package holidays from may

about 2 weeks ago both thomson and first choice on-line booking removed all holidays to sri lanka after april 9, we waited hoping they were maybe updating there sites however i decided earlier to-day to phone first choice and was informed by a lady she could not find anything available in may but she look into the matter and phone me back when she phoned back 10 mins later it was to inform me that fisrt choic would not be taking any bookings to sri lanka until december when i asked why she said it had something to do with the monsoon raintotally ridiculous i know but thats what she said can anyone thrw any light on this matter

package holidays from may

I don鈥檛 think they are the only company who don%26#39;t do Sri Lanka off season, when there鈥檚 lots of more reliable sunshine available nearer home.

They use they own planes, which they wouldn鈥檛 want flying half empty. Agents like Mercury Direct, who use scheduled flights will still be operating.

I don%26#39;t know if this is new for 2009, if it is it could be because they%26#39;ve merged with the Germany company TUI.

package holidays from may

thanks for the reply what we cant understand is that we could have booked it 2 weeks ago now they come up with what can only be described as a rediculous story for not going ,i wonder how many people have allready booked only to be told now that they are no longer going

Weird, they swapped places on us last week and bounced half their %26#39;Premier%26#39; passengers, you%26#39;re better off with someone else.

sorry - swapped %26#39;planes%26#39; on us last week

HI,

For the last two years I%26#39;ve taken advantge of last minute , cheap deals with 1st Choice, during the monsoon season. They operated all right then with more or less full flights, so the cutting of flights and services has nothing to do with the monsoon or being out of season.

After all, most people who book with 1st choice have no idea when the monsoon season is in Sri Lanka as they believe what they see in the brochures.

1st choice are obviously having trouble this year, selling their packages because of the financial crises and the value of the pound abroad,so, according to these reports have decided to cut their loses and stop the services.

As a company, they are reknown for not caring about honouring their deals with the customers. Last autumn they treated holiday makers , booked for Cuba abominably after the hurricane over there.

I%26#39;ve used them, in the past for cheap flights and would do that again but if I was booking a package, 1st choice would be the last company I%26#39;d deal with.

Rod.

that sounds about right, ok for cheap direct flights from Gatwick but they don%26#39;t treat the punters well, and its like they couldn%26#39;t care less, now thy%26#39;re with Thompson they%26#39;ll likely get worse. I don%26#39;t know if Thompson (TUI) did Sri lanka %26#39;out of season%26#39;?

Hi there....

Hmmmm, this old chestnut again, well maybe you will not be surprised to learn that this is NOT the first time that ';Last Choice'; have pulled this stunt, they did it a couple of years back as well, strangely enough in high season that time.

Type First Choice into search box, and you can read quite a long thread regarding this.

It is of course as others have said nothing at all to do with Monsoon Season, it is all about seats booked, and if they being a charter service do not fill enough seats, then they will simply cancel the flights/holidays and not worry that there maybe people that are goin to be upset !

Mark, TUI are indeed still flying from Germany, and have hotels booked all through our summer time, and they also use an airline called Condor from there, i believe that they have just resumed flights.

Could also be that ';Last Choice'; pay thier hotel bills in US Dollars, and as we all know Sterling has taken a dive against that recently, but not really an excuse for cancelling people%26#39;s holidays like this.

It would seem, once more that the only safe and reasonably guaranteed way of going on holidays at this time is to book with a company that uses scheduled flights with reputable airlines that will not cancel thier schedules just because they have empty seats, after all once cancelled they won%26#39;t get thier landing slots back !

Regards

Dave

Now has tickets for March 24th, yep with a reputable airline too !

I can%26#39;t argue with that Dave, I鈥檓 looking for a flight in April, it won鈥檛 be a charter.

Hi,

TUI Germany is using scheduled flights, e.g. Qatar Airways %26amp; Emirates for flights to Colombo.

Condor belongs to Thomas Cook Group and have flights from Frankfurt to Colombo until 20th April.

Hans

First Choice have now merged with Thomson and apparently they have dropped their summer Sri Lanka packages to avoid duplication. Well this is what a friend who%26#39;s a manager at First Choice has told me.