Which holiday company to book with ??

[poppy1973]

Unsure about which holiday company to book with for Italy. TUI, Thomas Cook or First Choice. Thomas Cook is slightly cheaper - only slightly for the same hotel. Is TC a good company to book with these days???

Tui and First Choice are the same company. FC is their cheaper option iirc. Not sure who owns TC since they went under.
I wouldn't book a package with anyone other than Tui.
Worth looking at easyJet holidays and Jet2 holidays as well. The latter in particular often seem to use the same hotels as Tui.

What anout On the Beach, are they reputable?

Ex senior travel industry here!

TC is now Chinese owned. I would always try and book with a company who has their own airline and use their flights e.g. not Tui using EasyJet flights for instance. Far less likelihood of issues further down the line from my experience.

PP is correct! First Choice and Tui are the same company.

Have a great holiday whatever you choose.

So in that case Jet2 or Easyjet would bs best, not Tui?

Tui also have their own flights.

Jet 2 are good, but it was five years since I've been on holiday with them.
We went with Tui recently and it wasn't too bad. They were pretty good at not pushing the trips too much and told us lots of info about getting around yourself on public transport ( much cheaper )
The rep was around every day and they would email regular updates and information too.
Many hotels are now reliant on apps , something I've not come across before. I thought they could have given out a bit more info on how that worked , they assume everyone is technically minded , has an up to date phone etc
Tui have started having their own flights again , we had to go with easy jet which was ok.
You can book your seats online before you go

So would I be better booking with Easyjet or BA instead? I can book a flight and hotel package together. Would that be a better option ?

And packages are not always the cheapest, sometimes booking flights (aviasales.com) & accommodation (hotellook.com) separately can be more cost effective, but there are risks associated with that. If the flights are rescheduled or cancelled, you'll be left with accommodation you will or might still have to pay for. But I've done that countless times over the years and not had an issue, so far.

I like Jet2. 22kg of luggage per person and transfers are included as standard to no hidden add ons. The app is easy to use and we've never had any bother at the airport or in the resort. They seat families together too, without pre-booking seats.

Jet2 every time for me.

TUI have their own flights as well but some packages use EasyJet flights for example, personally wouldn’t bother me but I’m not a travel agent.

Jet2 does really well in customer surveys. I prefer it to Tui.

I will only book via Jet2 these days. This is purely based on how they dealt with the pandemic.
For me the test of a company is how they respond when issues arise.
I had a package booked with on the beach in 2020, they were awful, 2 days before departure still didn't know if it would go ahead, couldn't get hold of them, took months to get any money back, they only refunded flight after government forced travel companies too.
Whereas a friend with Jet2, loads of communication and instant refund.

We've had several holidays with both EasyJet & BA, & all have been good.
BA is more upmarket than EJ, but you get what you pay for & they tend to have better hotels.
Had a bad experience with Tui, said I'd never use them again. DH later booked a holiday with Marella - not realising that it was Tui. Even worse than before!

I've always booked with thomascook.com for a stress free experience and peace of mind. Today, I needed to use their WhatsApp chat service to amend something on my booking. I was connected to Sasha who steadily helped me throughout the day, was a great communicator, and kept in touch even if there were no further updates (just to let me know I hadn't been forgotten!). I got the result I needed the same day and all the amended paperwork via email directly afterwards. Another positive experience with booking a holiday and would definitely recommend.

Jet2 all the way here too.

They're so expensive compared to all the others

I've also had good experiences with Jet2 but went to book a short break recently and noticed they weren't including transfers anymore.

Ive found little difference between Jet2 and Tui / first choice in terms of service.

For ‘resort’ type holidays I do tend to find Tui the cheapest even compared to booking it all yourself but worth comparing the two.

I don’t live in London so BA is largely pointless.

Word of warning though, Tui planes are small! On the standard flights you get less leg room than Ryanair (by about 2cms).

I always tweek my searches - date, airport, length of stay. Can be hundreds in difference if you have some flexibility. I like that the price quoted is the price you pay with Jet2 - with TUI you have to faff about with additional flight costs.

We like virgin holidays. Really nice to deal with and for long haul I much prefer the options they have when you book/upgrades available. They come out a similar cost to Jet2 and TUI

Unfortunately, that wasn't our experience with Jet2. It was the only flight we have not been sat together as a family (in spite of paying extra to pre book seats).

We were sitting on the tarmac for three hours, and our luggage was soaked when we arrived.

I am not sure if it's just post COVID price hikes but it was the most expensive package we have been on, ever, and one of the worst holiday experiences.

I am not sure if any of the package companies are any good :(