Tour Operators and Travel Agents

Discussions regarding Tour Operators and Travel Agents
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The lady that we booked our holiday with at direct holidays told me i had your seat your choice included in the price of the holiday however when i rang thomas cook to book our seats the lady said that we hadn't paid for your seat your choice and that we needed to pay an extra £142 for the service, and that they were charging the adult price for 2 of the children. has anyone else had this problem? my advice is double checkwhen booking :(
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Im an NOT happy. Managed to get through via a saynoto0870 phone number to a very rude customer service advisor who basically told me its not their problem and what did I want her to do about it and how she has seen the reviews on trip advisor (!) and they aren't that bad for our hotel. She said I can have my money back or just deal with it. Charming.I asked what happens if I get out there and the building work is bad and she said thats my problem not theirs. Lovely. I asked her if we could have a room upgrade and she said....no why, cause theres building work...doesn't work like that, this isn't our problem.

So Im very tempted to take my money back and book else where.
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Just wondering if anyone knows if Thomas Cook Vouchers can be used against a Direct Holidays booking? Can see from reading this thread that the question has been asked before but I can't see that it was ever answered.

Also, is it possible to book a DH holiday in a TC shop? I've noticed that next years DH hols can be booked via TC website, but when I phoned the TC shop I was told the only way they could look at doing the DH holiday I want was through 'Flexible trips' which from what I understand is where they book the components seperately rather than as a 'package'. Seems a bit odd to me :que
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As far as I am aware Direct Holidays are just that, booked direct, ie not through a travel agent which is one reason they are ususally cheaper. They wouldn't be on viewdata to be booked, and if the agent booked them on the web they wouldn't get any commission for it.
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Direct Holidays were a division of Airtours. Airtours were taken over by TC. I think eventually they will sell all the Airtours group holidays in their shops however, the prices will then increase, because you are adding a 'middle man' (shop) in to the equation.
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I've already noticed that DH prices are more expensive than TC on lots of holidays for next year
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I put in a formal complaint about Direct Holidays regarding my phone call last week and the attitude of their staff. They have emailed me twice now saying they are investigating the matter and will be in contact. They also said my phone call was recorded which I am very happy about as they will be able to hear what their call centre staff say to customers!
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Thanks for the replies, I was hoping that I could book the holiday I want through the TC shop but it's only available through Direct. Anyone know about the TC vouchers? Can they be used to pay DH?
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I would very much doubt they would accept them....but there is no harm in asking.
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Praise where praise is due. I rang to pay my balance last night and handed over all the details to the automated pay line. They located my holiday and accepted the correct amount off my credit card. I then put the phone down, went back to my laptop and an e-mail came through immediately with a new invoice stating that all monies had been paid- very efficient.

I also managed to book seats in advance on-line without too much trouble a few weeks ago and had an immediate confirmation. funny thing is I also had the same confirmation sent again (twice more) a few days ago :que

Now all that's left to do is look forward to the holiday :sun2 :cheers
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Now on DH you have to add on meals and are only getting 15kg when booking.
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Now on DH you have to add on meals and are only getting 15kg when booking.


:( and are now generally more expensive than TC.
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Hi,
Yes you can use Thomas Cook vouchers to pay for a holiday booked through Direct Holidays as long as they are Worldwide Vouchers.Also you have to send them to Thomas Cook head office who then in turn send them to the centre in India which can take a couple of months.I paid a deposit over the phone then sent in the vouchers.I was then credited back to my card the money that I had paid for the deposit.Like I said this took a good few months.
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Apparently a Thomas Cook change to the Direct Holidays operation.
If you try to book a long haul holiday on the Direct Holidays website for summer 2011, you will find that there's no availability.
Maybe Thomas Cook are killing off Direct Holidays just like Thomson are killing off Portland.
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Following on from previous post, don't know what is going on with Direct holidays but I just did a search for July 2011 for a holiday from Glasgow and it came up with no availability whatsoever. However, if you do the exact same search on Thomas Cook, there are holidays available.

Looks like their days may be numbered!
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Yes the same happens with the holiday I want. Doesn't appear at all on DH website but does on the TC one but if I phone Direct holidays they can give me a quote :que
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Thanks for the replies re the vouchers too :cheers
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managed to book seats in advance on-line without too much trouble a few weeks ago and had an immediate confirmation. funny thing is I also had the same confirmation sent again (twice more) a few days ago


I posted this statement last Tuesday. This morning I've had another 2 e-mails with the same confirmation, bringing the total so far to 5 confirmations and I don't go until August (plenty of time for a few more :que It's almost laughable and it's best to get 5 confirmations rather than none but it just makes you wonder at the competence of the company at doing its job. I'm glad I'm not one of the people that have to pester them for confirmation.
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Im just wondering if you are recieving these confirmations because of a systems error, it thinks it hasnt sent the email out after a system update, very strange though, at least they cant say you havent got confirmation at the airport :rofl
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