some of the flights are still showing Monarch whilst others around the country have changed, for example from Gatwick to Kos is now Tor Air and Gatwick to Cyprus is Easy jet it seems a mish mash based on the cheapest seats they can purchase

Update on my holiday, went into the Thomsons travel agents today and they rang Monarch whilst i was there who confirmed we are booked to fly with them on June 21st so fingers crossed but still not hopeful...

We've been invited to a wedding in ayia napa in August and have agreed to go. This is not our main holiday as we are going to Protaras in June and so are just going for a week. We picked a hotel and booked it on some friends recommendations but i have just found out after emailing the hotel directly with some queries that the room we are booked in does not accept 3 adults and 1 child which is what we have booked. The room is for 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 children, I have spoke to Thomsons about it and they say that we are 2 adults and 2 children but as my daughter is 13 we have had to pay for her as an adult which is a lot more money and so she is expected to sleep on a childs camp bed when she is 5 foot 6 the same as me. It seems that Thomsons want to have their cake and eat it, on one hand she is an adult but on the other she is been squashed into a childs camp bed. If she had have been over 16 we would not have been allowed to book this room but i don't think this makes a difference. Does anyone know where we stand on cancelling this holiday, upgrading to two rooms is not an option as we are at the top of our budget now or do we just have to grin and bear it. I'm really disappointed as we could have booked the Sunrise Beach in Protaras for the same amount and had a big family room with proper beds but chose to be nearer our friends.

moved to the Thomson tour operator THREAD

WIZ

Just had a good laugh received an email from about being excited over our holiday in Sharm problem is the hotel Sensatori is not even open yet????.Sent back and asked if or when this hotel is supposed to open so we could maybe get a little excited i await the reply.

TUI Travel acquires Magic Life

TUI Travel is to offer 13 new all-inclusive holiday clubs in Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, Greece and Spain to customers after acquiring loss-making operator Magic Life.

The operator has scooped up Magic Life and its six operating companies for €6 in cash after agreeing a deal with current owner TUI AG.

Magic Life was suffering from huge losses - around €22.6 million in September 2010 - and was considered non-core by TUI AG. TUI will take on contingent debt of €10.5 million.

Its mid-range product was originally aimed at the Austrian and German markets and TUI intends to rebrand its properties under the Holiday Village and Blue Village brands in the UK and Nordic markets respectively.

TUI says it will not take on Magic Life's Vienna and Istanbul offices, its Turkish Sirene City property or its Nile cruise ship the MS Regent.

With permission from Travelmole

The kids are all right - but not on holiday

Thomson Holidays has launched its adults-only brand Thomson Couples, claiming to be the first mainstream travel company to offer child-free holidays around the world.

The operator said it surveyed 1,378 adults in March this year about their feelings on holidaying with children around and discovered 79% admitting to being "affected" by other people's kids.

Some 31% went on to say other people's unruly offspring has ruined a well-earned break.

Revealingly, a whopping 35% actually said they "agreed unequivocally" with the statement that "hell is other people's children on holiday". What's more, some 40% say their own kids affect their holiday while 4% say they can "ruin it completely".

Head of product development at Thomson Holidays Luke Gaskins said: "Family holidays are incredibly important to Thomson and an extremely valuable opportunity for families to spend quality time together, enabling children to experience new places, foods and cultures - and have fun.

"At the same time, many parents also tell us how much they cherish a few days to themselves once in a while in addition to their family holiday, to recharge their batteries. Just as our Family resorts are focused on keeping children entertained, Couples is completely geared to adult relaxation and together time. At a Couples hotel, peace and quiet both come as standard".

Thomson Couples holidays are available from this summer and feature 19 hotels exclusive to Thomson UK customers in short, medium and long-haul destinations including the Algarve, Crete, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

All hotels are part of Thomson's Premier Collection including the company's 4T and 5T hotels. Customers get increased baggage allowance, priority tranfers, day-before check-in and dedicated holiday advisors while abroad.

With permission from Travelmole

with respect to travel mole Thomson Couples has been launched for a year now so thats old news.

Travelmole are correct here is the official Thomson website with the news TODAY http://communicationcentre.thomson.co.uk/

All seems very strange as i went on a Thomson Couples holiday last year, maybe they are failing.

the same old problem may arise, in that Thomson in the UK sell as adult only, but other tui or foreign tour-operators/bed banks will sell the same hotel to families [we have seen the complaints in the past]

wizard

I'm off to Cuba with Thomson Holidays very soon, I've received my tickets but there was no "Tourist Card" included, which I'm told is included in the holiday price, and is essential to visit Cuba.
Is anyone else going there soon, and if so, have they received a Tourist Card from Thomson?

They come separately , to the travel agents if you booked at one or direct if you booked on the internet , normally about a week before you go .

We were outraged yesterday with regards to credit card fees when paying for our forthcoming trip to the USA. We booked through Thomson's in the Metro Centre Gateshead and after paying our deposits we were notified that the holiday balance would be required 10 weeks before departure, which was the 22nd June - yesterday. On the 18th June we received a ‘Final Reminder' letter stating that we had not responded to the previous two reminders which had been sent, I must stress that at this point we had not received any other reminders other than the ‘very final demand' letter on the 18th June. I immediately telephoned the store, as the letter was rather strong and worrying, stating that our holiday may be cancelled if immediate payment was not received.

I was advised that there had been changes in the Thomson Holiday system recently and now all holiday deposits were required 12 weeks before departure. She also said that it appeared from her system that the first two letters had not been sent and that just the final reminder had been sent out to us. She apologised for the inconvenience and I said that we would come into the store on the 22nd of June (exactly 10 weeks before departure) and pay the remaining balance of the holiday. We then visited the store after work yesterday at 7pm. We decided at this point in time the easiest thing to do was to split the balance across two credit cards as due to the short amount of time between the receipt of the final reminder letter at the weekend and the trip to the store only a few days later. We are all busy professionals so due to prior commitments, none of us had had the time to transfer any funds to be able to use debit cards or to pay in cash, so we assumed paying via a credit card would be the quickest way to resolve the payment issue. How wrong we were! We were informed by an assistant named Sharon, that there would be a credit card charge applied to each card of £77.50!!

As you can imagine we were all outraged by this, as having to pay such an additional unnecessary large amount, on top of our already costly holiday, was simply out of the question. Surely under the circumstances one more day wouldn't have made any difference, as due to the time of day, the banks were closed, so we had no way of being able to settle the balance using an alternative payment method and therefore avoid the ridiculous charges. We asked if we could return the following day to pay the balance of the holiday in cash, as it was simply a matter of avoiding paying unnecessary and unfair credit card fees. We would never have risked having our trip cancelled so would have happily and promptly returned the following day to finalise the payment of our holiday. We were literally talking about delaying our payment by hours not days, something which seemed perfectly reasonable to us.

It was at this point that the store manager came over and point blankly refused to delay the payment any further, because of the fact that the holiday payment was due today, ten weeks before, and she had already extended our payment! This completely infuriated us as in line with our original booking, today was the exactly ten weeks before our departure and as far as we were concerned we had received NO payment extension! She then stated that the situation was ‘out of her control' and added that the holiday payment had to be cleared from the system today, otherwise our £7,000 holiday would be cancelled. I can honestly say were we all both flabbergasted and disgusted with her curt nonchalant attitude.
Her approach couldn't have been colder or more disinterested, it was a case of pay the charges or we'll cancel your holiday, just like that. She would not budge at all on giving us the extra few hours we needed to return the following morning and use an alternative payment method to avoid the huge credit card fees. Her only solution was to reduce the amount of the charges to £47.50 per card through manipulating the Thomson payment system, something which seemed rather strange to us and made the charges seem almost ‘negotiable'. This was continued to be unacceptable to us as it meant we were still paying an additional charge of almost £100! It just seemed so unreasonable. Most companies absorb credit card charges or include them in with the costs of an item or service, so that the customers aren't exposed to them, others simply apply a fixed fee, so this just felt so unjust and unfair. It felt even more so when the amount was suddenly reduced from £150 to £95 through manipulating the system as it were, and to try and appease us!

We again expressed our disgust but were simply told that the charges were unavoidable if we wished to proceed via credit card and that she would be unable to grant us an extension of the payment. At this point we really had no choice other than to cancel the trip, so we'd paid the balance of our holiday along with the additional charges - a bitter pill to swallow I must say. It rather dampened the excitement of finalising the trip and the celebratory meal we had planned the same evening. Aside from paying excessive credit card charges, I must say I was highly disappointment with the lack of flexibility and compassion we received in light of the situation. I could appreciate if we'd been a couple of weeks late in paying our balance and we'd been standing there 8 weeks prior to departure but to simply have asked for what was no more than 15 hours and be refused, seemed so disobliging.
I have never in my life experienced a situation like this and the holiday companies we have used in the past such as Thomas Cook and Virgin have proved to be far more flexible and accommodating. This was our first trip booked through Thomson's and I can safely it will most definitely be our last. We travel twice yearly and spend around £10,000+ annually on holidays, currency and insurances, so I would have thought our business would have been much appreciated in these tough economic and highly competitive times, especially within the travel industry.

I used to work for Thomson and other travel agents in the past, and ALL (some independents may be different) travel agents pass on a credit card charge , which is normally2- 2.5 % of the total amount payable, which is on all of their receipts and invoices . You must have a very large balance to have credit card charges that high .

The amount cannot be overidden manually , it has to be done by altering another figure on the holiday to reduce the balance down hence reduce the credit card charge .

Whilst it does seem a little bit harsh , the tour operator will take the balance payment 12 weeks before from the TA automatically so they are quite within their rights to not give you an extension on the payment. Thomas Cook and Coop ask for their balances 14 weeks before , so Thomsons are a little bit more generous than other agents.

If it had been in the store where I worked I probably would have give you an extension of a day or so but it is entirely at the managers discretion , and probably asked for 50/60 % of the balance to cover the canx charges incase you never came back.

it may sound like I am defending Thomson but as you pointed out in this economic downturn Thomson could not afford to let you pay late , because from albeit a minority , people will ask for 3 days extension but actually take 2 weeks to pay .

Also if you had paid on one card the credit charges would have been alot less as you would have hit the maximium amount9which i think is about £80, as the banks charge per transaction rather than on the total amount.

kerry25 wrote:

I used to work for Thomson and other travel agents in the past, and ALL (some independents may be different) travel agents pass on a credit card charge , which is normally2- 2.5 % of the total amount payable, which is on all of their receipts and invoices . You must have a very large balance to have credit card charges that high .
The amount cannot be overidden manually , it has to be done by altering another figure on the holiday to reduce the balance down hence reduce the credit card charge .
Whilst it does seem a little bit harsh , the tour operator will take the balance payment 12 weeks before from the TA automatically so they are quite within their rights to not give you an extension on the payment. Thomas Cook and Coop ask for their balances 14 weeks before , so Thomsons are a little bit more generous than other agents.
If it had been in the store where I worked I probably would have give you an extension of a day or so but it is entirely at the managers discretion , and probably asked for 50/60 % of the balance to cover the canx charges incase you never came back.
it may sound like I am defending Thomson but as you pointed out in this economic downturn Thomson could not afford to let you pay late , because from albeit a minority , people will ask for 3 days extension but actually take 2 weeks to pay .

My friend works as a manager for Thomas Cook and she waives credit card fees all the time, especially if she thinks she has a genuine reason to do so. The holiday balance was £6200 ( total holiday price was £7400) so we're not taling about a week in benidorm.!! I spoke to her this morning and she couldnt understand why the Thomson Store manager wouldnt let us come back today, we had no intentions of cancelling the holiday and due to the cost of the booking she said she wouldnt have run the risk of a) us cancelling or b) loosing the future business. Needless to say we wont be rebooking anything if the fees arent refunded out of principal.

Kerry is right about not being able to manipulate the fees manually.
Thomsons actually charge 2.5% for credit cards -- the cap being £95 per transaction. As it was spread over 2 cards they charged 2.5% of £6200 - £155 (£77.50 on each card).
All agents charge for credit card use, but usually only at the rate they get charged, so they don't make any money out of it.
I might have done similar to Kerry and let you come back the following day, but not to pay it all. The agent has to have some safeguard against clients not coming back to pay the balance, especially when a large amount, as they have already paid for it.
We had it happen a few times to us, and you learn by your mistakes.

You say you hadn't got time to transfer funds, but you had known from when you booked it that it had to be paid by 22 June. Why didn't you do it sooner?

Lou 10, the £90.00 that you have been charged is only 1.5%, a lot less than all the travel firms i have booked with and allthough it is your money for 1.5% of your holiday costs you have the card company to fall back on if it goes wrong

Alan