Package holidays aren’t chavvy!

[Polarbearflavour]

DH and I booked a half board holiday via Teletext Holidays online. It includes flights and a five star hotel in Malta for a week and is pretty cheap.

A friend of mine made a face and said package holidays are “common” and for chavs. Apparently she only flies BA club class (not charter airlines or low cost airlines) and books hotels separately!

What on Earth is wrong with a package holiday deal?

There’s a difference between a packaged holiday - flights and hotel and a package holiday with reps and coaches.

For a few years I put some effort in and booked flights, accommodation & car hire separately. A decade ago it was cheaper to unpackage everything,& I liked the flexibility.

Last 5 years I’m mostly back to booking packages. It’s often no more expensive, and I can secure the holiday early for a small deposit instead of paying everything upfront.

If that makes me a chav so be it.

In all honesty the concept of package holidays are, broadly speaking, a bit Chavvy. Not saying your holiday is or that there is anything wrong with a bit or chavvyness.
The issue here though is why did your friend say it? Sounds like she’s snobby and maybe insecure.

I have a friend who goes on a package holiday for three weeks every year. It's somewhere in north Africa, but it may as well be anywhere as he never leaves the complex or does anything. I'm afraid I do think it's a quite a shame to just be in a complex like that.

"For a few years I put some effort in and booked flights, accommodation & car hire separately. A decade ago it was cheaper to unpackage everything,& I liked the flexibility.

Last 5 years I’m mostly back to booking packages. It’s often no more expensive, and I can secure the holiday early for a small deposit instead of paying everything upfront. "

As a single person, I can't get a good package deal anyway. They seem to all be for couples/families and for a whole week, whereas I'm usually looking for 5 days/long weekend.

I think this is one of these "Chavs mainly take package holidays, but not all package holidays are taken by chavs" or variation thereof.

My view is that, if the combination is cheaper than I can negotiate or organise, then package is fine. Some people can be arsed to ring up/email/book online - some can't. One of the main reasons I haven't used them much in recent years is the kind of places I want to go to - Orlando, Cancun, and the Maldives/Seychelles hold no great fascination for me. But if I did, then I would

I booked a package holiday with BA. It was cheaper than booking the same thing separately.

IamPickleRick
I loved that show!
Meet the Harrison-Baines family. They love their Easter skiing break in a luxury chalet with a spa on site and artisan catering options & lactose free fondue for all the family. They are swapping places with the Brown family, who drive to the south of france each year to go camping on a big europark site. The kids love the kids club that starts with Barney Bear's anthem at 7am by the children's pool.
The pairings were great

Chewbecca
I agree.
Whilst people know there's a range of holidays available as package holidays, the typical image conjured up is the bus loads of brits being bussed to a hotel where they'll spend 6 days by the pool and drinking, maybe venturing to the beach and local night life and feeling agitated at the idea of anything other than Britain in the sun.
Obviously, they're not all like that, but there's quite a strong image of that.

My dad is an upper middle class wealthy man and he loves package holidays and easyjet flights. He doesn't see the point in spending more for the same destination. He doesn't need to prove anything by spending more. I agree with him. Maybe your friend has some confidence issues that she links a package holiday to self worth?

We are staying at the Grand Hotel Excelsior.

I wouldn’t personally choose a Benidorm type holiday but I don’t think there is anything wrong with that if people like it!

"the bus loads of brits being bussed to a hotel where they'll spend 6 days by the pool and drinking, maybe venturing to the beach and local night life and feeling agitated at the idea of anything other than Britain in the sun."

and hi-di-hi type entertainment in the evening. There's an assumption that it doesn't involve much mixing with local people.

LOL daft thing to say!

I love package hols. Everything done for me. Coz I am lazy!

Enjoy!

"In all honesty the concept of package holidays are, broadly speaking, a bit Chavvy."

No they aren't
They realy aren't.

Chances are a 5* hotel will involve a taxi transfer any way. You've picked a good hotel, OP. Make sure you deluge your social media with pictures when you're away, pointing out how much package holidays have improved.

Her problem entirely, though I can't say Malta is my favourite place. But a package holiday to somewhere like Malta is flight + transfer + hotel so her issue is presumably with the fact that you have transport from the airport to the hotel laid on? She needs to get over herself.

OMG did an actual adult actually say that?

Perhaps you should say to her 'Oh, I'm sorry that the kind of package holidays YOU'VE been on were chavvy. OURS isn't like that AT ALL.'

Evil Muttley laugh

Why does it matter what others think about your holiday? Package holiday in Malta sounds brilliant to me. As long as you are happy with your choice and enjoy your holiday...

We’re camping in Scotland in August, does it make us upper class, middle class, chavs... who cares? We’re going to have an amazing time regardless.

In all honesty the concept of package holidays are, broadly speaking, a bit Chavvy. Not saying your holiday is or that there is anything wrong with a bit or chavvyness.

In all honesty, people who think this are, broadly speaking, a bit stupid. Not saying you are, or that there is anything wrong with a bit of stupidity.

Yep having a cheaper holiday from someone who books everything so has economies of scale.....and having ATOL protection if the airline or hotel go bust....or having a backup and someone else arranging alternatives if flights are cancelled or hotel has over booked etc - all massively chavvy! It's much better to pay through to nose to various different people separately and have no protection when things go wrong like those commoners do!

@thatswotshesaid I bet I spend more, and experience more luxury in my 'chavvy' luxury all inclusive adults only "package" hplidag in the carribbean than you do.... but feel free to call it chavvy all you want haha.

I used to love booking from Ceefax before t'internet, OH went out for a Sunday paper once and when he returned I told him that we were off to Greece the next day.
Nowadays we tend to book our holidays ourselves as separate items, flight, hotels, car hire but we always check if a package isn't chepaer. Our problem is we find a package, especially to the US, would be very restrictive, we tend to do driving holidays and live day to day, I now many people need greater structure.
We have done a lot of tours, Middle East, India and North Africa mainly, we feel we wouldn't manage it ourselves too well.

Ok, sorry, my choice of words was clearly unwarranted.

But i will stand by the lack of protection by booking separately. A PP mentioned the ash cloud. I was working in travel when that happened, and dealing with a number of people who expected to be helped get home despite having made their own arrangements for their holiday. You book a flight only and the flight gets cancelled? Sorry, you get your money back, that's the end of the obligation. Add a cheap hotel (even if you don't stay in it and use your Hilton points to book something else), and now the airline is acting as a tour operator and is obliged to provide those services, they have to get you home somehow, at their cost. That protection applies whether you book with the airline, a tour operator or an online travel agent like Expedia - a flight and hotel at the same time = package.

Yep. Flight + parador/villa/yacht + private transfer/car hire is still a package.

It's just that it's covered by ABTA.

Better to be a chav than a sucker.

ATOL not ABTA