Travel Agent or Online Booking - which is best deal?

Good Evening Everyone

We are considering booking a Thomson Cruise - we have not cruised with them before. Are we as well to just use the website to book and take advantage of the £100 discount using the code they publish or approach a number of travel agents to see who can come up with the best deal for the itinerary we have selected?

Thanks in anticipation.

Shirley :)

hi

i always take the online price and go to our local agent to see if they can match it or even get it cheaper. i must admit as i am there a lot and it is a small local shop they are normally very good and do match it.

personally i am reluctant to book 'big' holidays on line just in case something goes wrong and i can go to them to either sort it out or change it. (for my recent trip to Berlin the flights had been altered sooo many times they were a god send)

you could always give it a try

cheers

Thomson TA will probably match the online price including the discount but you will have to pay £25 for their services which I'm happy to pay to have a face to face contact

Thomson Spirit Oct 2005 Repo Palma to Sharm el Sheikh

Thomson Celebration Jan 2007 Red Sea Magic

Ocean Village Feb 2008 Western Caribbean & Central America

Ocean Village Aug 2008 Eastern Med

Ocean Village 2 Feb 2009 Eastern Caribbean

Ocean Village Mar 2010 Eastern Caribbean

Thomson Dream Feb 2011 Eastern Caribbean & Cuba

Thomson Celebration Aug 2011 Eastern Med

Thomson Celebration Apr 2012 Red Sea Magic

Thomson Celebration Apr/May 2012 Repo Sharm el Sheikh to Marmaris

Thomson Dream Feb 2013 Eastern Caribbean

Thomson Majesty Nov/Dec 2014 Colourful Coasts Canaries

Thomson Dream Jan/Feb 2015 Western Caribbean Panama & Cuba

Thomson Dream Apr 2015 Transatlantic Sunset

Thomson Majesty June 2015 Hellenic Classics

Thomson Celebration Sept 2015 Adriatic Affair

Thomson Dream Jan 2016 Mayan Treasures/Cuban Revolution

Thomson Dream April 2016 Atlantic Adventure

Thomson Dream June 2016 Iconic Islands/Adriatic Explorer

Thomson Celebration Jan 2017 Cities of Gold

Thomson Dream April2017 Atlantic Daydream

Thomson Majesty Sept2017 Med Medley/Treasures of Med

I've been on 2 cruises with Thomson 3rd one coming up on the dream in April. On all 3 I've booked in store and got a discount of £100 go in store smile and you'll get the discount :)

Thanks for getting back to me - appreciate you taking the time

Travel Agent every time, personal touch face to face so important. No messing about with computer and if anything not right they will sort it out for you. We use a Thomson/TUI shop every time.

I've done both, depending on the price. My local Thomson TA said they would price match & wouldn't charge the admin fee. This time I booked on line and had to talk to Thomson customer service about a couple of things (choosing cabin & upgrading flights) and they were really helpful. Last time (July last year) booked through Thomson shop and they gave us a great deal on a last minute cruise for 6 - knocked over £300 off the online price.

Contributors here have been luckier than us, our local Sussex shop is absolutely useless. One tip, if you have a complaint about your holiday don't contact customer services and then go to the shop for any help, they'll tell you it is now completely out of their hands. Thomson Cares on Twitter will tell you exactly the same. What nonsense. We have waited over four months for an excursion repayment without any response at all from CS and it is now about to go to ABBA through Resolver. When Thomson introduce their digital plans the shops will fall like ninepiins.

Contributors here have been luckier than us, our local Sussex shop is absolutely useless. One tip, if you have a complaint about your holiday don't contact customer services and then go to the shop for any help, they'll tell you it is now completely out of their hands. Thomson Cares on Twitter will tell you exactly the same. What nonsense. We have waited over four months for an excursion repayment without any response at all from CS and it is now about to go to ABBA through Resolver. When Thomson introduce their digital plans the shops will fall like ninepiins.

I'm not sure ABBA will do anything ;)

Not sure myself either but as a former media person I do hate it when firms jgnore valid claims hoping you will go away. In the long run it has cost Thomson as we no longer take their trips. We have found excellent island tours at the port gates and always ensure we go early so that we get back to the ship in plenty of time.

It really is frustrating and so inconsistent. We canceled a bike tour on our cruise in July as it was so hot. The money was back on our onboard account within 24 hours!

Totally frustrating, Thomson value your money but not your loyalty. Refunding an excursion in 24 hours on ship but failing to respond to our complaint after more than four months beggars belief. Never book in the shop will be our future response.

Landed at Gatwick at 7am yesterday, just got their survey form. Must do it, they read them all, they told us so on the plane. Thomson efficiency at its best LOL.

We book with our local thomson ta not been charged an extra fee though

Regarding the complaint - you should have gone to the TA in the first place, that's the whole point of booking eye to eye. Then if no action go direct to Thomson. No company rush to deal with complaints though.

Regarding the complaint - you should have gone to the TA in the first place, that's the whole point of booking eye to eye. Then if no action go direct to Thomson. No company rush to deal with complaints though.

Yes, well aware of that now. Another mistake was to book excursions through shop, we would have been reimbursed immediately had we booked on ship. The shop gave us a load of nonsense about the demand for excursions, in fact some were cancelled due to lack of interest. We took only one Thomson trip in the Caribbean when we would have probably booked half a dozen so their complaint silence cost them around £500. We also refused the drinks package so that was another £300 or so given that we only paid for drinks consumed. We have booked two further two-week Thomson cruises and will use local excursions wherever possible. Lack of customer service can prove rather costly!

Sorry to butt in but with our complaint the TA just didn't want to know.

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Sorry to butt in but with our complaint the TA just didn't want to know.

 

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Suspect you are right but if you don't try you don't get. It's appalling when you get norovirus on one of their ships and they penalise you due to the incompetence of a staff member who appears not to have passed the unused ticket information on. No matter, as I stated we will penalise them by boycotting their overpriced and boring excursions and make our own way. We loved the Discovery and will be on that ship and the Discovery 2 on our next two cruises which are all inclusive so will make sure we have a good share of their alcohol!

Our first cruise on Discovery is in September booked online with the second in February next year which we booked through a TA, mistake but that's another story, but our next on Dream, April was with a TA & that booking was OK so I think its just your luck!

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Our first cruise on Discovery is in September booked online with the second in February next year which we booked through a TA, mistake but that's another story, but our next on Dream, April was with a TA & that booking was OK so I think its just your luck!

 

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No complaints about the Discovery, it was perfect for us, just hate the jobsworths at Thomson HQ

I've always taken the Thomson website price to my non-Thomson TA and they have always at least matched it until this year, when they weren't allowed to. So this time I've saved over £300 booking online! (Admittedly in the new year sale). Plus I've gone through a cashback website, so may save a bit more too.

I haven't got to the travelling point yet, but my TA has never really added anything beyond the booking stage.

I've always taken the Thomson website price to my non-Thomson TA and they have always at least matched it until this year, when they weren't allowed to. So this time I've saved over £300 booking online! (Admittedly in the new year sale). Plus I've gone through a cashback website, so may save a bit more too.

I haven't got to the travelling point yet, but my TA has never really added anything beyond the booking stage.

Sign of the times that the shop could not match the online price. Reports suggest at least some if not all brochures are about to disappear from the shops with Thomson favouring the digital line, and it can only be a matter of time before the shops go too. Look what is happening to the banks, little doubt the TUI "smile" will disappear from the High Street. Just hope the customer service improves at HQ or there could be chaos.

Thomsons are not very good for getting discounts nowadays.

The best option is pick your ship, itinerary, sailing date, cabin type.

Get the price from Thomsons online, then get price from Thomsons shop. Then shop around......visit other physical shops, then go online. You could perhaps knock £15/£20 off each time. However you'll not save much, perhaps £100 per booking (or pp if your lucky).

Thomsons are not very good for getting discounts nowadays.

 

The best option is pick your ship, itinerary, sailing date, cabin type.

 

Get the price from Thomsons online, then get price from Thomsons shop. Then shop around......visit other physical shops, then go online. You could perhaps knock £15/£20 off each time. However you'll not save much, perhaps £100 per booking (or pp if your lucky).

Be interesting how Thomson fare when the Discovery ships go all inclusive. Looking at the prices for this season they seem to be keeping them down but how long will that happen? My observations in the Caribbean last month before all inclusive comes in suggest there were plenty around the dining room who were not that interested in drinking. Talking to some of the younger people they seemed to be disappointed in the facilities and thought the Discovery was designed for the older traveller.

I'm not surprised the shops are struggling to offer deals, how long before Thomson start to phase them out? Digital is their new love and that will be increasingly so.

Finally got our refund this week four months after our Dubrovnik cruise. Thomson totally ignored our complaint during that period but got some immediate action after sending a note to excursion agent Attraction World. Should have done that straight away, learning all the time.