Where have I been? Will try to be more active again!
Where have I been? Will try to be more active again!
Member since:07.11.2004
Reviews:55
Members who trust:35
We decided fairly easily on WHERE we were going to go on our first official family holiday. When DS was only 3 months old, we quickly made the decision to go to a Beaches in Jamaica. By the time the trip would arrive, he would be 15 months old. He was born 9 months after our SandalsRoyal Caribbean trip and we thought the best place to take our Sandals Baby was to the family Sandals resort. I knew a few things about the Sandals/Beaches resorts since we have been to a few and part of the Signatures Returning Guests programme. One of the things I knew was that tour operators CANNOT reduce the rate of a room unless Sandals/Beaches does it. So, ALL tour operators HAVE to price the rooms exactly the same way. The difference in prices have to do with the flights themselves. Thus, when I compared prices, I was actually looking at the flights themselves- times, leg room, price, etc. When compared, First Choice offered a PREMIUM service with more leg room and better in-flight service than the compared airlines of Air Jamaica and Virgin. So, it was based on that, that I began the booking process.
~Price Comparison and Booking~
We used the online site to do all our price comparison and booking, www.firstchoice.co.uk . The online features are easy to use and you can easily add on or take off whatever features you want in your holiday. I was easily able to put together the holiday I wanted, save it and then use it to compare with other tour operators. When I made my final decision, I could easily go back to it in my favourites and continue with the booking process. The booking process itself was quick and easy and took about 15 minutes for the entire process. A deposit of approx. £300 was taken immediately from our credit card. Within 7 days we received written confirmation of our booked holiday and all the details of the holiday. By using the confirmation number, we could easily go back to the website and look at our booking. 11 weeks before the holiday, we received a reminder that remainder of the balance
was due and we, again, used the website to pay the reminder that only took a few minutes. If you so choose, you can go online to your booking and pay small portions as you want to. I found their online features very easy and you get a discount on the holiday if you book online rather than by phone or in person.
Our tickets arrived 3 weeks before the holiday in an easy to use coupon booklet that included some useful information.
~Check-In~
Since we did have a 15 month old with us and it was a morning flight, we decided that we wanted to do the day before check-in. So, a few weeks before the holiday I rang the customer service number posted on the website. It cost £5 per adult. This gave us the capability to go the day before the flight (between Noon- 10 pm) to check-in, get our boarding cards and check-in luggage. There was a designated area for this. It took a total of 15 minutes for us to park, get into departures, check-in and get back to the car! WOW! We were impressed by this feature and thought it WAS worth the £10!
~Boarding~
This is where things began to go haywire!!! Upon arrival at the airport, we noticed that it was chaos! Apparently, Manchester airport had a power cut that morning and everything was a bit crazy and flights were late. First, we were GLAD that we had done the early check-in because check-in that morning was a NIGHTMARE! All of the First Choice flights were going out about 1 hour late. Not a problem! I can understand that. However, 3 HOURS LATER!!!! We were just boarding our flight! I was not impressed. When we asked the FC representatives about the problems happening and when we should expect to depart, they just shrugged their shoulders and said they didn't know. I found this completely unacceptable! Finally, we were taken by bus to our plane, boarded and tried to settle. I noticed quickly that something was wrong. We were in Premium Star Class and should have been given a drink quickly after boarding and before take off. This did NOT happen! The plane inched a few feet stopped and the captain came on over the PA to say that there was a technical problem and they we could not fly until it was fixed. 2 ½ hours later the problem was fixed. BUT, the pilots would be over their 12 hours if they left because the flight was 9 ½ hours and it would be illegal!!!! WHAT?? I had a 15 month old baby who was getting restless and hot and they were NOW telling us, 5 ½ hours after we should have left that our flight was CANCELLED!!!!! YES, CANCELLED for 24 hours!!!! They left us on the plane for another hour so they could sort out WHAT they were going to do with us. Eventually, we were bussed back to the airport and given £6 per adult in vouchers to get some food. (Which there was little choice for such a small amount of money!) Again, we waited another 1 ½ hours before they figured out which hotel they could send us to. Finally, at 5:45 we arrived at the Brewley Hotel near the airport for the night. As we were checked in we were told when we could have our evening meal. Guess what? Yep, that is right! 6 pm!!! 15 minutes to get to the room and then get back down to eat. Well, the baby was exhausted, hungry and crying and there was no way he could have endured a restaurant. So, I had to go down and get the food to take to the room. The next morning they had a bus to take us back to the airport. However, we didn't want to have to endure ANOTHER bus ride with the baby and took a taxi to the airport. There we had to RECHECK in and make our way to departures.
Amazingly, this flight was 40 minutes late because of a domestic dispute with a couple on the flight that resulted in one person leaving the plane!
The flight itself was very nice. The flight attendants were excellent and very helpful to us with our son. On take-off my son wet through his nappy and through my clothes causing me much distress. The flight attendant saw my distress and when I explained she helped me out. As soon as the seat-belt sign went off, she help the toilet for me so that I could be the first in to change my son and myself. The in-flight entertainment system was fantastic and the Premium Star Class Seats were big, lots of extra leg room and comfy. It cost us about £400 total more. However, we felt that the money was worth it. The food was very nice and unlimited drinks were easily received as was water and juice for the baby.
~Landing~
Landing was uneventful and departure from the plane was easy. However, I was not impressed by the First Choice Reps. I saw a FC rep and asked him for help and he said that MY FC rep would meet me at the resort. WHEN? WHAT TIME? Umm… ummm… umm…. Don't know mon'! This was an omen for things to come.
~Holiday~
We choose the Beaches Negril Resort because we like the Sandals/Beaches resorts. We KNOW we will be taken good care of and I had little concerns and we got what we expected from the resort (see my separate report on this).
~Holiday Reps~
We were not contacted by the holiday rep until the following day. All she did was ring to say that she was leaving my son's backpack at the front desk and if I needed anything to ring her. Fine! As we got into our 2nd week of our holiday, it became increasing apparent that Jamaica was going to be hit by HURRICANE DEAN!!!!!!! People from Canada and USA were leaving in droves. We tried to get in touch with our FC Rep and no one answered the phone. We finally got a call from a BEACHES rep who said that the FC rep had called and was sending us a fax and she would personally bring it to us when it arrived. Did we get the fax? NO!!! The BEACHES REP came and found us to tell us that she had not received the fax and that she had been unable to get in contact with the FC rep. So, with the help of the Beaches Staff, we settled in for the long-haul of Hurricane Dean with still NO contact from the FC rep!!!! Hurricane Dean came and went and there was a lot of confusion about flights that were going out. The hurricane passed through Sunday evening and Monday morning. Our flight was suppose to be on Tuesday. So, as soon as I could on Monday I started ringing FC. No answer! I rang and rang and rang and still NO ANSWER!! I rang the BEACHES rep and she tried to get in touch with NO luck! We finally rang friends in England and got them to get in contact with FC here in England. They were not much more help as they were not completely sure if the flight was leaving on Tuesday. Finally, on Tuesday at 9 am we were able to get in contact with someone who could tell us that the flight WAS going out that day.
~Jamaican Airport~
The Jamaican airport was a bit of a mess because the conveyor belts had broken down and they didn't want to check us in!!! WHAT? Finally, after 20 minutes they decided to check us in and put the luggage on the belt until it started moving!
~ Flight Home~
The flight home was a very good flight. It was much like the flight out with great seats, good food and very attentive flight attendants. I could not fault them at all and was again happy that we had booked the Premium Star Class. On the flight home, we were constantly told that we would be met by FC reps at the airport to answer any of our questions. I had PLENTY!!! But, when we arrived at the airport, we were just handed a letter with the customer service number on it to ring!!! They would not answer any questions we had! FRUSTRATING!!!
~Departure From the Airport~
As we left customs, there were LOADS of tv and newspaper reporters waiting for us. We had been the first flight to arrive back home after the hurricane and they wanted interviews. I was in NO mood to be interviewed and kept going straight ahead ignoring the reporters.
~Customer Service~
The next day I rang customer service. It took me 4 tries to get a LIVE person because if you followed the menu as it suggested, it just said to write all complaints down and send it to the given address. I DID NOT JUST want to write it down. I WANTED to TALK to a live person!!!!!!
Eventually, I was able to talk to someone and got to express my concerns about the LACK of a FC rep during a very scary and life threatening experience. The customer service rep was very understanding and took her time to listen and write down everything I was telling her. She said that it takes about 28 days for a response. However, because of the seriousness of the complaint and the problems we had previously with the flight we would likely hear back sooner. She was going to give it a priority code. I will update this review when a response is received.
~Recommendation~
At the moment, I am saying NO!!! The flight was good once we actually did take off. However, not to have the representatives taking care of the clients in such a life-threatening situation is beyond description! It was almost like they were happy enough to take your money and that was it!
It definitely felt like a Comedy of Errors!
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Advantages: Very good at pretending they care PRIOR to travel... Disadvantages: ..Once you've boarded the plane for your holiday resort, they lose all interest!
Winterwonderful 24.01.2007 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of First Choice
Aug 23rd, 2007
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