Since given the power to search until my hearts content with the internet, I have never put foot inside a high street travel agents again, apart from to pick up a couple of brochures for reference.
My first initial thoughts about holiday browsing on the Thomas Cook website was 'the prices on here are just going to be up in the air somewhere' - but I was wrong, I got a pleasent little suprise......
In February this year, I had looked at every single holiday web site I could possibly think of - and found a holiday to Argassi in Zante for the Windmill Bay Apartments, it really took my fancy - I initially found it through the Mytravel web site who list all the holidays from the Airtours, Aspro, Manos, Panorama groups... the price was very very reasonable at £826.00 for 2 weeks in September, self catering - for my husband, my 14 year old daughter and myself.. but being the bargain hunter that I am, I wondered if I could get this price undercut even more by trying different operators..
The Manos website quoted the very same holiday for £851.00, Panorama's website was a big joke, they quoted the same deal for about £1, 300.00 - so, with that 'MyTravel' looked my best bet for booking with -
That was until I logged into Thomas Cook's site, entered the ususal date details, departure airport details etc... hit the search button, and it brought up about 16 deals of what they recommend with their own company, but then I noticed another link saying 'More Great Holidays' which I clicked on............ and low and behold, there were more deals from other travel companies like Manos, Panorama, etc... after clicking through a couple of the pages, I found the Windmill Bay with Manos was there and continued on to get a quote. The last thing I expected was for the price to be cheaper than the Mytravel quote, but it was .... - that now leaving my cheapest quote at £801.00 for the exact same holiday. Plus, that price also included Pre-bookable seats which the other Travel Companies hadn't included in their final price - so hence, a better bargain again. Now content with my searches being exhaused to all extremes, I happily booked it through the Thomas Cook webside in one swift smooth transaction. Al my invoices and confirmation of booking were with me within days and It measured out at about a £50 saving at the least.
They also state that after you book with them, if you find the exact same holiday for less(within 24 hours of booking) with another ABTA Bonded agent , they will refund the difference.......... but I just could not find it any cheaper.
So, it just goes to show that if you have the time to browse on the net, you can get that price down a little bit more - it's good to know that Thomas Cook will undercut other travel companies offers above their own named holidays...
Now as an added bonus, if you register with 'GreasyPalm' you get a further 2% of what you paid for the holiday with their Thomas Cook link ( you need to look at my GreasyPalm review to see more about what I am talking about) - so using that link to book my holiday, gave me an extra bonus of £16.00 to my GreasyPalm account...
Zante, here I come....................... (wish it was September!!)
Great review. I'm off to corfu in a couple of months! Went to Zante a couple of years ago, great place, tried to find the shipwreck cove but couldn't (probably something to do with my mum's navigation!)
bigmamap 20.05.2005 21:22
You done very well here. My husband is always searching the net for deals when it comes to holidays. He starts off on one and ends up a few hours later with a good price. I must tell him to check Thomas cook as we often think they will be expensive. Good review and enjoy your holiday when it comes. Cya Bigmamap
torr 20.05.2005 18:49
Didn't you do well? I too would have expected them to be on the high side. Duncan
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