 Poster: A snowHead
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Paid the rest of the balance for our trip to Zermatt at Christmas and found out that they have changed our flights, and instead of flying with Excel thay have changed us to a BA flight - result 
but the the flight is now 40mins earlier, so less snooze time, but it would have been a pretty sleepnes night anyway. I just hope we don't have to wait for hours for other flights to get in as nothing worse than being nearly there and been stationary for hours waiting for other people.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| acanno wrote: |
| nothing worse than being nearly there and been stationary for hours waiting for other people. |
Last time I did a package tour it was with Crystal, flying into Chambery on an early flight. Just about everybody was expecting to get some skiing done that day. However, Crystal had other ideas and the second flight that they had consolidated onto our coach for the transfer was scheduled to land two hours after hour flight, and on that day was delayed by an hour. We kicked hour heels at Chambery for three hours before leaving (although we reallu wanted to kick our Rep).
That was the last time I booked a package, and ever since then it's been booked independently.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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rob@rar.org.uk, unfortunately that's not uncommon for T.O.s using Chambery. They fly in lots of little planes direct from regional UK airports but wait until they've got a bus full before hitting the road. Then you often do the coach shuffle in Moutiers station car park before getting a minibus up the hill to your resort. And if you're headed for Belle Plagne, 9 times out of 10 you drop off PAX at all the lower bits of LP first. Never again. I went indie for the 1st time last year and it was much better.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Bernard Condon, At least you got lunch.....similar experience a couple of years ago, combined with traffic jam from hell on the road up to Tignes resulted in a transfer time of well over the six hours mark. TO rep had to be shouted at and threatened (at somewhere around the 4 hour mark) before agreeing to stop for a measly half hour to allow leg stretching, loo break and grab a bagette from the service station!! Independent travel for me every time!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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rob@rar.org.uk, I am with you on the "No more TO" thing. Have only ever done 2 packages as such but so much time wasted. Never ever again.
acanno, BA will be a better experience than Excel so think yourselves lucky!
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acanno, don't know if it's your first time to Zermatt but if you go again look at doing it independently if you want to get to the resort on your own schedule. The transfer is easy on a flat-rate Swiss Transfer Ticket (about £57 return) - rail station at Geneva or Zurich airports, with a change at Visp or Brig. You can usually package the whole thing for less than a tour op will charge, unless it's a heavily discounted deal.
Zermatt tourist office has lots of package deals of its own, especially in low season, usually cutting in the liftpass.
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brian
brian
Guest
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Mouth, ok, you waste a bit of time but isn't it all worth it to be treated like a brain dead sheep ! 
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Count urself lucky! Last year we booked really early to get on the 1 flight to Barcelona for Andorra, 6 weeks before they move it to Toulouse. bug. Loads of snow, roads closed, so we had a 9hr transfer, and all the flights that took off from England after us got diverted to Barcelona and a mere 3hr transfer. At least I got to watch Gladiator all the way through!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I’ve travelled with Inghams a few times and the waiting times at airports have generally been fine
Only one bad experience and that was due to very bad weather and Saltsburg airport not being able to get planes of the ground and running out of space. Ended up stuck in the plane for an hour before we could unload and then waiting for the flight from Dublin which had been stuck behind ours. Other than then I think I have always been on the move in under an hour though have sometimes had to change bus at some point on route.
I’ve had a couple of trips with Thomsons where on the way home we have been dumped from one bus and been left to wait outside for a second one for the return to the airport and also ended up at the airport very early for the flight which peed me off a bit
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My recent experience with TO suggests they only use one bus per flight. e.g. they dont twin coach transfers. I have been on a large coach and only 20 people on it.
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You know it makes sense.
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Not all TO's are the same. If you want to find some middle ground where you still get all of the advantages of having someone else do all of the organising for you without the waiting around why not give a smaller company a try. We only have 16 people flying in a week and you will all get on the same bus going to the same chalet so no time wasted on random drop offs. The other joy is that we fly into Grenoble (for ADH) where you can see the coach from the bagage reclaim belt so you are literally out of the airport and on your way - no messing about. Normal transfer times to ADH about hour and a half, morning flights that get in around 10.30....sounds like Saturday afternoon on the slopes to me!
Can't do anything about the traffic but we like to think we have all the other bases covered. If you fancy giving us a try PM me. Usual discounts for snowheads!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I can only suggest that when paying over 500 quid per head for something that people read the contract at the back of the catalogue to see what they are getting - your rep should know it by heart. Seems obvious, very few people do it until they come to write a complaint letter.
In the contract you should see
i. check-in time at airport (typically 3 hours for charters)
ii. maximum wait time at airport before leaving for resort (typically 2 hours from clearing customs)
iii. transfer time to resort - this will be to when you cross the official entrance sign to resort - you may spend another 2 hours driving around the resort dropping off guests.
You can typically figure on six hours delay between touching down to arriving at your accomodation and at least the same on the way back.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| homphomp wrote: |
| Bernard Condon, At least you got lunch.....similar experience a couple of years ago, combined with traffic jam from hell on the road up to Tignes resulted in a transfer time of well over the six hours mark. TO rep had to be shouted at and threatened (at somewhere around the 4 hour mark) before agreeing to stop for a measly half hour to allow leg stretching, loo break and grab a bagette from the service station!! Independent travel for me every time! |
Its not the rep but the driver that tends to constrain things, he will only be able to work so many hours in a day. By stopping you may not get to resort. I've known guests to get maroonned at somewhere like Albertville after forcing a McDo break on a driver and then not getting into resort because the spare driver was so late that the road to resort was closed due to weather conditions.
Personally I wouldn't go as far as Tignes or Val d'Isère with a big TO unless I went by train. I would also avoid Val Tho. Look for somewhere not too high, fairly popular so you don't have to decoach at some bus depot and around 2 hours claimed transfer time.
FYI big tour operators budget around a fiver per head to get you to resort. My experience is that Inghams are the slickest transfers of the big operators running into France or Swiss Travel or Kuoni for Switzerland.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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My one experience of travelling with a tour op was going to Courchevel with Nielsons. We were met off the snowtrain at Moutiers by a minibus that took us directly to our chalet. Couldn't ask for more than that!! 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Our flight was changed from a mid day (we'd chosen to avoid getting up too early and give us the 3hours needed to drive from the highlands to Glasgow airport) to a 7am flight which then cost us an overnight airport hotel stay and an extra day in the long-stay car park. Not to worry Crystal told us at least you get an extra 1/2 day skiing in - yeah right. Not only had they changed the time but the flight was moved to Geneva from Lyon which meant a 4 hour trip to Les Deux Alps rather than 2 1/2. and when we arrived there was no rep and worse no ski passes - doing it all myself now and saving a fortune with less grief. I'm sure the smaller agents are far better customer focused but I find booking direct with the chalet owners even better
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This is the big tour operators can sometimes make it cheaper when you have kids. The smaller operators charge near adult prices, but the big TOs sometimes charge much less (which becomes a factor with two kids in tow). Risk is that transfer bus though and particularly that insane scrum at the airport when you leave on the way home with hundreds of coaches arriving at the same time.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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For me booking via a TO was about convenience - I'd worked long and hard all year (like most) so I tried to avoid all the hassle and with two kids to sort it usually is hassle - so I thought I'd pay a TO to take the strain. It was the worst experience I've had for any holiday - Crystal did apologise and had a raft of reasons (excuses) and sent us 'money off' our next booking. (and to be fair we did use them once before and they were well organised). This time round DIY - everything is booked and thanks to you SnowHeads I've covered all the angles and saved a small fortune plus the added benefit of a car in the resort. Although I've driven in Europe often, it'll be my first left hand drive - so if you see a Swiss car all over the road - it could be me! 
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