 Poster: A snowHead
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Well, as we seemed to beat the Gatwick flight off the line and are now sitting watching Sunday telly, relaying information to a stranded traveller at Gare du Nord train station, it seemed a trip report might be a rather good idea.
Last Saturday night was the start of the trip for us, with Gary coming down to watch a game of rugby and go out for a curry in preparation for a while on a flight and transfer bus, can't beat the day after a curry in an enclosed space 
We met up with The Dude and various Mini-Dudes at Luton airport to fly to Grenoble. Somehow, at approx 6am, The Dude ate a scotch egg. I nearly vomited all over him from the smell, and I'd not even been drinking.
There were planes, trains and automobiles for the ride out, with some driving all the way there, one bold traveller still on holiday in Paris on the train, and 2 different departure airports. All in the stride of a seasoned trip organiser (yeah right!) but we all got there for a healthy Sunday afternoon. Some of us more tired than others.
Unusually, the Easyjet flight out was great. 3 seats each, plenty of room to spread out, managed a very short snooze for the 1.5hr flight to Grenoble. We were all clear of baggage claim and ready to hit the slopes nice and early. The Gatwick flight wasn't far behind us but did take a while to get through, but we had to wait for a Manchester flight to land nearly 3 hours after we'd touched down before the transfer buses left. Luckily there was a McD's just down the road from arrivals.
An uneventful ride to our resort, Tignes, and arrival at Chalet Camille, our home for the week. Ski Olympic - Chalet Holidays in the French Alps
Some of us had got our gear and brought it with us, so got changed and hit the slopes for an hour or so of getting used to things and to have a bit of a shakedown. Which was worth it, everything was going well and we were getting into things after a while off the slopes for many. Others headed off to get rental gear sorted out, and then home for some champagne and cake. You may notice there will be a running theme of cake throughout, and possibly the mention of the odd glass of wine. Not that these were the focus of the week, as in reality there was very little focusing after about 8pm each day.
Our first real day on the slopes was a little later than planned due to faffing about in the chalet with ski gear, and also because some of us got a bit carried away with the free wine over dinner and hadn't really slept very much the night before Needless to say, eventually we got out on the slopes and the sun was shining and the snow perfect for an easy day of cruising around.
It was also incredibly quiet - many pistes having only 3 or 4 other skiiers on the whole piste, some we had the place to ourselves. No idea why, but it was the same for the first couple of days and we were loving it. Many agreed that it was some of the best conditions we've ever had, but it was very cold - approx minus 10 even in the sunshine.
A slightly more restrained evening after a long day on the slopes, with many in bed before 2am! Dinner is worth a mention, as well as the cakes, the food was simply incredible. Our chef, Phil, was far and away the best chalet chef I've ever met, and in fact put together some of the best food I've seen done for large groups - everyone seemed to feel the same way, and he is certainly a guy that many good restaurants would do very well to snap up. Luckily, we got him to ourselves for the week, and throughout it was flawless. Cooking for 18 is difficult, cooking for 18 in a small kitchen with very limited help is very difficult, turning out 3 course dinners including some complex dishes (including catering for a couple of vegetarians) at altitude is something else. Plus he spoke the same language as Barney, whatever language that is. It seemed to involve a lot of oo-ar and something about the countryside.
Day 3 (I think) and everyone started getting a bit brave. We had a fairly large group skiing together, and after some challenging blues and reds, we found ourselves at the top of the Olympique in Val D'Isere. At this point it is either lift down to the town, or Le Face. For those not familiar with it, Le Face is a fairly icy black run, steep in places, which is north facing so often less forgiving than other slopes in the area. Of course, a bit of macho BS and 3 of us had decided to go for it. I have no idea why. We headed down the slope, and it seemed rather easy, cruising down a gentle slope, a bit of powder here and there, all of us having fun. Then we got to the steep bit 
A bit of standing at the edge and swearing a bit later, and we were off. One at a time we headed down the steep sections, one bit at a time, and surprisingly it wasn't anywhere near as difficult as we'd imagined or been lead to believe. At the bottom we were tired, but everyone had enjoyed it a lot, and we all agreed that we'd happily go and do it again.
Lunch at the Arolet was needed, and very nice, and we then headed back up the Olympique. At this point I actually saw what I had skiied, and was a bit scared. Honestly, if we'd gone up the bubble beforehand, I wouldn't have gone down it. It looked so much worse from that angle.
More to follow, bath time now for tired legs...
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Fri 21-01-11 0:07; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Great. Much looking forward to the next instalment.
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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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Great report, I'll stay tuned for the next episode.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Next part of the report, which is going to end up being a bit of a summary, because the last few days all sort of blurred into each other. Possibly as a result of the drinking
I had forgotten to mention in my previous bit that the Sunday we flew out was basically a day of lies. Mark lied to airport security, Amy definitely lied to me at some point, and Easyjet lied to us rather a lot. I should qualify that statement.
When checking in for the flight, Easyjet took our ski bags and were nice and happy for us to go and get on the plane. Then the check-in jobsworth asked The Dude if he had any boots in his hand luggage. Not knowing any better, he said yes. At this point it all got rather difficult - they insisted that ski boots were not allowed on the plane as hand luggage.
They asked us how many bags we had with boots in. We told them. They lost count as they were printing labels. They had to go through all the labels again. And again. And then had another recount. When we queried why this "rule" existed, they were completely unable to explain why it was that less than 10kg of ski boots present more of a risk than a 40kg bag that I could lift into the overhead lockers. They didn't know. But they thought they were right, so we laughed at them rather a lot and let them get on with being all jobsworth about it. When asked what would have happened if we hadn't told them we had boots, they told us that airport security, on seeing that we were on an Easyjet flight, would have turned us around and made us check them in. Airport security confirmed that they did not care one bit what airline we were flying with and don't check boarding cards, it wouldn't affect the way they did their jobs, and that Easyjet were talking nonsense. Which they were. Further checks reveal no information whatsoever to this effect on the Easyjet website. Anyway, all is fair in love and airports, so we will move on.
Mini-Dude took the opportunity while we were going through the airport security to lie to a security official about a drink in a bag that wasn't even his, they queried it, he then shouted "Oi" at the lady when she went back to recheck the bag, she was not impressed. I was looking forward to our first full cavity search of the trip, unfortunately she decided it was clearly an error of judgement from one so young, and hung over. And possibly homeless
Anyway, we finally got on the plane to see the sun rise, with 3 seats each, and now we can get on with the rest of the little story.
The next big challenge for us, I think it was after we'd done Le Face, but can't honestly be sure, was to go and do some off-pistey stuff. Given the avalanche risk (3, which is fairly high, but with the Dude and various others contributing their own little explosions as we skied along, and on various lifts, I uprated that to a 4) we stuck to the Itineraire routes - basically marked but unpisted runs. We chose the Aguile Percee (the eye of the needle) as our first foray, it looked fun and steep enough to be a decent challenge, and we had given it a good recce from the red and blue runs to the side and below it.
I think, if you look very very carefully, we are the tiny dots just coming over the ridge at the top. What nobody tells you is that the hardest part of the run is getting to the top, with a tiny track just about wide enough for a pair of skis on the far side, you have to just walk along it, then when it goes downhill a bit you can't turn at all, then you have to walk up a little bit to get over the top. We reached the top to find a couple in front of us, one of which had no business whatsoever being on the top of that ridge. I was scared for them, and they were clearly scared for themselves. We passed them over the top, and they didn't move for some time.
Anyway, we pootled down the slope, enjoying a lot of lumpy but powdery goodness along the way. I have to say at that point it was one of the more difficult runs I've skiied, but it was worth it. Tired legs at the bottom, so we headed to L'Alpage for a coffee and some backslapping. Nice enough place, where our best efforts in French ordering Cafe au Lait were met with some very English waitresses whose look seemed to suggest they get this all the time from Franglaising tourists
We also did the run again the next day (I think) this time Mini-Dude decided it was far too easy just skiing it, and that he'd like to try and go down it on his face. One amusing fall later, a bit of swearing from us, with a hint of concern, and he stopped after about 40m of sliding down the thing. We picked up his skis for him, and after some more swearing, we were on our way. Nothing serious would have happened if he'd carried on falling really, but it did highlight for me the importance of having some mates around on steeper stuff, and stopping before a big slide gets going.
Lots more drinking in the evenings, someone will remember the totals better than me, all I can remember is that we got through 30 litres of white wine, and it seemed to be me drinking it with a bit of help from one or two others occasionally. No wonder I felt dehydrated every morning - though it soon wears off once you get on the first lift of the day. In addition to something like 50 litres of red wine we also drank half a bottle of whisky, a couple of bottles of port, and half a bottle of caramel vodka  Not that we were on a drinking holiday, it just seemed to go that way after 8pm. The wine being free probably didn't help  Plus most of us are used to only being able to get properly boozy on diving holidays at the end of the week, for skiing we could be drunk every night! Needless to say, after a couple of days most of us were in bed before midnight from just being tired after a long day skiing.
Anyway, I will be reminded of more stuff, so will include it when I get round to it. We seem to have masses of photos and video, so all that being condensed into one thread might prove difficult. One thing I will say, the GoPro video camera was very impressive. I am tempted to get one for myself, great for watching your runs back again and seeing what you are doing wrong when others have got it, and the quality was very good for such a small unit.
Next episode - the return transfer and flights. Quite something really, and another impressive level of amateurish disorganisation, and this time from the tour operator. Easyjet on the other hand were remarkably helpful and flexible...
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Fri 21-01-11 0:15; edited 1 time in total
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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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look forward to the next instalment.... and more pics!!!
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Time to finish off this little story, what with me having a lunchbreak and all. Apologies for having a bit of a rant in this post, but frankly the end of my holiday got a whole lot more stressful than any other part of the week, including being on the most difficult Blue I've ever encountered with an injured Dude.
Wed done rather a lot of skiing. We'd had rather a lot to drink. All that was left was getting through Grenoble airport (fairly simple) and back into the UK (not so simple)
On Saturday night, just before dinner, the Olympic rep finally told me what time the transfer bus was leaving on Sunday. 6:30am. Yeah right. Now the sad part of this story is that we have to check in for the flight to Luton before 9:55am, that was when check in closed. Knowing Easyjet, this was not going to be a negotiable deadline. Olympic had known this since the Monday after we arrived, and it had been mentioned every single day since then, with me wanting to know the plan so that I could relax.
3hrs 25 mins is fairly tight to get from Tignes to Grenoble airport. I told the rep that I thought 3hr 25 min was way too tight, and that all it would take was one person missing an alarm in another hotel or chalet, someone needing to pee on the transfer bus, or us having any number of possible problems. He fobbed me off with a load of crap, frankly, about it not being necessary to stop, and 3 hours being plenty.
Amusingly, the rep also said "it's Nick who planned the transfer, and he will be at the airport" - I helpfully told him that if we missed the flight, we'd very definitely be Nick's problem. Ho hum. I guess they have insurance for flying 7 people back to the UK that their transfer has cocked up.
So, it is tight if we leave at 6:30. At 6:50, I am pretty much set for ripping someone's head off. There is no way that we can get to the airport before the check-in closes, and exactly what I told them would happen has happened. The bus didn't get to the other chalet until 6:30, they loaded up, and finally they pootle down the hill to collect us. We throw everything on the coach as fast as physically possible, the other chalet next door does the same. At this point the desperately predictable situation that happens every time we are getting on a return transfer happens. They don't have enough space for the luggage.
At some point, someone, somewhere, is going to tell the guys that book coaches for transfers that if you have 50 normal people with one small piece of hand luggage, that fits on a 50 seater coach. If you have 50 people, probably 20 of those people will have skis, snowboards, boots, a suitcase, and possibly hand luggage as well, after all it is a ski trip, then it won't fit. That means that you need to allow more space for the luggage, or it either won't fit on, or you will spend 15 minutes rearranging all the luggage to make it fit.
We finally leave Tignes at 7:10am. There is no way whatsoever that we are making a flight at 9:55. I could just about make it to the airport in that time driving a WRC Subaru Impreza, assuming that we've not got any passengers adding to the weight, and that there are no police between Tignes and Grenoble. A 50 seater coach has quite simply got no chance.
As we get on the coach, finally, I explain that we have to go straight to the airport, no stops, no messing around, as fast as we can. The rep on the bus then tells me that we have to stop, and that it should be fine. More fobbing off, the look on her face said that she knew we had no chance as well as I did. When queried why we had to stop, it turned out to be nothing to do with driving hours for the coach driver (as a transport manager in a previous life I could recite EU transport law forever) it was because we had some kids on the coach that would need to go to the toilet. The coach had a toilet. It wasn't working. Fair enough, kids can't do 3.5hrs on a coach in one go, not easily anyway. So they should plan for losing half an hour in a service station. They hadn't planned for that.
As we get closer to Grenoble we watch the clock count down from 9am to 9:30am, it is looking tight but possible now, then we are told it is 10 minutes away, so prepare our runners to get to the check-in desk. We can make it. Then we sit on the motorway some more. And some more. And some more after that. 9:40 passes, and I am stressed out. 9:45 passes and I am pretty bloody furious about this whole mess. At 10am I resign myself to waiting for the next flight, and paying out, then having to chase Olympic to pay for the flight we missed because of their disorganisation. We have missed the check-in closing.
At 10:30 we arrive at the airport. The plane should have left, been in the air, at 10:25. Utterly ridiculous, and we are now met by one of their staff. They must be all hands to the pumps to try and get us to check in, unload the bags, leg it through the airport. Instead they smile and ask me how my week was. I have to admit at this point I turned into operational mode and told the guy to shut up and help us offload the bags, because our check in closed 35 minutes ago. He proceeeded to dawdle around doing feck all to help and smiling at people.
We leg it into departures behind Amy, who has already gone to check-in, and is now at the desk trying to negotiate with Easyjet staff. Luckily, the Easyjet staff in Grenoble are sensible people, helpful people, who calm situations and work to resolve them, unlike their colleagues at Luton. We are told by the Olympic transfer organiser (Nick) that he has tried everything, but they will not let us on the plane. He told us that he could try and get us on a Gatwick flight. Not exactly helpful, Gatwick is a couple of hours minimum from Luton, and we should have been checked in and ready to go, enjoying a coffee and a break before we get on the plane.
15 minutes later, and me and Amy have got agreement from Easyjet that we can check in, something that the Olympic reps told us was "impossibl" and will be fine to board the plane. It turns out it hasn't left Luton yet due to bad weather. What a fecking relief. I'm not entirely sure what the reps were there to do, but the Easyjet staff clearly responded to us asking them to help us out, asking the right questions, and being nice. The Olympic staff were clearly incapable of that.
More entertaining for me was the gaggle of Olympic reps that were standing around chatting and doing bug all while we were frantically trying to get a flight reopened to get home. After 5 minutes I told one of our guys to go and get them, otherwise I would go and get them, which they would not enjoy. 2 minutes after coming over, not actually saying anything, and looking like a rabbit in the headlights, they disappeared again, to go and have another chat with the gaggle of reps they were standing around with. At that point I gave up on getting any help from them.
Finally, after sorting the problem ourselves, we went to the check in desk. They accepted our bags. They smiled and were friendly and helpful, though they did tell us that we were likely to be delayed a couple of hours. Compared to sleeping in an airport a couple of hours was fine with us. We finally got on the plane some time around 3pm French time, gaining an hour on the way back meant we were back in good time to sit down and have a bit of a snooze and start writing the trip report.
I am currently waiting for a response from our travel agent and Olympic on why they failed to plan their transfers correctly. If our flight had left on time, we'd have been completely screwed.
Unfortunately after we'd been delayed a couple of hours, queued through security, and then got on the plane, we saw the Monarch flight to Gatwick next to us on the runway. They'd gone through 2 hours ago, how could they still be here? They seemed to have a problem with one more or less person than they should have done, one more or less bag than they should have done. They finally left just after us to get home.
All in all, a great trip, the food was brilliant, the snow was great, and everyone seemed to have a brilliant time of relaxing and enjoying themselves. I had a really good time with the group and with the way the chalet was run, I honestly don't think there was a complaint of any sort from anyone all week. It was a shame about the transfer bus, but then these things are sent to try us. Thankfully the other 6 passengers on my flight were calm, collected, and very relaxed about it. That helped, and it worked out in the end, we all got home in time for tea.
So, roll on 2011. We are currently planning where to go, further discussions with many on the trip suggest that Olympic are no longer first choice to run the holiday, but we will see what they do to fix the issues we had this year. We are exploring options in the Trois Vallees, as many of us have now done Tignes several times and want something different, and there's loads of options out there.
Thanks for sticking with it.
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Monium, I feel your pain. Transfer from Tignes to Geneva the other week not only ran into mega trafiic jam but detours to drop off and change drivers etc; we made Geneva with 5 mins to spare before desk closed, other's flights had already closed but Easyjet staff were sterlign and got us all through and away. Phew!
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Monium, I'm sure you know much more about off-piste than me but having been in Tignes the week before you I think the technical term for the lumpiness you felt on the Aguille Percee run is "avalanche debris".
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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.
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| rjs wrote: |
| Monium, I'm sure you know much more about off-piste than me but having been in Tignes the week before you I think the technical term for the lumpiness you felt on the Aguille Percee run is "avalanche debris". |
It's very unlikely I know more about off-piste than anyone! It could have been avalanche debris, though I meant more that it had been chopped up into moguls by a lot of people ploughing over it. The base was solid, but the powder on it had been cut up a fair bit. Apologies, my description of lumpiness wasn't very accurate. That said, if there's a way of knowing it will be useful for the future. See the photo above, though you can't really see the detail on the snow.
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I should add that it became rather frustrating when we discovered that the rep, despite knowing the situation, had no means to communicate the urgency to the driver. The rep spoke no French, and the driver spoke no English. No idea why that rep was on that coach, someone going from resort to the airport must be able to speak French, why they weren't the rep on the bus I'll never know.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Monium, I reckon they knew all along the flight was delayed in the UK but just didn't tell you as then you would have not wanted to board the coach at all.
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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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Sorry to see the Olmpic reps not up to it on your departure.
I have travelled with them a few times and have found they have been excellent when we needed it - sorting things out in resort and at airport when SWMBO snapped her ACL one year and then - last Jan - when Grenoble was shut for a while with serious snow - constantly coming round to tell us what was ( or was not ) going on - ahead of the announcements.
Also I found that a useful scource of info when stuck at Grenoble was to look up on t'internet Gatwick departures - the 'planes coming to get us and various others were all airborne before the runway was finally cleared which was efficient and way before check in anouncements .
I have no connection with Olympic !
John
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Monium and rjs, the "lumpiness" could also be from the tracks left by other skiers forming ridges of compressed snow which are then just covered by fresh snow.
Monium, thanks for the writeup of your holiday.
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You know it makes sense.
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| alltnaha wrote: |
Sorry to see the Olmpic reps not up to it on your departure.
I have travelled with them a few times and have found they have been excellent when we needed it - sorting things out in resort and at airport when SWMBO snapped her ACL one year and then - last Jan - when Grenoble was shut for a while with serious snow - constantly coming round to tell us what was ( or was not ) going on - ahead of the announcements.
John |
I found exactly the same last year - they were quick, efficient, helpful and capable. This year they seemed to be anything but when it came down to it. I don't know what has changed (other than all the staff) but they need to fix it.
I hate to think what that lot would have done in a medical emergency - if I had to describe their performance in one word? Wet.
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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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| red 27 wrote: |
| Monium, I reckon they knew all along the flight was delayed in the UK but just didn't tell you as then you would have not wanted to board the coach at all. |
Honestly, they had no clue what was going on. They had been at the airport for 2 hours before we arrived, and didn't know that the plane had not left the UK. Within 5 minutes we had found this out.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| alltnaha wrote: |
| Also I found that a useful scource of info when stuck at Grenoble was to look up on t'internet Gatwick departures - the 'planes coming to get us and various others were all airborne before the runway was finally cleared which was efficient and way before check in anouncements |
Hmm. With all the chaos taking place, the Gatwick website was pretty much suffering from DOS, such was the level of demand on their web server. I couldn't get any useful information at all.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Did you book with Ski olympic directly?
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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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Monium
Excellent account! Cheers!
Just to let you know that we've taken ski boots in hand luggage on dozens of easyjet flights (including from Gatwick last winter). Not sure why your particular jobsworth would have stopped you - but there you go, you only need one.....
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Frosty the Snowman wrote: |
| Did you book with Ski olympic directly? |
No, booked through Iglu, who were brilliant throughout. They sorted 18 different people changing their minds about 5 times, adding flights, taking flights off, changing names (due to a few last minute injuries) and helping with a series of silly questions from us. Oh, and 36 payments, refunds and various other stuff before we went! Whatever TO we use, we'll be booking through Iglu again in future.
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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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Well, after speaking to a Director at Olympic this morning about the transfer debacle, we are now getting some competitors quotes for the December 2011 trip, vs a done deal with a chalet on hold before we left. How disappointing.
Thinking about it, that's cost them something like £10K on next season's revenue.
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Monium, from your summation, it appeared that they had an indefensible position, I would have thought. Are you able, at the moment, to relay the position as they see it?
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| Chasseur wrote: |
| Monium, from your summation, it appeared that they had an indefensible position, I would have thought. Are you able, at the moment, to relay the position as they see it? |
They saw it as "if you want to get on our transfer bus, then fine, if you're late then the bus goes without you, and we're not leaving early because of your flight" - we saw it as "we have booked transfers with you to get us to the resort if we land in reasonable time, and to get us back to the airport before check in closes" as it was put to me, in writing, before we left.
I would have been ok with someone telling me on the Monday that in a week's time we had a problem, and that a transfer bus wasn't going to run an hour early to get us on our flight, I would have been pissed but could have made alternative arrangements. Instead they effectively told us on Saturday night at 7pm that our transfer the next morning was going to be too late to get on our flight.
The discussion has been had. I wasn't particularly happy with the outcome. I was previously in a position where I'd have been ok with rebooking, now I am not so ok with it. There's too many other companies out there for me to go with a company that doesn't recognise who pays the bills and that keeping them happy is pretty fundamental, and putting your hands up with an unreserved apology, and promising to fix the problems goes a bloody long way.
I was very concerned that we'd have got to the airport and the flight had been on time, we'd have been on our own having missed the flight. It seems now that if that had happened, we'd have been in exactly that situation.
Amusingly, we have another trip booked with them in January. I guess they have a chance to impress the pants off us before we make bookings for next year's trip. Or not. Trip report to follow, whatever the outcome...
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So, if I have this straight, part of the holiday deal is that they lay on transfers, but with no onus on said company to match a realistic transfer to a flight. Where does one draw the line at reasonable delay due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. traffic problem, breakdown etc) and a failure of duty of care to deliver what has been contracted for?
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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.
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| Chasseur wrote: |
| So, if I have this straight, part of the holiday deal is that they lay on transfers, but with no onus on said company to match a realistic transfer to a flight. Where does one draw the line at reasonable delay due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. traffic problem, breakdown etc) and a failure of duty of care to deliver what has been contracted for? |
Apparently, because we didn't want their flights, but did want the transfers, they were doing us a favour giving us transfers at all. Ho hum. They perhaps haven't understood that a key factor in who I book with is flexibility, when you have 18 people to get in and out of resort it is a bit critical that the people in charge know what they are doing.
Leaving at 7am was negligent, in my opinion. They all knew what time we had to be at the airport. We were repeatedly fobbed off. We had no choice but to hope that by some magical method of transportation the bus would arrive at the airport before 9:55 when check-in closed, so we did, and got completely stressed out by it.
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very amusing post made my day ,when booking with a TO all the problems relating to the travel arrangement should be down to them ,and seems to me you could have
done a better job and without all the stressing
Now give them grief
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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It amazes me why people use TO's in the first place. Especially for skiing as most of us know exactly what we want, where we want and when we want it.
So why the need?
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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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| blockhead wrote: |
| Now give them grief |
No need for that. They know my position. They know I am unhappy. They have failed to resolve that and fix it to my satisfaction.
Now I vote with my feet. They are lucky at least that I bothered to tell them why.
They could, of course, turn this around completely with our trip booked through them in January. We could be treated like royalty, impressed from start to finish, and end up with a completely different view. Of course, they just pushed the "happy Monium" bar a lot higher with the transfer situation, which is a shame because every other aspect of the trip was great.
I could also calm down a lot, forget about the transfer mess, and end up booking with them again. I am currently researching the alternatives, and frankly they're not setting my world on fire right now. I don't like massive TOs like Neilson, Crystal and others, and the small operators can't sort flights and transfers for us. Olympic was doing a great job of being perfect for our group up til this Sunday. Maybe they will do us a great deal on next year's trip by way of an apology.
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| northantsred wrote: |
It amazes me why people use TO's in the first place. Especially for skiing as most of us know exactly what we want, where we want and when we want it.
So why the need? |
because many TOs offer exactly what we want, where we want and when we want it, and you can do it online with a few clicks at a one-stop shop. I'm not wedded to TOs but when everything works for me and saves me time/money then of course I'll go for it
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You know it makes sense.
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holidayloverxx, well done for giving a sensible answer to an utterly ridiculous question.
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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The Ski Olympic flights are Manchester and Gatwick and they depart and arrive together. I will be annoyed if we have to leave 90 mins early to cater for non SO flights. You booked through Iglu so why not take it up with them.
I agree that the misinformation you were given was poor, but in defence many will have been on there 1st week of work.
I have had dealings with Nick Mc before and eventually he have in
Next time book direct and take their flights.
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FAQ
