Travel Agents!

[Mattys68]

I'm thinking of setting myself us a travel agent before Le Mans Next year 'cuz that's the only way you can get any camping tickets these days!!!!!!

All I want is one ticket for Karting Nord but unfortunately I can't get one without the following:
Ferry Crossing,
Race Tickets,
Hospitality (some scabby old tent no doubt!),
insurance,
etc...

I was going to pay £250 to a travel company for a 'package' but in the end I thought 'sod it!'
so.....
if anyone knows of any comapnies still selling camping tickets without having to book a ferry,etc etc I'd be grateful if you could let me know.

Cheers

[wezo]

Ithink you'll struggle unless you take up the full hospitality option.

I've given up now and will be camping in Blue parking (again), which is Ok in itslef, but you don't get a desginated parking spot so its a bit of a free for all. Has worked OK in previous years when I've been too slow to organise myself, but was spoiled last year by camping in Houx....

Best of luck, see you down there!

[johnny boy]

Matt,

If you're prepared to wait, you will find plenty of people trying to offload spare tickets nearer the time - usually the start of May which is when most people receive them.

Have a look at the Club Arnage forum:

http://club-arnage.web-solutions.dk/forum/bbs.cgi

and keep an eye on the sell and swap forum.

It's very basic and you have to jump in quick when someone posts but I managed to secure 4 tickets last year without too much trouble.

And, there's no rip off merchants on there - they will generally sell at ticket face value plus postage.

Hope this helps

John

[Mattys68]

Cheers boys. I think I'll book the ferry & keep my fingers crossed!!

[chrisgr31]

Before Christmas I heard that the Le Mans Tourist Office had some camping tickets left. I called them and sure enough was able to book, once I had faxed a form to them. No need to book ferry tickets, grandstand seats etc, and the prices were at face value too!

So might be worth giving them a call. Rumour has it that the ACO are scheduled to lose some camping space this year due to building works, but they forgot to reduce the allocation to travel agents and the tourist office to account for this. Hence the shortage of camping direct from the ACO.

As has been said in previous years pleanty of tickets have been available on the Club Arnage forum in the run up to the race. I managed to buy a Blue Camping pass, then exchange it for 2 Karting Nord passes, and a friend got another Karting Nord pass that way. My Karting Nord pass came from someone in Germany, and his pass came from someone in Belgium so its a multi national effort!

Chris

[Graham]

the biggest problem seems to come from the way the aco take bookings...


when you book your not actually booking your just registering, and they take loads of registrations ( or they did last year) then when you get to march they work through the list and start offering tickets to people... and you have about 2 weeks to pay before they are offered further down the list..

now if it were me i'd just take reservations for the tickets that i have and take payment then, much simpler.... but then im not french...

I think they may have cut the allocation this year as last year was a real fcuk up... and they even cut the allocation to the travel agents at teh last min...


what makes it a real bugger is that you have to book the ferries almost without knowing if you can get somewhere to park..

i remember calling the aco office last year..


hello, can i book a ticket
no they are out please call back in an hour

call back an hour later then every 30 mins - no answer

call all day the following day - no answer

finally get hold of them the next week

Oh yes we have a half day ( the day i phoned) and then it was a bank holiday... WTF didnt the receptionist tell be that !!!

[Chrisgr31]

Graham said:
when you book your not actually booking your just registering, and they take loads of registrations ( or they did last year) then when you get to march they work through the list and start offering tickets to people... and you have about 2 weeks to pay before they are offered further down the list..

This year I believe they actually started looking at the reservations in September, then told those who had booked in June 2003 for 2004 they couldn't have camping tickets!