I've just had an email from an ex Going Places travel agent, saying the Crawley branch has shut, and that they are now my personal travel agent.. I never gave Going Places my email address, so how did they get my email address and im due to go on holiday in September I hope my tickets still turn up.

Booked a holiday on line last week on the airtours site and next day recevied the comfirmation, a couple of days later I get a phone call from them to say its the wrong price and that i can either pay the extra or cancel , can they do this without compension, I said i would cancel but so far they had not returned my deposit

Booked next years holiday with Going Places recently , when confirmation came through the post noticed we had flight times but no flight codes, i checked both departure airport and airline and they both came up showing not available on these dates . Went back to going places yesterday explained, what i had done and could they check it our for me , which they did , and then said that the carrier would be changed and would probably be a Airtours flight and not a XL flight , and flight times would be 7.00am and not 8.05am and we would be notified by letter in January. When i came home i again checked both airport and airline for the dates which are showing flights for the dates but not leaving until 23.45. If this is correct then its not the holiday i originally booked , do i have to wait until January for confirmation , or can i go back and either cancel that holiday or get my deposit back .

Thanks for any advise

Lynne .

Sorry, made a mistake with departure time , its 20.45 not 23.45

Hi

I am in a similar situation as you. (see my posts in direct hols link - part of mytravel group)

Mytravel are currently rescheduling a lot of their flights due to the merger with Thomas Cook. My flight which was originally a sat flight with good times has been completely cancelled for next summer and I'm now in a position that I have no idea of when my flight will be departing.

I've been informed that if I cancel my holiday I will lose the deposit and am only able to take any action once they have decided to let me know the new flight details. I spoke to Direct Holidays on the phone on Friday and was told that the flight amendments should all be sorted within the next few weeks so should hopefully hear something by end of Nov. I would assume that would be the case for you also.

I don't know if you are aware but under their terms and conditions you can only cancel holiday without incurring any loss if they make a 'major' change. This means it would have to be a change of 12 hours or more.

Hope this info helps.

When ity comes to the 12 hour rule you are better off talking to a solicitor because it could be seen as a unfair contract. I know if the day of travel has changed it could mean you can't travel because of work you can't move your holidays. I think airtours and tc are are doing the merger intigration very badly and are really saying to their clients up yours you don't matter.

I would take legal advice from Ros if I were you. Its bad they can't tell you your new flight time for 14 to 21 days and won't let you cancel without loss. TEL. NO. 0845 2262332 (local) or 01922 621114

Thanks for the advice Can't, we should still be okay if they change us to the Friday flight...husband reckons he'll be alright getting the extra day off work (wonder if they'll compensate his loss of a days pay-don't think so somehow!)

As you say, it's diabolical that they are keeping me hanging on-they've confirmed on the phone that the original flight is cancelled. My main worry now is that they may write to me months down the line to say that they've cancelled the booking altogether. How long should we be expected to wait before they see fit to basically let me know if I can still go on the holiday I thought I'd booked? I want to know...NOW!

Thanks...rant over, for now!

Llindy

Where did you see the 20:45 time? The MyTravel flights timetable page is frequently gibberish including having them go backwards!

Steve

nic

I would phone ros and see what advice she can give you concerning losing a days holiday.



What you could try is write to airtours saying.

Because of the flight change I have taken legal advice and have been told you should compensate me for the extra days holiday my husband has to take off and I have been adviced if you will not let me cancel my booking without loss of deposit or compensate me for the days holiday I should take you to the small claims court for breach of contract.

See how that works, don't phone and tell a call centre person, if it is put in writing with the threat of court action it will have to go to their legal department.

Steve.

I checked on the airtours website for flights .
Original booking was to be Bristol 06.08 2008 XLATBA Bristol to Rhodes depart 08.05 arrive 14.30
Return 20.08.2008 Rhodes to Bristol depart 15.25 arrive 18.10.

Looked on the Airtours website for the dates and the only flight showing for that date is depart bristol 20.45 arrive rhodes 02.45.
Return 21.08.2008 Rhodes to Bristol 03.45 arrive 06.06.

I have got the paper work from the TA and the confirmation of original booking in front of me , these new arrangements are not the holiday that i booked , i am not happy at all about having to wait until January to have in writing what i was told in the Going Places shop at the weekend , if they know about it now why cant i act on the information i have .

Hi Llindy

Have you or your travel agent spoken to my travels programme management team? This is the dept who deal with all the amendments. I spoke to them on Fri re my flight and although they couldn't give me my new details they did at least confirm what I suspected which was that my original flight was cancelled.

I'm also wondering where your agent got the info from that you would be notified in Jan about your new flight details. How do they know that?

If you do decide to phone programme management be warned...I had to wait for 45 mins on hold to get through to them. They would not give me a direct number so you might be better off speaking to your agent and insisting they do it for you. I do suspect, however, that you'll just be fobbed off. Mytravel seem to have the attitude like it or lump it...although we can't lump it until they decide we can!

Nic

We had same problem Glasgow-Florida on a Thursday with Direct Holidays, then the Thursday flight did not show and the confirmation showed no flight times or flight numbers. After endless phonecalls/emails we got sorted out by programme management, changed to the Saturday flight but a closer airport at no extra cost. It worked out better for us in the end but we had a worrying few weeks trying to sort it out.

Laudan

Don't suppose you have a direct number or email address for programme management do you?

Thanks, Nic

Hi Nic

I think the telephone number is 0844 800 7800.
When we rang them they said we needed to speak to aviation but aviation was closed and they wont take calls direct from customers! When we finally got sorted it was after I sent another email to customer services saying that not one person had rung us back. The next day a very helpful guy called form programme management and he liased between us and aviation and got us sorted. Good luck.

Thanks for that. Will give them a try later.

Hi Nic

I went back to my local going places where holiday was booked and told them my concerns.......... the assistant made a phone call while we were there and thats when she and us were told that we would be notified in January about changes to carrier and flight times , the person on the other end of the phone said it would be a airtours flight and departure would be 7.am. So if the TA has this information now , why do i have to wait until January to be notified .My hubby thinks i'm worrying about nothing, but i have a gut feeling that things wont be what we originally booked .

Hi again Llindy

I've no idea why they are going to wait until Jan before they notify you if they already know your flight has changed, perhaps it's because they can then hold on to our deposits for as long as possible if we should decide to cancel.

Unfortunately, in the small print it does state that flight times are subject to change and it probably states this on the invoice that you have too. I know how annoying it is and frustrated you feel. Think if I were you I'd have to phone Mytravel to see if they can give anymore information regarding the flight because as you say the details given to you by your agent do not appear on the website.

I spoke to Direct Hols again yesterday and have also emailed them demanding a response so will let you know if I have any luck.

Let us know if you get anywhere or hear any more.

Nic

Lindy

Just wondered have you checked Mytravel website recently?

Mytravel/Thomas Cook updated their sites over the weekend so I thought I'd look if there were any new flight details on there.

I've just done a holiday search and put in your date and departure details for Rhodes and the flight times coming up now for new bookings is the 20.45 one. Probably not what you wanted to hear...sorry.

Have you heard any more? I phoned again re my flight on Fri last week and all they could tell me still was that it was cancelled and awaiting amendment. Yet I've checked on website today and if I wanted a new holiday the original Sat flight now comes up as being available but if I check Mytravel flight timetable or try to book just a flight it doesn't exist! Just wish I knew what was going on!!!! Perhaps someone out there could give me some clues?!

Thanks

Hi NicJW

I have checked both Thomas Cook and MyTravel web site for the flights and they are showing times as leaving on the 06/08 at 20.45 and returning on the 21/08 at 06.45.
I really dont know whats going on at the moment , as the holiday was booked at my local going places from a Libra holidays brochure, flights were supposedly with XL, when i queried this at the TA was told times and carrier would probably be changed to an earlier departure and flying with airtours . As i have said i checked airlines and bristol airport and so far the only departure showing is the 20.45pm one which is now a Thomas Cook flight .When i queried this was told that i would be notified in January of any changes, but i really dont know why i have to wait if the TA has this information now . Hubby says i should forget it and wait until i have things in writing , but as far as i am concerned there has been three changes made which is not my original booking . Not much i can do i suppose just wait , but i dont want to have to wait until tickets arrive, before i am made aware of any changes officially .