tell them you dont want it and you have made plans for that day but the later flight will be ok thanks
if all fails just stay there and forget about comming home

goingoingoa
thanks..we have already said that and dont think they are having it..no mention of the later flight what so ever..surely we should have a choice of a later flight.?
will not know until tommorrow now..had the cheek to offer us £25 for the inconvenience.

Without wanting to sound patronising maybe the earlier flight has more vacant seats than the later one and they probably feel as though they can easily sell any vacant seats on the later flight.

What company is this? What does theirn 'small print' say on it.

You have time, so it may be an idea to contact ABTA or ATOL and seek advice.

Have they hinted that a place could be found on the later flight if a supplement is paid?

This is a difficult one. They can probably say that they have acted reasonably by giving you good notice and offering compensation.

I don't think they have myself but that is what they will say.

Do you have insurance? does that cover anything like that?

I would definitely contact those companies I mentioned. I would also keep on badgering the tour operator every day. Keep a note of calls. Note who you talk to etc etc.

In the meantime, give 'watchdog' a ring. You never know other people may have done the same.

Good luck and please keep us all informed as to the outcome.

thanks pedrogooner
we booked the holiday with travelcare going with oddessy holidays flying with monarch.
my friend recieved the tickets today without any notice of changes but only on the ticket.he called travelcare to say they have us on the wrong inbound flight and then they told him it was the tour company(oddssy)'s who have cancelled the flight and not monarch.he called monarch to ask them and they said it was the operators choice to cancel.
travelcare have only given us the option of the earlier flight also with monarch but we have found a flight which leaves 4 hours after our original flight but travelcare have not given us an option of the later flight.
the annoying thing for me and my friend is in a way we are loosing a day,plus it affects our last night(saturday)as we have to be at the airport early in the morning so cant really enjoy ourselves on our last night plus the fact that its a direct flight back to uk instead of via bahrain which we were looking forward too(ie duty free etc...)
i know people may think these are small things but we are losing out...
tried to get in touch again tonight but the offices are closed,so will have to wait till the morning to get more info..
all we are asking for really is the later flight not worried about booking a room for the day we'll pay that!would just be nice not to lose that final full day..
as i said before they have offered us £25 between the 2 of us...nice
will let you know tommorrow how further we got..
thanks

Thanks for that. I wish you luck.

Quite frankly it does stink a bit. One company blaming the other. I would have thought that the only people who would cancel the plane would be Monarch.

Travelcare, from what you say, seem to know more than they are letting on.

I do hope that ABTA or ATOL can advise you on this.

What are the times of the flights that are advertised on your return day? Which one was cancelled.

Just one more point.

Did you book 'flight only' or was it a package deal?

hi
it does stink a bit.i phoned up monarch and they are saying it was the tour operators choice and not them.monarch also told me that there was the earlier flight on the sunday morning or there was the later flight which left 00.45 on the monday am..this is the weird part!!before i put this up as a post yesterday i checked monarchs website and it showed all the flights coming back that day.except our original one of course,and the later one at 00.55..went back on it half hour later and it had changed to 06.15 monday morning.looked at a couple of sites inc oddessy and travelcare and could not find anything at all leaving the 11/12 march to goa..so whether they took everything of the system for a couple of hours to find out who's fault it was is strange.also if the flight was not full surely there would be holidays or even seats avaliabe on that original flight.
hope that makes sense????
the return flight they have offered us is around 11am sunday morning

If the whole flight had been chartered by Odyssey - then they can be justified in cancelling it if not enough people had booked on it. There are all sorts of reasons why it was cancelled and Odyssey should be able to answer.

However if you booked through a travel agent - odyssey won't talk to you. There might be other flights available that day but if Odyssey haven't got contracts or allocations on that flight then they can't get you on them.

You'll have to trust the agent to talk to Odyssey but you'll have to make it clear to them exactly what is acceptable. They have given you plenty of notice about the changes. OK £25 isn't great compensation for the loss of a day - so I would hassle for more from Odyssey.

(Its highly unlikely that the agent knew about these changes before you - charter flights can be changed without notice. Scheduled flights are different - airline has to tell you even if it changes by 5 minutes!)

Diamond Olly
thanks for your post.my friend has all the details and will be speaking to the travel agent hopefully this morning and will ask if there are any allocations on the later flight but i think we will have to settle with what they offered us.not happy about it and am sure not going to let it ruin the hol just means ill have to get up early for the beach.we will say what we think without being nasty as that get's you no-where in life.but will not give up that easy..
will let you all know what happens later if anything???
thanks
rob

I do agree with Diamond.

Robbie. You didn't let us know if you were on a package or a 'flight only' deal.

Does Odyssey actually have a brochure? if so, I would have thought all the flights they have chartered to use would be shown.

I would most definitely contact ABTA. You have nothing to lose.

I suspect in the end you will not win but as Diamond said, try for more compensation. Try ABTA though, would be of interest to see where they come into all this.

On a positive note. An 11am departure is not too bad. You can still have a good saturday night.

Looking at Gatwick's website it seems that the late flight is chartered to Thomas Cook/JMC so Odyssey won't have an allocation of seats on it, thus can't put you on that flight.

hi all,sorry it been a while had to go to work,hence no replys earlier..
thanks for the interest and advice.just spoke to my mate who has said travelcare has offered us £27 each comp...but is still waitin for a final decision.
bagand96
thanks for that info on the later flight!if thats the case we have no choice but to get on the early flight,shame really,
pedrogooner
sorry it was a package holiday....
also i find it strange that there is no mention of this from anyone else on this forum or a couple of others ..perhaps we were the only ones on the flight

I suppose all wil be revealed when you meet up with people on the flight or at the hotel.

Not everyone will read the thread. Maybe one of the moderators will be able to advise you on where best to post what you have said. It is strange, I guess, that no-one else will be on the same flight.

What would you say is reasonable compensation Robbie? Have you got to accept or decline by a certain time?

£27 will go a long way in Goa. That is £54 between you both. Have a fantastic night out on that and then say thank-you to the travel agent!! Life is too short to get too uptight. You did the right thing by standing your ground though.

thanks pedrogooner.
i will speak to my friend later and find out the score,to be honest not worried about the money its just the day we lost and stopping at bahrain .that stoppover is the last leg of the holiday and a good way to end it like we did last year.can you actully spend £54 between 2 people in one day????it would be very hard...
never been in this situation before so have no idea what sort of comp. to look for..at the end of the day something is better than nothing.i suppose it happens to all of us eventually.never mind..at least we are gettin there which is the main thing....thanks again.will let you know the outcome...

Forget all the hassles Robbie and see it as a challenge to spend £54 in a day! Would probably make good reading on this site when you get back.
certainly a day to remember.

I am sure there are many people on this site who could suggest the best way to blow £54!!!

£ 54 in one day in Goa!!

That'll certainly take some doing.

if we get that what can i spend it on..are you guys going to put a restriction on what i cannot buy???

Honey Bee...You have to do the lot on Honey Bee....

You'll miss the flight home, but probably won't care

You could donate it to one of the childrens orphanages.