Anyone else remember last minute bargain holidays - teletext, ads in the standard, courier flights

[Balooscub]

Anyone else?

Yes, my Dad took us all abroad in 1989. Mega cheap. Deal was on Oracle.

Yes I went on a few.... I think they ranged from £89 - £100 for a week the ones that I went on!!

When I was 19..so 15 years ago I went into the travel agents and booked a last minute week to Greece with a friend . We paid £105 each for a week. Flights , transfers and hotel on an 18-30s 🤣

If Binface brings back Ceefax, will we see them again?

Yep!

We took a 12 night midnight sun cruise to Norway, in August. Family of 4, one cabin but outside. £880!!! That was about 2006. Off of teletext and then phoning the company itself to book.

I think now fluid pricing is so easy they do deals upfront to get a good occupancy and the later deals are far fewer. Well, I cant find any now!

You still see them in small town travel agent windows, mind! Maybe not as good as they were but still out there ...

Loved teletext. Loads of people used it.

Yes! 1998, a friend and I finished our exams in final year a week before everyone else so we packed our bags and sat on Teletext to find a last minute holiday. Got a week in Majorca, flights, transfers and apartment, allocation on arrival for £80 each.

Yes, my mum and I went on a Teletext holiday to Greece for £90 bed and breakfast each for a week. Those were the days. We used to hear about courier flights but I never managed to bag one and no-one I knew did either. Wonder if they were a bit of an urban myth.

Ah yes - walking past the travel agents, seeing their handwritten last minute deals postcards in the window and thinking "If only I had a fortnight's annual leave starting the day after tomorrow and had £73 to spare"😂

Yes - friend and I booked flights to Spain off teletext in 1995 - first time I'd ever been abroad and i think the flights were about £40 and they were with Monarch. I then remember booking a holiday with now DH in 1999. It was the sitting through 30 or 40 pages to get to the location you wanted and trying to pause before missing it, and having to go through all the pages again if you did!

I know people who did them but I think you had to know the right people to get them. Often it was big companies or embassies needing signed documents moved around quickly. Disappeared when fax became popular.

The travel agent in our town is always busy.
It also does money exchange.
There used to be three , but only one has survived.

I was just talking to dd about this!

where do people go online nowadays?

We went to Turkey for £99 a head for 2 weeks in the 90's. Booked one day, went the next 😀

The studio
All the big tour companies are online and some of the smaller ones too. You can download apps and it tells you how long it is until your holiday and you can even pay in installments. I like reading the reviews on trip advisor and looking up places on u tube as well.

I bought my first holiday on oracle!

I did like reading teletext and doing the quiz they had ‘ bamboozle ‘ each day. It took ages to change the pages though’

I did quite a few Teletext holidays. 1 week for £99 to all the 90s clubbing destinations!

Went in the 90s on a mega cheap break to Malta with a friend when we were both on a break from signing on - if you timed it right you could get a week to 10 days away. (Both graduates just in between stuff mostly travelling around the UK in an old Morris Minor).

It was my worst holiday ever, not helped by sitting through a time share to earn a really cheap bottle of wine that made me hallucinate.

Even now, I shudder when I think of Malta or hear of anyone going there.

But it was probably £89 for the two of us or something similar!

Holidays were so cheap back then ! The accommodation could be a bit rank though.

Courier flights were real! I only did one of those, but a friend did a fair few to New York.

I remember the collective silence on allocation on arrival when the coach pulled up to the hotel or apartment and the air filled with hope or trepidation that your name would/wouldn’t be called out, depending upon the place!

Sometimes you’d call on these ads and they’d say that the flight had left that morning/holiday was sold out, but there was another holiday for three times the price they could offer you! One of my best deals was Australia for £200 going a week later - I assumed they were going to say the trip was unavailable when I called up, so was pleasantly surprised. There were three legs to the journey and I had the middle seat on the back row, but apart from that all good!

Booked our Honeymoon in 2001 on Teletext. 2 weeks in Singapore, 5 star Hotel. £1200.00. Wasnt booked last minute though.

I went on a few including the Maldives with just 48 hours notice

I went on a few including the Maldives with just 48 hours notice