package holidays......how to get best deals? any suggestions?

[Dave7]

Our situation is.......
Many years since weve done a package holiday.
We have chosen the hotel and approx dates.......2017.
At our time of life we dont want to attempt last minute....we want to book it, chill and know exactly what we are getting.
We have decided half board.
We have looked into booking the hotel direct & our own flights.....no savings.
The package only appears to be available through 3 major companies e.g Thomas Cook, Monarch & Jet2.

The difficulty is that most travel agents are in the same group i.e. Thomas Cook....Coop Travel etc.
We tried the one "independant" we can think of (Hayes)
Prices are within £20.00 of each other.

So.....is that it or are there any tricks/ideas to saving money ?

 

[screenman]

If the price is the same then it comes down to things like flight times, luggage allowance etc. Jet2 is always our preffered as to our normal destination we got out early and come back late, which almost gains us another day.

 

[ufkacbln]

My brother doesn't book!

He books his leave and the weekend before goes round the agents with some brilliant bargains

However unless you are willing to take that risk then you are at the mercy of the travel agents an companies

 

[screenman]

I have tried late booking over the years, but often I get a better deal buy booking early.

 

[vickster]

You can get some money back through Quidco if you book with Thomson, they often have voucher codes too. Might also be the case with Thomas Cook too

Unfortunately, with the state of Sterling, holidays next year are going to get more expensive not cheaper, accommodation, flights (fuel costs), car hire etc etc

 

[Mark Grant]

A friend books through teletext, he used to look on the telly, now it's online teletextholidays.co.uk or something similar.
One of his tricks is to book a flight on a Friday the 13th. For some reason alot of people are reluctant to travel on that day!
Go and return on a day other than Saturday, I've saved hundreds this way recently.

 

[midlife]

Someone at work has been looking for the last couple of weeks, they mentioned something about the possibility of additional surcharges after booking if the pound drops further

Shaun

 

[mjr]

MoneySavingExpert.com probably has a guide. Last minute deals used to be the best, the last time the pound was low.

 

[ColinJ]

I spotted a late deal in a local travel agent's window this afternoon ... £189 p.p. for flights from Manchester and 11 days in Benidorm in early December, based on two people sharing. Forget Benidorm itself, the cycling round that part of the Costa Blanca is very good and the winter weather is about as good as it gets in Europe - average of 6 hours sunshine/day in December, average temperature of 12 degrees (min 7, max 17), and only 5 wet days with rainfall totalling 2 cm ... tempting!

 

[slowmotion]

Avoid half-term and school holidays.

 

[SteCenturion]

Avoid half-term and school holidays.

& Rhyl .....


*the number of jabs you need is ridiculous*

 

[Dave7]

You can get some money back through Quidco if you book with Thomson, they often have voucher codes too. Might also be the case with Thomas Cook too

Unfortunately, with the state of Sterling, holidays next year are going to get more expensive not cheaper, accommodation, flights (fuel costs), car hire etc etc

I have noticed you mention quidco previously but I have no idea what it is.

 

[TVC]

Perhaps now isn't the best time to buy a holiday unless you think the pound is likely to drop further. I'd hold off until the spring when hopefully some sanity will have returned to the financial markets.

 

[vickster]

I have noticed you mention quidco previously but I have no idea what it is.

Cash back site

Quidco.com

 

[mjr]

Cash back site

Quidco.com

https://conversation.which.co.uk/money/quidco-cashback-sites-problems/ claims 1 in 20 transactions don't pay out.