After several hours on the phone, we eventually booked a quiet family holiday (3 x adults 4 x kids) to Alcudia at a price way above that advertised on the website. Total cost over £7.5k. Received all the confirmations Hotel/Flights/Transfers etc via email the following day. A few days later we receive an email from them saying the accommodation is not available and they are sending us to an 'adults only' hotel El Arenal - the 'german Magaluf' by all accounts. On what planet is that a family holiday. They've since sent three other options for accommodation - none of which were acceptable including another 'adults only'. It beggars belief.Anyway, yesterday we spent over an hour on the telephone with teletext holidays trying to get our money back so we can book another holiday through a different agent. Not only do they REFUSE to refund the flights costs (over £1000), they add insult to injury by trying to sell us another hotel at additional cost!On their website terms and conditions they say "You can book with confidence as all our hotels and flight deals are ATOL protected, and your money is protected by the Travel Trust Association " What a joke! They are refusing to refund the flights cost. They say if we cancel the flights, we lose the money. So catch 22 - we can't afford to cancel the flights and lose the money but they are of no use to us since our carefully selected hotel, bought and paid for in full, is now mysteriously unavailable. What a RIP OFF!
What's more, they took our money within nanoseconds of agreeing to this deal but say it will take 5-7 days to get our partial refund back. ABSOLUTE DISGRACE - NEVER AGAIN!
I've told them that according my understanding of the CAA rules, if you buy flights & accm at the same time through an agent everything is covered by a FlightPlus agreement. (see sections 25/26 of The Civil Aviation Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing Regulations 2012). They point blank refuse to refund the flights costs and don't offer any explanation or rebuttal to what should be a straightforward legal matter.
I'm absolutely livid with them. Their customer services is a brick wall. I will never use them again under any circumstances. The real test of any business is not what they do when things go right, but what they do when things go wrong. They've failed that test. Good luck to anyone who takes the risk of booking with them.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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. 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.
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!
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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