My Rant on Package Holidays
By Darren Cronian on Sunday, October 16th, 2005

For those that are regular readers, you’ll probably realise that I’ve not had a good ole rant for sometime, so after surfing the net to find a cheap Winter break in the sun for my friend, I knew it was going to end up in a rant, it usually does when I’m searching for a holiday.

I wonder how travel operators get away with breaking the trade descriptions act in the UK, because it’s been said before that travel agents use tactics to get you interested then let you down when you get to the final price.

   Would travel operators charge you to sit on these beach seats?

I visited a travel site today, I won’t name the company in question, because to be fair, there not the only company doing this - on the homepage it said £114 for a weeks holiday in Costa Del Sol from Leeds & Bradford International airport - I thought yay.. cheap as chips!

The flight was early in the morning, and on a Wednesday, which didn’t bother my friend, and the hotel was 3 star, and looked very nice .. I clicked on the ‘Book this holiday’ button, which took me to a screen that told the final price for the holiday, and it had INCREASED from £114 to £264 for the week.

At first I thought it was an error, clicked the back button on my browser, and clicked the button again, but no to my disappointment the price had increased. Taking a closer look at the bill I realised that because he wanted to go on holiday by himself, and get some relaxation after a stressful period in his life, he was charged an extra £80, which always annoys the hell out of me, because why should you pay more for a room just because you are travelling on my own.

Then the next charge was for airport transfer, yes, they were charging him £70 to take him to the hotel from the airport, oh and there nice enough to take him to the airport from the hotel on the way home. What the hell happened with package holidays?! It’s gone crazy, not only do you have to pay for meals on a plane, you have to pay for someone to pick you up and the airport and pay because you want to travel alone.. Crazy!

If travel operators think they will be around in 10 years time they need to seriously look at their business model because if you can save £100 for a holiday for one week in Spain then people will start to look at alternative holiday sites and ditch travel agents before you can say ’soggy sandwiches’


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8 responses to “My Rant on Package Holidays”

carolmc | 16 October, 2005 at 6:43 pm

Just goes to show what good value can be had by cutting out “the middle man”

Colleen | 17 October, 2005 at 10:12 pm

Wow, that’s incredible and ridiculous! Great rant Darren. :) Good info should I ever decide to travel. Have never travelled. :(

Administrator | 17 October, 2005 at 10:17 pm

Colleen, yup I was fuming, that’s why I felt the need to rant hehe You should travel, especially since you work so hard. The way I look at is if I’m going to work my arse off for 12 months of the year, I’m damn well gonna have a holiday away from damp and dull England! haha

carolmc | 18 October, 2005 at 5:14 pm

Could not agree more with your sentiments Darren-two months to go before my next “sunshine fix” Yipee

Administrator | 18 October, 2005 at 7:15 pm

Carol, how long are you going to sunny Florida for?

carolmc | 19 October, 2005 at 6:25 am

Since 1991 - when we had, what we thought would be a holiday of a lifetime with our children. We fell in love with the place, and have owned a villa there for the last four years.

carolmc | 19 October, 2005 at 6:27 am

Oops , not sure if you meant how long for this trip?? if so then we are away for three weeks, in all. over Christmas and New Year.

Administrator | 20 October, 2005 at 8:28 pm

Yep, I was referring to how long you are going on holiday for - 3 weeks, excellent!