does anyone know if portland/thomson have a live chat service.if they do does anyone know the link.
thanks in advance tracey

SDon't think they have got that far yet Tracey.

However, I am sure it won't be long.

Kath HT Admin

I have been pricing up holidays to Crete for next June and there's a hotel which is on both the Thomson Platinum and Portland Direct websites. On Portland it works out almost £300 cheaper than Thomson. Its the same flights and I presume the same transfer coach. So is it worth paying the extra for the Thomson Platinum or are there extras we would miss out on if we went with Portland?

Hi Andy

I work for Thomson. In theory, I think you ought to go with Portland and save money. The only difference there may be is Thomson and Portland would have a different allocation of rooms. The Portland ones may be of a lower standard.

They each have their own reps (I used to for Thomson whikst friends were Portland, different uniform colours ect...) So the service in resort may also be different however, as discussed on the Thomson/Portland, are they the same company chat, who need to see their rep all the time!

We went to Mallorca with Portland this May.
Everything was Thomson, rep, kids club (even the kids t-shirts) trans etc.
It made absolutly no difference at our hotel.
Apart from I know I had a bargain and had that smug feeling

Thomson and Portland both belong to Tui they use the same flights, same reps and have the same service, the reason it is cheaper is because of the allocation of rooms - Thomson Platinum would have a better selection of rooms - however you will not get the same hotel int he Platinum brochure as you would the Portland brochure. The main Thomson one may over lap with them both, but all the hotels in the Thomson Platinum are exclusive to Thomson Platinum.

Lala
I think Andy may be referring to the Grecotel Rithymna Beach or Grecotel el Greco, which both feature as Thomson Platinum hotels as well as appearing in the Portland brochure. The platinum brochure says exclusive to the Thomson Group in the UK.

I used to work for Portland some time ago, and I have travelled with them many times. I have never experienced any problems with inferior rooms against the ones Thomson feature.

Andy,

I don't think you would get use of the Platinum Service Lounge if you travelled with Portland. I am not sure with regards to the priority coach transfer, as this would probably depend on how many people were staying at the hotel etc. However, if it was more cost effective for you to all travel together, then I am sure Thomson would do this.

Kath HT Admin

I too worked for thomson - just 6 months ago for a number of years, and i have worked in both of these hotels. It is obvioulsy a new things that these particular hotels are featuring in both brochures as they are completly seperate products - ie enhanced rep service ect offered with platinum.

These hotel do have rooms that are not part of the main hotel so maybe these rooms will be allocated to Portland - however I find it very unlikely that these 2 products feature in the same hotels, I have never known Thomson to overlap this way before.

We have just booked our 2006 hols, back to Riu Bachata in Dom Rep.
As this hotel is exclusive to Thomson we had to book with them or Portland and i am always a little uneasy about not seeing a real person when spending a lot of cash on a holiday!!!! So off i trudged to travel agents this morning.
We also looked at other Riu's so had a selection of prices the cheapest being around 2450 for 2 wks.
Thomson advised us that the property was not showing up on their system, only the other 2 hotels. We said that was very strange and could she check again....sure enough the Bachata was not on the system at all. The travel agent said....'maybe its not available any more' hmmmmm.
Anyway the travel agent asked us if we had a price. We said that Portland gave us a price that was 300 quid cheaper than anything we had on the high street. The agent said they could not match or beat this price because Portland are their sister company.

They have a lot of discounts available including 'beating ANY price on a thomson holiday found elsewhere' except it seems Portland Direct.

Just thought i'd let you know as we have now booked with Portland and saved £300. We actually saved £1000 on a price quoted from Cosmos.
All the prices seem really good with Portland despite all the high street offers.....keep shopping around!!!!
We paid £2100 for 2 adults and 11yr old for 2 weeks in May AI.....not bad i thought!!!

Hope the customer service with Portland continues to be OK!!

I thought you might like to know that we have travelled with Portland several times (have just come back from Cyprus after travelling with them. We have always found them to be excellent and in fact most of the time, we deal with the Thomson staff while away. Have a good hol.

At the beginning of December Thomas Cook TV had the Riu Merengue for £499 for 2 weeks and the Bachata for £529 for 2 weeks in May.I went with JMC to the Merengue which are now Thomas Cook so Thomson are not the only ones to use these hotels.I always use teletext pages when booking my holidays and pay a lot less for my holidays than I would by useing the same travel agent in the high street.I wish I was brave enough to book online as they are even cheaper.

yeh- Cosmos, thomas cook and first choice do the other 2 Riu's but i'm pretty sure the bachata is now exclusive to Thomson.

Hello JAYTRIP

Don't worry about booking online with any of the big tour operators (Portland, Eclipse, Direct or their parent companies). You get the same customer service and when on holiday, the same reps and contact numbers. I've booked my holidays online with all three of the direct sell companies and had no problems at all - and saved myself some money!!

we use Portland regularly. On long haul you get all the Thomson facilities anyway. We've booked to go to Dom Rep Breezes PC with Portland, we thought we got a good deal for 4 of us 2 ads & 2 kids for under 2K for 2 weeks on 01.06.06. We were really pleased with the price but have noticed it's even cheaper now (about £150). Still pleased with the price, any other tour op were at least £800 more.

Have had no problems with Portland either.
Pippa

I'm booked to go to Gran Canaria, staying in a hotel featured in the Thomson summer sun brochure. However, I've since seen somewhere I think would be nicer in the Portland brochure for not much difference in price.

Now my question is, seeing as both Thomson and Portland Direct are part of the same travel group, would Thomson allow me to change to the Hotel in the Portland Brochure (as it doesn't feature in the Thomson one) or not? I appreciate i'll have to pay any difference in price and more than likely a fee for changing my booking.

I feel i'm best off just giving them a call and asking.

I would say the answer would probably be no. However, give Thomson a ring as they may do the same hotel, but it may not show on the website.(I found sometimes that they seem to list only the hotels with more availability.) Good luck

Portland and Thomson are part of the same company TUI. However as you would be changing accomodation they may see this as a cancellation of the initial holiday and you may loose you deposit, or if you are lucky they may just see it as change of accomodation and will still have to pay the difference but also so much per person as the holiday is changing. Have a fantastic holiday at wherever you stay!