I've just spoken to a gentleman from customer services in order to book my connecting flights for my next holiday to Greece in May.

When he had taken my request and confirmed my flights would be booked tomorrow, he asked me to pay the £139 supplement. I've booked connecting flights with most of my previous JY holidays and never before have I been asked to pay straight away, normally I'm advised a revised invoice will be sent out to me.

Is this a new thing JY have brought in? It's just I only rang last Friday to book the holiday and paid a deposit of £175 then.

I did mention I'd never had to do this before and the gentleman agreed to send another invoice out instead, but if this is now JY policy, why wasn't it mentioned when I booked the holiday? I don't mind paying £314 when I'm booking the holiday, but was not happy about having this charge sprung on me unexpectedly. Especially when the gentleman said he knew 'times were hard', thus implying I couldn't afford to pay the £139, when in reality I'm paying over £2000 for a week in Greece by the time optional tours, connecting flights, and hotels are factored in. Not all JY customers are rolling in cash or have savings in the bank, some of us have to save really hard for these trips and budget for them, so I did not appreciate this comment.

Regards

Caroline

I have spoken with the manager of this department and asked for some clarification. There are occassions where for connecting flights we have to pay for the flight there and then. When this is the case, you would be advised that payment would be required to secure this seat as per our booking conditions. For your holiday this was not the case, and you could be invoiced as you have experienced in the past. He would like to pass on his apologies for this misunderstanding on behalf of the Holiday advisor.

In terms of the comment, I have forwarded this on to the advisors Line Manager to review and take up with the individual.

Kindest regards,

Julia

Thanks for clarifying this for me. Do you know what connecting flights I would be likely to have to pay up-front for? Just, obviously, it would mean me having to save more money up before booking a holiday in future. Also, could you confirm that if I also booked the optional excursions at the same time I booked my holiday, would I have to pay for these straight away, and pay the holiday deposit as well?

Regards

Caroline

I'm sorry for the delay in coming back to you on this one, I've had to speak to a couple of different people (and then I always seem to raise more questions).

In terms of the connecting flights - it is rare and would normally only be the situation if you booked your holiday "late" for example les than 12 weeks before tour departs.

For the optional excursions. These always have to be paid for at the time of adding them on to your booking - whether that is at the original time of booking or a few weeks later. It is worth noting however, that you can wait until up to 7 days before the tour departs to add these to your booking.

Kindest regards,

Julia

I know when I booked optional excursions in the past, at the same time I booked my holiday, I still paid the same baseline deposit and everything else was added on to my invoice, which is in line with other tour operators, so this must have changed over the last few years.

I'm considering going to Iceland in November, and was wondering if you have a price for those optional excursions as since other members of the forum have mentioned going on other trips, like helicopter flights, etc, I would need to pay for the excursions at the same time I book this holiday, so I could then save up for any additional trips I may take whilst I'm there.

Do you know how many people are currently booked on both tours please? It will probably be May before I can book, though I will be comparing with other tour companies too.

Thanks

Caroline

Thanks for bringing this up. I normally get my visas myself as there's always quite a mark-up by tour companies on them. China and India visas look a bit more difficult and it might be worth getting them through the company to ensure they are correctly completed, but I know for the USA and Turkey both visas are an absolute doddle to apply for on-line, I just make sure I apply via the links on the GOV.UK site as there are some unscrupulous people out there who will try and charge you more than you need to pay.

I'm just wondering if it might be better to book the holiday as late as possible and just pay the balance in full then as by the time you've paid for a deposit, connecting flights, optional excursions, and visas, I'll have nearly paid the full balance anyway.

Regards

Caroline

The only problem with booking late is that you might miss out on the holiday, and if the flight tickets are returned you might have to pay for more expensive ones. I usually book about four months ahead, and always ask about numbers and whether I can reasonably expect the trip to go ahead. So far it's worked. Pre booking excursions just before the deadline has never been a problem. The pre bookable ones normally use the tour coach, so there should be enough places for the whole group. One thing though, for some long haul trips you do need various vaccinations , and some require more than one injection before you are fully protected so make sure you leave enough time between booking and travelling .

I normally would try to book my leave at work so that there would be 2/3 tours at the same time, therefore if I missed out on one tour, I'm sure there would be something available on another. I do normally book more than 12 weeks before a tour, so I'm usually ok with paying the price stated in the brochure, I was just thinking if I need to take extra money with me to Iceland, as I want to do more whilst I'm there, I would really need to pay more off my holiday initially, hence why I asked Julia how much the optional excursions on the Iceland tour are, as I'd need to pay for those when I book the holiday.

Hopefully it won't take Julia too long to get back to me about the cost of the optional tours, and to let me know how many are booked on this holiday in November.

Regards

Caroline

I am going on the March Iceland trip and our two optional excursions are:- Golden Circle (full day pre-book able only £53) & Northern lights (pre-bookable only £37). In addition a small group of us are doing a helicopter trip (around £230) and a whale watching trip around £40.

Sally

Thanks for letting me know this, I'll allow an extra £100 when booking my holiday to pay for both excursions then I can start saving for the helicopter trip and whale watching, if I decide to do both.

I've had to book my leave from work so I'm really hoping the tour on 15th November will go ahead.

Please post a review when you get back as I can't wait to read your review of Iceland.

Hope you and everyone else on this tour have a brilliant holiday.

Regards

Caroline