2009 XL Prices

[Jo Wissett]

YIKES

Just had a look at prices for the same time next year and they are showing £500 more!!

[Sandy x]

Each????Or for all five of you?

[Jo Wissett]

Haha Sandy.  No for All of us.  Still bad though.  Cost me £1070 this year and prices are £1500+

[Eileen]

Flaming heck Jo that's a lot of extra money to find.  Just think of how many days spending money that would be.  You do flight only and accom' separately don't you?  (maybe you will need to get you ECDL and drive over ) 

Eileenxxx

[Jo Wissett]

Yes very funny Eileen! and I can just see the boys going for that.  Christ, they moaned when we drove for a couple of hors a time!!

[Eileen]

The sheer horror of it Jo.  Imagine suffering the alternating chorus from the back seat "when are we going to be there"..."are we there yet"..."I'm hungry"..."I'm thirsty"!!!  Aarghh.....

Eileenxxx

[Sandy x]

Not to mention the price of the fuel....

[Rick1883]

It cost the four of us around £940 this year to fly with Thomas Cook from Bristol on 21 July for two weeks.  Thomas Cook are showing £1440 for the same period next year so £500 extra for us too.

Do the arithmetic yourselves, guys but Arillas, like tourist destinations everywhere, is going to feel the pinch next year.  Eating out too was more expensive than ever, down in part though not in total to the collapse of the pound

There is absolutely no way we can afford that hike in prices.

After five wonderful years on the bounce I don't think we will be back next year.

[justphil]

That is so sad Rick1883. But wherever you go it will be the same in Europe. Perhaps our local Weston super Mare might work? Er no... it will cost you more too. Probably more than 2 weeks in Arillas.

If the £984 was a package for four including acommodation it was really a good price. Could have been flight only. Hope as it all wears on you can find a way back.

We don't yet know what we will do next year - we are hoping to buy a one way ticket. But let's see.

Phil

[Rick1883]

No, the £940-ish we paid did not include transfer, accommodation, meals or anything else.

What I forgot to say, Phil, is that Corfu in general and Arillas in particular gives far better value than almost anywhere else we have been in Greece and Spain and compared to rip-off Britain where we could not afford to stay for sure, it's still a great deal. 

I think the main effect of the economic downturn will be that working class families like mine will no longer be able to afford the Greek sun or any other sun apart from the very occasional British version.

[wayne]

its the same everywhere i was looking at rhodes town for next year normally £600 each for two weeks bed and breakfast now £1000 each.in todays newspaper it stated there are six million less seats available for next year so its less flights less hotels and more cost to us.not sounding too good.

[justphil]

These posts horrify me. The recession is here.

Rick1883 I rather guessed what you meant. Though last October Thomsons took us to Kaloudis for less than the price of a flight, that is not the mainstream. Thanks for coming back to me.

One of my biggest worries is how our Arillan hosts will suffer next year. IT and brochure errors (see posts) reduction in tour operators activities (see Joe our forum expert's posts) and the terrible exchange rate will make next year a bit of a disaster.

I am the son of a factory worker, Jen's dad was a riveter in making boliers. We too are a "working class" family, but a bit educated because of the fifties surge in that. We could be rich but we shunned it at every turn. And I know what you are saying. Arillas is not about class and all that stuff. It is what appeals to Jen and me. But 2009 will be a difficult one.

Phil

[wayne]

i have already browsed several brochures for next year not for arillas but for rhodes normally 10-12hotels for rhodes town now 2-3 theres no choice looks like arillas again.not that im complaining but i dont like doing same place year in year out.

[Rick1883]

First of all, apologies to Phil for the use of the phrase 'working class'.  It was very clumsy of me.  Perhaps I should have phrased it differently.  The internet is a harsh place and I don't want to end up sounding like one of Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen!

Based purely upon anecdotes and speaking with people, I feel that the economic slowdown is far worse than many people imagine and it will impact massively upon many people's declining leisure spend. 

For example, my partner and I are frontline public sector workers and have once again had no pay rises this year.  In real terms, that is a pay cut and from our 'lower' income we would need to squeeze an extra £500 just for the flights to Corfu, as well as money to pay for accommodation, transfers, eating out and even going out.  As the effects of the credit crunch are being felt right across Europe you can bet your bottom Euro that prices in Corfu will not be standing still either.

So times are tough and they are getting tougher and sadly it will impact on the number of people who will afford to visit Arillas.  For families like us, Arillas could become just a memory.

[Joe]

Just had a word with my Mum on the phone, petrol at the pumps in Corfu is not far behind what we pay here now.

About these flights, reducing capacity will actually keep costs down and hopefully these can be passed on to you, aviation fuel has doubled in price in the past year, to a point we can absorb these costs but now the increase is to sharp, the only way to keep this both profitable and affordable is to remove any slack from the flying programs. Interestingly 2008 had many more flights to Corfu than 2007 and 2009 is predicted to have the same amount as 2007 (ish) so I don't think all the doom and gloom is warranted.

When booking a package you also get the flight at a subsidy, flight only you do not that's all part of the deal of buying the package the whole is cheaper than the sum of its parts. Flight only's will seem to have the sharpest increase and it will be anything from 20% - 50%, however the prices you are seeing now are the release prices and have yet to be affected by trading conditions, I would expect them to come down in the latter part of this year, more than anything it is imperative we get bums on seats, if the holidays are not selling well then the seat only's will be released at a cheaper price.

The package deals for next year are comparable with this year, finally something we can thank the merger for, the biggest issue facing Greece, Spain, etc is the strength of the Euro, without putting prices up things in Corfu are already 15% more than last year, which very quickly adds up, and how can you expect businesses not to raise their own prices when their costs are going through the roof.