On 12th April I'll be busy getting ready to fly out to Gran Canaria (with Eclipse of course), I may get chance to nip out shopping that day so I'll pick up a First Choice brochure if they have any in the branch, just to give me an idea, but I probably won't book until after we get back from GC on 23 April. I'm also interested in a particular hotel with Thomsons for next year - so I'm waiting for their summer 07 brochure to come out too.

http://www.eclipsedirect.co.uk S07 holidays are now online!

At the moment I can only see them via the fast booking link on the right hand side of the main page.

you can book summer 07 holidays with first choice online now.

Double check the prices with both First Choice and Eclipse.

I have just priced a Holiday on FC and then thinking it would be a bit cheaper on Eclipse went to their site and it was more than £200 dearer.

First Choice = £4442

Eclipse = £4657

I agree, always best to check

The holiday I'm after was cheaper with Eclipse though.

Pippy

just booked for the hotel elpaso at portaventura 2 weeks oct 2007,phoned eclipse and paid low deposits £30 each,first choice would have charged £15 per person for booking over the phone this would have been £90 for my family,i dont see how they can justify this,when eclipse is owned by first choice anyway.we have travelled with first choice?eclipse since 2003,but if eclipse was going to charge the fee they would have lost our custom

Morning HT members

I have been perusing over their website and found a holiday to Egypt for next September.

It appears that the discount is £159.76 which includes £90.00 online discount. I am in such a dilemma as their holiday price is cheaper than first choice. I rung FC to clarify if they could 'price match' the offer and they clearly stated 'no'.
Eclipse price is £1306.00
FC price is £1387.04 but they will charge me Manchester flight price instead of Birmingham which is £1337.36. I am thinking for that extra £31.00 should I book FC and have face to face contact to clarify issues or give it a go with Eclipse.
Eclipse will charge me £130.00 deposit each and FC low deposit. I prefer the low deposit has I have 2 holidays to take yet anyway

What should I do

kind regards

Kazee

PS this would be my first time of using Eclipse.

Print off your cheapest quote with Eclipse and then go into the First Choice shop and they will price match it.

All of the Travel agents seem to price match now and Eclipse are a well known company so don't think they will try and get out of it!

Hi Kazee

It's a difficult one.

I used Eclipse twice last year booking on-line and once in 2004, I think that time I booked over the phone with them.

On all three of these holidays I had no probs whatsoever and never needed to contact them again after making the inital booking. All paperwork came through on time, tickets etc. The hols were all in Europe.

This year both of my holidays are with Portland only because Eclipse/FC didn't do the hotels.

I think if it's a hotel/apartment that is well established you will probably be OK. Most of the problems seem to come with new builds ie like Kos AB Club (I would prefer somewhere to be in its 2nd or 3rd Season at least).

Another consideration might be if your travelling somewhere unusal (politically unstable ) or somewhere you haven't been before.

I do think though that if something does go wrong before you go, it's desirable to be able to go and talk to a person face to face. You seem to get a better result than talking (shouting, crying etc ) down the phone to someone.

Let us know what you decide.(what hotel is it?)

phone eclipse direct,they definatly do low deposits on all holidays if booked early enough,ive done this for next year twice already,it also states this on the back of the brocure.

A lot of people are booking at this time and so it is a nightmare trying to get to Eclipse on the phone to sort anything, but it does eventually get done.

Watch out as the price on phone quotes is higher than on the web.

FC told us they would price match the printed quote but they could not take into consideration multiple holiday discounts so we stayed with Eclipse although I have had to deal with First Choice all the time for everything except the multiple holiday discounts. There is no eclipse customer services, only first choice.

If you are playing on the web and it is an AI hotel, try various ways of getting to it, ie leaving soon, holiday search, All Inclusive and any other way. For some reason they sometimes come up with different prices and have always been honoured.

How do you actually manage to get different prices for the same holiday. Is it by doing different room combinations or something like that? Or is it putting in exactly the same info.

its always a good idea to play around with the room types with Eclipse . We have been quoted for a family room on the internet which obviously eclipse/first choices system decided we needed for our family but when i unticked the family room box and put in 2 x twin rooms it was £900 cheaper

lyn

Where was that for Lyn, was that an AI hotel? Thats a huge difference and I would prefer 2 rooms to a family room anyway.

hi doepsmc - yes that was the sun city the year before last - they do rooms for 5 there but the t/Os charge big supplements for those rooms £900 supplement in our case to be precise. i eventually booked with tulip who charged me a supplement of £0 . My dear friend who is also booked for the sun city with eclipse. (shes going in July) also played around with the rooms types and didnt accept what the computer gave her and saved a few hundred. so its always worth checking . i think you get this with the sun city because they have quite a lot of different room types . it really depends on the ages of your children and whether you would be paying adult prices anyway for them . . now we pay 4 adult prices so there is no point in putting us all in one room with a big supplement for the previlage. We have the 2 adults required for each room.

lyn

Hi Doe
We actually covered this in the FC thread I think, but decided that using the website one way such as leaving soon, appears to give the First Choice price, but clikcing on All inclusive and selecting the date and destination and then hotel appears to give the Eclipse price for the same holiday. Seemed the simplest way to describe what was happening and it tied in with the figures.

Also, do check the room allocations and try all suitable combinations as they do vary greatly, this year the difference was nearly a grand for the privilege of sharing a "suite" over the cost of 2 doubles.
Don't forget you have to add sitting together in most instances and also remove the charity contribution.

Last year in Sharm we went for the cheapest rooms and were not that impressed until we spoke to a couple just along from us who were very happy and had paid extra for the seaviews, so we had ended up in the "better" rooms anyway.

Another trick is to use a spreadsheet and do the pricing individually to see how much is being added so you an make the one booking. we found that came up cheaper and so Eclispe refinded the difference.

Hi
what a nightmare booking for next years holiday. I had chosen the resort and the hotel but eclipse were coming out £87.00 cheaper than FC on their internet price.
Problem was that Eclipse wanted £260.00 deposit where as FC low deposit.
I was reluctant to go on the internet and give my personal bank details and asked if I would lose there £90.00 offer. Replied Yes, I explained that I may as well book with FC then.
As a result, eclipse would only charge me £40.00 for booking over the phone. Yes saving of £50.00 and also low deposit of £30.00 pp.
Checked with FC to see if they could price match this, as I was dubious about using eclipse due to previous threads about not being able to contact eclipse sometimes over the phone.

FC rung me back 5 mins later and price matched eclipse.

Fantastic result
Although when eclipse rung me back they were not too pleased.
Just goes to show that you have to shop around and barter, just like being on holiday

kazee

Well done Kazee. I'm sure they are still making a profit. So better the cash in your pocket than theirs.

Thanks for the advice on different prices. I do try different room combis.

One to try if you have one child under 12 & one at adult price is to book a triple and a single (if your a family of 4).

NB This only works if the single room supp is low. It means you get 2 rooms, but still get a child price for your youngest in the triple. Whereas in 2 twins you have to pay for the child as an adult. (you all then fight over who gets the single room :lol:)

Didn't know about using the drop down and AI menus tho so

After a lot of consideration I haven't booked my Summer 2007 holidays with Eclipse. The prices were reasonable but they didn't come anywhere near those offered by Portland and Direct, so better luck next time!