There should be a Flight Ref: Number on the email, and as far as I am aware this will suffice.
Paper tickets are normally only used when booking a package holiday.

Thanks for the response. I went onto the Thomson website who confirmed this.

I also managed to get them to link me to my families booking who booked seperately so that when they are allocating seats they will try and put us all together which was very helpful and I was impressed with that service.

Hi Watford
If you want to be sure of sitting together you really need to pay to select your seats, otherwise even people on the same booking aren't necessarily seated together. It is a computer that does the allocation the previous day, and I don't know whether linking the bookings is going to make any difference.

Hi Sunaddict, yes I knew that, I dont think the rest of them will book seats!! although I always do, but which is a bit pointless at the moment because they wont book! I was just hoping to sit in the same vicinty of them rather than possibly at the other end of the plane because I was on a totally separate booking.

I just thought if I was linked to their booking and there is an area of seats for 12 available I could be added to that allocation if that makes sense!!

If all else fails... i'll be happy just to be on the plane and will walk to where they are!!

Can anyone tell me if you book the extra legroom seats - can you choose the actual seat nos?

We've just got back from a Thomsons holiday in Tunisia and the day before we left we received a note from the rep with advice on filling in the feedback questionnaire. This advice was also reiterated by the rep on the coach to the airport. Both reps said that that anything above 66% should be marked as "excellent". We were both of the opinion that 66% is only two-thirds of what is expected and is by no means "excellent". "Excellent", in our opinion, would be 90% or more.
What does anyone else think?

Sadly it seems that the nice little ticket and travel info booklets issued by Thomson/First Choice are to be a thing of the past.
This summer I got the usual attractive booklet with loads of info for my trip to Cyprus.
For my autumn trip to Morocco the booklet has shrunk to just a ticket and conditions thing, no hints, recommendations and tips, no luggage labels.
And for my winter holiday, I've just had an email from them telling me they have now completely ended the procedure of mailing tickets, now we can all just look forward to Emailed E-tickets.
Assume it's another cost saving idea from TUI, but like the ending of short haul flight entertainment, ending of inflight bookable meals, reducing the basic luggage allowance, it does seem to be a step backwards to the dark ages of travel.
The competition, limited as it now is to a very few companies, is going that way also so I guess it's life.

day before we left we received a note from the rep with advice on filling in the feedback questionnaire.

Never do them - but are people so thick they need advice on how to complete them

Assume it's another cost saving idea from TUI, but like the ending of short haul flight entertainment, ending of inflight bookable meals, reducing the basic luggage allowance,

Filling in these forms is why those things ended being free and they can now charge silly prices for them.

fwh

We don't fill them in either but rather resented the "advice". Especially as, in our view, 66% is only just above "mediocre" and certainly not excellent.

Our ticket booklet was very thin this year with no luggage labels. As ukbill says, there's so little choice of operators now, that they don't really have to try too hard. And they can treat you how they want.

Hi am i reading this correctly that Thomsons have stopped ticket booklet with case tags and all ticketing will now be done by e-mail????ie e-ticket.

Correct.....we received an email which you print off, cost cutting I expect!.

Remember you can print of nice custom made HT luggage labels using the 'Holiday Tools' tab at the top of the page

cost cutting I expect!.

Costcutting? - they are all doing it. That's life in 2011.
We need to think ourselves lucky that Thomson aren't flogging off their decent aircraft and doing the
"Longhaul? - Just 29 inches but compensate you with one free drink" Thomas Cook game.

Hi just to clarify it seems that if you book at a Thomson Travel Shop or Travel Agents you still get tickets and case tags the e-ticket is for online booking.

I've never experienced "pressure" to give high scores on the questionnaire but I do know that any survey that contains adverse comments on the last page is separated from the ones with good/excellent scores. I criticised 2 members of the cabin crew on a flight from Paphos 3 years ago and expected Thomson to follow this up, nothing happened. Also on a recent flight from Kos, I witnessed member of cabin crew sorting the questionnaires into 2 separate piles, based on the contents of that back page. When she noticed she was being watched, she pulled the galley curtain across!

Does this mean that Thomson don't want to know if their customers were not happy with their holiday? Even if you are the No1 UK package holiday operator, it's no time to rest on your laurels.

TUI announces record profit but cuts capacity

TUI Travel made a record operating profit in 2011 of £471m, up 18% on the previous year, but announced it was chopping capacity by 9% for summer 2012.

It said its record earnings in the UK for the year ended 30 September were due to increased sales of differentiated and exclusive product.

However, it admitted 2012 would be a tough year, sales are running 11% down year on year, forcing it to cut capacity by 9%. But it insisted it would not follow rival Thomas Cook into the doldrums, saying the package holiday in the UK was "still alive and well".

TUI chief executive Peter Long said: "We are very pleased with our robust performance in 2011 and have delivered another year of profit growth, against a backdrop of unrest in key North African destinations and weak consumer sentiment in some source markets.

"The UK, Nordic region, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and Austria delivered record results. These achievements reflect the strength of our strategy to increase differentiated and exclusive product sales, increase controlled distribution with a focus on online to enhance our customer access and reduce distribution costs, and our delivery of the turnaround and cost efficiency programmes.

"We remain focused on this successful strategy and through our new business improvement programme we have self help measures in place to help offset the difficult macro-economic environment, including clear plans in place for Germany and France.

"In addition, we continue to strengthen our cash flow in order to fund the dividend and growth. All of which means that, even in the current challenging market conditions, we continue to operate from a position of strength."

TUI announced a final dividend of 8p per share, resulting in a full year dividend of 11.3p per share, up 3% on 2010.

With permission from Travelmole

Online holiday sales nudge ahead of high street bookings

TUI Travel admitted today that the company would close further high street shops as the internet becomes an increasingly important sales outlet for the business.

However, TUI is not planning widespread closures like rival Thomas Cook, even though agents now account for just 38% of its business while 40% comes via its website, said distribution director Nick Longman.

"There is no doubt we will see online growing, but travel agents will remain a very important sales outlet for us," added Longman. "We will continue to close shops where necessary but we are not looking at widespread closures and we believe High Street shops will continue to play a vital role in the sales process."

He said there was no danger the company would follow Thomas Cook in rapid closing high street shops as it is not suffering the same financial difficulties. TUI today announced an 18% rise in operating profit for 2011.

Longman pointed out the two companies operated very different business models. "Thomas Cook is primarily a travel retailer whereas we are holiday providers and we are focusing more and more on providing differentiated product that offer holiday experiences which people can't buy anywhere else," he said.

Differentiated holidays, such as Thomson Couples (aimed at 35-55 years olds), account for two-thirds of all its sales but the company is aiming to grow this to 80%, said Longman.

He said the company was excited by its long-term prospects beyond 2013 when it will become the first UK charter company to operate the Boeing 787, nicknamed the Dreamliner.

"With its increased range it will give us some exciting options, such as Vietnam. It can even fly to Hawaii, and the passenger onboard experience will be hugely different. With larger windows and mood lighting, passengers will suffer less jetlag. We are very excited about this."

With permission from Travelmole

hi there just wondered if anyone has had any problems printing the new e tickets off by thomson, after down loadind adobe reader, i still cant get any thing on my screen, its just blank! had to email them to my dads computer, and got him to print them off no problems. much rather have them in the post!

every now and again I try to open PDFs online and when the Adobe reader opens it shows nothing, so I have to start again. Sometimes it's easier to donwload them to my hard drive and then open them.

As the PDF has been emailed to you it ought to be simpler to get around. Do you click on it in the email to open it or have you saved it seperately first? Rather than have Windows open Adobe after you select the file do it the other way round. Save the file then open Adobe yourself then find the file in File/Open. The file itself seems to be OK if your Dad can use it, do you have the same system settings as him? Same version numbers?

TUI reports weaker UK bookings

TUI has reported an 11% drop in bookings in the UK for summer 2012 compared to last year.

In its annual report, the travel giant said the drop was partly down to a 9% reduction in UK capacity.

It has currently sold 19% of the programme in the UK market.

But TUI said average selling price is up 9%, partly reflecting cost inflation of approximately 5% and the higher proportion of differentiated products sold, which currently account for 65% of sales, up eight percentage points on last year.

Meanwhile, for winter 2011/2012 UK volumes sold since TUI's previous update are down 12%.

TUI said this highlights the later booking profile compared with last year.

"This slow down is being driven by the continuing issues in North Africa and a weaker consumer environment," it said.

UK winter capacity has also been reduced by 9%, mostly coming out of Egypt and Tunisia.

Booked load factor remains broadly in line with prior year at 48%.

Looking forward, TUI's report said: "We remain cautious about 2012, given the continued economic uncertainty in Europe, a slow recovery of demand to North African destinations and increased volatility in fuel prices and currency exchange rates," said the report.

"There is, however, every reason to believe that the demand for leisure travel will continue to experience robust growth in the long term. TUI Travel has already proved resilient in a challenging market environment and, with a heritage in leisure travel and a diverse range of experiences on offer, the company is well placed."

With permission from Travelmole