Dizzy

Its very frustrating and I wouldn't put it past Airtours that they were ignoring the phone calls perhaps youahould call reservation line and see if someone answers. Emial them as well, if you go on their website and clivk on feed back mail address they will pass the email address onto customer service.

Do you know if the Tucan has been damaged at all?

Did you see Package Holiday undercover last night? Story HERE

Very similar.

Hi guys.
Didn't have time to watch any TV last night. I spent most of the time on the net looking for info. And it seems as though the Tucan has had minor damage, but is trying to get back to normal asap.

Hi there all,Just thought i would add a little tale about a holiday taken with airtours 16 years ago!! 4 children,family holiday to Ibiza - 2nd floor apartment(requested ground and was assured that was ok) Toilet did not work for first three days! Bare wires on the wall,plus many other complaints!!It was a nightmare and no rep to be found!! This was my first holiday abroad and was unsure of what to do or who to complain to in the resort.Hotel owner was like Basil Fawlty-just ranted and screamed at us in spanish!!Complained in writing when i got back and also my travel agent did likewise.Result-a letter informing us that as we had not complained(??) in resort had no proof etc etc they would not consider us for any sort of compensation!
Moral of my tale? I have holidayed abroad at least 20 times since and never once booked with airtours or any others connected to them ! Airtours have lost a lot of revenue from me!

And I have had some wonderful holidays booked with other tour operators and also independantly!!

Airtours have stuck again - My colleage at my part time place of work is getting married this Saturday in North Wales. He and his intended booked the Honeymoon 11 months ago with Airtours in Mexico staying All inclusive at the Park Royale Pirimdes, at Cancun.
They where looking forward to flying out on Monday and had made all the necessary arrangements for a trip to Mexico.
However on Friday last they received a letter from the Travel Agents to say that they would now not be staying at this hotel and were given two other choices of accommodation which for various reasons was not acceptable to them.
They have now cancelled the Honeymoon in Mexico and have had to make swift arrangements for another destination with another company. They have settled for a full refund of the cost of the Holiday. They were offered £80 in compensation for the cancellation which they have declined. After reading the forum and all the hassle that fellow travellers have had with Airtours they have now put the matter in the hands of their Solicitor who has experience in such matters - a case of going straight for the jugular!
I will keep you informed as to the outcome.
I am still awaiting a reply to my letters regarding my complaints so I have nothing further to report on that score.

Hi Merv

Before this gets 'lost' in this ever lengthening thread, its probably best to point out that this cancellation must have occurred before Hurricane Emily seriously disrupted travel to Mexico! I feel so sorry for your friends and to be told by letter rather than phone is unbelievable. But then again, I've heard of some being told upon arrival in Cancun.
I can sympathise with your friends as it happened to our planned Mexican holiday 6 weeks ago. Since then I have done a lot of research on the company in an effort to find an answer as to why they are not honouring the contracts they have with some of their customers. So far, I have not even had an acknowledgement of my letter. It's absolutely unbelievable what's going on with their bookings this year, particularly long haul.

I wonder if they are going to use "emily" as an excuse to cover up their awful business practices?? I think something similar happened to us with our first hotel! They used the building work going on at the Azteca to cover up the fact that they'd been playing the "lets overbook all our decent hotels" game. And because i've been chatting personally to the staff at the Azteca, i've found out what they've been up to.
Emily has given them a brilliant excuse now. All the hotels they've been ovebooking can suddenly be cancelled "because of Emily"

Well, she may have messed things up for people but emily won't make me forget whats been going on.

Just thought I would share this with you.
At the hairdresser today and the hairdresser starts telling me about the awful flight she endured to Cancun.She said she will be writing a letter of complaint as soon as she has some free time. She complained of rude staff at check in, rude unhelpful staff on board the flight.

On her return to London she was suffering from chest pains and asked for some water. They told her they could not supply her with tap water she would have to buy bottled water she did this 3 time at £1
a bottle. She then requested some orange
juice as she had ran out of money and was told " orange juice is for the children". This poor lady was unwell and was finding it difficult to beath at one stage and this is the treatment she recieves from MY Travel/ Airtours.
The food was horrible, flight unconfortable and on the outbound flight she looked into upgrading and was told by another customer not to bother you are treated just as bad.

Futruebride,

Can I ask you not to post other peoples complaints, we are happy for your hairdresser to register and post here and we will endevour to help her as much as we can.

We like people to post there own complaints as things could get out of hand if everybody on here posted complaints from someone they know.

I am sure you understands.

Regards

Sarah

Hi guys
Just heard from a person on the other very good holiday website that their family were supposed to be going to the Viva Wyndham Azteca, Playacar, Mexico on the 19/08/05 with Airtours.

So naturally they are concerned about the conflicting reports of this hotels reopening times because of damage they've sustained during Emilys visit last week. They call Airtours who basically said that its too early to tell whats going on and they will inform them in due course.

But remember, my honeymoon was cancelled at the Azteca back in 24th June because the building work is at a level 3 which is unacceptable for Airtours guests!!! And i've had to fork out £320 extra just to get a honeymoon. The official rubbish from Airtours was they would be reviewing the situation for this hotel in September.

Do they ever stop lying???

If this company are still trading next year it'll be nothing short of a miracle.

Sara

My deepest apologies I had no idea.

I have known her (hairdresser) for years its not just the case that I have just met her- she was very annoyed regarding her treatment by Airtours and I felt I should share this with other members of the forum with her permission may I add.

I am sure she will write a review soon and I will let her know your response to my post. She now has the address of this forum.

Thnaks for letting me know!

We were due to go to the Iberostar Tucan (Mexico) on the 11th July, got a phone call on the 6th July to say we were now going to Copacabana, as Tucan was overbooked, and that we would receive 40 pounds each compensation, this was all they could offer or a refund!! We had booked in Jan so were gutted, rang every other company trying to get another holiday to mexico but couldn't, so as holidays were booked in work we decided to go to the copacabana, copa was a lovely hotel however not what we had booked, lower star, less facitlies and in a resort in the middle of no where unlike Tucan which is in Playacar!

We were trying our best to enjoy the holiday, then came hurricane Emily, we were evacuated from our rooms to a restuarant but ended up moving from there as the windows were coming in, spent 12 hours in a little area outside toilets. No rep had even done a head count before or after hurricane.

The hotel had a lot of damage, but the hotel staff had worked there socks off to get things running smoothly and by tuesday we were having fully cooked meals in restuarant, the bar was open, beach was open, entertainment back on, the only things not available were the pool and the aircon was not working.

On wednesday morning the Rep told us we were being evacuated at 5pm that day, we didnt want to go but were told if we didn't then we would be on our own and that our original flight had been cancelled. She wouldnt tell us why we were being evacuated so another holiday maker rang the uk an independent travel company to find out and apparantly we had been living on sandwiches and there was raw sewerage so it was'nt safe for us. (So Airtours had told them) We couldn't believe this as we had just eaten a full english breakfast and the place was emaculate! Even the hotel manager said he was happy for us to stay.

We were advised to leave as our insurance would be invalid, the Flight they put on was to Gatwick, and we were told there would be onward flights to Manchester and Glasgow. At Gatwick we were then offered a coach journey to manchester, after a 12 hour flight which had stopped in Sanford, in America for 1 1/2hours they wanted us to get on a coach for 6 hours, we declined as my ankles were badly swollen and i couldnt of sat on a coach for another 6 hours. We got a flight ourselves.

The whole thing was a disgrace we had been lied to that many times it was becoming a joke.

When I get home I had a letter from Direct Holidays with my 80pound refund, it had been transfered into my bank account, as I had paid by switch they just paid it to that account, so even though i didn't want to accept it there was no way i could stop it.

I would never use there company again - Direct Holidays / My Travel / Airtours whoever they are!

I am seeking legal advice about what I can do next!

If you haven't already got yourself a travel law solicitor then give Ros Fernihough a call on 01922 621114 as she regularly assists our members.

Thanks Glynis, will give Ros a call tomorrow morning.

This is awful treatment from Direct Holidays and I suggest you ring Ros and take the matter further. You can always email the tucan and ask if they had your reservation. I think you will find that Direct Holidays are only allocated a certain number of rooms (on contract) A smaller number of rooms have been allocated this year compared to last.

They can tell how many rooms are available upon booking, when I booked I was told I got the last room at the Tucan.

I have a feeling the Tucan may terminate their contract with Direct Holidays/ Airtours due to the influx of emails from customers about Direct Holidays treatment to their customers and Direct Holidays always blaming the Tucan hotel.

Please read a further posts they will help you to build a picture. The Tucan did not overbook it was Direct Holidays and you deserve compensation. Keep us all posted.

We have been notified today by our T/agent that our T/O (Airtours) claim that our hotel Copacabana in mexico is not fit to take guests this weekend, we were due to fly out 29/7. This is contrary to postings I have read on this, and other sites. like most people due to go to Mexico we have followed the havoc reaked by Emily with some trepidation. We were heartened to read a report from the general manager of the hotel 22/7 saying that things were getting back to normal, also postings from people returning saying that the staff were all working flat out to repair the damage. The T/O is saying that there may be availability at the Ceiba Del Mar in Puerto Morelos, we know nothing either about the hotel or the resort! Any info would be helpful, we won't know until tomorrow if there are spaces. Methinks we have been shafted yet again by Airtours, we originally booked in November 04 to go to the Azteca Playacar. Like alot of people we were told in Feb 05 that there was extensive building work being carried out to a hotel next door and would we move, we chose the Copa as an alternative, and here we are 3 days before flight with no 3 week holiday to look forward to. We fully understand that no one can forsee what nature is going to throw at us, and we are very thoughtful of all the problems that Emily has caused the local people. We however are being bull....ed by someone and I don't think it's the general manager and holidaymakers from the Copa!!!!

Hi Boaz
I rang Airtours on Saturday 23rd July. I had received our tickets for the Copa that morning and wanted to check on their updates re the damage situation. No point having tickets if the TO won't take you to the hotel because its too damaged!!!
The lady (Nicky) I spoke to happily informed me that yes the hotel is up to 80% working(we know its more than that now) and that Airtours are happy to send guests. And she wished me a wonderful honeymoon!!!

The updates from the manager are all very good and I know that he may glam the situation up a bit. The reviews from guests that have come back recently all say that yes there was damage but they are sorting it, quickly!
American TO's are sending guests.

Boaz-When did your tickets arrive??

Dizzyb23

Our tickets arrived about 2 weeks ago, we rang the travel agent last week (after Emily) and they were unaware of anything that might prevent us going. It came straight out of the blue about 4pm yesterday, I disscussed the option of the alternative with the agent and they tried to get back in touch with Airtours but to no avail. We are expecting further communications today.

Boaz. You must be feeling so fed up right now. And confused. Me too!
I have loads of info from various sources as you know and all saying the Copa is ok for us to go. Obviously we are aware whats happened and the landscape has changed a fair bit because of the hurrricane. I do know that Airtours info is approximately 2 days behind everyone elses.

But that still doesn't explain why we were told all is ok. My hubby is in the process of checking on airtours flights departing from Gatwick and going to Cancun. This only gives us a basic idea that Airtours are still flying people out there.

I'll wait for him to text me and let you know if the flights go out ok today.
Not much help, but its all I can think of at the moment.