hi lou I don't use Thomas cook so don't know but I assume they are the same as other travel agents and do price matching. so what you do get the place you want online then print out the costing take it to the shop then they will do that holiday for the same cost.
I always use the shops because if you book online I find that if any thing goes wrong then most times the shops cant help you as it was done online.
and yes you still pay a deposit in the shop.

These days the on-line price and the in-store price seem very similar if not the same.

The real advantage of booking in store though is that you have a real person to speak with if there are any problems/issues/amends which there can often be (i.e.at the moment people are trying to cancel Egypt and book elsewhere since it kicked off in Cairo).

It means that if you do need things altered chased up etc it will be the store that will be hanging on the phone for 45 mins paying for the call and listening to muzack rather than you.

Doe

Don't know about Thos Cook - but our last holiday with Thomson, the shop COULDN'T match the online price - tried to offer us "cheapo" travel insurance as a sweetener -no interest to us as we have annual insurance.

Last time I used TC - which was 3 years ago, they were happy to price match. Whether they still do???

I've had a price match and free insurance offered before now, so it's worth negotiating, guess it depends on how their sales figures are going that month, it was a while back but it's tough out there so I think they try and remain competitive.

The Thomas Cook website use to be discounted so pretty much the price on line was our nett rate. They changed all this earlier this year and stopped discounting soo much online which gives us agents a real opportunity to sell their products and still make money on them whereas before you were making nothing.

Depending on the value of the holiday there is may be room to negotiate, even on late deals so worth asking around.
Remember though that most agents are only on about 9 - 11% commission so if the value is less than say £300 per person, i wouldn't expect it to be discounted.

leisurelad wrote:

The Thomas Cook website use to be discounted so pretty much the price on line was our nett rate. They changed all this earlier this year and stopped discounting soo much online which gives us agents a real opportunity to sell their products and still make money on them whereas before you were making nothing.

Depending on the value of the holiday there is may be room to negotiate, even on late deals so worth asking around.
Remember though that most agents are only on about 9 - 11% commission so if the value is less than say £300 per person, i wouldn't expect it to be discounted.

I think that's a good point that there will be a lot less room for manoeuvre on a £300 per person holiday than a £500 per person holiday, but even if it's cost neutral it seems better to use an agent incase something goes wrong. The after sales service seems to be superior with real people who you can talk to face to face than with after sales help lines, where there seems to be little continuity.

The real advantage of booking in store though is that you have a real person to speak with if there are any problems/issues/

I understand the point about being able to talk face to face to someone, if ever problems arise.
However, if it’s Thomas Cook selling a Thomas Cook holiday – or Thomson selling a Thomson/FC holiday – there’s a slight conflict of interest here.
One has to ask where the loyalties of the shop would really lie – with the paymaster, ie the operators - or with the little guy – the customer.

Also I’d feel more confident if I thought that the folk in the shops were really highly trained and experienced in the travel business
– a lot I’ve met are not.

And a further point concerns choosing and booking your holiday.
If you are busy with limited free time, I could understand you hoping that a travel agent will take the workload from you and find you the perfect holiday at the best deal.
But it’s unlikely a travel agent would be prepared to let you spend hours in the shop browsing alternatives, checking each out on review sites, etc, etc. They want to sell a holiday quickly and then vacate the seat for the next potential customer.
If you have the personal time, on-line research and booking can help you get a better holiday for a better price.

I'm not convinced that they all don't take time with you, it's not unheard of for agents to spend a couple of hours with a client or If busy be told after some discussions to leave it with them and they will spend time looking when they are free and either to pop back in later or call.

Obviously this is subject to each individuals skills and the travel Industry has changed since the days of Judith Chalmers. You are hardly going to get highly skilled service on £5.60 an hour minimum wage but then I would have thought that most intelligent folk would realise that, do their research themselves and then go in to book to get the good or matched price and after sales service and not expect the agent to do the decision making for them.

I don't see it's in anybody's interests for the high street travel agent to die out, so am glad that TC have removed their highly discounted web bookings (which were probably what was making them about to go under & thus leave a monopoly of one) to level the playing field.

TBH, I would still rather take my changes with the likes of TUI and TC than Travel Republic or onthebeach, at least the former are normally booking hotels they actually have contracts with & not some random bed booker who comes up with the best price on the day for a hotel that will probably overbook itself.

Each to their own I guess.

I always get the web price from the agents in our local Thomas Cook shop.
Thomson and First choice charge £5.
I always ask them if they can match the price and if they cant I will go to Hays.

Thomas Cook have a single pricing policy. Prices are the same whether booked online, in store or over the phone.
We used to spend ages with clients trying to find suitable holidays at the best price we could offer. They would go away, visit Thomas Cook, and come back with quote from them which was less than our nett. We all know what this eventually did to Thomas Cook. Unfortunately not without consequences for the small independents.
They stopped at that, and then brought in a single pricing policy at the beginning of the year.

I'd recommend going in the store and speaking to someone experienced who can look around on their PC and find the best deal for you. Prices will be the same but online can sometimes catch you out with hidden expenses and add ons. At least if you speak to a member of staff you can tell them exactly what you do/don't want an they'll sort you out.

One thing I'd say is that Thomas Cook are quite good at getting you to buy travel insurance with them. You'll be able to find it somewhere else a lot cheaper.

I always get them to remove the £25 transfer fee and get them to book it with Transfers4U at a third of the price!

There's no charge for transfers on a package holiday, unless it's a 'late' holiday when they are an optional extra.

I always take late holidays,usually bookng about 3 weeks before departure.

Yes, then transfers are an option you can opt in to if you want them.