Hi All,

Has anyone had problems with FCA not letting you know what's going on?

My parents and grandparents booked a flight with FCA travelling from ACE to MAN for this coming April. They received an email before Christmas explaining due to the merge with TUI their flight had been cancelled and they had been booked on a TOM flight. They accepted the change as this didn't pose a problem. Then a couple of weeks ago they received tickets in the post from First Choice with the flight number TOM2084. As I work in the airline industry and am very familiar with ACE flight numbers I queried this as this was not a flight number that I recognised. I emailed FCA to ask them what was going on and it took over 2 weeks to get a reply, only for them to say since I had emailed them my parents and grandparents had had yet a further change and stated "which you have get to confirm". How can they confirm a flight if they haven't received any notice of it? Anyway I was concerned about tickets as although they were holding an original FCA e-ticket, FCA had since ticketed them for the TOM flight and now there was a flight number change then they were effectively holding a ticket that was not valid.

It has taken over 5 phone calls and 3 emails to try and get some sense from FCA. Finally I get confirmation today that their paper tickets that have been issued will be accepted for travel. I queried whether the flight information boards will dual display the flight numbers and the agent on the phone just said they will display the new number -TOM1944. However in my experience airlines must dual display flight numbers on occaisions like this otherwise they can open the flood gates for Air Passenger Rights and the fact they have "denied boarding" to my family and then we get into all sorts of issues!

If it hadn't have been for myself being clued up on flight numbers etc. then my parents and grandparents would have been none the wiser and attempted to get a flight home that they had paid for and yet did not have valid tickets for. How many others are now in this situation and are unaware the flight number has changed?

It makes me annoyed thats its only the fact I queried the flight number that FCA have told us, no email had been sent to either my parents or grandparents explaining this third change. This also happened in February when exactly the same situation had occurred - the FCA flight cancelled and transferred to TOM. This is why I was so concerned for their forthcoming flight. My mother arrived at the airport to return home and was told she was not in the system. However on this occaision she was in possession of a FCA paper ticket for the correct TOM flight number. Only by talking to the TOM rep was the situation sorted out!

So if anyone else was originally booked on FCA2754 ACE-MAN 06/04/08 and transferred to TOM2084, beware as you are now travelling on TOM1944 and it doesn't appear that FCA are going to inform you.

Sorry this is so long, I'm just annoyed!