Warning: Thomson Holidays for under twos

[clarebott101]

Just received our confirmation details from Thomson for our 'full board' holiday and been advised that our under 2 (22 months at time of travel) is not entitled to any board. Apparently we have pay on site for his meals.

Practically, I imagine he'll end up eating from our plates - not a problem when it's a buffet style, but I do object to eating in line with a 20 months tastes when we choose to go a la carte.

Surely Thomson realise that children of this age do eat (although according to the childless Thomson advisor, children under 2 don't eat proper food) and my view is that this should be reflected in their upfront prices and not left for you to find out when you arrive at the destination.

Thought it was worth sharing as I certainly won't be booking to go on hols with Thomson again. Please also share this with any others thinking of booking through Thomson.

Wow, amazed at this. 2nd ears ago we went to a Thomson family resort All Inclusive and our 23 month old was AI as well. Is it a free child Place? Well it's not free then if they are not given food of their own. Have you spoken to anyone at Thomson about it?

Meant to say I'd be gutted if this happened to us.

Hi, it's considered an 'infant' place and Thomson have confirmed (separately 3 times) that infant places do not come with any food included. We've only paid a nominal amount for the place, but to be honest, I'd rather have paid a small additional charge upfront (or at least given this option) as part of the whole holiday cost, rather than face this ridiculous situation.

The whole reason for booking a full board holiday is so that we don't even have to bother with money every mealtime, so to discover we have to do this for an under 2 (or else share our every meal) is really annoying.

Getting the impression that Thomson are not very family friendly or upfront about prices. Incidentally, they also want to charge extra (got £40 pounds in my head, but I can't remember if that's one or both ways) if we want to choose seats and guarantee we can sit together. Don't they realise even the budget airlines now give you allocated seats.

Next thing, they'll be wanting to charge our little one extra to use to pool and have his own towel...

They weren't doing free child places at this 'family resort' even out of school times, so we've paid a pretty hefty sum for our 4 year old.

Not happy and will not be going on holiday with them again!!

I wouldn't bother paying to book the seats. They are not going to place the baby on it's own away from you. Having said that I always paid for a seat on the flight for mine when they were under two, gives you a bot more flexibility..

I am not sure that can be right. We have been all inclusive with ds 3 times when he was an infant and never had to pay for him. Sounds very odd.

Will your four year old be eating from the buffet, or will he be getting a specific child meal? If it's the former, perhaps he could share with his sibling - his tastes are more likely to be similar to a 22 month old's than yours are.

That said, I do,think it is ridiculous that they don't provide some food for a child,that age - they should have made that clear when you booked. I don't think it is unreasonable for you to have assumed he would be getting fed.

We definitely got food for dd when she was 18 months. We were half board.

How strange.

Practically, I'm sure we'll get around it (and it's not going to spoil our holiday!), but I just find it infuriating that a supposedly 'family friendly' holiday company like Thomsons do not provide infant meals as part of their package price on the same terms as you're paying for for other members of the party. It sounds like they are not operating in line with the market on this and are out to make a bit more money out of us.

Out of principle, we won't be paying extra for guaranteed seats together on the flight. I might be in for a quiet flight if they decide to put my four year old next to some unsuspecting holiday makers ;)