When I went last year First choice coaches looked old, I didn't use the transfer but people who I met said the airconditioning was a small fan stuck to the window. Just as easy to jump into a taxi only cost about £8 to £10 depending on distance, I always use a taxi gets to hotel about an hour before coach which drops of at other hotels on the way.

Joan 123

Thanks for that Joan, I will e-mail the hotel and ask them to send a taxi for us.

No need to email hotel you will be able to pick a taxi up at airport no difference in price. Always plenty of taxis available.

Joan

You can book your taxi before you go!!!!!
I go to Goa every year!!!

I can help

*edit to remove email as per T&C Briar

hiya,i am going on a nile cruise in may with my hubbie with first choice. we are going on the nile goddess and after looking on a lot of posts about nile cruises i was woundering if any one had been on one. a lot of people on here are saying that some trips of the boat are included in the booking price. im not to sure about this and was hopeing that some one had some idea how much the day trips are off the boat.

thanx

Northenstar

As per my posts in the Nile cruise section click HERE all food and drink is included on the cruise however you have to pay for any excursions you may wish to take as they are not included in the price

You won't get a reply yet from anybody that has done the Nile Goddess cruise on the MS Orchid, as this is the first year that FC are doing Nile Cruises & they haven't actually started yet.
The first cruise is due to start very soon so hopefully some feedback will filter through in the next weeks.

Graham

Hi

I am on holiday with First Choice at the moment.

Before we came our flight times were changes resulting in us having to pay extra for a hotel room at the airport.

Whilst on holiday six days before we are due to come home we have been informed that our flight time home has been changed yet again, also that we are going to have to travel via Gatwick to Manchester reulting in a 2 hour 50 minite flight becoming a 4 hour 45 minute flight. First Choice rep says they are allowed to do this. I have completed a complaints form and contacted First Choice inEngland but to date have had no reply. Any advice or experiences welcome .
Thanks

You have done the correct thing in speaking to the rep, and more important filling in a complaint form. Keep a record of any conversations and ensure you do not mislay your copy of the complaint form. Speak to other holidaymakers and find out what their views are. Get names and addresses. I doubt if you will get anything sorted before you come home. I would suggest that you contact Ros Fernihough when you get back prior to formally writing to the TO.

fwh

Vonmac,
picking-up on the first part of your post, could you explain please when you were first informed of the flight time changes, what the original date and time of the flight was meant to be and then the new date and time of the flight. I'm assuming the outward flight was changed.

Likewise, details please of the flight times for the return leg, before and after the change and again, when did they inform you of this change.

I expect the "detour" via Gatwick is permissible.

Thanks, Mike

Hi

Thanks for your responses.

I have filled in the complaints form and emailed First Choice head office a few times, to no avail.

They obviously aren't interested in solving this whilst we are on holiday.

We would not have come had we known about the flights home. They tried this last year, but it was before we left the u.k. We would not have come on holiday had we known the changes.

We certainly won't travel with First Choice again and we'll take the matter up when we get home.

Our FC flight to Sharm was changed at the last minute in November and we didnt get to know our return flight time until 2 days before we returned.I had to phone my daughter who was originally picking us up at 10.30pm to tell her it would be 2am when we arrived.I got my moblie phone bill and that call cost £11.80.I wrote to FC and yesterday I recieved a cheque for £12 from FC!.

Hi

Sorry to hear of your experience. First Choice seems to do what it wants.

It is the first time in over 30 years of travelling that we have had this done to us.

It is not so much the change of flight times it is the length of the flight that we are more concerned about.

We are fully aware that they can change the flight times and as long as it is within 12 hours of the original timing they are covered. However this doesn't help with our inconvenience and the costs we have occurred.

But to change a flight from 3 hours to almost 5 hour is a major change as far as we are concerned.

We choose this holiday because it was a 3 hour flight.

Dispite 3 emails to First Choice they haven't seen fit to reply or resolve the situation.

We therefore have no choice but to get this long inconvenient flight home and take it up with them for Breach of Contract upon our return.

Thanks for the info.

Vonmac

I think it is worth a letter to them upon your return but I don't see that they have breached any contract.

Dont think you will get anywhere as they can change the flights at any time.If they had given you less than 12 hrs notice you would have a case.

I have arrived home.

The 5 hour flight was awful. No film was shown, when asked why we were told flight was too short (almost 5 hours). We were not offered any drinks service for the last approximate 4 hours of the flight. Some may say that you should purchase drinks at the beginning of a flight, however, we never drink alcohol on flights and you can't purchase tea and coffee 4 hours in advance.

Finally to cap it all our suitcase got offloaded at Gatwick instead of Manchester so we had to wait for that to be delivered by courier.

I have spoken to First Choice since getting home and they say that they tried to obtain alternative flights, but none were available. I am not surprised as they cancelled the only direct flight to Manchester. There were flights available with Jet2.com, Monarch and MyTravel. They have informed me that if I now wish to seek compensation then I need to write to them. This I will do, as we would never have taken this holiday knowing that it was almost a five hour flight, and as far as I am concerned the length of the flight was part of the contract which we had. First Choice had up to 6 weeks before departure to cancel this holiday had they not had sufficient numbers (the reason we were given for the change).

I feel First Choice have a total disregard for customer service and feel that they can do what they want.

I will keep this site informed of the outcome.

Others thinking of travelling with First Choice please bear in mind our experience.
Vonmac

hi, i have a question about booking a first choice holiday! i have been looking at goa for december 06 and want ot go on the new first choice planes.

I have looked at eclipse and firstchoice websites but was wondering if any other agents use there planes to travel on? I trying to see if there is a better price for the hotel we want!

thanks!

Does anyone know when Eclipse/First Choice will release their summer '07 holidays?
I'm pretty sure I've booked in about April/May for the following summer in the past, does that sound about right?

I'm not having a holiday this year but will almost certainly be having one next year, definitely back to the Conrad, Sharm, and we want to book as early as possible!

Pippy

They should both be on sale mid-April, but don't have an exact date.

Excellent! Thanks.

Pippy