TUI group for single parent ski holidays more expensive!

[TastyMuffins]

If you try to book ski holidays online with Tui Group (Crystal, Thomson and First Choice), the price for one adult and one child is more than the price for two adults!

I tried to book one of their holidays through an agent by phone, who told me that the total price was higher because the price online was only updated once a day [shocked]. So I called Crystal to check and ask why it was cheaper. They said the child price is the same as adult price but it's just that there is £50 off per adult (although the agent did say per person at one stage and so does some of the online literature!). Only after asking to complain to the supervisor and spending forever on hold was I able to get the same price as two adults for me and my child!

Be wary of this if booking anything other than two adults and children.

We?re sorry to hear that you've had trouble booking your ski holiday with us recently. We?d like to let you know that we have investigated this and want to explain to you why this happened.

We have a large number of child places for holidays that are offered at a cheaper price than the adult price year round. From time to time we also run promotions in which we offer a fixed amount off per full-fare-paying adult price on selected holidays. In this case, the reservations system applies the £50 discount only to full-fare paying adult passengers, as the vast majority of children?s places are already charged at a discounted child price.

There are a small number of cases where a child is charged a full-fare-paying adult price as they are not eligible for a child price (for example, where just one adult and one child are sharing a room), and the child would therefore be entitled to the same £50 discount as an adult. This cannot be applied to the child automatically because of the technical limitations with our booking system. Unfortunately this has been the case with your attempts to book a holiday.

We?ve taken steps to address this within our call centre for any future similar promotions. Once again, we apologise for the inconvenience this has caused you and we hope that you have an enjoyable ski holiday whoever you may be travelling with.

Kind Regards,

Crystal Ski

Thanks for your reply. It is very obvious that this is a system fault so it would be great if you could correct it so that next time I want to book, I can take advantage of the best price and book online rather than having to wait until I am able to phone an agent. It would be also nice not to have to request a supervisor to complain to when there is such an obvious error.

I tried several times to book online on your different sites but because of being unable to do this at the time, I missed out on a cheaper price for my preferred airport and as a result must travel to a less convenient airport for a slightly higher price. Not very fair.