Brittant Ferries Height Price Bands
Hi All, Been looking at prices for a BF crossing later this year.
I have always booked via the CMC due to the excellent discounts that were available however, that no longer being the case I wanted to compare with booking direct, especially as someone has kindly given me his Club Voyage code to use.
So, at first it looks like there is not a lot of difference but looking closer BF have price bands, for the caravan height that are 'Up to 2.6m' with the next being 'Up to 3m' and there is an £80 difference.
CMC however, who know the height of your van if you are a member and have given them the details of make and model, quote my van height in the quote info as 'Up to 2.7m'.
My van is 2.66m! So if I book direct I would be in the 'Up to 3m' but with CMC they appear to price to the nearest metre.
Now I would not have given this a thought except that, back in 2019 the CMC pointed this out when I asked for a price for a 2.6m van and uttered dire warnings about possibly being refused boarding if this, 60mm discrepancy, was detected.
Back then I went ahead and booked anyway, but circumstances are different now with potentially more incentive for them to check.
The upshot of this is that you are paying just over £100 more booking direct with BF-this is for flexible tickets which is part of the appeal and has been mentioned a few times as a key reason for booking direct- even using a friends code and, as this defeats the object somewhat, I wonder what others would do??
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Personally I would pay the extra. When we decided we didn’t want to go last year, it was so easy to change the booking online to 2022. Worth every penny in my opinion. I also don’t like the fact that the CAMC don’t person the phone lines at weekends and particularly over bank holidays. It’s years ago, but when we had a need to get back quickly, a short call to BF secured an earlier booking with no issue.
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Steve, My experience is that when I needed to make an amendment, due to a bereavement, to return early I called the club and it was sorted with no problems and no fee charged, due to the circumstances.
It will always be down to personal choice but, based on my experience, spending £100 just in case I need to do something, that I have only ever need to do once, is not money well spent.
I know that since 2019 many people had to make one or more changes, we thankfully had nothing booked, but believe no charges were made due to the nature of the situation.
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A&J, in the past we have book both with BF using a friends code and with the Club. When we had a occasion to cancel our holiday mid way through and return home the Club was very helpful and changed the booking at no cost.
On the other hand like SteveL we had booking with BF for going out in 2020. We were given a voucher which we have used for this years crossing, in between we had made bookings and then had to rearrange them due to restrictions, this was all easy to do online as they were Flexi bookings.
I today created a new thread about BF and their NEW policy for MHs carrying bikes on the rear of the van. ITs a bit like they have done with Caravans. In the past if you carried bikes on the rear you stated your overall length including the bikes, if it came within the length you were paying for that was fine, if not you paid the next rate up. The new policy is that you will pay £10 for the bikes despite still being under the length you are paying for. Not happy about this new stealth way of charging. I understand that BF like others have lost vast amounts of money due to Covid but you do not bit the hand that feeds you.
We will go with the booking this time as we are travelling with friends (who's van is longer and higher than ours but paying less)
In the future we will not be using BF again until they use a 'fair' booking method. We used the Eurotunnel last year and found it a pleasant and less expensive experience. The distance for us to Dover is no different to Portsmouth. As we are not in a hurry to get anywhere the journey on the other side doesn't come into it.
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Hi TG, Well, have tried to get a quote when a rear mounted rack is included but three times just get an error message.
I tried a quote just for a car and the rack added £18!
Interestingly I was curious about adding roof mounted items, having been told by BF, in writing, that if car was lower than van don't add roof items but that if car was now higher just up the van height to the next band-the same as you say about length, if its within what you have paid for there is no supplement.
Just tried adding roof items and the height bands are the same, so adding a car height of up to 2.6m to a van of up to 3m has no effect on the price.
However, the clubs travel service advises not to add any extra height to an online booking but to email or call to add it, so will do that and see if it makes any difference.
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"Squeeze them till the pips squeak" ?
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I haven't tried a booking through the club for this crossing as we had a voucher to use with BF, however I did notice that they say if carrying bikes on the rear of a MH to call the booking centre to add them (or something along those lines)
In the past we've been told by BF that it doesn't matter what height you put down for the car when towing a caravan as the caravan is higher so the price band will be determined by that. MH's in the past carrying bikes were not an issue just quote overall length.
I will be interested to hear what the club booking centre tell you as its all getting a bit confusing and unjust.
OH has told me that the person he spoke to at BF today said "if you book a Smart car or an Estate car they are the same price but if you were to add a bike rack to the Smart car you now pay a supplement, even though the Smart car and rack would be less in length than the estate car.
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TG Oh has just said is it possible for you to put the bike in your MH as that woul;d solve the price issue.
As to height/length price we again have a booking from 2020 so again have moved it it is now is version 7 and on version 6 the charge for the car was dearer so we have changed the caravan for this year's booking and decided to ring ring BF and a lovely lady who said as caravan is in the next height price band she said hang on a minute and she did a reduction on the car height so the price was a small increase so pleased with that, we do have BF membership which we have had for many years as living over here it suits us have done tunnel in the past wrong part of the country for where we want to go when we come over.
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Hi RK, yes we could put them in the van and the rack but it's an overnight crossing so if it's rough seas things could move.
Its not the price so much as the principal, we are still 25cm under the length we've paid for yet they are charging us again.
They are onto a good saving of space with every vehicle that is under the length so why have they started adding a supplement for a bike rack.
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What amount of discount do you get with a Friends code? Was thinking of using BF from Poole this year as we will be down in Cornwall in August so thinking rather than trekking back to Essex then down to Folkestone may be cheaper and easier to just travel over whilst away.
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Hi, It’s 10% which may work for you bit not for us due to the height “issue”.
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In the past when booking it stated 'overall length including rear mounted bikes' if that then put you up into the next price band you had to pay that cost. However if like us you were still below the limit (in our case 7m) then you were not charged, now even if you are below the limit you will pay a supplement.
We will wait and see what comes of it but I do know I won't be paying it again 😉
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I agree that the overall length inc the bike rack would be the fairest way to charge. However, I assume, depending on the step up between 7 metres and above, those with vans the length of ours 6.94 metres could benefit, as they would only get charged £10 rather than the step up? We don’t have a bike rack so never likely to find out. I’m just pleased it’s 6.94 rather than 7.01.
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Peedee, Says the person in Bedfordshire! It only makes sense if it fits with where you are and where up you are going!
However, the tunnel was one option for this year, have used it solo a couple of times, but for our outfit it’s app £200 more than P&O.
Now 99% sure it will be Stena from Harwich, which for us going via M5/M4, is 10 miles and £250 less.
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David, Like you price is only part of the equation and, as finances improved, it became less so and we started to use BF more and more.
They would still be our first option, but with our proposed June trip being to Italy, with a stop to visit friends near Arnhem, Harwich makes most sense.
If you add in the cost saving-£188 as opposed to £552-then BF, on this occasion, makes no sense.
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With where we live it makes no difference Dover or Portsmouth or even Plymouth, all of which we have used over the years. The crossing we use is generally based on where we are going like most folk.
Hull to Zeebrugge we liked as we are able to travel to Hull and sail the same day so no overnight site required, it however is no more. We could still use Rotterdam and will when traveling east.
Harwich for us is not worth it, much easier to go to Dover/Folkstone.
We like St Malo crossing timings are great for us as only 1 night halt required.
BF was always up there in our choices but not now, I don't like unfair practices. In the past they charged more for MHs than for car and caravan that I think has stopped or at least evened out a bit better so this new charge while benefitting some like SteveL will be unfair and unjust to many others.
I'm a great believer in voting with my feet if I disagree to something, I will be contacting BF again as they promised to get back to us in a few days, that was almost a week ago.
With me it's not always about money it's about what's right.
EDIT. Eurotunnel we can use Tesco vouchers on so could be a free crossing 😊😊
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We used to use the Chunnel as we have a ,now very elderly,dog.She could travel in the MH with us.However after a series of horrendous hold ups at the Dartford Crossing /M25 we decided that " enough was enough" and switched to BF Portsmouth /Le Havre.
Cost of the crossing is significantly higher but the hassle factor is greatly reduced for us.We arrive in a relaxed condition and return in the same state = holiday not spoiled.
Even when our dog is no longer,we will continue to use the BF Western crossings because it avoids an encounter with the M25 at the end of a journey from Yorkshire or France.
Money is important but avoidance of unnecessary stress en route is equally important to us; we will just have to cough up the extra,if required to.
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We wanted to cross using one of the Western ferry routs but, we do not fancy being banged up in a cabin overnight, and BF seem intent on getting you into a cabin overnight on either the outward or return (just try it, and you'll see). Well we are not going to be dictated to, and do not want to be sleeping in a cabin and all the other stuff, so have booked a FULLY REFUNDABLE Euro tunnel crossing. 35 minutes in our own car with a cup of coffee sounds good to us, and the price is about the same.
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Well, if I wasn’t going, most likely, via Harwich I would say “vive La difference”!!
The last day or so posts just show that there are almost endless similarities……………..and differences.
Not only that, these will change over time depending on the individuals, and wider, circumstances.We don’t have a dog, we love BF longer routes travel, we don’t mind cabins, my wife has no desire to travel via the tunnel etc etc.
If I had MH then I would be jealous of the caravanners who, for years, travelled for less BUT, as a caravanner, had no problem accepting the discount.
Had we not decided to visit our Dutch friends then it would be BF to Roscoff return, and there is still a chance that we may do one route out and a different one back, but however we get there it will be great to just be able to.
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Hi BB, We have done it once, and it was awful, with the A12 closed for night time repairs, but our circumstances for this trip make it the best option.
We looked at going out via Harwich and back via Roscoff but then found that our Dutch friends are away the weekend we planned to visit so that option was out.
This would have cost £397 but doing it in reverse, out via Plymouth, back via Hook, to visit them on the way back, is £496 so £300+ extra over a Harwich return.
However, it’s not totally ruled out as we may alter our plans to include a short stay at Annecy, which was our intended 2020 destination, to “justify “ using BF.
When we became disillusioned with the “drag to Dover” we reckoned that a £100 premium, to use BF, was reasonable but realistically I think that it will niggle me to pay over £300 more so just need to convince myself it’s worth it!
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Hoping to finally make it to Annecy myself this year, having postponed for the last two.
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