Hi kopgirl

Please don't get me wrong, am not having a big moan. It was a horrible situation that came up this time last year as a result of bereavement and at the time, as you can imagine emotions were on over load. Looking back the situation arose as a result of bad info from the travel agent when we booked and, to be perfectly honest, us being naive and not checking the small print on a clause to double check what we had been told. There were alot of other circumstances that led to the loss of the holiday which were just one of those things .... a million to one chance that they'd all fall together like they did!

We lost about £1500 or more and when the company Thomsons refused to pay back we didn't challenge..... or the insurance company when they refused to help. Some times you just have to look back on things as experience, and move on but warn others to help them...... to be honest what they quoted from the small print was there .... so there's no point challenging .... 'fair cop' . To be fair to Thomsons they gave us £98 back and when I checked the brochure I'm not sureif they really HAD to do that . ......... so credit for that.

It has made us very aware of the need to check the small print at all times - so many people are unaware of the small print and those little clauses! In the past I would have called us pretty careful holiday travellers and usually check and double check. Last year it slipped past us. All I want to do now is to warn folks so that they don't get in the same mess.

In the past we've been quick to judge and say "Well didn;t they see the small print!" ................. I think we've realised that a lot of very genuine people really have had a rough deal through no fault of anyone. Anything that can be done to prevent that has to be good ............. and all I can say is "Check the small print . read your contract with the travel agent, the company and the insurance people and then, if in doubt ask questions!"

Anyway, off to Italy this year, God willing, in 2 weeks 5 days ----- and can't wait (And with the same company we lost the money with last year .... thinking about it, we also have a holiday booked with Thomsons for February to Austria and Sorrento next year ............ hopefully that shows we're not anti travel companies!)

Hi Sunlover

No I do not work for First Choice and I have nothing to do with them, but I do work in the travel industry so I know what you are expecting is unrealistic. Good luck to you thou.

The exact same thing happened to us last year.On arrival at the airport (3.00am)we found out that we were not going to the Hotel that we chose and booked to stay in due to the reservations department in Benidorm overbooking.

From what I`ve learned since I`m afraid Helen1999 is right....the best you can hope for out of this is your accomodation costs and even then it maybe not 100%..and they also have clever ways of making your accomodation cost being very small in comparison to your flight cost.

im going through a similar thing at the moment ,but i did have about 3 weeks notice of change of hotel and wasnt happy about it, again they swapped the 5 star i booked for another 5 star , we had to go to sort our wedding paper work out so had no choice but to accept but under duress, they had also changed my flights from a lovely flight time to early hours in the morning so i lost a days holiday and they changed my flight company on return flight too, so i didnt get the holiday i booked, they have refused to give me even 1p compensation and even with ros's help nothing so looks like its going to go to court, good luck and ill keep you posted

in regards to tonyuk's post, I think the reason why the accommodation cost normally looks quite small is this... most tour operators use the ABTA code of conduct in order to access levels of compensation. According to ABTA in general, 40% of your package holiday cost is accommodation and 60% is the flight. Sometimes in reality that is not the case, however, tour operators (including me admittedly) can hide behind this rule and get away with it.

Erm, sorry to sound a little negative, but just bcos the hotel was wrong would not entitle you to a full refund only a partial refunf.

As i see it, the holiday is made of many components, e.g. flight, transfers, weather eve, plus the hotel. Assuming you got to the right place (I mean country not hotel) and has the 2 week holiday in the same climate etc you got the material part of your holiday.

I would suggest that, although nice, demanding a full refund will get you nowhere and your claims will continue to be ignored.

If you go in with a more realistic claim, it may be looked upon more favourably........

Sunlover I really feel for you, and although I dont know the legalities of the situation, really hope that you get a big chunk of what you paid back. There are so many "frivilous" claims for compensation, but in this case it is certainly due!!!! And even if you do get it you still have not had the holiday you were looking forward to so much.

Unfortunately I have read so many negative comments in the last few weeks about First Choice, that they would be last on my list for booking my next holiday. I hope that some of their top brass are reading these forums so that they know how their clients are feeling.