until mrs J answers
who are you travelling with? Doesn't sound right to me- you don't get what you booked and you can't cancel? Can you go scheduled? Can't see the same happening if you do.

Fiona... one of my favourite destinations is Jamaica. flying into
Montego Bay. my nearest and best airport is Manchester. as far as I know there are no scheduled airlines going into Montego Bay from Manchester. I am aware that Air Jamaica fly out of Heathrow, but apart from the difficulty of using Heathrow , for me, A J do not have a very good track record, and flights with them are constantly either cancelled or switching passengers to other airlines , which ofter travel long indirect routes. Therefore , usually I am down to using the standard holiday airlines and booking their premium seats. wish there was an alternative. and to confirm, I always ask if I can cancell when I am told there is no premium ( usually during last day or so ) but this has been denied. rather than waste a great deal of money, I have had to travel in economy.
airlines used ... First Choice, Mytravel , and another . regards g.

Air Jamaica to Mobay from MAN, and Kingston i think.

You have no right to sit anywhere in any aircraft!

"you have no right to sit anywhere in any aircraft."
what a strange thing to say! So G books premium seats and has no right to them?? Also no right to a refund?
G( dennis?) - will have a look but in the meantime, if you dont' mind the question- how much are paying for premium seats?( It will give an idea of what is feasible). Also what is the seat pitch of the premium seats? It may also be worth posting a seperate post in the flight forum asking others if they can help with airlines flying to Jamaica?

If you read the post, they hasnt even paid for upgarded seats, so why should they expect them? If they had, different story.

As it is, if its purely a request you have no legs to stand on.

sorry
I can't see anywhere in the post that says he did not pay for the premium seats. G- have I missed something?

I am assuming here that you booked and paid for premium seating when I give you an answer I got when I queried this for you on another forum

"Let us say that your friend gets to the airport, having purchased a ticket in business class to fly from A to B. The airline informs him that, regrettably, they are only offering economy seats that day. Your friend has 2 choices. He can repudiate the contract - the airline has broken the terms of the contract and, therefore, it is his right to say the contract is null and void. In this instance he would be entitled to a full refund of the purchase price. Alternatively, he may agree to fly in economy and negotiate some compensation with the airline. In this instance he then waives his right to break the contract and is deemed to have accepted the new, modified contract."

Fiona.... thank you for your support... it is most sad the Fallen Angel is misreading my posting.
I confirm, that I do in fact book and Pay For Premium Seating. on this basis I would normally expect to be able to travel in Premium Seating. However, there is a small rule apparently , that should an airline use the statement quote...for operational reasons.. unquote, this lets them off the hook, and they do not have to abide by the contract. This is a grey area, and yet to be tested. I am merely trying to get sound advice on how I may either travel on the seats that I have booked and Paid for, or be allowed to cancel if these seats are not provided. at the moment it seems that the airlines can do as they please, taking our money for a booking, but not having to honour that booking. I have even quired if there is an insurance policy to cover such an incident, but no one will cover this situation. on one occassion in February of this year, whilst I was making a booking in a travel agents, I stated clearly that the only reason I was booking with their company ( mytravel) was because they were able to offer me the premium seating.. yes ..you have guessed it...two days before travel, they advised no premium , and I had to travel economy. My request to cancel was denied. regards g.

G
check your pms- you will find them at the top of the page. You have a couple of new messages!

new EU regulations for air travel
http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexplus!prod!CELEXnumdoc&lg=en&numdoc=304R0261

Article 10 should be of interest. Please note that this covers any plane travelling from and/OR to a European country.

Hi Gingerdennis,

Re: the points you raised - my recommendations would be as follows;

Firstly, I would recommend (and this point applies to everyone, btw) that you always pay for your holidays by credit card. When you pay by credit card, the credit card company becomes jointly liable for the proper performance of the holiday contract. This means that if a tour operator breaks the contract, you have the option to pursue the credit card company for compensation as well, or even instead. If things start to go wrong before you go on holiday and the tour operator refuses a refund, complaining to the credit card company can often result in you getting your money back.

Secondly, it is not necessary to go into any personal details about your health with tour operators to cover your back over this kind of thing. What I would suggest to to protect your future interests is as follows:

- When you book the holiday, mention to the tour operator or travel agent that as it is a long haul flight, you consider extra legroom seating to be an essential requirement of the contract between you. Make sure you have a witness present who can vouch that you said that, should there be any dispute later.

- When you get your confirmation information back, drop the tour operator a line reminding them that you consider extra legroom seating to be an essential requirement of the contract between you, and stating that in the event of flight changes you reserve the right to cancel should extra leg room no longer be available.

If you are ever unlucky enough to encounter this problem again and the tour operator refuses a refund, then I would get straight on to the credit card company and ask them to intervene on your behalf & either cancel the transaction, or hold the money in dispute until the matter is sorted out to your satisfaction.

Incidentally, If the tour operator is a member of ABTA, they are obliged to pay you compensation if they make any changes to your holiday after you have paid your final balance. This includes any changes to flights, regardless of what tour operators sometimes try to tell you.

With regard to this happening to you in the past, it sounds to me like you have a reasonable case for pursuing the tour operator for compensation, should you be interested in going down that route.

On a final note, If I were you, I would take your business elsewhere next time. As you say, this is not the first time that you have been on the receiving end of such treatment. The tour operator you are travelling with clearly has no regard for your rights as a customer, and having done this to you more than once, they will be likely to do it again if it suits their convenience. Does such a company really deserve your future custom?

...there is a small rule apparently , that should an airline use the statement quote...for operational reasons.. unquote, this lets them off the hook, and they do not have to abide by the contract.

This is a myth, perpetuated by some tour operators, travel agents, and their employees. Much as they would like you to believe it, it isn't true.

There are only very limited circumstances under which tour operators are allowed totally off the hook if they change any aspects of the contract once the final balance has been paid, and we are talking generally here about circumstances which are entirely out of their control, such as strikes, hurricanes, wars, riots, and such. Bumping passengers of the plane they should have been travelling on onto another one purely in the interests of their own convenience doesn't cut it.

This is a grey area, and yet to be tested.

It's not that grey. I won a case in the small claims court which hinged on this particular point, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. The reason that you don't hear about such cases is that the claims are for relatively small amounts, and so the Law Reports and media don't generally pick up on them.

Fiona... thank you for your response, have checked other board, and am amazed at the lengthy discussions my posting has caused. am now considering all the information. one point regarding me accepting the economy seats at last minute. yes , they do refund the premium part of the fare. but I would still have preferred to cancel the trip altogether. hope to keep u updated regards g

Hi

I have read before that it it reccomended you pay for your holiday by credit card but could you clarify a point. Do you have to pay for the full holiday or if you only pay the deposit by credit card does this still make the credit card company liable?

Thanks

Trish

My understanding is that once you have made a payment in excess of £100.00 using the credit card towards a holiday then you are covered, provided that the company you book with is based in the UK.

Keep us up to date G!

Just to let you know, we were bumped from premier with Mytravel on our holiday to the Maldives last Christmas - got the letter about 5 weeks before departure but we were offered a full refund if economy wasn't acceptable.

MrsJ.... thank you for your response, I always think that any law is based on common sense, and in most instances this usually holds true. not so when dealing with tour companies. you are in the enviable position to know better than the rest of us, and I will in future try to follow your advice.
However... in your list, the only one I have not done, is us my credit card...I am one of those flash blokes who like to pay in cash... jeez, I cant believe I just said that.
Point one... have to the Manager of travel agents, stated clearly that the premium seating is an essential part of my holiday, and also that I would not wish to travel in economy...This was to the Manager who accepted my booking... my witness alas was my wife, who god bless her, would back me up anyway... on this booking I did not get Premium , and I was refused my request to cancel when told.

Taking my business elsewhere...yes am doing that, and have booked my next trip with another airline/tour company... but I do feel that I am running our of tour companies that can be trusted to honour my booking.

This term ...for operational reasons... this is being used on many if not all occassions now where a tour company changes the aircraft type. in the small print of their brochure, they always say that this is Not a Major Change, and thus we cannot cancel.
It would seem that I have done all the right things in the past, the only one left of course is to refuse to fly, and then to take them to court, but what a sad way to take holidays, never knowing if the company will fulfill the booking you have made. Most people , especially when told in the last day or so, when time off work etc has already been arranged, will accept the economy seating rather than risk losing all that money. I thank you for your response, and no doubt the time must come when I will have to say..no I will not accept this... and just pursue through the legal system... believe it or not, this simple act takes a lot of courage, apart from the flack one gets from ones spouse for ruining her holiday.
I will endeavour to keep you informed of my next encounter.....due to fly again in 12 weeks.... best regards g

Thanks Mrs J, I am going to pay my next holiday deposit by credit card now.

Trish