StuartO Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 I booked a ferry today. There's a limit to how much shoping around is worthwhile to save a small amount but I thought I would at least check with the Caravan Club, which says it will always be as cheap if not cheaper than booking directly. It turned out that they were going to be £5 cheaper, but they can only offer the (completely inflexible) Saver Fare, cheapest, oif P&O's options. The "Flexi" option is dearer but allows you 4 hours flexibility (i.e. before or after your chosen sailing time, which meant for me that I could book a cheaper evening crossing yet have the flexibility to catch an earlier ferry (subject to availability) if we arrive early - or of course in case we are held up. And the "Flexi" price for the cheaper evening sailing means that if we do sail earlier, we could save compared with the published "Saver" rates for the earlier sailings. It makes sense to check the direct fares (using the P&O website) to pick your sailing time and the options which go with the "Flexi" ticket. Apparently Caravan Club "only has a contract to sell Saver tickets". They don't even tell you any other options exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasnt Me Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Out of interest if you don't mind me asking? How much is the Ferry this time of year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted August 12, 2014 Author Share Posted August 12, 2014 We are going over at 1835 on Saturday 30th August and for a 7m motorhome with a car transporter trailer, tow adults and a dog, the Flexi fare is £116 one way. We could have gone over for £96 at the same time the following day on a Saver fare (no flexibility at all) but her indoors decided we should push the boat out. It costs £15 for the dog and the trailer makes quite a difference. It's adding a trailer which makes the tunnel too expensive. Using an evening crossing is cheaper and allows us to drive down from Lanacashire on the same day, Saturday is good for traffic (Sunday too) so we cross to Calais and usually overnight there on the Marina Aire. This year we will trave a bit further south before making the overnight stop. Having done some homework in the past, we don't book a return crossing in advance, instrea we book on line about a week before we want to return, which is far enough ahead to avoid the steep increase in last minute fares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wasnt Me Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 Thanks that is interesting We used the Tunnel for the first time, we were put off by all the extra charges last year listed for just having a van with roof load and bike rack We have always gone form Portsmouth or Plymouth. Due to where we were going. We booked the tunnel this year as we went to the Alps and it was brilliant as we turned up early and manage to travel earlier than booked. We also had to come home early as my BH broke her elbow and they only charged us £19 for changing out ticket for a week and a half earlier than we booked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 StuartO - 2014-08-12 6:58 PM I booked a ferry today. There's a limit to how much shoping around is worthwhile to save a small amount but I thought I would at least check with the Caravan Club, which says it will always be as cheap if not cheaper than booking directly. It turned out that they were going to be £5 cheaper, but they can only offer the (completely inflexible) Saver Fare, cheapest, oif P&O's options. Not to mention adding on Club member fees and all of a sudden the 'cheap' price isn't so cheap after all! A couple of years ago i booked a return fare (Dover Dunkerque) for just £45 much to the chagrin of some CC members who had paid more than double that amount sailing at the same time as me, 12 noon. I simply used one of DFDS tokens available to anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 One advantage of the CC booking service, is that you can change your booking and it will cost a £10, Before we found this out, we were charged anything from £50 to £0 depending on which way the wind was blowing. Rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted August 14, 2014 Author Share Posted August 14, 2014 tonyishuk - 2014-08-14 7:44 PM One advantage of the CC booking service, is that you can change your booking and it will cost a £10, Before we found this out, we were charged anything from £50 to £0 depending on which way the wind was blowing. Rgds If that's true for P&O bookings via CC, then CC is converting a P&O Saver ticket (which cannot be changed at all) into one which can. They told me that it was a Saver ticket and didn't mention any option to amend the booking if I needed - although I didn't ask either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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