Ferry Bookings Prices
Next year our travel plans will be different from our usual May to June trips so having seen ADs post re Brittany Ferries decided yesterday to have a first look at prices but start with a comparison to what we paid this year.
This year our booking was our usual return Plymouth to Roscoff ITX with 5 cheques and an overnight cabin and the price was £321-it makes the ferry portion less than £200.
Yesterday several attempts resulted in a price, for exactly the same crossings and outfit of £512 so I called the travel service and they got a price of £392. Much better but still a 22% increase like for like. They advised that I log out and then try again.
I logged out and left it overnight and have just got a price of.............£532!
So as it is now a long weekend anyone who is thinking of booking may want to hold off till they can confirm the price over the phone.
Comments
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The last couple of years we have booked direct with BF because I have found that they are cheaper than the club even taking Ccheques into account. As there are very few Camping Cheque sites left in Spain, we find no point in ITX fares, we would save more by joining the BF travel club which is something we are now considering.
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Perhaps it's an age thing but given the problems we experienced this year I don't think I will be booking very far in advance in future so no doubt will have to say goodbye to any early booking advantages.
David
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Is there any advantage in booking ferries early?
The Club is right now giving me an on line quote for return day time crossings from Plymouth to Roscoff in just eleven days time (car + Caravan + 2 adults) for £280 return without Camping Cheques. Would that really have been cheaper if I had booked a year in advance? I doubt it.
But booking directly with Brittany Ferries for the same sailings and dates would be £350.
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I've found a few times that, for ferries within UK waters, the prices with the club are very similar to the ferry companies prices. However, the ferry companies often have more favourable cancellation terms which is something to take into consideration as none of us know when illness might strike.
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I must have been fortunate in the past as I have always got substantial savings by booking an ITX package. We have no problem using the cheques-we ran out this year-and the savings are normally in the hundreds of pounds, this year almost £300.
So far as booking early is concerned we usually book from November on for travel in May/June but next year we are travelling in August, the site was booked two weeks ago, so I am expecting to have to book early in order to get my preferred choice however, the post was to flag up that there appears to be a glitch at the moment.
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@Landyrover I'm also considering joining the BF travel club for next years trip to Spain, perhaps we could 'share' the cost and have an associate member?
£100 Registration
£120 Annual Fee
£65 Associate Member
£285 Total
That makes £142.50 each to benefit from 30% discount on ferries to Spain plus additional benefits.
Is it something you would be interested in?
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Whenever you consider booking tickets be it flights, rail or ferries always use Private/Incognito mode on your browser. These 'clever' booking websites use the cookies associated with the pages and as soon as they have seen you have visited once or twice before they will increase prices or even better send you into a blind panic by saying that they have only 1 or 2 places remaining urging you to book immediately at a higher price.
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Is there any advantage in booking ferries early?
Probably not from a price point of view. However, often to make sure of a cabin, or at least the type you want. This year we booked a May Portsmouth St Malo crossing before Christmas, and all the two bed ordinary cabins had gone. As a result we went for one of the Comodore Class ones, rather expensive but very nice. If price had been a problem, or we were younger, we might have gone for one with bunks. So as I put not really price, just more choice of accommodation.
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I can confirm that BF are very good with changes made to bookings and very quick to reassure - my return from France earlier was put on hold because of my brother being ill - and they were brilliant - not sure I paid any excess either although there was an admin charge - but I booked on a cheaper sailing than the original ticket.
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Just checked the prices for Harwich to Hook of Holland in October for an overnight single trip (with cabin) (with caravan)
Stena (direct) - £243.50
Club - £234.00
Direct Ferries - £181.00
A whopping £53 cheaper than the club price, so I know who I will book with
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I have found Brittany Ferries Travel Club give me consistently good discounts, well worth the annual fee,and with the added bonus of free cabins, free breakfasts and discount in the restaurant. I did do a comparison last year with Caravan Club and BF won hands down.
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Currently on a rally with poor internet so not been looking at CT much. Just caught up and done a quick comparison based on oneputts comment above.
Obvioisly we all choose the ferry crossing/date/time that suits us however a comparison on a single trip is not really representative of what most will be doing so I have done a check of the prices for a return in October.
An ITX with five cheques is £433 and direct Ferries £431 which makes the club almost £80 better when taking the cheques into account.This was with a night crossing one way but if you take the day crossing, as we have done on this route, both ways DF are £309 but the Club are only £278 including the cheques which makes them, like for like ferry cost £100 cheaper.
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Agree A&J but I can't find the ferry you are using.
we nearly always use the Harwich/HoH route so know that the prices I quoted are pretty representative of the savings. As we don't use camping cheques it is obviously a no brainer for us.
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Oneputt,prices are for Harwich return crossing in October car 7.5m caravan and two adults. Pricing for singles will often affect the price, but maybe that's what you need, as most deals are based on return crossings.
Over the years we have learned never to assume and often made bookings that did not seem obvious when starting to look at the options and the Harwhich route is a good example. We used it in 2014 as it was by far the best bet for a trip to Italy and the price, with cheques, was just £120.
If you can't make use of the cheques they are usually pretty easy to sell but on nearly all our deals via the club using Brittany Ferries, we saved £300 this year, we would still make substantial savings even if we threw them in the bin.
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You can use Tesco vouchers for this route too.
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