Seconded Shrimper!!! I use the German version of the site usually because of flying out of FKB, and I get an advert between every page I use. It has to be a VERY good fare offer before I spend the time trying to use the site for its original purpose.

For years I found the Thomas Cook web-site a nightmare. If I wanted a package I always ended up booking with Thomson because I could actually get the thomson (& in the good old days Portland) web-site to work.

Even now they have weird glitches on some of their sites (not all)

I sometimes need to book a double room for two & a room for single occupancy & nowhere is stated what the single room occupancy supplement is. I have to do a dummy booking for 2 a dummy booking for one & then try and work out if I think it is a reasonable single person occupancy rate or exhorbitant pricing. I think they should give a price breakdown. Rant Over !

Doe

I get really frustrated that many will only allow you to search on one particular date and there isnt an option for flexibility either side by a few days . Unless you know flight days you can clearly be missing out with your search and nothing available could mean there is plenty the day before

I was pricing up on first choice the other day .. think it was Aruba when Pat mentioned child prices up to 17 . It was a fortune but nowhere could I see an option for a breakdown . Went right through as a dummy booking but still nothing

It seems to be a problem with the package holiday company web-sites, they give you a final figure & you can't really see what is going on behind the final figure.

My beef with the single room issue, is you cant always tell if you are getting a double rook for single occupancy or some room/broom cupboard under the stairs that an enterpricing manager has decided to stick a single bed in. As obvioulsy one would have a different value to people t'other. There is nothing wrong with either provided you know what you are booking and get what you pay for.

I also agree with Lyn on the changing date thing, so frustrating to have to start a competely new search every time, if you have a bit of flexibility it would be good to see, dates before and dates after the date you have selected.

I could probably rant on about the inadequacies of holiday company web-sites all day.

I must agree the sites that start again if you want to check a new date are very frustrating

Or those that time you out too quickly ....

Yes - I get annoyed with the BA site as I often manage to get timed out.

I get annoyed with the BA site as I often manage to get timed out

That's EXACTLY the one I was thinking of when I posted!!!! And it did it to me three times today whilst I was comparing different elements!!

I need to stop dithering when I'm trying to book with BA. They give you so many options I can never decide and then when I have- your session has been timed out!!

Yes, I suppose they do it via a leaving date as most of us are tied to specific dates due to getting leave from work.
But it might be a good idea to have a search facility starting with a particular accommodation, or resort
so you can check availability/prices
then grovel to your boss for time off...then come back and book it

I've always found Thomson's site very easy to navigate too, although they do have the habit of "losing" your shortlist.

re difficult websites, we were booking a trip to Kenya for our son via Swiss airline...got all the details down, pressed "enter" and it said "this facility is unavailable, please try later". We pressed enter a few more times and got the same response. Bother, we thought. Then the phone rang, "Oh who's ringing up now, in the middle of this crisis?" "It's the Halifax credit card Co here, did *son's name* mean to spend £8000 on 9 tickets to Kenya?"
They were very good, and cancelled all the transactions, and we booked by phone.
(have to say son found the Swiss/Edelweiss flights excellent, spacious seats, hostesses speaking English, good food (including the apparently traditional Swiss cheese sandwich) and a seatback TV with the new Tin Tin film. He especially appreciated all this luxury on his way home!

I find Thomascook's site fine these days as you can search by date and leave the destination open, also once you've gone to a particular property that you like you can then play about with dates and alternative airports as much as you like.

Major problem with Thomson is you have to choose a destination, there is no option to search all holidays on a date from an airport which when you are restricted to a particular date is a pain.

phildo
i second what you say about thomsons. Price dictates where we go, i prefer to search all holidays so i can see what destinations are available for our dates and budget. I get fed up of repeating the search for individual destinations- i used to enjoy it but these days find it more of a chore-must be getting old and grumpy I do use thomas cook to do a any destination search.

i do love holidays tho

Spammer posting under two usernames trying to deceive our members.

Duly dealt with

luci

Think the Thomas Cook site has inmproved lately special like the calendar showing the cheapest weeks for the time you wish to go.
Hate those sites that lock you in and you cant get out without closing the browser or opening another search page.

Yes I hate having to input the date, airport, no of passengers again and again and again

I agree on the RyanAir one..... the fact they run an advert when you are trying to obtain prices is soooo frustrating. Ok, you can skip it after a while, but you still have to endure it for several seconds first.

I like the Thomson website, and find it easy to nativate round, but Thomas Cook it times out so many time, and have to put search details in too many times, and can't be bothered with it. Nowadays so many people check out details online you would think these companies would get it right, or pay someone a decent sum to get it right for them

I've never understood the need for captchas on Ryanair's website, they are a bloody nuisance. As someone who regularly buys gig tickets through Ticketmaster, having to enter the captcha at every attempt, my hatred of the damn things is immense!