Non-existent ferry discounts
Having booked a campsite on Friday evening I then waited all weekend for the CC travel service phone line to open up again on Monday when I excitedly called up to book my cheap ferry crossing to Santander.
The price quoted was EXACTLY the same as the one I'd received direct from BF. I was informed that even adding camping cheques would make no difference, so what's the point!? I may as well just book direct and use a 'friends' code for 10% off.
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I think you have to book site and ferry as a 'package'. This gives you access to the cheaper ITX fares, which include accommodation as well as a fery crossing. I think if you try to do it separately it doesn't trigger the discount.
Some people have managed to get huge reductions on their ferry crossings by using Camping Cheques, but the amount varies from date to date, and crossing to crossing, so it's always best to phone and ask what 'a package' will cost before going ahead with
booking one part of it separately.0 -
Thanks ValDa, that is what I'd assumed so I asked about the camping cheques as a package but was advised they wouldn't make a difference in this case.
I see that it wasn't clear that the campsite I'd booked is a commercial and not through the club, hence the reason I asked the operator about cheques (to use another time, perhaps in France).
The crossing is in June, so not peak season as far as I'm aware. I just thought it was strange there was zero incentive to book through CC which I would have prefered so as to express a bit of loyalty to the club.
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I'm surprised you didn't get some kind of a discount. They do promote the discounts available on the Overseas page of this website, as follows:
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Package prices available to members
We offer low prices on all Brittany Ferries routes when you combine your crossing with five Camping Cheques or an overseas pitch. To book call 01342 316 101 today. -
Additional offers on selected French routes
I would be inclined to ring them back and ask why it says 'on ALL Brittary Ferries crossings' when it quite obviously hasn't applied to yours. If these are on selected sailings and certain dates then this should be mentioned on the main page, but the suggestion
is that it applies to ALL crossings.0 -
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Couple of quick points in support if what ValDa has said. Looking just now at booking direct with BF versus club with cheques on a May/ June trip shows a saving of app £73 via the club. I have seen quite a few people ask for,and get, the 'codes' that allow
guests to get the 10% off that you mention but on the dates that I used to price the Santander route I am getting a price for Plymouth Roscoff of £188 as part of an ITX against £518 direct with BF.We have used the Spain route but only as one leg due to the lack of discounts.
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I must be doing something wrong!
For a mid June crossing Portsmouth/Santander returning early July same route, including 7 camping cheques I'm now being quoted £1557. The cheques are itemised at £104.65, so the ferry price has actually gone UP by including cheques.
The original price (both CC and BF) was £1223.
Meh, I give up
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The ferry to Santander takes 24 hours. Via Michelin gives the driving time from Calais as 13 hours. And a lot cheaper.
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The ferry to Santander takes 24 hours. Via Michelin gives the driving time from Calais as 13 hours. And a lot cheaper.
But assuming you can afford it who wants to drive for 13 hours? Much better a comfortable cabin, nice meal, few drinks in the bar and arrive refreshed and ready to get on with a holiday!
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But £1557....
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The ferry to Santander takes 24 hours. Via Michelin gives the driving time from Calais as 13 hours. And a lot cheaper.
But assuming you can afford it who wants to drive for 13 hours? Much better a comfortable cabin, nice meal, few drinks in the bar and arrive refreshed and ready to get on with a holiday!
I would rather use that amount of money to pay for a short crossing, and do the drive, whilsting treat myself to two or three nights in luxury hotels, with a four course meal, en-route! Pick a good hotel which has plenty of private parking and there will be no problem parking up your caravan or motorhome - and you'll be quids in at the end of the journey, with some views of the loveliest parts of France on the way south!
Yes Brittany Ferries can be 'luxurious' but not if you were like my ex-husband, on a Christmas trip to Santander, when, due to storms, the ferry was 24 hours in the Bay of Biscay and eventually docked in southern Brittany, from where they had to do the drive south to their home in Spain, on Christmas day with no hotels booked!
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But £1557....
Perhaps it was "lost in translation". Seven nights on the ferry instead of seven nights vouchers.
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Different days of the week have different prices, and "Cruise" sailings are more expensive than the "Economie". There's also a great variety of cabins ranging in price from £85 to £285. Clearly longer vehicles are dearer than shorter ones.
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The ferry to Santander takes 24 hours. Via Michelin gives the driving time from Calais as 13 hours. And a lot cheaper.
The distance from Calais,via autoroutes, is 809 miles. Assuming that you can average 50mph that is going to be 16 hours plus. That will probably involve one, or more likely two, overnight stops and the tolls are €156. Also with an ITX package my BF crossing
is less than Dover to Calais.I dont mind driving 13 hours if that suits where I am coming from and going to but, as said above, the decision will to a very large extent depend on the preferences of the traveller and for me avoiding Dover is a must-and thats to do with how far it is
and what a pain to get to/from.0 -
The ferry to Santander takes 24 hours. Via Michelin gives the driving time from Calais as 13 hours. And a lot cheaper.
The distance from Calais,via autoroutes, is 809 miles. Assuming that you can average 50mph that is going to be 16 hours plus. That will probably involve one, or more likely two, overnight stops and the tolls are €156. Also with an ITX package my BF crossing is less than Dover to Calais.
I dont mind driving 13 hours if that suits where I am coming from and going to but, as said above, the decision will to a very large extent depend on the preferences of the traveller and for me avoiding Dover is a must-and thats to do with how far it is and what a pain to get to/from.
But you live in Cornwall, so it makes sense to use the western crossings. Both times we've tried we've had a very 'scary' time trying to get to our booked crossing in time, and the last time we were initially refused a sailing and told we've have to come back on Tuesday (two days later) for the next sailing with 'free caravans'. Only the intervention of a more sympathetic check-in clerk allowed us through.
So, for us, from Yorkshire, it's Dover every time. If you miss one crossing, or are seven hours early, or five hours late (both events have happened) you're put on the next available crossing.
We may (eventually) try a western crossing again but if it goes wrong again this time I'm afraid that will be the very last time. Traffic, motorway problems all the way from Yorkshire, and 'events' such as Silverstone all conspired to make us late - and it's no joke with children in the back (ok a long time ago) and a deadline to meet!
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Well, we drive from Scotland and last time I looked it was north of Yorkshire (and often miles from motorways, unlike in most of England) and we go via Portsmouth to Spain and have, so far, managed to arrive in time.
This argument about whether to take the ferry to Spain or drive through France goes on and on in loads of forums and there's no definitive answer. It boils down to personal preference - there's no objective way of deciding which is preferable. I suggest
that those doing it for the first time look at the pros and cons with a good helping of salt and then go with whatever they feel most comfortable.0 -
We seriously considered driving down but with a 2 and a 4 year old thought it was too long to keep them strapped in seats. I reckoned it would be at least 2x 8hr driving days which isn't fair on them.
After checking tolls, fuel consumption, extra stops enroute involved with the drive down, plus the 'kid factor' we decided to pay more to be ferried straight to Spain.
I agree you could argue either route is best until you're blue in the face, but pricewise the drive obviously wins
unless you get a massive CC discount which we didn't unfortunately.Oh, ValDa, you paint a truly wonderful picture of what we could instead do with the money! Do you fancy doing a couple weeks babysitting next June?
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I think that ValDa and I are saying the same thing! I was comparing the Western routes with Dover/Calais and, if then going on to Santander, I think the BF routes are a very viable alternative to the short sea routes but each to their own and having young
children to consider is obviously going to be a major factor. Another that affects many is wanting to avoid a longer crossing.What is your destination Matty?
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We're heading to the Costa Dorada for the whole holiday and because it's our first family holiday in the sun we wanted to maximise our time at our ultimate destination rather than eat into annual leave with too many stopovers so the ferry just ticked all
the boxes for us.We're already so excited, and I can't wait... in fact I'm just on another website trying to brush up on what little Spanish I learnt many years ago. It'll take at least 9 months.
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Hi Matty, I have seen that you appear to have posted in another thread and mention Tarragona. I dont know your start point but taking Norwich as an example the distances via Dover or Portsmouth are almost identical and if you travelled via Irun from Portsmouth
that will likely be a less in tolls than from Calais.You also said that you are looking at the 1415 arrival which is the economie crossing and that takes around 30 hours so this is also a factor. We have regularly travelled with young children and one thing we often did was to travel, when possible,when they
would be sleeping. Our duaghter still does this but this and many other possibilities are a matter of choice that only you can make.0 -
So as well as costing an arm and a leg it's even slower to Tarragona via Santander than I said earlier.. 30 hours on the Economy ship with two small children sounds like a nightmare to me. It's even longer than a flight to New Zealand and that was tough enough in Economy. .
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When we had children with us, we regularly used to travel to Tarragona, or rather to Cambrils Park (which used to take tourers and also accepted Camping Cheques in low season). Our personal preference was still Dover to Calais - in those days with a first night stopover at Chateau du Gandspette, another overnight somewhere between Orleans and Clermont Ferrand (depended on what sort of 'travelling day' we'd had, and if we were further south we could then reach Cambrils on the next day. If not, then we would stay overnight on the Med somewhere (once in a hotel at Easter when it was raining and we couldn't find an open campsite - no internet in those far away days!!!), then next day to Cambrils.
We never used to book anything - and took our holidays either at Easter or at Spring Bank Holiday when the children were lucky to get two weeks off school. We carried on until they were teenagers and schools started being more strict about adding on extra days to holidays. So we've plenty of experience in long distance travel over that particular route. One time, when my sister and her family came down and joined us (flying down) we left a day later than normal and managed Cambrils to Gandspette, via Chateau du Grange Fort south of Clermont Ferrand for an overnight stop.
However, if you've thought about the alternatives and are willing to pay £1500 for a ferry which takes thirty hours (of potential sea-sickness if your children aren't good sailors, don't forget), and then still leaves you with an overnight stop required, and half the distance still to drive, then I suppose no amount of alternative suggestions will change your mind.
I might be inclined to do less of a 'first trip' and stay on a site much nearer to one of the ports to see how good your children are at long distance travel.
We were lucky - we used to travel after school on a Friday and they fell asleep within a few miles of home, only waking up when we reached the ferry. We had an arrangement with the owners at Gandspette that we could arrive and park up in the arrivals section, and pay them in the morning. At least in those days (when things were done on the telephone) finding a first night site wasn't a problem. We'd stayed there many times before so knew where all the facilities were.
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Hi Matty, Forgot to say that when enquiring about ferry costs for 2017 I was told by the club that not all routes are currently available as discounted rates so its worth checking that the prices you get are the discounted ones. I was looking at BF to Roscoff
and Stena from Harwich and only BF are discounted at the moment.My last post was trying to show that Portsmouth may be as good,or better, than Dover and you can then compare with the Spain routes.
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As others have said it depends on your own preferences. For me the drive to the destination is definitely not part of the Holiday. I work so two or three days driving to the south of France is 2-3 days out of my Holiday. We took the Portsmouth Bibao ferry
this year and I must say I found it a very relaxing experience. Sure it was expensive compared to say using the tunnel with Tesco vouchers and avoiding toll roads and sleeping in car parks. But for me it was worth it.The cabin was clean but a bit small, I passed the time by reading a book or watching out for Dolphins there are worse ways of passing the time.
Btw does anyone know the pricing model that BF use? The prices for next year seemed high, but I wonder if the use the so called Nike curve pricing model, where the prices start high to capture the people who always book straight away and then reduce it
before it goes up as it fills to capture the desperate late bookers. Ryanair used to do this. before they were rumbled.0 -
Hi Boff, having used BF for many years I would say that the only consistent thing is that it is inconsistent!
I would always check,check and check again and it is often the case that deals not only change but 'come and go'. This year a few hours difference in the departure time had a large effect on the cost and I also got a better deal on a night crossing than
on a day crossing when often it is the other way around. One thing that I can say, as we lost out due to it, was that all the crossings we were looking at with BF went up on 1st January but,as I said who knows if that will be the case this year? My price for
a May/June 2017 BF crossing from Plymouth to Roscoff as part of an ITX package with cheques is just £188, as against £518 direct, but I have never seen any large discounts on the Spain routes0 -
Okay, I'm going to show my complete ignorance here and put my hand up to ask a question, what is an ITX package?
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Okay, I'm going to show my complete ignorance here and put my hand up to ask a question, what is an ITX package?
ITX = Independent Tour Excursion. A package of ferry + campsite, or ferry + camping cheques - which on some routes at some times is considerably cheaper than buying each item separately.
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Boff, my thoughts exactly!
Plus, the ferry should be relaxed and with enough space to stretch legs and do/see things other than the back of a headrest I'm hoping the kids will be fine.
Both me and my wife are ex-Merchant Navy so 24 or 30 hours on a ship should be quite a jolly, and I'm sure we'll have both sailed on much worse than BF (even economie class, shock horror!).
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Re pricing model. As I understand it BF uses a dynamic pricing model, the earlier you book the cheaper, the later you book and the fuller the sailing becomes then the dearer. I don't think there are any discounts for the Spain sailings other than by joining
Club Voyage which gives a 30% discount on the ferry price, (not the cabins), breakfast vouchers and 10% off food.0
