You must have a jinx on you. Got my tickets today, travel insurance, flights 10 minutes later than advertised and all is looking good. Hope you have a great time anyway, Kpollard.

Parky

Hi - am interested to Hear back from KPollard as to how they got on with her holiday considering the issues that they were having from Hellinic Voyages.

We booked a holiday from Teletext online through Hellenic voyages to Cyprus for 2 adults and one child travelling from Belfast to Paphos on the 16th August and returning on the 30th August. We stayed all inclusive at the Akteon Village just outside Paphos. The holiday itself was brilliant and we have to say the entertainment staff at the resort were fabulous (especially as we were travelling with a 6yr old child).

The day before we were due to come home at 9.30am in the morning - the rep calls our room and asks to speak to us in reception at 10.30am to discuss flight changes!

The flight changes turn out to be travelling from Larnaca on the Wed 30th (pick up time 06.30am for the 10.20am flight - original pick up time was 20.45pm for the 23.20pm flight), flying to France with Cyprus airways then on to Belfast with Easyjet! (One of the reasons that we had chosen to go to Paphos was due to the close proximity to the airport for the child!).

We argued our case with the rep - refusing to take the flight changes - but as it transpires, our names were removed from the Belfast flight and our new tickets travelling from Larnaca to Paris were booked on the 25th August (yet we were not told about the changes until the 29th!).

We lost a full day of our holiday also losing a full days all inclusive package and to top all that we spent a total of 15.5hrs travelling that day with changing airports etc!

I watched the Hols from Hell tonight and Hellenic starred at the end.
I travelled with them in August and can confirm that there was a lot of overbooking. We were treat like cattle as we came out of Heraklion Airport, and there were 140 of us in the queue to see the rep. When she was asked who she worked for, she replied "we are nothing to do with Hellenic, we are independant." Our booking for 6 was OK, but others, who had late bookings were shonked off with second class hotels for a couple of days.

In my opinion, it isn't Hellenic who are overbooking, it seems to be the hotels don't want to rely on them to sell all their negotiated places and rooms at the last minute. Hellenic only have the number of guests on the plane they have chartered, and they are spread out amongst the hotels.

This is no excuse, just my opinion.

Many of the people I spoke to who had been re-allocated hotels were last minute bookings.

I did get annoyed with the rep, especially when she said she had had a very stressful day trying to sort out 140 guests. I pointed out to her that 140 guests were stressed out waiting to get to their hotels before the restaurants shut. She didn't know the number of the hotel to call to let them know we would be late!

My Rsend.
I will use Hellenic again though, cos I wos OK!!

My partner and I booked a holiday yesterday we saw on teletext holidays, through sunescapes. I was pleased it wasn't through hellenic voyages as had read terrible reviews - but have been told that they are in fact run by hellenic voyages! has anyone gone through sunescapes and what was your opinion? we are understandably quite worried as we have paid the deposit and hellenic voyages don't have the best of reputations...

Sunescapes are the trading name of Hellenic Voyages.

We have been with them for the last 3 years and have booked two holidays with them for this year.

I can truthfully say that we have never had any problems on our holidays with them. Exceptionally good value against Thomson, Thos Cook, First Choice and Airtours who have also sent people to the same hotels as us at the same time.

The only problem I have had was finding their new premises when I went to collect some brochures for friends.

Any queries I have had have been answered promptly. Two years ago I read on HT of a problem with the hotel we were booked at and contacted Manos. He rang them straight away and asured me it was resolved. When we got there it was.

fwh

thank you - that's reassuring to hear! we are really looking forward to the holiday, and were just a bit concerned by what we were reading, but hope for the best and it will hopefully be a good one!

Jen, just like FWH, we use Hellenic and have no real problems with them. The flights from Manchester are at a good time for us, and return in daylight hours. Never any messing with booking a courtesy room for late-night departures and the staff are very helpful in Wakefield. I've just phoned them and got straight through with a query answered straight away without any patter, just a smile.
We'll probably use them again in September as well.

we ended up having to cancel our holiday, the woman we contacted on the phone was incredibly unhelpful and hung up before I had finished talkign to her, and we have not even received any kind of confirmation of our cancellation. am actually glad we are not going away with them after having to deal with their 'customer service'!

Has anyone experienced problems with Hellenic?? On booking the holiday found the staff to be REALLY helpful. Unfortunately the "customer service" went a little down hill when we queried something and trying to get Manos to call back was a nightmare

Cheers

I never have a problem contacting him.

He is not there all the time as his wife and kids live in Crete and he pays regular visits.

I had a problem in May on holiday in Crete and emailed him. The rep got a booking for not passing his reply on.

Try 01924 788700

fwh

Thanks fwh all i can say is you must be lucky!! We were told to call Manos on thursday as he was back in the office, called his 3 times on the thursday- no call back. finally we got to talk to him on the 5th time we called.

basically a member of our party could no longer travel so we tried 4 months before departure to transfer the booking which says in their booking conditions will be £20 per person (under other charges) if notified more than 56 days before departure... Manos & his team are saying that my friend has to lose her deposit and the new people have to pay the deposit again.... The holiday has yet to be fully confirmed as we have to pay the remiaining amount in August!

i feel it's a tad unreasonable to ask us to pay £75.00 per person to transfer the booking when the costs incurred to them are minimal. I have contacted trading standards and have now written to him...
if you have any paperwork handy have a look at the terms as stated under if you make changes...

I'd be grateful for your opinion.
Cheers
Diz

It seems clear to myself that the £20.00 per person applies.

Did you put in writing that you intended to make a change originally?

Changes in staff do take place and they do not always record things. I had that problem some years ago when a former employee tied us into some jobs with a price that was wrong. They were told but did not bother to amend. Another story - and expensive

I would suggest you write with details of the change - quote from the T&Cs (with a copy to Trading Standards) and ask why you have been quoted other than what it says.

Whilst I have never had a problem I was not able to resolve with them I know that may not apply to everybody else. I have always found Excel first class but others who post on here say they have had problems.

We all have different experiences.

Where are you planning to go as a matter of interest?

fwh

Hi fwh

We are going on 19th October. Originally i phoned on Monday 11th June 07, and spoke to the person i booked the holiday with, i did query charge with her but she told me that my friend has to cancel and they have to re-book the other members so friend loses her deposit and the newbies have to pay the deposit again.

My husband called and told them that we were willing to pay a nominal fee to transfer the holiday but not £75.00 per person. The girl he spoke to told him that was the policy but if he wanted to query he must do so with Manos and he isnt in til Thursday.

He called back 3 times thursday with no response, then called twice on friday... on the second time he got to to talk to Manos. He read out the booking conditions to Manos it clearly says they are under no obligation to make changes other than to allow someone who is prevented from travelling to either cancel or transfer their booking to someone else then it tells you all changes must be notified in writing but if notified more than 56 days in advance the following charges apply change of name £20 per change, other changes £20.

All manos kept saying was they relate to other changes.... not transferring the booking... even though transferring the booking is specified in the paragraph.

In the end i called TS and they advised to write to him as he is breach of conditions which i have now done (yesterday), i sent it via email and recorded delivery asking him to reconsider his position. To be honest i'm not an unreasonable person, and i would fully accept the charges if the holiday had been fully confirmed as Manos would be incurring charges from the airline and hotel for changing the booking... but i feel asking for that amount of money to transfer the booking 4 months before departure is a little much!

Thanks for your comments, they are much appreciated :0)

Diz x