its terrible isnt it? why dont you consider doing a d-i-y holiday next year intead of booking through a travel agent? we now do this and find that apartments and flights are cheaper in doing so.

its a lot cheaper doing it diy but i've just checked on thomsonfly and they've changed my return flight and haven't even told me about it as of yet. thats the 4th change they've made in as many months!

It's so frustrating isn't it. If you complain they don't listen to you. Considering it's customers that pay their wages, it would seem that customers are the last thing on their minds.
Laurence

We've d-i-y'd it to the States probably 15 times over the years. Few problems - usually related to departing flights not leaving on time.

2004 and 2005 we used a package to Florida - problems galore in 2005.

This year (again) d-i-y to South of France.

You've so much more control. We use Easyjet and Jet2 for European travel and rarely have delays or hassle. In my opinion Tour Operators probably "sell" packages that in the early stages do not fully exist. As demand is identified they will "firm-up" on accommodation and flights resulting often in changes to advertised packages.

If you book early I think you're paying a deposit for a product that might very well be supplied as advertised but may be withdrawn/changed at a moment's notice simply through lack of sales.

Mike

Hi Mike

I think your last point is very important, and something for people like me to ponder. I have a few tour op brochures for Summer 2007, and it's only May 2006. It's possible that the contracts with the hotels role over from year to year (although things can change), but I'm sure the flight times are just based on this years programme.

As you say I could be putting a deposit on a holiday that doesn't exist yet.
Hi Laurence

It's a real pain isn't it, it's happened to me this year on a Portland holiday, a time chang and they have moved me to another carrier, nolonger thomsonfly but MYtravel. Nothing as bad as you have experienced though. The only thing is I don't think airtours would be any better all the companies seem to do the same

I know this is a little different because your talkin about flights but the comment about us booking holidays that the T/O dont even know exists yet is quite true. Last year we booked the Mirage hotel in icmeler based of course on previous good reports. I booked when the eclipse brochure came out in April/may. Around septemeber/october somebody posted on this site that the mirage was been knocked down and rebuilt as an A/I . A/I would do me fine I thought we would prefer that. so i assumed first choice/eclipse would give me the choice to cancel or upgrade. No such thing . When I rang them they were completely unaware of any of this and were still happily selling as B+B. News to us they said and luckily I had managed to get a member of staff that was ingrigued by the info i had given her. Off she went for a couple of days then rang me back. Yes its all true but we dont know what will happen about your booking. So I spent a few months wondering if my holiday was to be cancelled . In the new year I rang first choice again and spoke to the same lady who told me the mirage would be honouring the B+B bookings. Still didnt know what we were gonna find when we got there.
On the night of arrival once the rep had dissappeared we were told at reception "we have overbooked" we are putting you in another hotel for the nigh and as a token of our goodwill we shall be upgrading you to A/I at no extra charge and we will come and get you in the morning. spent a really sleepness night as you can imagine. But first thing next day there they were to come and get us.

So after my long story there , the moral of the story is
you can find out more accurate info here on HT than by the T?O you have made the booking with.

in our case it couldnt of worked out better which i had a sneeky feeling it would becaused once again after reading reports on here i knew the mirage were now completely A/I which is why i never pushed first choice too much.

lyn

Its good when it works out in the customers favour for once, (free AI ) even though you had a few months of concern.

I suppose if you book 14 or 15 months in advance, to get a low deposit, free kids place, particular hotel (like I do) it's a calculated risk.

I am always impressed with Mike's comments.

The one your post reminds me of, is that most tour operators will have problems from time to time, but it is the speed and competence with which they sort the problems out that really matters to the customer.