I know I mentioned a little while ago what we were considering, but those of you will with the new brochure will have seen that we have added a dedicated Manchester only departure on 5 of our long haul tours based on the thread that was started on this forum.

the five tours are:

America's Golden West

National Parks, Mount Rushmore & Little Big Horn

Canada & New England in the Fall

Route 66

Inspirational China

on all of our tours throughout the brochure we have offered regional airports wherever possible. If we aren't offering it then it will usually be because there is no airline that operates the route in question on the days it is needed.

I hope that makes your holidays a little easier for some of you in the North of the country. If it proves successful then there is no reason we can't look to do more of this kind of thing.

once again THANK YOU for all your feedback!

Hi all,

I know I mentioned a little while ago what we were considering, but those of you will with the new brochure will have seen that we have added a dedicated Manchester only departure on 5 of our long haul tours based on the thread that was started on this forum.

the five tours are:

America's Golden West

National Parks, Mount Rushmore & Little Big Horn

Canada & New England in the Fall

Route 66

Inspirational China

on all of our tours throughout the brochure we have offered regional airports wherever possible. If we aren't offering it then it will usually be because there is no airline that operates the route in question on the days it is needed.

I hope that makes your holidays a little easier for some of you in the North of the country. If it proves successful then there is no reason we can't look to do more of this kind of thing.

once again THANK YOU for all your feedback!

Thank you will I have already booked Canada and New England in the Fall dedicated flight from Manchester, I know it is enxt year but cannot wait.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of discussion on this board about the availability of JY holidays with direct flights from various regional airports to the holiday location. It’s great that you’ve been able to increase the number of holidays flying from Manchester, so thanks for your efforts on this topic. Also can I just say “thank you” for the time/effort you both put in to answer the huge range of queries that we come up with.

There are many “International” airports in the UK, and like everyone else I would love to be able to fly direct from my local airport direct to the holiday destination of my choice. This is of course, totally silly, as it’s highly unlikely that there would be sufficient of your customers who want to do this, and it does depend on the availability of flights on the appropriate time/day.

Many travel companies offer “land only” prices, where I make my own way to the destination, and meet up at the hotel used at an appropriate time. To me, this is a perfect solution to the numerous people who feel that there should be more holidays from a particular airport, as it enables me to travel from any airport, when I want, and also gives me flexibility to do other things in the country visited outside of the actual JY holiday.

I’m sure that this is something that appeals to increasing numbers of your customers. I was thus surprised to be told by your call centre that Page & Moy/JY don’t offer a land only option. Maybe you could shed some light on this policy?

I was also told that you can look at altering the flights associated with a holiday, but that you make a £25 up front charge to look into this. I totally accept that if you change the flight associated with a holiday you will charge, but I have to say that I was shocked that you charge to tell me if something is possible and how expensive it will be. It’s like going into a supermarket and seeing that they only have small cans of beans on the shelf, then asking if they have larger ones, and what the price is, then being told they charge to go and find out!

You’ve mentioned before that (for whatever reasons) many of the budget airlines won’t deal with JY. Increasingly budget airlines are becoming the cheapest way of travelling around large countries, especially as they cover many routes not offered by the larger providers. It’s thus more than likely, that I can book a route not available to you, or at a more convenient time, or at a cheaper price than you, but this flexibility is something that you’re not willing to offer as even an option with your holidays.

I understand that some of your customers would be very unhappy to sort out their own travel arrangements, and 100% want to do the holiday exactly as listed, and this is fine, but there are also many, many people who are more than happy to fix things like flights themselves, and I would guess that this is a growing part of the single holiday market.

Again, your comments would be welcome.

Thanks

Stuart

Hi Will/Ben

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of discussion on this board about the availability of JY holidays with direct flights from various regional airports to the holiday location. It’s great that you’ve been able to increase the number of holidays flying from Manchester, so thanks for your efforts on this topic. Also can I just say “thank you” for the time/effort you both put in to answer the huge range of queries that we come up with.

There are many “International” airports in the UK, and like everyone else I would love to be able to fly direct from my local airport direct to the holiday destination of my choice. This is of course, totally silly, as it’s highly unlikely that there would be sufficient of your customers who want to do this, and it does depend on the availability of flights on the appropriate time/day.

Many travel companies offer “land only” prices, where I make my own way to the destination, and meet up at the hotel used at an appropriate time. To me, this is a perfect solution to the numerous people who feel that there should be more holidays from a particular airport, as it enables me to travel from any airport, when I want, and also gives me flexibility to do other things in the country visited outside of the actual JY holiday.

I’m sure that this is something that appeals to increasing numbers of your customers. I was thus surprised to be told by your call centre that Page & Moy/JY don’t offer a land only option. Maybe you could shed some light on this policy?

I was also told that you can look at altering the flights associated with a holiday, but that you make a £25 up front charge to look into this. I totally accept that if you change the flight associated with a holiday you will charge, but I have to say that I was shocked that you charge to tell me if something is possible and how expensive it will be. It’s like going into a supermarket and seeing that they only have small cans of beans on the shelf, then asking if they have larger ones, and what the price is, then being told they charge to go and find out!

You’ve mentioned before that (for whatever reasons) many of the budget airlines won’t deal with JY. Increasingly budget airlines are becoming the cheapest way of travelling around large countries, especially as they cover many routes not offered by the larger providers. It’s thus more than likely, that I can book a route not available to you, or at a more convenient time, or at a cheaper price than you, but this flexibility is something that you’re not willing to offer as even an option with your holidays.

I understand that some of your customers would be very unhappy to sort out their own travel arrangements, and 100% want to do the holiday exactly as listed, and this is fine, but there are also many, many people who are more than happy to fix things like flights themselves, and I would guess that this is a growing part of the single holiday market.

Again, your comments would be welcome.

Thanks

Stuart

Hi Stuart.

You make a number of valid points, I can absolutely see where you are coming from.

I believe it is the first time that we have not offered Make Your Own Way options for our holidays. The main reason we stopped was because of the number of people who took up the offer and then had difficulties getting to the hotel themselves. Obviously you can say that is their own responsibility. But we have a duty of care to our customers and because of the number of them whose holiday was being negatively affected by us offering this service it was decided to withdraw it. I understand that isn't ideal for you - but we are trying to ensure that anyone who travels on our holidays has the best possible experience.

Another issue was in a small number of cases where we had insufficient bookings to operate a tour and had to change to a different date - if a customer had booked their own flights with a budget airline then they would be stuck with some unusable flights. Again, we didn't want to open our customers up to that risk and so this was another factor in the decision.

I appreciate that in a number of cases it is hugely convenient for you to take advantage of this kind of service but I hope you understand the reasons behind our decision.

Thanks

Will

Although its an improvement on what we had before it still appears to be very little for someone like myself who holidays with yourself on a regular basis (2/3 times per year.

The 5 hols you mention -

America's Golden West

National Parks, Mount Rushmore & Little Big Horn

Route 66

These 3 only offer a september date from Manchester so not a lot of flexibility in chosing a holiday date or doing more than one trip in the year.

Inspirational China - is at a £99 extra supplement cost to be honest this makes it more economical to drive to a London airport.

New England and Canada - can't find the Manchester option on the website.

Mick