I spent a few more hours grappling with Thomson again yesterday, this time (reluctantly) reserving our seats so that Keith can be comfortable on the flight and have an aisle seat to stretch out his leg. I think it's outrageous that we have to spend even more money to ensure that we all sit together and it's all down to pressure and the fear that when you turn up at the airport for a long flight, you find that you're scattered all over the plane. I'd hate for the children to be sitting with strangers and, no doubt they would probably do something to sit us together, but there's no guarantee and I'd rather be safe than sorry.
It all used to be so simple years ago when we went on holiday. I flew abroad for the first time in 1986, with Dan Air to Mykonos in Greece. We turned up at the airport, checked our luggage in, were allocated our seats and that was it. No looooong queues at Security, no baggage restrictions and just one price - no numerous add-ons! No charges for adding baggage, or having a meal (always included), no charges for paying by credit card or - horror of horrors! - daring to actually check-in and deal with a real live person rather than doing it on a computer. I should imagine if we'd been told back then we'd have to pay an extra charge for reserving our seats we would never have believed it. The internet was in its infancy in those days so we did everything in a travel agent or on the phone. We had no idea if the hotel we were going to was any good (no TripAdvisor) but we had no other option.
The host of add-ons are part of daily life now. It seems every company has the right to charge for different things which just bumps up the cost. When we upgraded our rental car the other day the man I spoke to gave me a run down of the costs included - Airport operating fees, Florida surcharges, various different types of insurance...it went on and on. No doubt when we actually get to Florida there will be a whole host of different charges to bump up the price of our holiday. The last time we went we were given the option of paying an extra $50 as an added insurance for the netting around the pool in the villa. If it was damaged we would be liable to pay to have the whole section repaired, at a huge cost. Understandably terrified of causing damage and being liable, we coughed up the $50 without a murmur. At the parks, Seaworld in particular, there was a long list of "extras" such as Shamu preferred parking, Shamu preferred seating, dine with Shamu, etc, etc. Universal charge extra for a "Fast Pass" to bypass all the queues. I'm not sure of the actual price but I think it's about $50 per person!
In a lot of cases these extra costs are optional so you can decide whether you really want to have them, but in some cases they're not. Are these price breakdowns a good idea? Do we really need to know how much we're paying for fuel surcharges, local tourist tax, airport operating fees, etc etc? I think I would just prefer one price and be ignorant of what I was being ripped off for!
Anyway...rant over. Yesterday was a beautiful Spring day and in the afternoon Mum, Soph and me went off to Market Harborough to see Duncan and buy some wine. The tasting was officially over but we still managed a sip or two of three wines - a French white, a French Rose and a Spanish red. I had come to buy some more Romanian Chardonnay so along with a couple of bottles of that (a bargain at £5) I also bought a bottle of Romanian Pinot Noir and a white in a lovely blue bottle which had been a favourite of mine when I worked at the shop. After choosing the wine we wandered around the town in the Spring sunshine and had a good look in the shops before heading for home.
It was great to see all the children out playing when we got home - is our gloomy winter over at last?
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