Thanks Pam
Thought there might be something I just hadnt clicked on!!!

We are booked for this year and I have my paper invoice with my break down on. The same holiday is still avaiable at a slightly cheaper price buit there are no free child places left (where we got one) Was just trying to see the costing at how it is cheaper without the free child place to see if it could help me get a better price on the holidays for 2008.

Thanks again

Came back from holiday on Thurs night and 2008 Eclipse brochure was on the doormat. Only had a quick look but they have changed the format and the pages seem even poorer quality than before, almost transparent.

Not much fun to browse through but I suppose they have to keep costs down somehow, especially now so many people book on-line.

Just a quickie to say how impressed I am with Eclipse/First Choice. I wrote them a small feedback email on Monday to say how unimpressed I was with the standard of the food at a hotel I recently stayed at, Ocean Resort in Tenerife.

Got a nice email back today (fastest response ever?), probably an amended standard reply, but it read well and said they would be taking the matter seriously, informing relevant overseas people bla bla bla and they were sending me £100 off voucher in compensation. I thought that was really good of them as I wasn't looking for compensation, more to inform them that I felt the standard of food was badly letting the hotel down and certainly not the standard I expect from a four star. The voucher is even valid for 18 months and alongside other discounts/promotions.

Well done Eclipse/FC, I feel like a valued customer again!

C xxx

I spotted a problem trying to get booking details at the Aqua Fantasy in Turkey, so reported the problem to the web team and it has been resolved. It turns out that not all the hotels are bookable through the web site but if I phone up their 0871 number sales line they will help me find suitable dates and prices for the other non accessible hotels. Looks like my last ever Eclipse holiday has already been booked - and taken!
The good thing about Eclipse is that they still have an accessible web support team although for how long as TUI have already cut access to the Thomson web team if one exists.

I spoke to the Thomson web team last week! Although they were a fat lot of good.

Eclipse are still my favourite!

anyone know when the summer 09 hol's will come out?

Prob middle of April.

I have been reading on other treads that eclipse direct will no longer be running after this season, are there any other good companys like them about as we have booked through these for the last 2 years as they are generally a few hundred pounds cheaper than first choice. .
I have looked into direct holidays before, and portland direct, but their prices never come anywhere close to eclipse, If anyone can help that would be great

Oh no! where did you read that?

I've booked with them for my last 5 holidays, I'll be really sad to go elsewhere!

C xxx

I think they are merging with thomsons, so is suppose they decided to scrap eclipse, as they have got their own direct company (portlands), though they dont come close to matching eclipse dierct on quality, choice of accomadationand priceand they always come out more expensive, I will be completyly gutted to if this is the case, as i was looking to book up for next summer in the next few weeks!

Had a letter this week- Eclipse direct will cease to exist and is just being amalgamated with FC. To be honest as far as online booking goes there hasn't been much difference in price of late. In the earlier days the savings were pretty big, but not any more. They are promising good value packages and discounts for Eclipse direct customers but we shall see!
Pam

So that folks dont get to despondant, I have had 4 or 5 holidays with both Eclipse and Portland, always went with who offered best value/accommodation I wanted. In some cases I found Portland cheaper for similar so it's probably swings and roundabouts.

The one thing that Eclipse did thought that Portland do not is offered a loyalty discount of 50 pounds if you took 2 holidays with them in a 12 month period. I took advantage of this a couple of times, and it was nice they rewarded loyalty. I can't see the new company carrying this on. But I guess time will tell.

Recieved a letter today from eclipse saying that as of april 2009 they will no longer exist, though they will shortly be issueing all their loyal customers a discount to use against holidays with first choice, hope they come through soon as i as hoping to book for summer 2009, will keep you posted if i recieve anything.

vicjayhay wrote:

Recieved a letter today from eclipse saying that as of april 2009 they will no longer exist, though they will shortly be issueing all their loyal customers a discount to use against holidays with first choice, hope they come through soon as i as hoping to book for summer 2009, will keep you posted if i recieve anything.

I got the same letter this morning. Apparently from April 2009 we will have "a bigger range of holidays at the keenest prices all in one place..."
They also say they'll be sending the new FC Summer 2009 brochure in the next few weeks - but it'll probably be a cut down version of the one you can pick up in the travel agents, and I doubt we'll get it on or before 17th April when the travel agents get it.
The letter also advertises Portland Holidays and there is a tear-off coupon to send off for some Portland and FC brochures.

Very sad about the First Choice merger with Thomson, although I have noticed Eclipse prices have been creeping up to match FC for a while now.

Hi Cyberspacekadette

Hope you had a nice holiday.

I got my letter as well this morning, even though I had already read about it on here. I'm already on Portland's mailing list as I have had 3 hols with them and 3 with Eclipse over the last few years. So I will probably be innundated. I'm not very loyal, I just go to who had got the right deal for me.

I have a bad feeling about these mergers though. Let's hope the fact that people are doing more DIY's keeps a bit of competition in the marketplace.

Doe

I also had my letter yesterday but I had been checking out prices for next easter and Eclipse were only a few pounds under first choice. My worry is had Eclipse increased their prices or have first choices been lowered . We will now never know as we can make no comparison.

I have a bad feeling about these mergers too . We are getting squeezed . We are now down to I think 3 main T/os selling under a variety of names . Thomson/first choice , thomas cook/my travel and cosmos (but can they carry on alone for much longer) . Aside from the smaller specialit companies Can anyone think of any more. We are going to have to work hard at finding a bargain for next year .

lyn

I will say portland are cheaper than than the thomsons brochure, but for family holidays with young children they just have'nt got such a wide selection or choice, eclipse would beat them everytime, we will have to see if portlands up their game for summer 2009 and improve their selection and lower their prices, because if not normal working class familys are going to find it harder and harder to afford a family holiday during school holidays!

Must agree Portland do have a very limited choice of hotels/apartments in each resort, in comparison to the Thomson & all the other Thomson spin off brochures and Eclipse/FC. Always found it frustration to see something in Thomson then check Portland and it wasn't there. I have used these both these companies specifically for holidays during the school summer breaks, as often I couldn't DIY any cheaper because of flight costs during the main six weeks. I agree it doesn't bode well for the future.

doepsmc wrote:

Always found it frustration to see something in Thomson then check Portland and it wasn't there.

I have found that problem with Portland in the past - and also a problem with Portland only offering child prices up to age 12 on most hotel accomodation, where Thomson sometimes offer the child price up to age 14, 15 or 16 at the same place - the total cost works out around the same We've only been with Thomson once (Ibiza last August) and had such a bad experience with long flight delays and poor in-resort rep service (advertised Thomson clubs/excursions not being available), I swore I would never use Thomson again (boy, did I swear about quite a few things...) although the hotel itself was fantastic.
Unfortunately our First Choice holiday to Crete this summer has now changed the flight to TOM - not happy but will grin and bear the flight, knowing it's still a First Choice team when we arrive at the hotel. Been on quite a few FC holidays now, and never had any complaints with them whatsoever, in fact I even sent an email to compliment the FC team at our hotel last Easter. I just hope the merger won't mean the FC resort staff will eventually become Thomson staff

lynwestie wrote:

We are going to have to work hard at finding a bargain for next year.

At the moment I'm looking at a holiday for next Easter, taking teenage daughter and her best friend. She is keen to go back to the fantastic First Choice place we went to last Easter. Browsing around I have found we can go with Travel Republic for 11 nights for not much more than the cost of booking with First Choice for 7 nights... Needless to say my finger is hovering on the button, waiting for daughter's best friend's mum to agree to cough up her share of the deposit