hi all i was going to kabc with another 2 families but after reading this site on the friday 30th june went to fc and got changed to turkey aqua beach club. fc reserved the 2 rooms that were left for the other 2 families so we could all go to the same place but when they went to there travel agents on the monday and they rang fc there were no flights for them to get there so they have had to book the hotel petra in crete we now go on the 17th july instead of the 15th and we are going as 1 family now instead of a group!!! the only good thing about it is we got our 20% refund back within 3 days but still not happy as we were all looking forward to going together is there anyone going to the turkey aqua beach club or does anyone have info on it!!

Hi Primrose

We have been transfered to the turkey p/palace you need to to go the turkey forum. This will let you know all about the place.Some very good reports allso some bad points .

Kazykaz

Hi,
We still haven't received an official cancellation from First Choice and we were due to go to KABC in June!
Following the BBC programme and this web forum - I managed to transfer our holiday to alternative accomodation 3 weeks prior to departure.
We've just got back from Lykia World in Olu Deniz in Turkey which, can be found in the FC Premier brochure.
At first FC wouldn't (due to the increase in £Cost) transfer us to Lykia World but, as they could not find anything suitable AI - they eventually relented and transferred us at no additional cost to us - although, we had to put our compensation towards it (which at that time was a miserable £40 per adult and only £15 for our child!)
Lykia World is fantastic and has an amazing Children's Paradise Waterpark.
Good luck in finding an alternative in this holiday debacle - be firm, FC will try anything to get you to accept any holiday (under duress) but, will be flexible if you suggest cancelling and wanting a full refund with compensation!

My sister has booked to go here in May '07, so I've been flitting in & out of the forum, just keeping tabs for her.

She rang First Choice last night after I gave her the lastest update, and asked if it would be advisable for her to change her holiday as it's not possible to book it via the website for '07 now, and the man on the end of the phone said he would do that.

He said that it would be a miracle if FC used it next year - though that's not the official line - and as there are 5 in the their party, he would think it would be better for them to change their holiday now.

He also mentioned that some Travel Agents are still unaware of the latest developments, and that as a FC employee, he is totally disillusioned with the company too!

I think it's disgraceful how so many people of this forum have been treated, and I hope you all end up with much better holidays because of it.

Lainey every time someone phones FC regarding their holiday next year conflicting stories are flying around.

Of course maybe FC would love you to decide yourself that you are going to cancel and rebook somewhere else. Less added pressure to FC in the long run.

My latest advice by a FC rep was to stay put for now, and that was only about 4 days ago. Somethings got to give at the end of the day. I am sure that it is within FC interest to get this hotel up and running.
It is a difficult situation but I refuse to panic yet. Especially one of the above posts who went out to see the KABC for their own eyes and were shocked to see it almost ready.

We saw the hotel last week and it is nearing completion which should start bells ringing if FC are not opening then who is??? I myself don't think FC will not be holding on to this one. Did someone say they have stopped taking bookings for next year? If so why? I think it smells

lainey

When your sister was advised to change her holiday was she also advised that she would have to pay all extra costs?

We are due to go in May aswell. When I spoke to someone at Eclipse he said it didn't look good for next year and we could chage our holiday. BUT we would have to pay the extra £1000 (prices keep going up for anything similar). We are not in a position to do this so we will have to just sit it out for a bit longer.

Hi All, After watching your site for 4 months, i really glad now we have not booked one of the Aqua Beach Clubs, we was either going to book Kos or Crete for next year, but now you cannot book any of the Aqua Beach Clubs for next year they have taken them all of sale(seems a bit fishy to me), but we are now going back to Turkey with Thomas Cook to the Lara Beach and Spar, we cost both hotels up and the one in aTurkey came out 100 pounds more than the Kabc and is 5 star rating. we have been looking to go to Egypt next easter with FC, but after watching this happen to all you who are going to the KABC, i dont think i would trust FC again.

Yes Bellingham it does stink.

I don't see why FC should not just repay all our deposits back for 2007 as they can't guarantee it opening. Hardly our faults is it?
No the way they play it is they are still guaranteed your money at the end of the day. Yet We don't know where we are going to end up!

They better get this sorted soon and make a decision either way

I am so annoyed with first choice, after they cancelled kabc, i found an alternative holiday to turkey, which worked out cheaper, but fc have not refunded the difference and keep making excuses!!

I don't see why FC should not just repay all our deposits back for 2007 as they can't guarantee it opening. Hardly our faults is it?
No the way they play it is they are still guaranteed your money at the end of the day. Yet We don't know where we are going to end up!

They better get this sorted soon and make a decision either way

Beth,

I would be pursuing this matter with somebody such as Trading Standards, to see how they could help you. The tour operator seems to leave cancellations etc to the last minute, this is provable fact, as we have seen how later people's holidays have been cancelled in respect of each of the failed ABC's.

ABTA say that a tour operator should be providing this information as soon as they are aware of it. It could be argued that the tour operator unneccesarily delayed notification for their own reasons i.ie: to avoid customers booking with competitors possibly?

There is a legal term known as "Making time of the essence", this is used when a supplier fails to provide a service within a "reasonable" time period.

I am not sure if this could be used in this instance, but I would think that clear information as to whether your chosen holiday resort will be available or not probably does does fall within this scope, as it could be fairly considered as part & parcel of the service that the tour operator is expected to provide.

By making time of the essence you are forcing a final deadline ( i.e.: 14 days ) if the supplier fails to deliver by this date the contract is considered null & void. Years ago I sucessfully used this against a comapny who failed to repair goods on time, and then failed to give me a revised delivery date.

By chance I found a number of sample letters which may be of use to people on this board, one covers making time of the essence, others cover tour operator issues and one interesting one deals with rejection of a tour operator's compensation offer, whilst claiming that their limitation of compensation is a possible breach of the unfair contracts act.

The website is a trading standards one:
http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk/tradingstandards/consumeradvice/selfhelp.htm

The specific rejection of compensation letter is:
http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk/tradingstandards/selfhelp/B4%20Rejecting%20tour%20operators%20offer%20of%20compensation.doc

The official responce by First Choice was that the hotel did not meet their standards. From what I hear that will not be hard to prove in court. The workmanship is very shabby. You then need proof to show that they knew that at an earlier date. Did they lessen their standards in a bid to open up on time? Did they omit certain things because they did not have time? Hard to prove.

As for compensation, they are only required to give what the law says. Anything above that is customer service on their part.

But when a customer service rep says in late June that the hotel is already finished and they are doing trial runs and then the hotel is not ok then they have lied.

This year it is the ABC hotel, next year it will be a XYZ hotel. There will be families just like you who will go through what you have gone through when their hotel is not ready. Beleive me this is not an isolated insisdence. This is a practice that has been going through many years with all tour operators. What has caught them off guard is this forum. By not giving them your business again might just deter them from doing this like this again.

With all due respect We have tried Trading Standards, Ros (The solicitor) and even written to FC.

The down and end of it all is until FC notify us that KABC is not commencing for 2007 season We are pretty much stuck with it. They have full rights to hang on to our deposits and We will be still expected to pay the full cost when that time comes even if We have still not been notified of procedures

Yes We can change our destination. FC will kindly waiver Admin Fees. We will have to pay the extras and lose our pre- bookable seats etc.

All the conflicting stories FC reps are giving everybody are just different words, how the advisors would handle it etc.
At the end of the day no matter what anyone has told us regarding the place being open later, not sure about next year, unlikely to go ahead next year. This is unfortunately all hearsay.

What I said above is all that applies to us. . Either We choose to cancel and amend our bookings for next year or we wait for notification either way from FC. They are our only options!
If it is going to go to court between the Developers and FC. FC solicitor has probably advised FC not to discuss further actions regarding the KABC anyway.

Hi All, If i was anyone going next year i would change my booking to another hotel while the April addition is still out the later you leave the more expensive 2nd and 3rd additions get, but what puzzles me is they are not taking bookings for any of the Aqua beach clubs at total of 6, have they just pulled out of the contracts of them bieng build with all the trouble they have had with the first 3, we went to the PP last year and all the reps where interested in was booking trips for people and taking your money, thier was losts of people complaing, but they did not care, i would change now while their is still plenty of availability and before second additions comes out in August.

I agree with you bellingham. Why put yourselves through all the anguish that we have had to go through just to get cancelled at the last minute. In my case it was the last minute - the evening before. Not so bad for us as there were just the 2 of us but how upsetting for children. You should be looking forward to your holiday next year, not just waiting to see if you are cancelled and then just have to take what is offered.

Hi,
I was one of the original people booked for KABC & due to travel at the end of June. I made the decision to cancel the week before my balance was due to be paid as from the information on this forum, I was almost positive that FC would cancel anyway and didn't want to be left fighting for leftover holidays elsewhere at the last minute.(or give FC any more money after the way they have treated people!)
Anyway, I took the risk of losing my deposit and yes, FC told me that I wouldn't get it back but 2 letters of complaint later and I received a full deposit refund.
It's a chance to take but it paid off for me so it's worth thinking about if you have serious worries about going through the roller coaster months of ups and downs that has been the KABC to date! Bear in mind that FC will always give you the official line over the phone.-a letter of complaint can work wonders though!
Chiara

Hi everybody well got a hol going to pp had to change dates going 9 days early so thats 7 august 150 per person plus 10% off original holiday price which i have had possibly would never book with fc again there are 10 of us going so i know we are going to have a fab time i im glad to get off the rollacoast theres only so much you can take

Just browsing the FC website under "Family Plus" Section, hoping to find a resolution for next year.

Guess what I find advertised?

New for Summer 2007
Corfu Aqua Beach Club
Archarvi, Corfu.

Yes Artist Impression.
I feel sorry for anybody booking into that. When FC will they learn?

Oh and the Kos one is there, but there are technical problems on the site at the moment so I can't see if you can book them.
But it shows that they have not removed them totally of their site.

We were unlucky enough to be going to the KABC on July 5th, I found out on the Sunday before we went via this website. After spending over 4 hours getting through to FC they told me the only AI holiday available for this date was Club Calida Tarida Beach in Ibiza. FC told me that there were hotel ran childrens clubs to entertain the kids throughout the day and night. This is what we needed as my daughter has been ill and we are exhausted as a family and we all needed quality time on holiday. What they failed to tell me was that this was a european holiday with hardly any british there. There are over 1000 rooms and there were only 5 english families. The entertainment team didnt speak english. My five year old lasted for 5 minutes at his only kids club meeting and then ran out of the building screaming as nobody could understand him. My 12 year lasted for 1 whole session and again was the only english person here. She did find out though that we did have an english member of the entertainments team, but he has been ordered by the hotel to say "chow" rather than hello as the hotel is full of italians. On the last night with a few g&t's I did march up to him and ask him if he was as intimidated as us as he seemed to be embarrased to be english. He said that it was the hotel that ordered this and could I make a complaint, which I did to the hotel and the FC rep and all he could say was I know! The hotel itself is ok and the rooms are very clean but this is certainly not the holiday we thought we were booking and I am now looking at holidays for the 1st week in August as we still feel we need a holiday. Instead of having waterparks, kids clubs and a 2 bed childrens den we ended up in a hotel in the middle of nowhere, 4 of us in a studio and with the kids in tow 24/7!! and we were in a hotel full of French and Italians on World Cup Final Night!! (Scary to say the least) I have already rang FC and they said I must put my complaint in writing to them which I will do tomorrow. Please be careful when accepting these new holidays as you might get less than you bargain for.