Copacabana Beach Resort - sorry spelling error meant this hotel

Does anyone have an email address for Direct Holidays? I have wrote and phoned and still no joy.

Hi Nico
Sorry to hear about your run in with Airtours. Their list of "casualties" grows longer by the day...My honeymoon and hubby's 40th birthday have been ruined by airtours. We've saved up for over a year for this. And as you all know full well, its not just the money invested, its the time and effort too. I chose the Viva Wyndham Azteca for many specific reasons. My hubby knows we are going long haul but the rest is a surprise for him because of his birthday. I've been in touch with this hotel(for all who are still going here, you are so lucky as their staff are amazing), to arrange special things for our honeymoon and birthday. I've ordered and sorted all sorts of lovely things with the help of the staff and the lovely people at Wyndham hotels HQ. I've spent hours doing this. I'm paying for most of it for hubby.
And then we get the info from an honest, unbiased tripadvisor warning of what Airtours were up to!!
And thats when it all went to pot for us really. Yep, after many many phone calls and fibs, Airtours finally tried to help me rearrange this holiday fiasco. My only realistic choice was the Copacabana Beach Resort. Nice enough place but NOT what we wanted.
I'm keeping a brave face on for all of this, but its so hard because i've had to keep most of this secret from hubby. Its only the support of fellow trip advisors thats really kept me from getting the first train up to "Holiday House" in Rochdale. I know where that place is, i'm a northerner!!!
So I totally understand what you are going through Nico. And yes, before the comments roll in, I will make the most of my honeymoon, plaster a smile on my face and get on with it. But all the while, wondering how things are for the folks at the Azteca.
Please email me Nico if you want to.
X

Dizzyb23,

thanks for the invite. I think I've sent you a message of some knid but I can't be sure

Less than six weeks before, we have just been informed by Airtours that they can no longer offer us the apartment we booked in Italy some 14 months ago! Because they offered us an alternative apartment of the same rating in the same resort, they wouldn't offer us any compensation. The alternative is not suitable as no-where does it say it is suitable for families and all the reviews I have seen have said it is a 800m walk to town along a very busy road and warn of traffic noise.

I am about to start a formal complaint about it, but it sounds like I am probably wasting my time? Any comments from anyone?

janej if this alternative accommodation isn't suitable then Airtours should offer you a full refund.

Speak to Ros Fernihough on 01922 621114 she is a travel law lawyer and will offer you free advice as to what your rights are.

Sorry to hear about the problem with the hotel and Airtours. It is not a waste of time to complain. Please, please do not just give in with this. It may take a while but you will get a result in the end. This website is the first step in getting it sorted. Follow the advice from Glynis and take the next step. Never give in, thats what the TO wants you to do. There are so many of us in this same position at the moment.

Hi JaneJ, Dizzy is right this is what they want you to do - give up seeking an explanation! No way. There are quite a few of us on these forums (and that's only what we know of) had our holidays messed up by them. In my opinion this is all to do with Airtours 'downsizing' to save their financial future, but who pays for all this? Its you and its me, because we do not get the hard-earned holiday we booked with them. I got the run-around from them as well. Please don't give up.

I meant to say in my last posting, would you just give up if an estate agent messed up a house sale or a car you bought turned out to be a shed on wheels?? These are luxury items. Things we all save and work so hard for. Think back to how long it took you to save for yur holiday and all the extra hours overtime that had to be done!! Think also about the preparations, the family getting excited, going to Boots and spending a fortune on holiday essentials, in some cases getting injections no one likes having, all the time and effort invested in the holiday.....
The list is endless.
I'm not here telling you what to do. Just need to let you know you are not alone. There are loads of us having similar problems. These websites are here to give good sound advice. I've been to the Citizens Advice recently and they were helpful. I've informed ABTA and i've got some other things in the pipeline. Very promising things. Yes its a huge hassle. We all just want a quiet, simple life, but there's always someone lurking around the corner ready to mess things up. And were my family and myself are involved, no one gets away with that.
Have a really good think about what you, personally, want to do about all this. And no matter what you decide to do, your decision will be the right one because you made that decision. My best wishes to you and your family.

we have just arrived back from two weeks in Kos. We paid in excess of £6,000 for 3 adults and 5 teenagers to go to kipriotis village, near psalidi, on an AI basis and we chose the resort simply because it would give our children a bit of freedom to explore the resort without us oldies breathing down their necks but we would be reassured that they wouldn't be that far away from us.

On arrival at the airport we were taken to one side and told that we were not actually going there but had been upgraded to a five start hotel that was far better than the one originally booked. Alarm bells began to flash but at 4.30am in the morning you just need a bed for a few hours.

On arrival the problems started.....when we booked we were promised a double room and 2 rooms with 2 single beds and a sofa bed.....we got twin bedrooms each with a z bed which to me are not suiatbale for sleeping on for 2 weeks.

The hotel platinista where we were moved to is a very nice hotel....but not geared up for children.....the entertainment on a night was terrible. We had to pay for bottled water and the menu we had to choose from was very restricted and quite franky we felt like second class people because we were on the Ai basis. The rep we had at first told us that aritours were not at fault and that it was the kipriotis village that had overbooked...on reading some of the posts on this site i begin to wonder if that was a little lie.

he made promises to sort things out for us etc but then did nothing...after countless calls to their helpline we got a new rep......there was at least 20 of us that had been moved to the platinista and we all had many complaints. Eventually we were given free trips as a gesture of goodwill, and the new rep was most helpful in at least trying to make out last week as good as it could be.

I fully intend to write a letter of complaint , we were lied to numerous times by their reps and even blamed going places for not informing us that our hotel had been changed. In the long run we made the best of our holiday that we could ...but the first week was very stressful and quite frankly I wanted to come home and I think we sould recieve some sort of compensation or at least an apology because they decided at the last minute to change our holiday.

Point to note, anyone who has a complaint should never accept any form of compensation whilst in resort as it will stop any other form of compensation on your return dead.

Millimollymandi (great name, I used to love those books) I'm no expert, but think Glynnis is right about not accepting compensation in resort. Its cheap at half the price isn't it for them to offer you a couple of cheap excursions when you have given them 6K for a holiday they failed to deliver. There was a statement in yesterday's press about MyTravel having a 240,000 pound fine slapped on them by the Financial Services Authority for failing to reveal a damaging block hole in its accounts 3 years ago to its shareholders. So it appears its not only its customers its prepared to mislead!

Sometimes, you only need to deal with a company once to discover how poorly they treat their customers. We had the unfortunate experience of booking a holiday to Tenerife with Airtours about four years ago. Without boring you with all the details, the place wee booked into was dirty, noisy and nothing like the brochure description. We asked to be moved but had to pay extra for the privlege. We paid as we didnt want to completely ruin our time away, but as soon as we returned, I began to complain and ask for the extra money we had forked out returning, based on the fact that we had been mis-sold the holiday in the first place as the brochure description was inaccurate. Months of letter writing followed, only to get knocked back by Airtours each time. I think they definately have a policy of Negative replies make most people go away. I was not prepared to let it drop so after consulting with my free legal advisors available to me through my employment, I took out a claim against Airtours in the small claims court. On the day of the hearing, the post lady knocked on my door with a cheque from Airtours, for the extra money I had paid to move to reasonable accomodation, plus the cost to take the matter tro small claims court. I must admit, I felt very pleased to the point of smugness that day. If you think you have a valid complaint against Airtours, my advice is the same advice I was given. Write to them listing your complaint and requesting a reasonable amount in compensation, if possible, consult legal advice and check that you have reasonable grounds for complaint. If you think you do, dont waste time writing too many letters to Airtours, they take no notice of them. Simply take them to the small claims court. If you have a reasonable shout for a claim, they will know and dont want any more bad publicity than they already attract.
Needless to say, I never have and never will be travelling with Airtours / Mytravel ever again!

Hi all thanks for the feedback
We called into going places today to ask their advice and they said that we should complain through them as it is them that has the contract with aritours and not us, they were very good about it and have told us to gather all receipts, relevant documents etc together and go back to see them.
I refused the offer of the free trips until I got in writing from the area manager that they were purely a gesture of goodwill and in know way would they effect our rights to claim for compensation.

It will probably take months and many letters to sort this mess out but there's no way any of us should put up with airtours runing our much needed hoildays.

MillyMollyMandy - If you look in the Holiday Advice Centre forum under 'If you don't get what you book' it says you should complain to the tour operator. That's the course of action I've taken on advice from Ros. If you send it Recorded Delivery, you have proof that your letter has been received. We also booked an Airtours holiday through GoingPlaces (all part of the same MyTravel group of companies).

Hi all again
Going places are just acting as a go between and according to them, Airtours have no legal requirement to reply to my complaint within a set time limit....but they have to to Going places.

I guess the more the merrier.

I'm not qualified in travel law, but if it was me I would prefer to be dealing with Airtours direct.

Going Places come under the umbrella of Airtours (MyTravel) for a start.

My friend once complained via a travel agent and the whole process was really slow as they had to take documentation to the TA they forwarded to the TO who replied to the TA who eventually replied to my friends Also vital documents could more easily be 'lost' in transit via this way.

Surely your contract is with Airtours? not the Travel agent? Travel agents deal with a variety of tour operators who's contracts could be different to each other? If your contract was with the travel agent then they would surely be responisible for your holiday? And people would be suing travel agents and not tour operators.

Airtours have no legal requirement to reply to my complaint within a set time limit....but they have to to Going places

From the Safe and Sound brochure written by travel law lawyer Ros Fernihough:-

You must write to the tour operator within 28 days of your return. Send it by recorded delivery and keep a copy. They must acknowledge receipt of your letter within 14 days and then provide you with a detailed reply within 28 days.

Good luck with your case

The only way is to sue in court. We have done this twice, as soon as they get the summons they suddenly want to be reasonable. Its too late then because they have fobbed you off and treated you with contempt for so long you want a lot more than you would have settled for in the first place. Dont let them get away with it!!

I agree with RDV entirely - If you have got a good case to argue, make sure your case is sound legally and give them one opportunity to compensate you. If they don't deliver, take them to court. Its not at all difficult to do and nothing at all to fear. If you have a good case for compensation, the holiday company wont want to spend a day squirming in the small claims court.