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Crystal Ski & customer service

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
booked independently to go to Kaprun in Austria for New Year just passed, no problem getting flights, transfers and an excellent hotel arranged, saved over £250 a head on the TO brochure prices - I emailed the local tourist board and they circulated hotels for accomodation, received 3 offers, picked the best - 4*, centre of village, food and service excellent
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
PS hated going with TO's before, now hate the prospect even more Sad
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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?
I have in the past had several bad experiences with major TO's including being dumped (without a rep) in an empty car park at Aime where we had to wait for an hour and a half (with desperately excited kids who just could not wait to hit the slopes) for a transfer minibus that would be "along in around 5 minutes". And of course oue absolute favorite feeling of being woken up at 2:00 am on the moring of departure in order to beat the traditional tarantaise traffic jam only arrive 4 hours early for our flight!

Needless to say, I now travel DIY only. We fly out on Friday, overnight in the Formula1 motel in Alberville and play the same trick on return (staying in Grenoble/Geneva/Turin) on Sunday night and flying out Sunday morning - the saving on ticket costs for five easily pays for the overnight stops plus we get 8 FULL days on the Snow Smile

I am an IT contractor and recently started working at one of the big four TO's. This gave me an interesting insight into the "other side" of the problem.

The TO's margins are waffer thin on ski holdidays with break even often being seen as a good season. Junior Reps are hard to recruit (its poorly paid and often stressfull work) and even harder to retain for the full season - often the dream of "A season as a ski rep" doesn't live up to the reality...

What surprised me more than anything (and I suppose it shouldn't have really) is the SCALE of the operation. Imagine the logistics of moving tens of thousands of people to hundreds of resorts - each resort has a different accomodation with a different pickup/drop of order - each week a different number arriving and departing at each - sharing transport with other allied TO's where necessary/econimcal - yes there are economies of scale but the cost of the operation is huge.

In the end it all comes down to margin - yes the transfers could be improved, but the cost of paying compensation to the relatively few complaints lodged (plus the estimated cost of the damage to the brand name) is less than the cost of the additional infrastructure needed to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Lesson 1) expect to get what you pay for, often tour companies pay very similar travel costs to you especially on cheap early booked flights or late booked accomodation - if you can't do it cheaper yourself, the chances are the TO is loosing money on your booking.

Lesson 2) Complain. Don't bother making anything more than a token complaint in the resort, it probably won't get any further than the resort manager and the rep's job is hard enough anyway. Complain in writing to head office on your return. Once the cost of dealing with complaints outweighs the cost of improving the service, service will improve (along with the cost of your holiday wink)

Lesson 3) If you want hassle free travel go DIY
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SnowSeaker, Totally agree with your post and conclusions (particularly 2!), below is the genuine text from an email I sent to a tour operator who shall for legal reasons be nameless (but who's name rhymes with Ronson Very Happy ) aftre my last experience with them. Sorry about the length, but I was quite annoyed at the time!

>>>>

Sirs,

We returned last week from our skiing holiday in Les Deux Alpes (Booking Reference XXXXXXX). While we enjoyed the skiing, and found the resort to be satisfactory, we were very disappointed in the service we received from your company. Specifically I would very much like to hear your responses to the following points:

1) Change in flight times. Without consulting us you put back both outbound and return flight times delaying both our arrival in the resort and our return from it. The timing of the flights was one of the key considerations when we booked the holiday so to have them changed in this way was completely unacceptable.

2) Transfer delays. On arrival at Lyons we were told by your local rep that because you had booked a coach with insufficient seats, there would be a delay while another one was arranged. After around 45 minutes wait, the replacement coach did arrive, but then waited another 40 minutes for three passengers who had been turned back from the flight because their passports had expired. Clearly their mistake was not your responsibility but I would have thought a modern international tour operator would have communications facilities that would have allowed this information to reach your staff in Lyons ahead of our flights arrival. A phone call would have been sufficient.

3) Coach Change. When we finally did get under way we learned that we would have to change coaches part way as the one we were on went to Alpe d’Huez. This entailed further delay and the inconvenience of moving our luggage from one coach to another This inconvenience was repetade on the journey back from the resort a week later. No mention of the need to change coaches is made in your brochure.

4) Arrival in resort. On arrival at the Flocon d’Or apartments yet more time was wasted as they had no record of our booking. Eventually the apartment manager found that we had been ‘moved’ to the nearby ‘Residence du Soleil’. No one had thought to inform us of this in advance, and this was not in accordance with our expectations. As a result of all the delays the time was now 10.15pm. We had no food with us (as we expected to be able to buy something on arrival), there are NO shops or restaurants available at the Flocon d’Or. The nearest shops are in the resort itself which is a 10-15 minute walk down a steep hill and a half hour walk back up it. Fortunately we were able to persuade a local Pizza shop to deliver (although they closed at 10.00) or all six of us would have gone hungry that night.

5) Disgusting and unsafe state of apartment. As mentioned above, our reservation had been swapped, without our consent, to the ‘Residence du Soleil’. Clearly an older set of apartments, they could not by any reasonable measure be classed as ‘Three star’. I would have thought they would struggle to gain two stars. There were only two lifts (our apartment was on the ninth floor) of which the larger was out of service for the whole week (apart from one afternoon). The typical wait for the lift was between 10 and 20 minutes.

However the biggest surprise came when we entered the apartment (712). It had certainly not been cleaned in recent history. The floor was filthy, covered in a mixture of mud and grit. There was a hairpiece from a previous occupant (I assume) lying on the floor. The worst was the en-suite shower. This room which was attached to our bedroom reeked of blocked drains and rot. The smell was so strong that our children would not initially come into the room. Despite our reporting this problem both to your rep and the apartment management, nothing was done and we had to sleep with this smell all week.

No towels were provided (although they are listed as included in your brochure) and when we asked for some we were told we would have to pay extra. Your rep did manage to sort this out and eventually we were supplied with towels at no charge, but this was not in time for us to have showers on the first night or morning.

The apartment was also unsafe. While we were eating our first meal the table collapsed dropping a heavy end-leaf onto my wife’s legs. She suffered bruising and had the table end not caught on her chair, it could have been more serious. On examination of the table the fastening that held it together were clearly insecure, one was tied with a piece of string! After this we were careful not to use that end of the table. The apartment also included some wooden coat hooks which collapsed on first use and were never repaired.

6) Lift Pass Photographs. During the coach journey to the resort we were informed by the local rep that we would need photographs for our lift passes. This was the first time we had been told. I have a digital camera and would easily have been able to produce these passport photos at home prior to our trip had you let us know in advance that they were needed. Your rep told us that they are mentioned in your brochure but on our return I have checked and cannot find any reference. They are certainly NOT mentioned in your ‘Holiday Checklist’ printed on page 4 of the information letter you sent us, which I would have thought would be the obvious place to put such information. As a result of your failure to provide adequate information we had to pay 24 Euros for photos from a machine in the resort and more importantly waste an hour of our first morning queuing to get them done. There were many other people faced with the same problem which indicates that they too had not been informed in advance.

7) Shuttle bus service. In your brochure you describe the Flocon d’Or apartments as a ‘5 minute bus ride’ from the resort and the cable cars. You also say that the bus runs every 15 minutes. What you don’t mention is that it stops at 8.00 at night and the first bus is not until 8.15 in the morning. The bus service is also inadequate for peak periods with very large queues forming at the top and bottom of the hill resulting in the need to catch the second or even third bus and in consequence, a wait of up to 45 minutes. The 8.00 finish time makes it impossible to go down to the resort to eat in the evening without facing the long climb back up the hill to the apartment. There is no local taxi service

Cool Choice of ski hire shop. For reasons that I can only speculate are to do with cost you chose to provide ski equipment through the ‘Haricana’ a ski hire shop many minutes walk from the bus stop at the bottom of the hill. This is despite the fact that there is a ski hire facility available at the Flocon d’Or itself which would be vastly more convenient for any guests staying there. It appeared to us that the only guests NOT using that ski hire were the XXXXX guests.

9) Apartment Cleaning. Just to put the icing on the cake, on arrival we were forced to part with a 200 Euro deposit for the apartment which would only be returned on our departure after an inspection. We were told that we had to clean and vacuum the apartment to pass the inspection. This we did, despite the fact that we were very obviously cleaning up the mess left behind by at least one previous occupant.

10) Ineffective Local reps. As mentioned above, all the faults with the apartment were reported as soon as possible to your local rep (Leonie). She was sympathetic and indicated that she would speak to the management but although we did eventually get our towels none of the other faults were dealt with. I have a brief note from Leonie in which she says that she ‘asked reception to clean it but they said this was unfortunately not possible after the weekend’ and goes on to say ‘I also mentioned the smell in one of the bedrooms. Have they sent someone along as promised?’ In other words she simply repeated our complaints to the apartment management and did nothing to follow up on them to ensure they were put right.

In summary the service we received from XXXXX on this holiday fell far short of what I would consider acceptable. The lack of information, the changes in arrangement imposed upon us, the poor standard of accommodation and the lack of responsiveness to correct any of these faults meant that we were effectively on our own, stuck up a hill, away from the resort and left to get on with it. We currently have a booking to go to Morzine with XXXXX next year. Unless you are able to give adequate reassurances that the poor service and facilities, and unexpected changes to arrangements that we experienced on this trip will not be repeated, we will have no choice but to cancel that booking and make other arrangements with another travel company who hopefully place a higher priority on customer service.

I would welcome your comments on the points raised above, any suggestions you might offer as to how you can compensate us for the problems described and your assurances regarding our next trip. I will delay posting this email to the many holiday review websites pending your reply.

Regards
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
BTW if anyone actually read all that the end result was a £700 refund. Not bad, but I'd rather have had a decent apartment! DIY is defintely best!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
AxsMan, I presumed this happened before you found snowheads.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Frosty the Snowman, You are of course correct.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Went with Tomsons (who as all the reps had Crystle logos on their backs must be conected)

BA flight was delayed in cardiff for an hour (not crystles fault, and fair play to the captain as he opened up the coctpic for the kids (and a few other adults) to have a look in.

Then get told the wrong number for our transfer bus (and as a result walk about as far from our bus as possible (not fun carrying skis/boot bag/case). When we finally get to our bus the rep says there is a slight delay while we wait for the next flight to arrive (which then takes almost 2 hours of hanging around sat in the coach (if you can call it that, I think i have been on buses which were more comfatable, + the lack of a loo was dissapointing given the very long transfer (again not the reps fault that it took 8 hours to get from chamberly to VT)
When we finally get to the resort the rep drops us on the street, not bothering to show us where our hotel is, or any other infomation. Before we get off the bus she says that the note saying to colect your lift passes at 8:45 in place xxxxxx was wrong and we should wait at reception at 9 (not happy seeing as i wanted to be on the lifts at 9) i then wait 3/4 of an hour before reception phone the rep (who was at place xxxxx all along) who comes and hands over the passes (and has a rant at me for not being in the 'right' place)

On the other hand, the rep who came round the rooms with info was very helpfull, as were the two guys who did the guided 3V tour. (and the guy on the transfer bus home.)
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
provenjohn wrote:

Anyway the snow was good & MGM apartments very nice, just a shame about the travel.
snowHead


provenjohn: I have a party of 6 booked in to the MGM apartments at les carroz (DIY of
course wink how easy is it to get to the lifts? is it a bus job (looks like it from the map)
Do you know if the bus just serves Les Carroz or does it head up and into flaine?
we have a couple of cars but if the bus service is good, always nicer to leave them
for the week.

Any other recommendations for pubs or restaurants in LC always appreciated!
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
On a related point, I once had an off piste course wrecked by so called 'ski guides' from Crystal in Val D'Isere about 10-12 years ago. The standard required was good (ie linked parallel turns down the fall line in all sorts of conditions, etc) and we had to endure the muppetry of an 'expert' from Crystal who kept collapsing in the powder. After remonstrating with the Evo 2 guide, he advised us that the 'guide' from Crystal had to stay with us as it was necessary to maintain the mutually profitable relationships between both companies.

Ever since then I've viewed Crystal's with a certain amount of cynicism. How can an intermediate skier be a ski guide for customers?
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Quote:

Went with Tomsons (who as all the reps had Crystle logos on their backs must be conected)


All part of the TUI AG, Europe's market leader, with a turnover of 13.1 billion Euros in 2004.

TUI formed the Specialist Holidays Group in spring 2000 and comprises a portfolio of specialist tour operating businesses -

American Holidays, Jetsave & Jersey Travel, Tropical Places, Something Special, Villadeals, OSL, Simply Travel, Headwater Holidays, Magic Travel Group, Spanish Harbour Holidays, Crystal International Travel Group, Thomson Breakaway, and Thomson Ski and Snowboarding / Lakes and Mountains - catering for the more independently-minded holidaymaker."
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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.
Quote:

How can an intermediate skier be a ski guide for customers?

You'd be surprised. I ski guided for a small operator in my first season, when I was no more than a decent intermediate skier. I was still better than the vast majority of the people who went with the guiding groups.

(These days I am of Olympic standard, evidently. Laughing But I don't guide, so it's a bit wasted!)
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Ive never been offered ski guiding by an operator. Social skiing, ski hosting, but never off piste guiding. That would be reckless IMHO.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
wrongsideof30, Hi, there is a very good free bus service that stops right outside the MGM apartments & then goes roud town to finish at the telecabine, it say's it's every 20 minutes but we found it to be more frequent. Suprised us as we have always had bad service from free buses before, one good thing is that MGM are first pickup on the route. I think there is a free bus to flaine but it is only once in morning & once return in afternoon (I would check with Tourist office in Town square).
The apartment was very good, no complaints (makes a change!) reception very helpful.
There is a very well stocked Spar shop right next to ice rink, run by English girl & her French husband.
We made the mistake of trying to eat in the little Pizza restaraunt (unfortunately have lost the name) that is on the right at top of road if you leave the apartments between Spar shop & Ice rink & then turn left up hill.
Extremely rude, refused to let kids share Pizza's & we actually walked out!!
The restaraunt in centre of town roundabout produced great Pizza, the Creperie was also very good, Marlow bar for relaxed drinks.
Enjoyed Les Carroz, our first stay there although we had skied down before, enjoyed the runs down to Morilion, the long green is great fun if you can do it when it's quiet as there are lots of open harpins to slide into flat out! Kids thought it was great (they normally refuse to go an greens as they aren't cool!).
Hope you have a great time snowHead
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
kevin mcclean wrote:
How can an intermediate skier be a ski guide for customers?


if you do a bit of searching on the www.natives.co.uk forum you will find a classic thread from someone who landed a job as a guide but who had spent about 2hours on a dry slope in his life. at once, hilarious and shocking

i've never had a real shocker like the ones described, but i gave up on packages because i just hate being herded around like cattle, getting to the charters terminal at gatwick at 4am and all the other baggage that goes with packages. there are exceptions of course - spent a few days in a scott dunn chalet which was v nice thank you very much, although i did avoid the journey out and back
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Arno wrote:
if you do a bit of searching on the www.natives.co.uk forum you will find a classic thread from someone who landed a job as a guide but who had spent about 2hours on a dry slope in his life. at once, hilarious and shocking


Direct link here
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Well,I just came on here to ask if anyone had a telephone number for the customer services at Crystal Ski and I find this thread

I have a letter in reply to a complaint, stating that they will respond within 28 days.28 days has past and of course no response.

The telephone number 0870 16522619 given on the letter is answered by a fax machine !

Our party of 10 were subjected to the same coach transfer delays at Chambrey whilst on the way to Les Arcs,but my complaint was the fact that on booking in at the airport 4 of us who had skis were charged £20 each.Our complaint is that having booked over the telephone with written confirmation,there was no mention of this charge at all,so they basically held back one of the boarding tickets until we paid £80.In my book,they made a contract and to later impose an additional chrage that was not mentioned is a breach of contract.

If they want to impose this charge,they should make this known at the time of booking,after all,we are a parrty of 10 going on a skiing holiday with a ski holiday company to a ski resort.Don't they expect people to have ski equipment.At one point they wanted to charge us for carrying ski boots in our suitcase !

Does anyone have the correct Customer Services number ?
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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?
bernie, Good Luck Sad



Crystal Ski is a trading name of TUI UK Limited.



Company Address:
King's Place, 12-42 Wood St, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, KT1 1JY


Telephone:
Tel: 0870 405 5047


Registered Address:
Wigmore House, Wigmore Place, Wigmore Lane, Luton, LU2 9TN. Registered company number: 2830117


Opening Hours:
9am - 9pm Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm Saturday 10am - 3pm Sunday


If you have any comments about our website, please email us at guardian@crystalholidays.co.uk
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Hate the T/O's but this year with Thomson's from Manc, the checkin, flight, transfers etc were spot on.
At Man a/port we were greeted by a Thomo's rep and directed to an empty check in all went very well.
Hope never to use them again though as our chalet was cr@p.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Frosty the Snowman, ski guiding, ski hosting and social skiing are all basically the same thing, personally I always see it as a challenge to try and keep up with the "host", if only because I don't want to get lost. I'm not sure that kevin mcclean, was implying the the crystal guy was guiding, but in my experience TO guides are absoultley not meant to take you off piste and are breaking big rules if they do. That being said I normaly try not to get in the "coffee stop" groups and have on many occasions been taken off piste by very compenet TO "hosts" and really enjoyed it, they tend to be the ones who have had instructor training in the past and IMHO seemed to know the area and what they were doing ...
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stevew, To me a guide is a qualified and approved local expert. But I suppose we all know what it means in this case.
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Quote:

Hate the T/O's but this year with Thomson's

I have always suspected that there are people who go on holiday purely to whinge - I see now that I was right.

If you do indeed 'hate' TOs and (presumably) don't like what they offer, then why on earth did you book a holiday with one, you utter moron!!??
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
stevew, no they are not, in France only qualified mountain guides can offer guiding, I know that is exactly the same position in other alpine countries. With a guide you can be taken anywhere on the mountain and the guide is responsible. Ski hosting is limited to showing guests where the lifts are, where the best conditions are likely to be found, which are the recommended mountain restuarants and what the links between various lifts are. Very different from guiding and our guests are made certain they know where the boundaries are.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
What a coincidence to find this thread! I had the most bizzare conversation with the Crystal booking centre on Thursday. I had ordered their ski preview brochure to obtain quotes for next Feb half term (I need to book a year in advance work/kids school etc)
I had already worked out a rough estimation of cost, taken into account under occupancy charges/ski school etc so I had a clear idea of exactly what it was I was booking. When I finally got transfered to the correct department (crystal finest) I soon realised that the whole thing was a complete shambles. I wasnt asked my name, and I had to ask for the operators name. He was either totally bored/dissinterested and I had to practically do his job for him. He was huffing and puffing and always putting me on hold. He tried to add an under occupancy supplement for 6 people, when 2 of the party are kids, when I queried it he said "well its dragged it through because its 2 rooms your booking" "Yes I explained, but only 4 adults, so the kids dont pay under occupancy. Book the 2 rooms seperate so the charge doesnt pull through then add the prices together at the end, hence saving me 470 quid" next was the cost that the kids were to pay, he said "ohh Im sure its discounted you wont have to pay full adult price" "damn right I wont I said, it states clearly in the front of your brochure that kids pay 330 for Canada, regardess of which hotel it is" his reply was "ohh does it?"
I then told him I wanted to fly on a saturday, the date couldnt be changed as it needs to be over half term. He said We could only fly on a Wednesday. Hang on a moment says I, its monarch from gatwick on a Wednesday, I want to go air canada on a Saturday from heathrow, I am aware there is a supplement of 95 quid each. His reply was unbelievably "no no your better off going monarch on wednesday thats better for you" "no, its not better for me, I want to pay the extra and fly scheduled on the day of my choice" he then went on to say well I cant find any flights. I said check the brochure. He said it must be a mistake in the brochure and they no longer fly air canada to canada it has to be monarch. What say I? you have put a brouchre into print that has 4 pages worth of mistakes in it? I'll go check he says. At which point I am put on hold for 15mins, and when he comes back I ask to speak to his manager. Who incidentally is no better. He tells me that the flights are not released for scheduled yet and I will have to book monarch or wait until april. I ask him how am I supposed to qualify for the special offers if you book before 31st Mar if I cant book till April? His answer was "I dont know" I asked him if he could give me a quote or not and he said " umm no it doesnt look like it" "fine says I, you have just lost an 8000 pound booking, I will try Neilson instead" "yeah right ohh" says the manager at which point I put the phone down, I was so amazed that I just laughed, and thanked god that I had spoken to them instead of just making an online booking and handing over more than eight thousand pounds of my hard earned money to those people. Evil or Very Mad
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Quote:

What say I? you have put a brouchre into print that has 4 pages worth of mistakes in it?

More than likely, especially if you've got an early edition brochure - they put the brochure out pdq in order to be first on the shelves, and include all sorts of stuff which they haven't yet confirmed. This results in all sorts of anomalies, including Crystal reps turning up on the doorstep of other people's hotels at the beginning season and insisting that they're Crystal-run. Er ....................... no. That's why it says 'A N Other TO' on the huge sign above the door. Laughing
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 snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Gixer wrote:
crystal finest ... have just lost an 8000 pound booking, I will try Neilson instead


To where in Canada? You have checked it isn't far cheaper by hotel direct and booking the flights yourself? We find this is far less hassle then your tale of Crystal's call centre.
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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.
Gixer, I booked through Nielson for Canada for New Year. On the face of it their prices look dearer but they are priced on Air Canada flights and 2 in a room (of 2 Queen Beds) so there are far less supplements. I was very happy with their service.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Quote:

Frosty the Snowman,

Had to laugh at the Thomson rep on my holiday - she claimed to offer ski guiding, but couldn't due to injury, then later in the week when better, went off piste on the Saas Fee glacier and fell into a crevasse !
Even more dumb, she advertised her stupidity to the already cheesed off clients Puzzled
If U do something daft like that, as a rep you should keep it very much to yourself.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I have just checked neilsons brochure, your right, the rooms are based on 2 share so we wont have the under occupancy supplement to pay or the extra to fly air canada. I have requested their 2007 brochure and will give them a call to get a quote as soon as it turns up. I hadnt thought of doing it independantly, it may be worth my while checking it out. We want to fly Sat 3rd Feb, for 2 weeks, staying at the Rimrock, 4 adults and 2 kids, all needing ski school, ski/boot hire and 10 day lift passes. I worked it out with Crystal to be just over 8k, will see what Neilson come up with!
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Gosh - I must say that I am really shocked. I always thought that, with regard to the major tour operators, Crystal was one of the top ones along with Neilson and Inghams and that Thomson, First Choice and Airtours were the bottom 3. I do know that Crystal are owned by Thomson. I always had perceived Crystal to be for "those and such as those"! - obviously not!

Anyway, all my ski holidays have either been independent, Airtours or with First Choice. I have not had any major problems except with Airtours in Les Deux Alpes - the accommodation was filthy.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Nadenoodlee wrote:
Crystals recruitment process involves baking a cake for 4 ppl to prove you can cook ?!?! and playing team games- I rest my case.



Would you like to quantify that any further, are you an H.R expert? So every one who works for Crystal has to bake a cake do they? Regardless of the position they are applying for? Think not!
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
There's such a thing as an HR 'expert'? In my experience they're a bunch of incompetents forever devising idiot team activities and Blue Peter style training courses.
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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?
Stretch0212, I think Nadenoodlee could well have been speaking from personal experience.
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 You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
Our chalet host for Thomo's had to bake a cake and explain how he did it at his interview. he said he was on the verge of going to M&S for one before he got it right. Despite that, most of our cakes were bought locally, but he did make a wicked chocolate cake.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
We can empathise with you all, having used Crystal and Thomson over the last 8 years and always being disappointed, to the point of claiming money for compensation. So this year we “did it ourselves” used the Hinterglemm Tourist office, booked direct with the hotel, booked with a budget airline, booked the transfer with a taxi firm based at Salzburg Airport, all done via email. Result: Fantastic flight on a half empty plane, immediate departure from airport on arrival (they even had the trolleys waiting for us!) unbelievable luxury hotel (though listed as 3 star) costing £200 less than T.Op’s equivalent, half board food to die for, and plenty of it, and a return journey that was just as good. So we have learnt a valuable lesson this year – it can be done far better, for less money, and we will never use a T.Op again!
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 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
jb1970 wrote:
Gosh - I must say that I am really shocked. I always thought that, with regard to the major tour operators, Crystal was one of the top ones along with Neilson and Inghams and that Thomson, First Choice and Airtours were the bottom 3. I do know that Crystal are owned by Thomson. I always had perceived Crystal to be for "those and such as those"! - obviously not!


I hope that you're feeling a bit better now. Crystal did used to be one of the better mass TOs, but I think that people are being trained to want the lowest possible price, without giving any consideration to quality, so that mass TOs have to go with the flow. If Neilson are still better then most (and they did used to be, in my experience), it's only a matter of time.

Having said that, in 10 years of going to N.America with TOs (Virgin, United Vacations, Crystal, Inghams and probably others), we've never had any significant problems. We found it impossible to beat their prices, going during easter school hols.

There seems to be the same problem with banks, building socs and other service industries (as I'm finding out to my cost with The Abbey).
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Quote:

used Crystal and Thomson over the last 8 years and always being disappointed,

So why did you keep on doing it? Isn't that a rather odd piece of behaviour? It's not like they're the only operators out there.

richmond, Try first direct for a bank - I switched from the Halifax earlier this year and so far they have been very good.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Recently come back from a Half term Crystal Holiday at Plagne Bellecote with my 2 boys, and I must agree with the majority, dreadful organisation, fibbing reps (only covering their back bottoms i know but they could at least try to get their lies straight) I can't complain too much though as I only paid £210 pppw for half term (but had to drive from London to Doncaster), Thomson have been similar in my experience but First Choice has been a lot better, much friendlier reps for starters and no unexplained, unnecessary delays and hold ups.
BTW if you're a light sleeper like myself, try to avoid the bellecote residence in la plagne, nice and spacy enough but crap accoustic insulation... you have been warned...
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 You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Quote:

I only paid £210 pppw for half term

Shut up then. That sort of money shouldn't get you a tent, let alone flight, transfer and accommodation.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Lizzard, 1) Transfers for just 2 can be very costly. 2) We weren’t so conversant with the use of the internet for booking holidays. 3) You have to have good communication with others whose first language isn’t English, and many hotel owners were quite happy to rely on local occupancy, so had no websites or email contacts. 4) Other party members may prefer the security of a T.O. so choice isn’t always possible. 4) You have to have the time and energy for all the research!!!!! And last but not least, they were the main operators that we could afford, that flew from our location!!!!!!
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