises to the Thomson one's, she had no idea this was happening. After speaking with a few other people out there it looks like with Thomson's and First Choice joining forces they have made a few changes and sadly it affected your holiday.

I'm actually going back on the Thomson Presidential Nile Cruise boat on Wednesday, Dont get me wrong I had a fantastic cruise with First Choice and would book it again i just think the standard of service, food and itinerary is better on the Thomson boat.

Anyway I have heard really good reports on the Oberoi boats I hope you have a wonderful cruise and enjoy your time in Cairo.

Suzie.

Hi all,
Hope Im not wandering a bit off topic (this is my first post). But feel I should mention First Choice and current swine flu problems and travel to Mexico.
F/C have cancelled all flight to Mexico up to and and including 8th May. Also they have offered others booked for a flight/ holiday to Mexico up to 22nd of May inclusive--the opportunity to cnahge the destination of maybe change the date of original holiday to a later date. No refund yet offered to those people in latter group.(I am one of those people--due to fly on 20th May).
HOWEVER -- It appears that the holidays that have been cancelled (8th May--22 May) are now being advertised again on First Choice website --EVEN though nobody knows for sure that those holidays will actually take place (regarding the Swine flue fiasco).
So- to sum it up-- a booked holiday can be cancelled/or sent to a new destination-- THEN-advertised again as available !! .
Who's kidding who ?.
P.

ps - My flight that was fully booked before the current scare - is now advertised as available - even when I/anyone else dont know if it will actually take place.

Hi all just wondering I travel to dom rep 28th may09 and still not recieved my flight tickets, any idea when when they should arrive???????????

skootsmon,

You normally get them 2 weeks before your departure date so expect them on about the 14th.

Darren

my tickets arrived 3 weeks before

I booked Santorini on line last September for June 2009 no confirmation only what I printed on line.
Paid the remainder of my holiday told I would ger receipt in about 5 days never got one, emailed First Choice to request room location and enquired about receipt no answer. I know they are merging with Thomson perhaps I better contact them.

Not sure but it may be the difference between doing an on-line booking with First Choice and a telephone booking with First Choice.

I went away with them in April this year, only booked 5 weeks before travel by phone so was paying total cost up front, however I was innundated with paperwork. Two different lots of confirmation paperwork.

One that didn't show any discounts and a second lot that did show discounts. She told me this would happen on the phone and not to panic when I got the first lot through without discounts.

Tickets came about 10 days prior to travel.

The merger took place some time ago so I would chase this if I were you.

Maybe they have just stopped sending out for on-line bookings to keep costs down.

Doe

Hi all,

I've got a holiday coming up in July to the Maldives and want to upgrade to premium class. However it is pretty expensive at £290 each. Does anyone know if the prices come down nearer the time or if there's any way to get it slightly cheaper.

Cheers.

janman123,

You might want to look at our dedicated Thomson Airways thread. Premium seats normally get booked up quickly. Unless there've been some cancellations, it's unlikely there'll be any available or discounted.

Darren

Is anyone else have trouble looking up holidays on their Site?
I get on it OK but have to wait ages to access any of the pages and once viewed
another long while to return to the main page. (Thomson's Site is fine)
Over the last few months, I have mentioned it a few times to their Holiday Advisers
and they just say 'it is running slow but no-one else has mentioned it'
so maybe it is just my problem?
More importantly, last month, I attempted at least 6 times to purchase a flight on their Site -
gettting as far as entering all personal details but when I pressed for confirmation,
their system failed! Has this happened to you?
Any assistance, greatly appreciated. Thanks

I had a similar problem with Olympic a couple of weeks ago over a payment. When I rang them they admitted they were having problems.

A little off topic I know, but your problem is one of the reasons why when complaining we advise writing rather than email.

If you have problems booking a holiday, due to a computer problem with the TO then what better reason to claim they have not received your email.

fwh

Hi SomersetSuzie

I have been on the FC site everyday for the last 10 or so and it works fine for me, the only problem is the price keeps going up

Thanks for your input.
I have tried on three different computers and the same problem applies regarding
accessing pages on their Site.

Don't think my two problems are connected as once I got on to the page I
wanted, all went well until the final refusal - after putting in all my details.
I contacted my Bank each time FC failed as I was unsure whether the money was
taken out and did not want to rebook if it had! Very unsettling and such a waste
of time and money! Eventually booked with Thomsons and the next holiday is
with Thomas Cook instead.

Know what you mean, Graham. Maybe prices will go down early next week
but then again, maybe not!!!!!!!

SomersetSuzie,

gettting as far as entering all personal details but when I pressed for confirmation, their system failed!

I've had that problem in the past when booking flights on First Choices website. Where you trying to purchase flights using a Switch / Maestro debit card? There's a problem with the issue number as chip and pin cards don't have that now but you still need to enter an issue number otherwise the system assumes you haven't completed all your details and won't let you complete the booking, so hangs. You need to enter 0 as your issue number. Other than that, it used to be slow when I was on AOL but I got rid of them a while ago and never had a problem since.

Darren