We have used Crystal for 7 years. The last two years got worse and worse - the ski hire arrangements we paid for (we paid for the best they had) only got us old skis (some little wooden hut in Zell Am See). This year they managed to lose my booking on the trip back too, which meant we had to wait a long time to check in whilst everyone else went on. Now they are not flying from Southampton anymore, adding at least another £300 to the overall cost of our 1 week skiing holiday, and you cannot even contact them by email anymore - you have to create an account (ie. give them all your details which they then sell to "selected partners") or call a toll number, meaning you have to pay them to talk to you. I think they are now starting down the slippery slope, cos we will not be using them any more.

I haven't used Crystal for 14 years, and booked this holiday on the back of my past experiences - all enjoyable, I sometimes think that a merger with a bigger company loses the personal touch?. When we got to Sauze, we where not taken to our hotel the rep just said " your hotel is 2 minutes walk down there", and off we went on our own, our first contact with the rep was not a good one she was very vague about everything, and it just seemed that she didn't like changeover days and wanted rid of us. We only went to the quiz as the other evening events where pricey, on the positive side we did get a well set out sheet of paper describing exactly how to contact the reps The Biancaneve was a clean well oiled ship, run to time and don't be late, and don't let them catch you using the free wifi or they'll turn it off and tell you it's broken?. It was worse than taking my teacher on holiday! bearing in mind I was there to ski not party, but it would have been more convenient to contact my business from the hotel not the local bar. On the plus side food was delicious and plentiful and as a small hotel it felt more like a chalet.

We booked our holiday through Chalet line and were surprised when we received Crystal Tickets There were 11 of us in the Party We stayed in Chalet Mariette in Les ARC 2000. The bedrooms were adequate and clean budget hotel style. 4 rooms had en suite shower rooms there was a further shower rooms and bathroom. The were two toilets but they had no wash hand basins. (the toilet brushes needed changing) There was only one communal room with small kitchen in the corner, a dining area and sitting area. This area was far too small for 12 adults there was only 2 sofas and 1 arm chair whick which were not comfortable. The dining table was a tight fit. The only saving grace was our HOST who was a great cook and did his best with budget food. A lot of the crockery was chipped and cracked. The pool with the chalet was used by a number of chalets. It had a limited opening imes 2-7pm it was overcrowded after 4 pm, with teenagers running in and out of sauna and steam room leaving the door open not relaxing!!! The pictures in on the website are not of chalet Mariette This chalet is definetly at the budget end of the market and far to small for 12 people.

Overall holiday was brilliant - we stayed at hotel llac negre in pas de la casa and the food staff and service was amazing! On the other hand our crystal ski rep was awful. Do not pre arrange to take part in the evening events till u are sure. They had already liquidated it was his answer when we asked for a refund - which probably meant he had drunk it because that is all they seemed to do was constantly drink alchohol. He was suppose to be around our hotel 24/7 but we only ever saw him at the evening drinking events. Be careful.

No matter how long the transfer times are quoted by Crystal Ski for their holidays please add at least one and half hours. Apparently the extra delay is acceptable practise according to Crystal. I wrote to them and gave them the opportunity to explain themselves. Approximately 30+ of us (including small children and babies) sat on the coach at the Chambrey Airport IN THE CAR PARK for this length of time waiting for another four passengers to board who arrived on a different plane. Their explanation is as follows "with regard to your arrival transfer, I would like to explain that inline with our terms and conditions we do combine transfers with people travelling on other flights from the UK. At all times, we try to keep any waiting time to a minimum and have been advised by our transport office in France that unfortunately some late changes to the transfer arrangements had to be made that day. From the information made available to me, your flight arrived at 11.45 and the coached departed at 13:30. We know that transfers are an important part of our holidays and at all timeS we aim to make the procedure run as smoothly as possible." THATS IT - according to Crystal this is exactly how they planned things! PLEASE BE WARNED!!

I WOULD WARM ANYONE BOOKING A HOLIDAY BY TELEPHONE
THE 0871 NUMBER COSTS 14 PENCE PER MINUTE
AND a BOOKING WILL COST YOU £2.80

This was our first holiday with Crystal Ski - our others having been booked through their sister companies. The reps are ok, friendly enough and I never do envy them their jobs.
We went to Pila in Italy and stayed at the Etoile De Neige; Pile is lovely and we would definitely stay at the Etoile De Neige again. Really nice staff, great food, ski to door, chairlift and nursery slope right outside. Quiet slope, pistes well groomed I could go on. But, back to Crystal.
We had had a nightmare check in at Doncaster and then a doubly nightmare baggage collection at Turin.
The check in of skis at Doncaster was done by one woman writing everything down on a bit of paper. I kid you not. There didn't appear to be abnyne from Crystal to help sort things out.
Turin was absolute mayhem - one English guy took over the handing out of the skis and snowboards (he was brilliant). I know that Turin's lack of organisation isn't Crystal's fault but they just didn't seem bothered when we said about it 'oh that's not good' was all we got.
We then had to wait nearly two hours for the coach to leave. Although there was room for us on the first coach to Pila, we were told to get on the second coach. the first one then left and we just sat there. And sat there. From touching down on the tarmac at Turin to driving out of the airport took exactly 3 hours! For a flight that lasted less than two hours! We had planned to get an afternoon skiing in but that went right out of the window.
Our entire travel time from walking into Doncaster airport at 3.45 am and arriving at Pila was 11 hours. How can that be? Less than 2 hours on the flight and about 1 3/4 hrs on the coach? We hadn't even sat around at Donny - the check in took so long that we went straight onto the aircraft.
We have given feedback to Crystal but of course have heard nothing.

We had a ski holiday at Pila in Italy this February. The Crystal rep was friendly and generally helpful, and provided a good ski guide service around the resort during the first two days. Our problem was that she failed to provide receipts for any payments made for Crystal organised events, so that when one was cancelled, we didn't get our money back. Nice little number - make sure you get a receipt!!