Dream Manchester Flight Prices.

[Vitalsign]

I was looking at booking the Dream Transatlantic from Manchester in April next year on Monday this week and was shocked to see only 3 seats left and the price for 2 with the extras required at £4646.50. We did this cruise last year for £3800

I looked again on Wednesday and there were no seats left from Manchester so looked at other airport prices and was absolutely disgusted to see that Newcastle was £4136.50, Birmingham was £3864.50 and unbelievably Gatwick was £3500.50 - £1100 cheaper!!!!! I could go on another cruise for that. I have noticed before that the Manchester flights are more expensive than other airports (not including Glasgow) and have flown from Leeds/Bradford a couple of times because it was cheaper, is this because so many Thomson cruisers live north of Birmingham and Manchester is so popular? If so we should take exception to subsidising other cruisers and I don't mean late bookers because that's a different issue. I hope Thomson do put on another flight from Manchester but even then I might consider a 5* hotel treat before and after the cruise at Gatwick and still have plenty of spending money.

[all-afloaty]

I was looking at booking the Dream Transatlantic from Manchester in April next year on Monday this week and was shocked to see only 3 seats left and the price for 2 with the extras required at £4646.50. We did this cruise last year for £3800

 

I looked again on Wednesday and there were no seats left from Manchester so looked at other airport prices and was absolutely disgusted to see that Newcastle was £4136.50, Birmingham was £3864.50 and unbelievably Gatwick was £3500.50 - £1100 cheaper!!!!! I could go on another cruise for that. I have noticed before that the Manchester flights are more expensive than other airports (not including Glasgow) and have flown from Leeds/Bradford a couple of times because it was cheaper, is this because so many Thomson cruisers live north of Birmingham and Manchester is so popular? If so we should take exception to subsidising other cruisers and I don't mean late bookers because that's a different issue. I hope Thomson do put on another flight from Manchester but even then I might consider a 5* hotel treat before and after the cruise at Gatwick and still have plenty of spending money.

 

 

We prefer to fly from Bristol because we live in Taunton but last year for our cruise we went from Gatwick because it was £200 EACH cheaper [emoji33]

[geomagot]

I was looking at booking the Dream Transatlantic from Manchester in April next year on Monday this week and was shocked to see only 3 seats left and the price for 2 with the extras required at £4646.50. We did this cruise last year for £3800

 

its supply and demand (as the aircraft fills up .... prices go up) they know people prefer holiday packages

 

tbf if you were to ditch the flights and go cruise only and book with another airline (virgin/ba) it would probably come out even more expensive on long haul

[HCN1955]

Not only are prices different around the country but thomsons have already cut out a port of call Santiago de Cuba from the original itinery. So far two different excuses given one a misprint the other a operational issue.In addition they may be adding a replacement call but may not. So even the price is now higher than what people have paid on early bookings at least you have a truer picture of what calls are on the cruise.

[geomagot]

well definitely not a missprint....thoms announced santiago de cuba as new port of call with much fanfare last year (operational issue probably means something to do with visa/taxes? that maybe down to the cubans?)

[Huddersfieldtourist]

its supply and demand (as the aircraft fills up .... prices go up) they know people prefer holiday packages

 

tbf if you were to ditch the flights and go cruise only and book with another airline (virgin/ba) it would probably come out even more expensive on long haul

 

This is spot on.

 

Thomson Cruises core customer base is the north midlands to the NE and NW and as such on some cruises the Manchester flights can be more pricey due to demand as supply becomes more limited - this is particularly so when there are no flights from Doncaster Leeds Newcastle East Midlands etc also.

 

As Geomagot says - try pricing the flights separately with any airline and it will be way more than cruise only plus those separate flights and transfers etc.

[Jay54]

its supply and demand (as the aircraft fills up .... prices go up) they know people prefer holiday packages

 

 

This is true...supply and demand. Even our local travel agent admits that the more people look at particular cruises the more the price goes up. Something to do with cookies being fed back to Thomson. When we booked our cruise (from Manchester) there was only a couple of pounds difference from Birmingham. Supply and demand also affects hotel only bookings in the UK. The more people look at the price the more chance it has of increasing.

 

We just book ours at the price we're happy to pay and usually get the exact holiday we want. If we left it until the last minute we might not get the flight or cabin that we prefer.

[geomagot]

Even our local travel agent admits that the more people look at particular cruises the more the price goes up. Something to do with cookies being fed back to Thomson.

 

yes...sneaky thomsons:( if i use an incognito window to browse the cruise site it doesnt show the £75 off voucher code??

[Vitalsign]

Thanks for all your comments. I am aware that the prices are affected by supply and demand - shares being an obvious example. I have done 4 Thomson cruises since December 2014 and only 2 were booked late (on the Majesty with a girlfriend each for only a week) one of which was from Leeds/Bradford to Corfu and we had a 19 hour flight delay on the return!!!!

The other 2 and my 5th in 2 weeks time were all booked at least 9 months before and my September one 18 months before and all at prices we thought were reasonable. However we did want to book the Transatlantic again next year but couldn't commit early unfortunately and never thought for one minute that booking 8 months before would be such a problem - really disappointed and don't know whether to book to go from Birmingham or Gatwick or wait and see if another Manchester flight is laid on as it was this year and with a lot of cruisers paying much less than we had and getting free AI.

[rookery]

I've been watching the prices of a couple of cruises over the last few weeks. This morning, the price of a 1/2 inside going in 8 days time flying from Manchester is £675 (hurry, only 3 seats left) whereas the same 1/2 inside flying from Exeter is £567 (hurry, only 2 seats left). That's £216 difference, enough of a saving to pay for petrol and a hotel for the night and still have change.

[BaggersCruising]

its supply and demand (as the aircraft fills up .... prices go up) they know people prefer holiday packages

 

tbf if you were to ditch the flights and go cruise only and book with another airline (virgin/ba) it would probably come out even more expensive on long haul

 

Not always! We booked cruise only from Barbados a few years back and it was cheaper to book Virgin flights, so much that it actually paid for an extra week in Barbados before the cruise, so a 2 week fly cruise with Thomson became a 3 week cruise and stay (with Virgin flights) for the same money!

 

However, that doesn't really work on the Transatlantics as booking singles across the Atlantic with legacy airlines is massively expensive!

[BaggersCruising]

Thanks for all your comments. I am aware that the prices are affected by supply and demand - shares being an obvious example. I have done 4 Thomson cruises since December 2014 and only 2 were booked late (on the Majesty with a girlfriend each for only a week) one of which was from Leeds/Bradford to Corfu and we had a 19 hour flight delay on the return!!!!

The other 2 and my 5th in 2 weeks time were all booked at least 9 months before and my September one 18 months before and all at prices we thought were reasonable. However we did want to book the Transatlantic again next year but couldn't commit early unfortunately and never thought for one minute that booking 8 months before would be such a problem - really disappointed and don't know whether to book to go from Birmingham or Gatwick or wait and see if another Manchester flight is laid on as it was this year and with a lot of cruisers paying much less than we had and getting free AI.

 

Normally, the capacity of the aircraft is laid on from the start before the cruises are even added to the booking system so it would be highly unusual for them to add an extra flight for a cruise like this. The reason is that they wouldn't be able to fill the plane up with 300+ passengers as they wouldn't have that much extra room on the ship to accommodate them!

 

We're looking at this cruise (just waiting for the price to drop a little first) but will be booking it from Gatwick as it's cheapest, and also because we live in the South West.

 

I've been watching the prices of a couple of cruises over the last few weeks. This morning, the price of a 1/2 inside going in 8 days time flying from Manchester is £675 (hurry, only 3 seats left) whereas the same 1/2 inside flying from Exeter is £567 (hurry, only 2 seats left). That's £216 difference, enough of a saving to pay for petrol and a hotel for the night and still have change.

 

Very true, we were on the Island Escape earlier this year and met a couple from Lytham St Annes who found it was a LOT cheaper to travel down to Exeter and fly from there than it was from Manchester Airport!

Edited September 6, 2015 by BaggersCruising

[geomagot]

 

Very true, we were on the Island Escape earlier this year and met a couple from Lytham St Annes who found it was a LOT cheaper to travel down to Exeter and fly from there than it was from Manchester Airport!

 

thats because exter airport is small (a portacabin baggage hall) and its a little out of the way (unless you live in west country) they have to keep prices low or risk flying the aircraft half empty or completely cancelling your flight to lanzarote 2 weeks before departure to due to lack of demand as they did with us one time :( a case of no demand.... no supply

 

they can keep their prices up at manchester (huge target audience)

[BaggersCruising]

thats because exter airport is small (a portacabin baggage hall) and its a little out of the way (unless you live in west country) they have to keep prices low or risk flying the aircraft half empty or completely cancelling your flight to lanzarote 2 weeks before departure to due to lack of demand as they did with us one time :( a case of no demand.... no supply

 

they can keep their prices up at manchester (huge target audience)

 

We're quite lucky as Exeter is just down the road for us, and for that reason we only went on the IE as we picked up a last minute bargain that was flying from Exeter so very handy.

 

Couldn't agree more about the portakabin and it's bloody freezin' in there during the winter months in that 'departure lounge'. A couple of years ago, they had the cheek to charge me £1 for a plastic bag to put my two toiletries in, only for them to now be free, like they are at every other airport in the country!

[geomagot]

yes exeter very handy for us too but that is where its redeeming features end:p

 

exeter airport .... home of the most stony faced security ever... no wait? that accolade has now passed to montego bay:rolleyes:

 

exeter airport.... home of the £7 breakfast roll:eek:

 

exeter airport... home of stainless steel bus stop seats at the departure gate (if you are lucky and don’t have to sit on the floor in the corridor)

 

exeter airport ... where you have to queue up outside (virtually on the runway) for immigration (rain or shine or ice/frost/snow/blizzard)

 

exeter airport where they couldn’t even be bothered to lay some tarmac in the carpark … its just dirt/gravel/weeds where they always seem to have stray traffic cones/luggage trolleys carefully parked up in all the best spaces:(:D

[Julessmiles]

yes exeter very handy for us too but that is where its redeeming features end:p

 

exeter airport .... home of the most stony faced security ever... no wait? that accolade has now passed to montego bay:rolleyes:

 

exeter airport.... home of the £7 breakfast roll:eek:

 

exeter airport... home of stainless steel bus stop seats at the departure gate (if you are lucky and don’t have to sit on the floor in the corridor)

 

exeter airport ... where you have to queue up outside (virtually on the runway) for immigration (rain or shine or ice/frost/snow/blizzard)

 

exeter airport where they couldn’t even be bothered to lay some tarmac in the carpark … its just dirt/gravel/weeds where they always seem to have stray traffic cones/luggage trolleys carefully parked up in all the best spaces:(:D

 

 

I actually really like Exeter airport! :D

[BaggersCruising]

yes exeter very handy for us too but that is where its redeeming features end

 

exeter airport .... home of the most stony faced security ever... no wait? that accolade has now passed to montego bay:rolleyes:

 

exeter airport.... home of the £7 breakfast roll:eek:

 

exeter airport... home of stainless steel bus stop seats at the departure gate (if you are lucky and don’t have to sit on the floor in the corridor)

 

exeter airport ... where you have to queue up outside (virtually on the runway) for immigration (rain or shine or ice/frost/snow/blizzard)

 

exeter airport where they couldn’t even be bothered to lay some tarmac in the carpark … its just dirt/gravel/weeds where they always seem to have stray traffic cones/luggage trolleys carefully parked up in all the best spaces:D

 

Haha, so true! We found Montego Bay ok, but have heard some of the horror stories from other people! And, when we went through Exeter back in May, ok it was really early in the morning we sailed through in less than a minute and security was friendly. I'm just it must have been a glitch and I'm sure everything is back to normal now :rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

I actually really like Exeter airport! :D

 

Nooooo, really? It's handy but I have to agree with geomagot that's about as good as it gets! There's always really bad crosswinds when coming into land at Exeter too. Bristol is so much better! Sadly though, they can't do long haul flights from Bristol as the runway is so short, and that said IIRC Bristol suffers from bad crosswinds too.

[geomagot]

There's always really bad crosswinds when coming into land at Exeter

 

that'l be Ottery for yer:D