just checked that flight and its gone up £230 knew that would happen

Just checked easyjets as well Karen . They dont even have flights left for the 25th and if they fly 2 days later their price makes BAs look a bargain . £1300

i know its disgraceful all these companies are profitting on people who have lost their holidays, even the travel agents in tc yestereday were appalled by it. these flights were for dalaman that i found cheap yesterday. i hope fleetway can sort something out today ,but im losing faith and i think they will end up paying loads more grrr
shes spoken to her area manager re this yesterday and they have said she should be able to book her weeks training course the week before if she has too, shes in the process of changing shops ,same company but a lot bigger and new store and they want her to do a weeks training before shop opens on 16th oct , so shes tied to dates

OMG Karen, that Dalaman flight gone up a heck of a lot over night.

Keeping my fingers crossed that fleetway come up with something for her today that isn't going to mean you have to shell out a load of extra money.

Its good she came move the course, as thats a bit more flexibility on dates.

Wonder what all the sharm DIYers are going to do now loads of them used to travel with XL suppose they will ahve to go with easy. I dont fancy easy for the 5 hour flight and especially the six hour one coming home. although the charters aren't that much better.

this is what she has been offered this morning, total joke, leaving from birmingham airport on 25th and returning on her original flight to gatwick and staying in same hotel and having to pay £300 now and claim the xl flight back when she returns which will take up to 10 weeks to get refund back and will be in the region of £200-£240 ish , so she will be out of pocket and somehow got to get back from gatwick grrr. ive told her to see if they can offer any other alternatives , what a carry on and im waiting for the, can i lend her the £300 call too , i just assumed they would transfer costs from old holiday onto new not expect her to pay up more and then get refund later

Hi Karen .

If im honest I would say not as bad a deal as I was expecting . If ive got this right then she would only be covered by ATOL for the outbound flight anyway and assuming it was her paying and not
you after it was all sorted she would be out of pocket by £60-£100 + the airport agro to consider.

What springs to mind Karen is that if she doesnt take up this deal is she covered for the hotel and inbound flight with ATOL .Im not sure she would be . Also if she then went on to book another holiday she (or you) would have to come up with more than £300 + the possibility that she would only get a refund for the XL flight against the original booking .

In the circumstances doesnt seem too bad but whether you feel generous enough to lend her the money if she needs it is something else .

cant remember but did she book with CC ,if so from what im reading on the XL thread Atol are telling you to claim from them

lyn

lyn, i paid about £425 on my cc and she paid the balance on her debit card, i told her to speak to her dad this morning and let him help her for a change, anyway im surprised to hear that hes going to lend her the £300 and possibly collect her from gatwick as there is no trains or airport buses at 1am lol, so shes going to accept it as she really wants to go to egypt and they had their hearts set on this all inc with aqua park, birmingham is only half hour away just a shame theres no return flight from there, but at least its same day flight, just getting back from gatwick thats the problem if her dad cant get her, we cant this end and the train is 3.30 am with 3 stops oops lol

Hi Karen

That sounds like a reasonably good result given the circumstances at the moment and the flight prices . Even better that you dont need to get your own cc card out

yes im glad thats sorted another problem solved lol, got enough of mine own never mind other peoples lol.

lets hope easy jet doesnt go under as ive got some flights booked with them next mth to istanbul and considering booking for maderia with them for dec but worried now , bet a few people are worried about booking flights and hols now

Maybe this will be the end of ridiculously low prices of holidays that don't even cover the price of the fuel.
And the death of diy holidays.
Maybe people will realise the value of the travel agent.
The cost of everything has gone up but people think that holidays shouldn't.

Hmm, I have read this thread and I'm surprised at peoples attitudes. I work for a travel agent and know everyone is under alot of pressure so here's a few points for everyone to consider.

-Most agents are referring clients to recorded message of the latest update of the XL situation, most companies don't have the man power to answer everyones calls at once.

-There are often more sales staff than back office staff, so being sneaky and feeling proud that you got through to a sales department after couldnt get through to the operations dept proves nothing- except that you wasted the time of a member of the sales team.

-Having to firstly deal with clients stranded overseas then process people in date order. Your holiday has been cancelled if your flight was with XL. You do not need to phone you travel agent to ask "is my holiday ok?" you already know the answer.

-If you booked with an ABTA bonded company your money is safe. So find another holiday if you want to go anywhere, do it quick prices are rising at silly rates!

-Your travel agent will arange a refund for you, but it comes from th CAA not from them (most agents would go under if they personally reimbursed all their clients flying with xl.) so please don't complain when you are told you have to pay for a new holiday and wait for a refund.

- All agents have been advised by CAA 6-10 weeks approx for refunds to be made.

- If you want to go away please try and be flexible. We know some airports are a bit further but if it means the difference between a week at home or having your holiday then you might have to make some allowances.

agentme do you work for part of fleetway travel by any chance ?

no way was i proud of what i did, how dare you suggest such a thing !!! i had no choice, fleetway didnt leave clear information on their website til monday and the message left on the answer machine didnt help or give any good information for people due to holiday in about a weeks time, the answer message meerly said something to the affect of if you have flights or holiday booked through xl ring this number ---------- when you rang the number you were quickly cut off, so i dont think this is adequate information , all i wanted to do is see if there was any flights or holidays available around my daughters dates.

when something as drastic as this happens then it would be helpful to get more staff in or transferred over to the enquiry dept, i saw a lot of other people on here that were with different companies and due to fly out in oct so further away than my daughter getting sorted quickly and wanted to try and help her as she was so worried

and your sarky remark doesnt help

Your holiday has been cancelled if your flight was with XL. You do not need to phone you travel agent to ask "is my holiday ok?" you already know the answer. how do i know if they whole holiday would be cancelled or would i have to just find another outgoing flight, nor do others judging by my answers, this is were its the agents job to make things clear either on the machine message or internet site

this is a holiday truth and help forum and i do all i can to help others and dont need your sort of response as its not at all helpful

Agentme, your post does not help things.

We know how hard travel agents are working to resolve peoples problems, but it looks like some are trying harder than others.

If as you say you work for a travel agent, then you should know the devastation this collapse has left many people with!

Please try to be a little more compassionate with your comments and have some empathy for people, who are at the moment feeling very let down and fragile.

Kath HT Admin

Hi Karen

Glad you daughter now has a holiday to go on and that for once you are not picking up the tab.

Agentme (First Post ?) Must agree with Kath that your comments are not helpful.

We all understand that this is a difficult time for travel agents and their have been comments to this effect on this site, but as usual some agents are handly things better than others and as the OP says here, Fleetways web-site and telephone service was just not up to the job when required.

People need to be treated as individuals. Each case is probably different and they need to talk it through with someone to find out what components of their holiday are still OK (if any) and what parts need re-booking and what their altenative options actually are. A holiday to most people is a once a year treat, not just 'another bit of work' like it obviously is to you. If your attitude is anything to go by no wonder agents get a bad name.

Surely this is not unreasonable ?

thanks for your support kath and chris

why do some people come on here and be so unhelpful

Whether or not they were unhelpful or not they are still entitled to their opinion.
Or do you just want to listen to people who you agree with.
FWH says people come on here for advice and they may not like the response or answer they get.
The travel agents involved will be doing their best for people.

littlebopeeps are you another travel agent, and whats fwh got to do with this thread ? if you cant give advice asked then dont reply to the thread, i dont want people to necessarily agree with me i wanted advice as to whether my daughter would get a refund or not as she only had the outbound flight booked with xl of a package fleetway put together i dont know whether that would make her entitled to full refund or flight refund ,but ive noticed you seem to be going on a few threads quoting the same remarks . gosh didnt realise asking advice about this would cause such hassle, ive been a member on here for a long time, i try to be helpful not sarky,i dont need these unhelpful replies thanks

I am not being sarky, or made any sarky remarks only stated my view,and no i am not a travel agent.
You entered your question on a public forum.
Other people are entitled to their opinion whether they agree with you or not.
If you dont like what agentme had to say dont ask in a public forum.
End of.

Everyone should feel they can ask advice on here. As admin and mods we will do everything to make sure that our members are happy.

Sarah