First Choice

The Hotel is perfect superior rooms very large two king size beds shower fridge T V everything you could need would recommend to even the most discerning traveller.

The only let down was at Funchal Airport my wife had an open body search, because of a new colostomy bag in front of 200 people very embarrassing ,

Gatwick taken to private room for search

I have just paid my holiday and now find that there is a cost of £40.00 to choose adjacent seats for my wife and myself! As everyone has to sit somewhere why is there a cost? I can understand paying for extra leg room but for an ordinary seat this is ludicrous. I have travelled before with First Choice but NEVER AGAIN! Is this now a widespread practice? AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!

On 04/10/2016 we took our holiday at the hotel Los Jameos Playa Lanzarote for the 3rd year running. As we had been previous years we always upgrade the room, not that the basic rooms are unsuitable but we just like to treat ourselves to an extra bit of luxury.

When we arrived at Los Jameos we were given the basic room, reception said there is no notification of an upgrade.The reception were very apologetic and made every effort to make us comfortable but,we did NOT get the room we paid for.

So far I have NOT received any refund for the upgrade or any apology.This holiday was paid for out of my pension and I can ill afford to pay for things I do NOT receive.

I want a 50% refund of the total cost of my holiday as Thompson/First Choice have broken their contract.

Your question "What would you have liked to know before you made your purchase?"

My answer will be in future WILL I GET WHAT I PAY FOR?

Awful company to deal with, breached data protection and no remorse. Will never use again

Everything was terrible from the 2 hours flight delay, to grumpy flight staff, to stopping serving drinks for several hours throughout the flight. We got food poisoning at our hotel and couldn't get hold of rep despite asking for him several times, Then he laughed at me on our last day when i told him what happened. We had many, many more issues on this holiday from hell and I will never book a holiday with First Choice ever again.

The purpose of this review is to warn anyone that once you part with your money to First Choice/Thomson Holidays that is pretty much it. No matter what, they will not reimburse you whatever happens. I dont even put this down to one isolated case, but in fact three separate situations over a period of time.

Firstly my sister-in-law had a very bad holiday experience a few years ago with First Choice. A combination of dirty room, bad food, poor service etc. The sort of thing that any respectable company concerned with customer satisfaction would as a matter of course, offer some degree of recompense. Absolutely no way though with First Choice.

My next known experience was myself booking a family holiday at a brand new hotel in Cuba. This was with Thomson Holidays (both the same company really). Thankfully there are websites like this that alerted me to the fact that the hotel was nowhere near being finished and ready to occupy by the time we were due to depart. I went back to my local branch of Thomson to express my concern, as didn't want to be told last minute and then offered the dregs leftover and asked to be located to a similar priced hotel instead. The staff in the branch tried to be as helpful as can be, but the decision ultimately lies with their head office and as you can guess,they denied it wouldn't be ready and there was no movement on offer whatsoever. However, on this one occasion, I was armed with some facts that they couldn't defend and after spending 4 hours in Thomson travel agents using their phone to their head office, I did finally get my deposit refunded. I then booked a new hotel (that was finished) with Thomas Cook virtually next door to one we were originally destined for. It was as expected a complete building site and no way would be ready for occupation for several months.

So my third experience is back with First Choice (booking online) and haven't even been on the holiday yet. But in a nutshell, First Choice have somehow taken the full cost of the holiday from the credit card, as only intended to pay the deposit, but thought 'whatever..at least the holiday is paid then' However that was before the price dropped to £300 per person less that I have coughed up. I know holiday prices fluctuate, but not to this extent. I knew we would get nowhere asking for a reduction in the price but suggested that an upgrade could be something to take the bitter taste away of knowing I we had waited a few more weeks to book, we could have paid over £600 less for the same holiday. You can guess the response.

So lessons finally learned and my strong advice to anyone considering booking anything with Thomson/First Choice is quite simply DONT and certainly not early, as you will just be throwing your hard earned money away with their rip off prices and 'couldn't give a damn' attitude to their customers.

To celebrate our 30th. Wedding anniversary me and my wife decided to treat ourselves, our 2 children and their partners to an all-inclusive holiday.

We booked with First Choice to go Cyprus at a cost of £2962. This included an upgraded room cost £168 (Superior Twin Room with Sea View and Balcony) for me and my wife and 2 x Twin Rooms with Inland View and Balcony for my children and their partners.

On Thursday 24/03/16 we decided to upgrade the two rooms for our children and phoned up for a price. It was going to cost £336. This was too much so decided against it.

Being inquisitive I visited their website to see how much the holiday would cost now. I was shocked to see that the holiday now cost £2118.36 and this price also included 3 x Superior Twin rooms with Sea View and Balcony at no extra cost.

How can you charge me £336 when I wanted to upgrade my children’s rooms and yet give these rooms away at no extra cost and I have paid £844 more?

All I want is 2 x upgraded rooms for my 2 children and their partners.

I don’t see why I should pay to upgrade when I have paid £844 more.

I have emailed them several times but get fobbed off with so many excuses.

I know prices of holidays fluctuate but not by £844.

Instead of looking forward to celebrating our anniversary, I feel like we have been ripped off.

Add to this £25 pp discount for April Departures which wasn’t available when I booked that’s a difference of £894. Add £336 for room upgrade that’s a difference of £1230 nice little fluctuation eh! And all I wanted was a upgrade for my kids.

My boyfriend and I booked an All Inclusive Holiday with First Choice to Cyprus back in August, leaving on 2nd September. We booked and paid for extra legroom as my boyfriend is 6'6". When we arrived at the check-in desk we were given new boarding passes as there would now be a smaller plane but we were told not to worry and that we would still have the extra legroom. This was a lie!

On returning from our holiday I emailed my complaint and request for both a refund for the amount we paid, plus compensation for a really uncomfortable journey for my boyfriend and today we received a £30 cheque, with no apology and no compensation. I will never be booking a holiday with First Choice or Thomas Cook again. They have shown a total lack of customer care and customer service. And having to wait two months to be refunded £30 is very poor! Do not book any optional extras - you will be disappointed!!!

Had a 1 week holiday with First Choice in August in Zakynthos. The room in the hotel was just terrible. Located above a karaoke bar with much until 1am. Complained to the rep who would only move us if we paid an upgrade fee of £95, but that we could complain and get it reimbursed. Complained and it took them 2 months to reply! With a simple thanks but no thanks. Just terrible customer service. Would never use them again. Massively over-priced and terrible experience. All the First Choice excursions were also nearly double the price you could buy them at any other place in the resort.

Not had my holiday yet but I feel really angry at the moment. Booked my holiday in January as the website was showing 1 room left, I paid 3300.00 for my holiday, due to fly out on Tuesday (I know I shouldn't have done but checked the website and the holiday in now a 1000.00 cheaper, they should not have advertised it as one room left remaining, I have asked if they can upgrade me to the sister hotel which is still available but they have said they can't do that. I have spend a lot of money with first choice and Thompson over the years but this is just disgusting, I know holiday price go down depending on supply demand but I am more annoyed about the one room availability.