New Booking System for Overseas Travel
Comments
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Oh Tracy!
It's now mid December and I have been trying for the last three days to price up different ferry options for 2020. Rang the Travel Service for advice on booking the vouchers.The work-around hasn't worked for me. I completed the ferry options, clicked on the map as advised, which should have taken me to Sites and Site Vouchers, no Vouchers. Click Travel Tab to go back to ferry details, all gone, Deleted User. Fill it all in again and try again, and again.Then give up.
Also there is no options to "Go Back" or forward to "Next" page to make changes. If I back back tab on my computer I have to re-enter some of the other details.
How anybody has got to the booking payment stage with vouchers bewilders me.
I have now emailed Web team to register my disappointment with the utter failure of this project. The commissioning, if there was any, has been left to us the members and for us to have to waste our time trying to price up various route options.
DawdyDave
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DD, not sure if you’d seen my earlier post...now copied below. This worked for me,
Started by clicking on ‘Book for 2020 travel’, then search for a location where there is no site. I used Calais (nothing to do with the crossing I eventually booked) but probably others would work. The search results one gets lists nearby sites BUT ALSO at the top of the list is ‘buy site night vouchers’, which I did. This time, when I went through to book ferry, the vouchers were still in the basket, and the ferry price displayed as I was going through the process, decreased at the final stage to give the combined package price with the benefit of the discount.
i think the difference, and source of the problem, is that option 1 above one is going into the new 2020 process AFTER buying SNVs. Option 2 one is in 2020 process right from the onset. Doesn’t make sense but.....
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Thanks Ian. I have in the past booked overnight trains across India on this I-pad, a rather nice hotel at Hua Hin in Thailand and a gite in France where all the instructions were in easy French - but although I have just followed your helpful advice about booking site night vouchers plus ferry to the letter I cannot get beyond the banner saying "Become a member, Join now". It just sits there and blocks me making any further progress.
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Worked for me OK as Ian describes. Thing is, dont be in a rush, as the site is SLOW and sometimes you wonder if anything is happening
For me, it still requires me to enter the car length and height details twice before they stay in the box - anyone else have this?
Once you successfully get a ' combined deal' price, you can still change crossing choice, times and dates, without having to re-enter the outfit details again
Things are progressing - SLOWLY
One thing did surprise me - If I did not log-in, I still got the price as a member - perhaps it recognised my outfit details. On the Camping and Caravan Club website, theres a £20 surcharge for non members
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WelI, I have just spent an extremely frustrating hour looking at various options for ferries to Europe.
We haven't decided exactly when and where we are going so looking at various options.
Our outgoing ferry will be in early May with the return ferry mid - late June.
First search was for ferry going out Dover - Calais and returning Hook of Holland to Harwich.
"Second search was for going out Poole - Roscoff and returning Cherbourg to Portsmouth
OK, I know the website is slow but what is really frustrating is the number of times the results came back with " Sorry, we were unable to retrieve crossings for one or more providers. Please try again with different dates or a different route"
It may be that there are no ferries for the dates I have chosen but shouldn't the system give me the dates that the ferries are running?
My first impression is the system is totally useless and needs to go back to the drawing board. Perhaps the Club need to approach TUI to find out how a holiday website should run.
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So it looks like nothing has changed
I must admit I've given it a rest since my earlier posts, got too frustrated with it all! Haven't booked anything as yet, as we're not sure about dates at the moment, but when we come to book, I think I'll just ring up and let the travel department go through all the options. I know that sometimes people are reluctant to accept changes, but I'm afraid in this case the changes aren't for the better; the old system was so much more user-friendly - now having to click multiple times on the map to get the Night Vouchers banner to appear is just ludicrous, surely that option should be there to begin with. IMHO of course.
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MikeyA, The second search you mentioned would be difficult for any booking system. There are no ferries from Poole to Roscoff and the return from Cherbourg to Portsmouth is only by catamaran which doesn't carry caravans. So not surprising you drew a blank with those two
May I suggest you look at Brittany Ferries own website where there is a 15% discount offer running at the moment.
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Probably the same ship Mikey, still sailing, but it goes in and out of Poole not Portsmouth
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Hi MikeyA, like you, and probably many others, I had become fed up trying to do comparisons of routes/prices, something that used to be a fairly easy task.
The last few posts have encouraged me to take a look again and do a comparison with BF direct prices.
For a June 2020 return overnight with a cabin going out from Plymouth to Roscoff and returning on a Sunday morning, both ways on the Pont Aven,, its £319.80 for a combined fare with the club, including 4 site vouchers, and £599 booked direct.
Even with a 15% discount that's still a saving of a minimum £190 and, if you use the vouchers, £278.
I believe, from previous experience, that Portsmouth-Caen, and possibly Poole-Cherbourg, would be even cheaper giving a reasonble choice of departure ports.
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I can't believe how bad it is!
I wanted to research the Plymouth/Roscoff crossing for my daughter to take the caravan over, she would come back without it and we would go over without and come back with it after our holiday. Very flexible on dates other than she has to be August so I was just looking for the cheapest crossings as we can't take advantage of the site vouchers as the crossings have to be booked separately as the caravan is only going one way.
It took me the whole of an afternoon. The old system would have taken me half an hour at the most.
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I can't believe how bad it is!
I agree, I was wondering if all the comments were just hype but I thought I would give it a go. In the old system you could look a a crossing (Dover/Calais in my case) and get a general idea of prices from the different operators around given times, you could then opt to choose more crossing from this operator to give more options for each. To do that now you have to go back and put in the different criteria all over again such as later/earlier times, what was wrong with the old easy site.
I also noticed C&MC round up the figures to the nearest £££ for some crossings, doing the same search on C&CC it gives a £amount then X pence, C&MC is just the £ amount rounded up to the next highest....
C&MC also offer a combined deal on certain crossings/operators (P&O) so trying to add site vouchers like others have said is near impossible... and then the cost just rockets so not a bargain at least on the shorter crossing.
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Hi eurotraveller & MikeyA,
Brittany Ferries are indeed running a 15% discount offer at the moment but the prices on our website should include this discount so that we will still be the same price or cheaper than going direct to Brittany. We have combined deals on both French and Spanish routes which may be cheaper than the direct fares or the best deals are available on these French sailings
Portsmouth-Caen 14:45 and Caen-Portsmouth 08:30 all year
Poole-Cherbourg 08:30 and Cherbourg-Poole 18:30/18:15 all year
Plymouth-Roscoff all departures excluding Friday and Saturday and excluding high season and Roscoff-Plymouth all departures excluding high season
St Malo- Portsmouth 10:30 Monday to Friday all year
Le Havre-Portsmouth 17:00 Sunday to Wednesday all year
Hopefully this helps.
Kind Regards
Tracy
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This new system ain’t great keeps freezing and then goes to a page you don’t want so you have to start a new search. It’s not a quick system to use.
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Hi everyone,
Just to let you know we have had a website release with two changes to the overseas booking system.
1) Purchasing Overseas Site Night Vouchers is now prominently displayed on the first page of the site search (see photo)
2) The purchase of `Combined Deals`, i.e. ferry + campsite bookings, which can be great value, is now smoother and a lot more informative for members.
We hope this helps your online booking experience with the Club and thank you all for your feedback.
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Rowena
Well at least it now works. However adding the vouchers to the ferry gives very little discount or no discount whatsoever.
Poole/Cherbourg and return for my dates is £174.25 to buy on it's own. When adding 4 vouchers at £87.80 the total in my basket £262.05. No discount at all.
You might as well just book the ferry at the offered price of £174.25 and use ACSI prices of an average of £15.50 per night a saving of £6.45 A saving to me personally of over £260
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You are right harryb. I went around that scenario several times in early January, before finally opting for our usual Ports - Caen crossing. It suggests there is a cheaper combined deal, as the ferry price is lower, but then offers no reduction, whereas Ports - Caen drops the combined price
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Rowena, I have already booked, but thought that I would check if the 'mods' put in place have improved the experience -
Yes it has, its a lot better and close to the old system in my opinion.
1. You don't have to click on the cars dimensions twice to get the system to accept them
2. You get comparative crossing.
Although, the site vouchers is more prominent, after adding them and it changing to the screen giving details of how the vouchers work, its easy to fail to spot the button at the bottom for actually choosing how many, and adding them - that button ought to be nearer the top and visible immediately it changes page I think.
Mike
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Yes, it is much better now, thank goodness. The site night vouchers option is much more prominent as you say, however, on the booking info on the right hand side of that screen, it still tells you to click on any site on the map to get the vouchers; perhaps that could be re-phrased.
I agree with Mike above that the button for choosing how many vouchers are required should be at the top; on my tablet it's nowhere to be seen, and I had to scroll way down to get to it. That's because I knew where to find it, others who don't know could have a problem finding it.
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Having had my knuckles rapped, and my question locked, I am requested to ask it here, and extend what is already a very long thread to read - here goes again
To get a 'combined' ferry deal, you have to book 4 overseas site nights, or take 4 'C&MC vouchers'
Does anyone know if you can take 2 of each if you book via the telephone rather than online?
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Hi, just seen the latest posts on this thread so will be having a look later at the reported improvements however, so far as I am aware you need to book 7 nights on a site OR take 4 site vouchers.
As the vouchers can be used on all the bookable sites, with some exceptions listed under the voucher T&Cs, cant see any point in booking a site?
If the site is likely to be busy then maybe but, as the vouchers are are best used in low season, that is unlikely.
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Follow up on last post at 1021. Its now 1025 and in that time have priced up a combined deal with a ferry and vouchers.
Site is much easier to use now. As said it would make sense if the voucher price appeared at the top of the page but , for me, the biggest irritation is the offering of alternative routes.
I am looking at Plymouth and it gives me Poole, Portsmouth and Newhaven as alternatives. I would be interested in seeing the alternative prices for my preferred route as this may show viable options.
If I want to consider alternative ports I would look at then individually.
It also seems a backward step to loose the ability to compare all short, or long, routes in one search but it is better than it was when introduced.
If it can get back to being as good as it was before it was changed.........................!
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allanandjean
you can get the ferry deal with just 4 site nights - I did it last year over the telephone. I booked the arrival and departure nights at Riva Bella, and 2 nights near Carcassonne (at something around £14 night). So the benefit for me was a saving of around £20, compared to 4 vouchers.
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Hi lagerorwine,
Many thanks for your question and feedback. I've checked with my colleagues in the overseas travel team who have advised that to get a combined deal you need a minimum of 4 night`s accommodation which can be either 4 nights on a campsite or 4 Overseas Site Night Vouchers. It`s not possible to purchase less than 4 Overseas Site Night Voucher either online or via the Contact Centre.
I hope this helps.
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