Holiday Complaints

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You don't understand what holding an Atol licence means, nor being a member of the TTA. It means your money is safe if either the airline, accommodation supplier or Teletext Holidays go bust. Nothing else.

As you have booked separate elements ie not a package holiday there is nothing linking them together. If and when one part goes wrong for any reason, other than 'going bust', the agent is under no obligation to refund any of the other elements.

It sounds very much like your hotel has done what all hotels do, overbooked, resulting in you being bumped. Take the refund (5-7 days is quick) and next time book accommodation direct with the hotel/apartments etc. Nearly zero chance of being bumped, or at least book through someone like booking.com.

I hope you get it sorted satisfactorily, but if you really must use a middleman in future, please research both them and what you're buying carefully. Most OTAs trade in exactly the same way.
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Hi sunaddict, thanks for the response. I'm not a lawyer but . . . read the sections 25/26 as mentioned in my post. In the UK, any deal with an agent which involves the purchase (at the same time) of a flight and a linked service such as accommodation/transfers falls under the flight plus rules. Visit the CAA page for problems with agents/bookings and you will see the brief, clear statement and a link to the legislation. The ATOL protection is a totally separate issue legally and would come into force when the flight plus protection fails due to section 30 of the act - that is in the case of insolvency or any of the suppliers. The CAB have confirmed my legal understanding of this issue. If a flight-plus deal is subject to a material change - ie. accommodation - the agent is entitled to offer an alternative. However, should that alternative be unacceptable to the purchasers (for good reasons), the agent is obliged to offer a full refund of all parts of the booking.
In my 'dispute' with Teletext Holidays, their customer services won't even discuss or acknowledge the words flight-plus. If you think I'm mistaken regarding consumer rights under flight plus legislation - please feel free to correct me.
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The actual wording of the clause you are basing your case on is ambiguous to my mind because it depends on what both sides define as 'suitable'. The agent is presumably arguing that they have indeed offered you 'suitable' alterntives? In your case is it not possible to keep the flights as booked, negotiate a refund plus some compensation for the accommodation and then book dirct with another hotel of your choice?
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Hi Sma, thanks for the response. My partner happens to be a lawyer and has had a cursory glance at the legislation. She doesn't practice civil law but is well versed (over 25 years) in interpreting seemingly garbled/complex legislation. Like you, at first glance, she believes that my understanding of flight plus is correct but that there is some ambiguity in the definition of 'material change' and what might be deemed an acceptable alternative arrangement. BUT . . Teletext Holidays will not even discuss flight plus. They have not offered a defence of any sort relating to the potential ambiguity in the legislation. They simply repeat exactly the same phrase over and over again; 'flights are not refundable - do you want to cancel your flights.' Presumably reading directly reading from their prompt sheet, hoping to catch some people out. Anyone else reading this - don't agree to cancel the flights because you will lose your money.
I think we are probably stuck with the flights and will have to find alternative accommodation. Won't be easy - 3 weeks to go and height of season. It's very, very unfair and incredibly stressful for everyone. Between our two families, we agreed that our preferred holiday selection was a particular resort and hotel in Majorca but our second choice was in Tenerife. That's not easily achievable now since TH are withholding over £1000 of our holiday funds.
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Got a call from Teletext complaints/support chap called 'Rex' on Friday. Went through the whole saga again. He had nothing to say about 'flightplus', but advised me that their UK office would call me on Monday. Well here we are, it's Wednesday and I still haven't heard a thing from them. Hopeless!
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Still haven't had a call from them. My wife emailed customer support on Saturday - automated response of we'll be in touch within 4 hours. No response. She did the same again on Sunday - still no response. Looks like they are just a bunch of lying, cheating, thieving scum!
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