Hi Fiona

2 weeks on Thursday going to Zante for a week to meet up with friends

Lynn

Lynn

Thanks for your help - phoned Glasgow number - really helpful lady who gave me internet price and deducted child place costs. Really pleased as accommodation goes quickly for the place we want to go to. Now all I need to do is start to save. Enjoy your hol's.

Ali x

Hi ali

Glad to be off help.

Lynn

Hi Lynn,
I have'nt done Zante yet, but it is a place I have wanted to visit, have a nice holiday

Fiona

well i just got a email from DH saying that our hotel has been overbooked (flamingo benidorm) in benidorm has been overbooked and they have provisionally booked us in hotel dynastic which we don't fancy, so unsure what to do or what have options we have we go in 8 weeks. i am so dissapointed

Interesting timing - 8 weeks = 56 days. What would be the cut off in their Terms and Conditions for when they have to start paying compensation for major changes, could it be the standard 56 days that most use???

If so, my gut reaction is that they've known about this for a while but have held off telling you until the last moment they can without paying out in an attempt to hold you hostage. I'd take the full refund and book with someone else. It may cost more but what's the point of paying to go somewhere you don't want to.

well thats what we were thinking , we only paid the last of our balance the other day and head we knew that then we wouldn't have paid it, i can't get through on the telephone number that they gave me on email, its just saying all staff are busy try later but can we request our money back, we weren't sure how these things go?

Last year they phoned us 2 days before we were due to go telling us our hotel was overbooked which I thought was strange as I had book it 18 month previous.

Luckily for us they upgraded us to a 5* hotel half board from a 3* B&B.

They did say if I didnt want to go to the hotel we could cancel and get our money back which I though was shocking who wants to cancel a holiday 2 days before leaving.

Kazza have a look at their other hotels if you are not happy with the one they offered you and tell them which one you want.

I hope you get things sorted

Lynn

Hi Everyone
Has anyone had a letter this morning looking for £187.00 late fees?

I phoned local Thomas Cook branch and they said 100's have been sent out! and I settled my holiday before the date on this letter,

Cant get through to accounts as they are closed

Fiona

Hello fiona thanks for you help yesterday, well i still can't get through to the team in operations and you would think that with a company their size they would have otehr departments that deal with changes of your booking. I even tried to get through to the option of if you are leaving in 72 hours and you have been advised a change of hotel/flight etc then press 1, and thats even saying staff are busy call back later , i wouldn't like to think that would happen to many people but you never know. Well ones thing for sure i don't think i will book with them again.

edit, now got through on hold lets say what they say

kazza,
let me know how you get on and what phone number you have used

This bunch of no hopers is doing my head in

Fiona

the telephone number for operations on the email i received is 0870 0102388 i have been on hold for the last 20 mins listening to music , if i don't get the hotel i want then i am requesting a refund , been looking to go to lanzarote thats where we go a lot, so don't know what they are going to say

You are entitled to a refund if they cant give you the hotel you requested in the beginning.

Why not look at http://www.freedomdirect.co.uk ? we went with them last year and they were fantastic (wish I had used them this year.)

I am going to try to get Celeste apartments at coata teguise with them for September
Kazza, I think you will find this bunch is not open today, Mon to Fri only although they dont say this on the phone but keep you hanging on!

fiona

hiya will give them a try , we usually go to a villa in lanzarote and get flights seperate, its looking like i can get flights from edinburgh and a villa for under what we paid to go on the holiday with direct hols , but i am still on hold and thats nearly 35 minutes

hi i booked a holiday to salou, costa doranda last year with direct holidays, since then they have merged with thomas cooke and the flight times have changed 3 times. I had a letter a few days ago from the operations deptment saying that there was yet another flight change to 6.15 am, orginally the flight was 16.20. On this new letter it says bristol 06.15 - 11.25 local time. underneath it says, please note your outbound will now operate via ibiza. then i relized we should be in salou by 9.25 as its a 2 hour 10 minute flight but its going to take us 4 hours 10 mins to get to salou via ibiza. ive tryed the number the operations deptment have on letter but it just says lines are busy and to try again later.I managed to speak to someone from direct holidays yesterday after being on hold for 20 mins( then i find out from that customer services is 20p a minute), anyway they said it wasnt their fault it was airline, and it would be dropping people off in ibiza. I am fuming about this as it means 4 hours ten mins on plane for a 2hour 10 minute flight, 2 takeoffs and 2 landings.plus we will probley be sat on plane for an hour while they offload in ibiza. i have 3 children and my husbund isnt keen on flying thats why we chose a 2 hour flight. i have never heard of this before. Has it happened to anyone on here before?. If we wanted to be on plane for 4 hours we would of gone to canary islands or greece.

Its so frustrating that the telephone number they give you on your operations email/letter doesn't even ring it just goes straight onto we are busy call back later, i even tried the option if you are going in 72 hours and thats the same , god help people if they received a notification 3 days before you go on holiday with this crowd. Its terrible the amount of changes you have had at this rate you will need a holiday to recover from the journey home, i don't know what else to do if i can't get through to operations to try and change our accommodation as the one they are giving us is not suitable for us , but whats so annoying is we paid a lot of money 4 days ago to pay the holiday off then about 8 hours letter a email with different accommodation and a email with all the change details i feel like we have been robbed

Another problem occured to me, they may drag their feet with the refund when you do get through to them. They'll guess that a lot of people can't afford to pay for another family holiday until they get the refund so it's a way of holding you hostage.

Well that occured to me too, we were maybe going to go to lanzarote and book a villa that we always go to in the winter, if we could get our money back, if they can't put us where we would like to go but as you say how long will it take them to refund the money, we go away in 8 weeks time, and i don't know of anyone that has been in that situation to ask them

Just to let you all know I have now formed a complaint via http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk and will be contacting my local Trading Standards Office on Tuesday to see what they can do

Fiona

link: http://www.tsi.org.uk
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk