OK-officially through with the rob-dogs at Virgin...

[Hobbes]

We booked our holiday on 7th December with VH, but because they did not book our flights with VA until 29th December, we will have to stump up £100 to sit together. I am officially THROUGH with Virgin, I didn't mind paying a bit more for the customer service but as Branson appears to have been taking lessons from that other rob-dog Michael O'Leary and the service is now non-existent we are done!
So who does everyone else book with? We live in Derbyshire so would prefer Manchester flights-come on tell me whose good?

 

[flortlebap]

Thomson?

Virgin actually called to offer us an UC upgrade yesterday for our flight to NY this Friday... The "discounted" upgrade rate being more to upgrade from PE to UC than it was just to buy the tickets outright!

Anyway - yes they try and screw you, but it happens a lot with many airlines. You have to pay extra with plenty - Thomson included!

 

[Kath2003]

We booked our holiday on 7th December with VH, but because they did not book our flights with VA until 29th December, we will have to stump up £100 to sit together. I am officially THROUGH with Virgin, I didn't mind paying a bit more for the customer service but as Branson appears to have been taking lessons from that other rob-dog Michael O'Leary and the service is now non-existent we are done!
So who does everyone else book with? We live in Derbyshire so would prefer Manchester flights-come on tell me whose good?

You don't have to pay to sit together - you can gamble on getting seats together. From your sig, it looks like just the two of you so that shouldn't be too risky. Personally I would never pay money to ensure DH and I were sat together - with kids, it might be different.

Dozens of airlines fly to the US every day. Consider indirect for more options. Charging for seat selection seems to only be the British airlines, so spend your money elsewhere.

VH are another kettle of fish since they seem to have extraordinary prices when we want to travel. Last year, they wanted £3100 for flight and hotel - we got a flight (admittedly indirect) and the SAME hotel for £1100. Yeah, yeah, it added three hours to our overall travelling time and there's the security of booking a package but almost a triple the price? No, thanks. Oh, and we could select our seats for free at the point of booking...

 

[pickers1982]

Vh holidays are awful and expensive

 

[2Tiggies]

VH are another kettle of fish since they seem to have extraordinary prices when we want to travel. Last year, they wanted £3100 for flight and hotel - we got a flight (admittedly indirect) and the SAME hotel for £1100. Yeah, yeah, it added three hours to our overall travelling time and there's the security of booking a package but almost a triple the price? No, thanks. Oh, and we could select our seats for free at the point of booking...

Had this too when I was flight hunting last year. Because I was doing so many searches, targeted advertising on Google was having a field day with me. Of course I did click on some of them because you just never know, right? Same route, same dates .... best was nearly £700 more per rear end (economy if you don't mind) and had a few that were over £1k more. Yes that's excess over and above the prices I was finding and yes they were per person. There must be good deals with them as I see folk posting about them from time to time but I've never seen one for us, even with our flexible dates.

Hobbes, did you manage to cancel? I'm not clear on the final outcome of the whole VA malarky

 

[minimog]

We booked with thomas cook, at time of booking the exact same holiday was £1000 more expensive through VH!!

Last time DH and flew, we gambled on seats together & didnt book. Got to check in at manchester as soon as it opened and hey presto, free seats together. However on return, our hotel was the last pick up and we missed out. Because it was long haul, we upgraded to extra legroom and sat together. So, this time we pre booked seats together, cost us £60 for the 3 of us bith ways. Worth it for us as dd will be 5 and we can share entertaining her!

Thomas cook seem to fly between 9-10am to mco. I think its more or less daily in high season.

 

[Elise79]

I haven't used VH since 2009 - they are just too expensive. In fact I haven't booked a package since then either - DIY all the way

VH & VA are separate companies - they just share a first name.

I will fly VA and TBH we haven't had any issues with them. I like the flights and are generally our first choice airline

I like booking everything myself - I know it's booked and it's exactly what I want. I am a control freak though

Oh and I would be going back to VH (maybe through Facebook) and complaining until they gave me a £100 discount to cover the cost of pre-booking seats - unless you booked more than 11 months in advance then it's not their fault as VA only take bookings 336 days before the return flight and VH just pre-sell their allocation.

 

[chmurf]

We go DIY.
TAs are usually only a bunch of crooks. The only TA we are willing to deal with is WDTC direct as they're the "real thing".

Flights are booked with Expedia (or the likes, whoever is reputable enough and offers the best price).
Accomodations are booked direct with either WDW or Universal, additional tickets through Atractions-Direct. Cars are booked direct with the renter (usually Alamo), additional accomodation either direct with the hotel or hotels.com (and the like)

I've used a TA twice, and twice it has cost me more money for a non-existent service. And it has taken me more time (and even more money on offshored customer service calls) to have them fix their errors than it has taken me time to plan and book my other trips myself.

As you may have guessed, I'm all for DIY. I know sometimes it might sound daunting to do it all, but once you know what you want, it's just as fun to shop around. And contrary to popular belief, it does not take more time and effort to do it yourself. Actually, in my experience, it took less time to book DIY than to argue with a TA.

This really hit home a couple of years back, when I had an issue with a flight+hotel booked with a TA. I had an issue with the flight. Couldn't get the TA to make it right. After a few weeks of unsuccessful contacts with my TA I called the airline, and the airline told me that they saw where the problem was, and they could fix it in a matter of seconds, right now, but since it was a TA booking they were not allowed to, and I had to call my TA. It took another couple of weeks of calls, every other day, on a non-toll free number (.34euros = 28p a minute) and legal threats to have them do the job I had paid them for.

The lesson I've learned is that booking with a TA is often easy and hassle free, but when it goes wrong, you're alone, and it will eventually go wrong one day or the other.
So, if, in the end, you need to do the job yourself and tell them how to do it, or pay extras because they made a mistake somewhere, then might as well do it yourself from the start.

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

Back in the old days we always booked with a TA, then after the birth of the tinterweb it's always been DIY. We're lucky in that I work part time and can afford to spend plenty of hours searching for the best deal for us.lots of people here have booked with Complete Orlando, they may be worth looking at.
As PP have said Virgin have just joined the list of other companies where you can pay to sit together. Virgin fly the 747 so I would be pretty confident that if you didn't pay you would still sit together.

 

[duffdo]

Have used WDTC several times now. They worked out much cheaper than VH and only slightly more expensive than DIY. Had an issue on my last trip, I received my Mickey Mail (holiday documents ;-)) and they had us booked on a return flight the day after we checked out of SSR! All of the invoices etc were correct, just the e-tickets had us flying back November 21st instead of November 20th! I called them and was on the phone for ages. I even offered to stay an extra night but they were having none of that ;-) Anyway, we ended up losing the seats we pre booked and I kept having to chase them over sending replacement e-tickets which only arrived the day before we travelled!

Anyway, I decided to send WDTC a letter of complaint. I had been stressed out by the way the whole thing had been handled. They confirmed receipt of the complaint by email straight away but I am still yet to hear anything four months later. An apology was all I was expecting.

Anyway, as a result of this I will shop around before using WDTC again as I feel I was let down by their customer service!

 

[1nfrequent]

I'd echo the recommendations to DIY. It does take more work (and I do actually compare them against TAs - including BA Holidays to make sure I get the best price) but in general I think I've always saved around 500 quid more than going through a package. (I'll caveat that by saying I go solo so there's usually an element of single person supplement to my holidays but if there's 2 of you, you should do better)

United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Airlines all go from Manchester so it's worth looking at their indirect flights because although you will generally pay more for December flights (high season - lot of people trying to get home) but that period between Thanksgiving and Christmas can see you get a decent deal on hotels because it's a bit of a no-man's land (in my experience anyway - the Parks tend to be very quiet). Check out Trivago to see who's doing the best deal on the internet for where you want to go.

Hope it goes well for you and sorry you're having such issues.

1F

 

[2Tiggies]

Have used WDTC several times now. They worked out much cheaper than VH and only slightly more expensive than DIY. Had an issue on my last trip, I received my Mickey Mail (holiday documents ;-)) and they had us booked on a return flight the day after we checked out of SSR! All of the invoices etc were correct, just the e-tickets had us flying back November 21st instead of November 20th! I called them and was on the phone for ages. I even offered to stay an extra night but they were having none of that ;-) Anyway, we ended up losing the seats we pre booked and I kept having to chase them over sending replacement e-tickets which only arrived the day before we travelled!

Anyway, I decided to send WDTC a letter of complaint. I had been stressed out by the way the whole thing had been handled. They confirmed receipt of the complaint by email straight away but I am still yet to hear anything four months later. An apology was all I was expecting.

Anyway, as a result of this I will shop around before using WDTC again as I feel I was let down by their customer service!

The package bookings with WDTC are handled by a separate office (based in the UK I believe) to the room and tickets bookings. I have had no issues at all with using WDTC except for the one year when I booked a flight inclusive package through them. At the time it was being handled by Openride on behalf of WDTC (offices which they appeared to share with VH, which explains things). It put me off booking an all inclusive package if I can avoid it, but my experiences with the ground reservations have been vastly different and very pleasant.

 

[duffdo]

The package bookings with WDTC are handled by a separate office (based in the UK I believe) to the room and tickets bookings. I have had no issues at all with using WDTC except for the one year when I booked a flight inclusive package through them. At the time it was being handled by Openride on behalf of WDTC (offices which they appeared to share with VH, which explains things). It put me off booking an all inclusive package if I can avoid it, but my experiences with the ground reservations have been vastly different and very pleasant.

I don't think they use Openride any more. There was certainly no mention of it on the documentation from my last trip, whereas it was all over the invoice from my 2011 trip. I'm sure it was just a blip. I just expect A LOT from Disney and am used to them delivering it. I will still look at giving other holiday companies a shot provided their price is competitive enough but am not put off WDTC all together.

 

[higgy66]

I'm sorry but I don't see how this should affect your booking and why you should now have to pay £100?

You booked a package with VH on the 7th December. How they do their internal reservations is down to them but if they choose to book your seats two weeks later & there's an additional seat reservation cost then they should stand the £100 as they should have booked your seats upon confirmation.

If 48 hours later you had noticed you'd given the wrong spelling of a name etc you can guarantee they would have told you the flights were booked and there was an admin fee!!

I would speak to a supervisor and explain you pay a premium to book a package with a confirmed price. I understand they can charge if Airport duty and fuel rises go up but you really should stand your ground wit this one and say you booked 07.12.13 and you're now being penalised by their tardiness.

I'd also be checking if the price of your flights had gone down in the boxing day sale as I bet they haven't passed that on to you?? Seems to me thats why they waited which is very naughty of VH as the flight could have got full!!!

 

[Nicnic]

We booked our holiday on 7th December with VH, but because they did not book our flights with VA until 29th December, we will have to stump up £100 to sit together. I am officially THROUGH with Virgin, I didn't mind paying a bit more for the customer service but as Branson appears to have been taking lessons from that other rob-dog Michael O'Leary and the service is now non-existent we are done! So who does everyone else book with? We live in Derbyshire so would prefer Manchester flights-come on tell me whose good?

We book hotel with WDWTC and flights direct with VA but as you mention, it's now going to cost to select our seats, adding £200 to our flight cost!
I can't take the risk of not sitting together, I would imagine VA would have to seat 1ad and 1ch together but my youngest DD would want to go between me and DH, wherever he may be with the eldest DD!
I will still look at VA and if they are a good price I may still book with them as we prefer to go direct and can choose Manchester or Glasgow as were from Newcastle so either way is only 3 hours and if we're going when Scotland schools are not off, it can sometimes be upto £1000 less than going from Manchester!
I looked at Aer Lingus from Newcastle which would be perfect but they were soooooo expensive. Some say try flying into Tampa, I will keep that it mind next time too.
I've priced Thomson before and they were ridiculously priced, plus we don't hire a car from the airport so by the time you added baggage and transfers and seats they were way more than VA.

 

[2Tiggies]

I don't think they use Openride any more. There was certainly no mention of it on the documentation from my last trip, whereas it was all over the invoice from my 2011 trip. I'm sure it was just a blip. I just expect A LOT from Disney and am used to them delivering it. I will still look at giving other holiday companies a shot provided their price is competitive enough but am not put off WDTC all together.

No they aren't using Openride anymore; you are correct. The point I was making was that it affected my willingness to book a full package vs room and ticket.

 

[DLPDreams]

I have read time and time again that flight only with Thomas Cook and Thomson (partic if you get the dreamliner) are very good. TC out of Manchester is meant to be good, but I couldn't tell you about price.

I haven't been able to see the 'pattern' to the best time to book with charters - it seems a very different ballgame to schedules who do 'sales' at times in the year where you can sometimes be lucky to get a good price.

My friend is a TA, and while I am not booking with her, she has given me some tips. She said charters tend to be a good price at day of release, then can shoot up in price very quickly. Sometimes they reduce again about a month after release but rarely do they go down in price as much as schedule can do. Having said all that, she told me to take it with a pinch of salt as I am wanting August flights, which quite frankly, is anyone's guess on how that will go. Most flights for August this year are sold out .

I am prepared to book at release (which is soon) if the flights are within my budget and then (try) not to look again and hope for the best! Perhaps this could be an option for you in future - if you know release date. I know not everyone likes their flights booked so far in advance though, and clearly it is a lot of money to pay out in one go. Not sure if TC do fly drive, which could be an option with deposit - I know Thomson do this.

Have to say, I feel more and more disenchanted towards Virgin as well - not sure what it is really - I just read about their service and the way they fly the British flag (when it suits them), and it makes me feel uncomfortable. Perhaps they should change the name to 'Necker Atlantic' .

 

[Elise79]

We booked our holiday on 7th December with VH, but because they did not book our flights with VA until 29th December, we will have to stump up £100 to sit together. I am officially THROUGH with Virgin, I didn't mind paying a bit more for the customer service but as Branson appears to have been taking lessons from that other rob-dog Michael O'Leary and the service is now non-existent we are done!
So who does everyone else book with? We live in Derbyshire so would prefer Manchester flights-come on tell me whose good?

Have done some maths on you are travelling around 29 November according to your ticker. In this case it would not have been possible for VH to confirm your flights with VA until 29 December.

I would still be asking for a discount to cover the cost of pre-booking the seats however there was no delay in them booking your flights as they are open for booking before the 336 day mark.

I'm sorry but I don't see how this should affect your booking and why you should now have to pay £100?

You booked a package with VH on the 7th December. How they do their internal reservations is down to them but if they choose to book your seats two weeks later & there's an additional seat reservation cost then they should stand the £100 as they should have booked your seats upon confirmation.

If 48 hours later you had noticed you'd given the wrong spelling of a name etc you can guarantee they would have told you the flights were booked and there was an admin fee!!

I would speak to a supervisor and explain you pay a premium to book a package with a confirmed price. I understand they can charge if Airport duty and fuel rises go up but you really should stand your ground wit this one and say you booked 07.12.13 and you're now being penalised by their tardiness.

I'd also be checking if the price of your flights had gone down in the boxing day sale as I bet they haven't passed that on to you?? Seems to me thats why they waited which is very naughty of VH as the flight could have got full!!!

If my maths above is correct VH couldn't have physically booked the flights any earlier as they wouldn't have been released. VH also have a set allocation on the flights unlike most other TAs therefore the seats they sell are guaranteed.

I agree VH should do something here however the really was no way they could have booked any earlier with VS.

 

[wayneg]

TC out of Manchester is meant to be good, but I couldn't tell you about price.

We are trying them for the first time this year. I wanted a one way flight from MCO to MAN,
VA wanted $1,499pp
I booked TC for just over £200pp.

 

[Disney Frenhines]

Travel City Direct are owned by Virgin, yet, they were £400 cheaper for the identical holiday at the end of October, the same thing happened a couple of years ago and the extras, such as PE, tickets and DDP were also cheaper, you have to pay for transfers and DTD check in, but, they are tiny extras compared to the difference. It's a case checking and re-checking the websites as it doesn't always happen that way.
I have just booked my first DIY holiday to go in just 7 weeks and I'm delighted, I had enough VFC miles to cover economy return flights to Orlando, only having to pay taxes (grrr) and I work for Travelx who have a staff website that offers cashback and discounts, including Disney and Virgin, but, I went through Expedia and got 12% cashback on 13 nights at Pop Century, paying only £890 for the rooms, as AP holder for both WDW and US I have paid the grand total of £1106 for two weeks at Pop Century as a solo traveller for mid May, so very happy. I just ordered stuff from Garden Grocer, who I've used before and recommend and got 32 x 16oz bottles of water for $7.99 as well as lots of other stuff to eat and as I did it more than 30 days out I got a 7% discount there. It's understandable if you are not a regular traveller to go by packages and to be honest, you are covered more legally, but, with companies such as Disney and VA you are looking at companies that are unlikely to go bust anyway. I still cannot believe I decided to go this Saturday and had it all sorted and linked to My Disney Experience by Tuesday so have even sorted FP+. Very happy bunny.