Custom flights / gothere4less.co.uk (sister companies)they are both in the same office with the same address . Beware, under no circumstances book a flight with this company its has been the worst experience I have had in 25 years of travelling. My family and I wanted flights to Dalaman Turkey and primarily wanted an English airline, good flight times and lots of leg room. So i came across flights they were selling with British Midlands (32" seat pitch). And great flight times leaving Dalaman at 20:05. I paid a bit more because of the criteria's I set so I booked them with approximately 6 weeks to departure.
Then the night mare began. 2 weeks before departure, they sent me a letter moving my well planned flights to departure time 14:00. But still with British Midland. It was bad news knocking 6 hours off our holiday but we could live with that. Then on the 3rd of July 7 days before departure, we still had no tickets. So I decided to phone Custom Flights / gothere4less.co.uk they said they had been trying to contact me all day they couldn't have tried very hard!!!! So then they dropped the bombshell, we are putting you on another airline (Freebird, A Turkish airline ) and moving your flight to 08:00. 20th July knocking 12 hours 5 minutes off our original flight of 20.05 time loosing a full days holiday. And now having to be picked up from the hotel at 04:30, yes 04:30!! The worst possible time for a 3 year old, and not what I booked with custom flights.
So after various calls and complaints to Custom Flights / gothere4less.co.uk , to say I don't want the return flight and it's not what I paid for eventually I spoke to the MD who gave me the 3rd and final like it or lump it with no offer of other flights or compensation for the cheap flights I was having thrust upon me and my family. He was very clear and abrupt that he was going to do nothing about the situation. He and his company Custom Flights had put us in. So i will under no circumstances ever book with Custom Flights or Gothere4less.co.uk again !!!
I'm afraid you've learnt the hard way! Had you joined us before booking you might not have bothered, click Search near the top of this screen and then put Custom Flights in the box - you'll notice that selling people BMI flights and then bouncing them elsewhere at late notice is a recurring trend with this company.
Thanks for the reply, the only comfort I have is perhaps I can save somebody else all the hassle we have had by posting reviews on holiday sites like this one and hopefully if custom flights loose enough customs they might start to have some morals !!!!!!
I doubt it - there have been a couple more complaints since you posted!
Clearly what is need here is for one of those affected to contact all the others, collate all the info and present a bundled complaint to either Trading Standards (for whereever Cutsom Flights are based), or possibly the CAA. And definately copy it all to BMI because they are getting some abuse for something they probably know nothing about.
Clearly what is need here is for one of those affected to contact all the others, collate all the info and present a bundled complaint to either Trading Standards (for whereever Cutsom Flights are based), or possibly the CAA. And definately copy it all to BMI because they are getting some abuse for something they probably know nothing about.
For the record, they are showing a flight to DLM at end of August on BD8351
Which is a non existant flight number. BMI DO NOT operate to Dalaman.
Which is a non existant flight number. BMI DO NOT operate to Dalaman.
Now im getting worried we are booked on BMI flight to Dalaman and your saying they dont fly to there so looks like we could get dumped on another airline. Its not the same flight no. as you have quoted though.
BMI DO NOT operate to Dalaman.
Unless it could be a charter flight. Perhaps Dazbo might be able to throw some light on that?
fwh
I've broken Dazbo's monopoly! By doing a google search on the flight number I stumbled into this site http://www.libhomeradar.org/databasequery/index.php and I can see I'm going to waste hours playing with it! In the meantime, the rest of you can click flight search and put your flight number in to see how it gets on. BD8351 seems to be a Fridays Only charter using an Airbus A320.
Hi
I guess the moral of this story is, if you find a suitable flight go to that airline's own website and book it direct. I know they can still make changes but probably not as likely. There are some nasty cheats out there!
Jean
I guess the moral of this story is, if you find a suitable flight go to that airline's own website and book it direct. I know they can still make changes but probably not as likely. There are some nasty cheats out there!
Jean
The problem is that this is a charter and doesn't appear on BMIs website. They sell the whole flight to one or more Tour Operators who then off load any spare seats to agents like Custom Flights. The catch is that Custom seem to be taking bookings before they know how many seats are available and then have to shuffle people around.
The outgoing flight was with BMI, it was the return flight that was the problem and no you can not book direct with BMI because the plane was chartered by custom flights (i spoke to BMI in the mibble of all this) and that is why they were able to do as they please with there customers and treat us in such a bad way, i have been on to ATOL who are supposed to be there to protect us and they were not interested either.so to everybody out there dont book with custom flights. As steve has said it seems to be there policy to entice you with a good flight and then when they have your money to dump you with any airline and flight time !!!!
Hi vonny41
in response to your post i would push custom flights to email you the tickets to see what you have actually bought from custom flights , if they are shy in sending them to you then you could contact BMI charter to confirm flight numbers just phone the BMI main number 0870 6070 555, and ask them to put you through to charter they are very helpfull and seem to know custom flights. hopefully everything will go okay for you but if it doesnt please come back on the forum and let people know to help others or if anybody else out there has had problems with custom flights please let us know !!!!!!
in response to your post i would push custom flights to email you the tickets to see what you have actually bought from custom flights , if they are shy in sending them to you then you could contact BMI charter to confirm flight numbers just phone the BMI main number 0870 6070 555, and ask them to put you through to charter they are very helpfull and seem to know custom flights. hopefully everything will go okay for you but if it doesnt please come back on the forum and let people know to help others or if anybody else out there has had problems with custom flights please let us know !!!!!!
We have had a recent bad experience of Custom Flights but firstly I can confirm that BMI flight BD8351 from Manchester to Dalaman mentioned in an earlier post IS a bona fide flight number as we were on it 18/09/09!
Our return flight was supposed to be an Onur Air flight OHY635 departing Dalaman on 28/09/09 at 17.00. We rang Custom Fligts local representative the day before to confirm our return flight to be informed that the flight had been cancelled for "operational reasons" and we were now on a Thomas Cook flight at 02.25 on 29/09/09!
(Their local representative cheerily informed us we were some of the lucky ones as at least we now knew of the change and wouldn't be like others who were unaware and would be turning up at Dalaman 12 hours early!!)
Added to the extra expense, inconvenience and general hassle of a change from a flight due to arrive at 19.00 on 28/09/09 to one due to arrive at 04.30 next morning our anger was compounded when we saw the date of issue on the tickets we had to collect at Dalamn for the new flight was 10/09/09!
They obviously knew 8 days before we even left the Uk that we would not be on the Onur Air flight yet they never contacted us to advise of the change.
I will be lodging a complaint with Custom Flights and will advise how we get on.
Our return flight was supposed to be an Onur Air flight OHY635 departing Dalaman on 28/09/09 at 17.00. We rang Custom Fligts local representative the day before to confirm our return flight to be informed that the flight had been cancelled for "operational reasons" and we were now on a Thomas Cook flight at 02.25 on 29/09/09!
(Their local representative cheerily informed us we were some of the lucky ones as at least we now knew of the change and wouldn't be like others who were unaware and would be turning up at Dalaman 12 hours early!!)
Added to the extra expense, inconvenience and general hassle of a change from a flight due to arrive at 19.00 on 28/09/09 to one due to arrive at 04.30 next morning our anger was compounded when we saw the date of issue on the tickets we had to collect at Dalamn for the new flight was 10/09/09!
They obviously knew 8 days before we even left the Uk that we would not be on the Onur Air flight yet they never contacted us to advise of the change.
I will be lodging a complaint with Custom Flights and will advise how we get on.
We booked our flights with custom and did go on the original bd flight but 2 weeks before we flew our return flight was changed from onur air 5.00pm to pegasus 7.10pm which meant we had 2 extra hours in resort so i had no comlaints but i suppose it could have gone the other way. I would use them again if the price was right.
We booked our Custom flights in March, flew in July from Glasgow to Dalaman and had the airline and times changed 3 times prior to travelling, the latter just days before departure. We ended up flying with British Midland instead of Onur Air and the outbound flight time change actually worked in our favour.
Upon return, we arrived at Dalaman to find out that the British Midland flight to Glasgow was being merged with the Manchester flight, fortunately for us it was going to Glasgow first, but the passengers flying to Manchester were not happy with the situation, especially as the first they knew about it was at Dalaman airport! In such situations I guess there's not much you can do about it but I'm sure they could give more notice as a decision to merge a flight would not have been last minute.
Upon return, we arrived at Dalaman to find out that the British Midland flight to Glasgow was being merged with the Manchester flight, fortunately for us it was going to Glasgow first, but the passengers flying to Manchester were not happy with the situation, especially as the first they knew about it was at Dalaman airport! In such situations I guess there's not much you can do about it but I'm sure they could give more notice as a decision to merge a flight would not have been last minute.
I guess sometimes flight changes can work in favour of the traveller but in this case it certainly did not.
We had to pay to keep our room on for an extra day, find extra money for food/drink, our son had to get up at 4.00am in the morning to travel to the airport to pick us up and I lost a half days pay as I was unable to go into work at 8am that morning.
Yes we had an extra half day in resort but that is not the point and does not offset the downside of travelling home in the early hours of the morning rather than early evening.
If you book and pay for a 'red eye' flight that is your choice and you make the necessary arrangements but to have it forced upon you when the company were aware well in advance but chose not to inform you is unacceptable.
We had to pay to keep our room on for an extra day, find extra money for food/drink, our son had to get up at 4.00am in the morning to travel to the airport to pick us up and I lost a half days pay as I was unable to go into work at 8am that morning.
Yes we had an extra half day in resort but that is not the point and does not offset the downside of travelling home in the early hours of the morning rather than early evening.
If you book and pay for a 'red eye' flight that is your choice and you make the necessary arrangements but to have it forced upon you when the company were aware well in advance but chose not to inform you is unacceptable.
An update.
After 6 weeks we have just received a standard 'fob off' letter from Custom Flights so I rang their 'customer services dept.'
Surpirse surprise, they claimed the date of 10/09/09 on the tickets was 'a mistake' as the flight was only cancelled a day or 2 before departure so they couldn't have known on that date that the return flight was not operating.
When I pressed for the exact date I was then told the flight was 'downgraded'-when I asked what this meant I was told "they were given a smaller aircraft"
"So the flight wasn't cancelled then" I asked- after a long pause the answer came back "erm, yes it was" After a few more minutes I decided I was getting nowhere and am now gathering some info together to see if I can take this matter further but would love to know if there is a way I could find out wether flight OHY635 on 28/09/09 was cancelled or not.
After 6 weeks we have just received a standard 'fob off' letter from Custom Flights so I rang their 'customer services dept.'
Surpirse surprise, they claimed the date of 10/09/09 on the tickets was 'a mistake' as the flight was only cancelled a day or 2 before departure so they couldn't have known on that date that the return flight was not operating.
When I pressed for the exact date I was then told the flight was 'downgraded'-when I asked what this meant I was told "they were given a smaller aircraft"
"So the flight wasn't cancelled then" I asked- after a long pause the answer came back "erm, yes it was" After a few more minutes I decided I was getting nowhere and am now gathering some info together to see if I can take this matter further but would love to know if there is a way I could find out wether flight OHY635 on 28/09/09 was cancelled or not.
The following web site appears to have flight tracking history, I don't know if they hold European data but it may be worth an email, to obtain the data if they do hold it requires a registration and a $24 fee, it may be worth sending a PM to Dazbo, he may have the information your require,
http://www.flightwise.com
Dave
http://www.flightwise.com
Dave
Will point Dazbo to this thread 
Scoobyclaret / dksbbs,
I wouldn't bother with flightwise, it doesn't appear to give you any information that you can't obtain if you know where to find it, for free! I have access to ACARS / SBS-1 logs for the majority of flights in europe. I've done a search for OHY635 on 28/09/2009 and there are no records of a flight bearing that flight number on that date. OHY operated 38 european flights that day (19 return flights). Where was the UK airport? I can check the departing / arrival airport in case the flight number changed.
Darren
I wouldn't bother with flightwise, it doesn't appear to give you any information that you can't obtain if you know where to find it, for free! I have access to ACARS / SBS-1 logs for the majority of flights in europe. I've done a search for OHY635 on 28/09/2009 and there are no records of a flight bearing that flight number on that date. OHY operated 38 european flights that day (19 return flights). Where was the UK airport? I can check the departing / arrival airport in case the flight number changed.
Darren
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