Sandy there is a complaint very similar to yours regarding flights booked through OTB in our complaints forum at the top of the main page. (ie difference in price to what they booked as to what they actually got. The OP was actually at the airport when Easyjet said they weren't booked on that days flight but one 2 days later!)

thank you will have a look i am so astounded they can get away with it if you think they have made all that profit 144.00 per couple and how many more its unbelievable

Hellsbells - did you get any joy from the Legal Advice?
Further to my post of May 8th I have sent all correspondance to ABTA who are taking it up with Goldtrail for comment. Good to see Sandy149 that you've just done the same thing, and I would encourage anyone else who feels they have been conned to do the same as if they see a big volume of complaints with the same theme it has got to help our collective case.

We are currently still in the process of swapping correspondence.
They keep replying to my mum when my solicitor writes to them.
We ended up going on the holiday and flying with Viking (which wasn't that bad really) but it's not the point! The times were a nightmare and both flights were delayed.
I'll post an update as soon as we resolve the matter.
Up to now they just keep utterly ignoring the questions we ask but they won't speak to any of us over the phone about it!
WE WILL NOT LET THIS LIE!!!

Whilst i agree with you that flight changes are annoying, unless it is a major change, normally over 8hrs then there is very little you can do, this is not just Goldtrail, it applies to most charter operators.

As for pricing, yes this is annoying that you appear to find yourselves on flights that are now cheaper than when you originally booked but what if these flights were more expensive, would you pay extra, i very much doubt it.

By all means take this as far as you can and it would be interesting to see what the outcome would be but i wouldn't hold my breath hoping for something great.

Goldtrails terms are not the clearest and like many operators will have clauses in them to get them out of situations like this.

Let us know how you get on as if you were to get something, especially in a legal case, then this could be a major step in the industry.

leisurelad what has annoyed me so much is that when booking my flights with OTB i had the option of booking with thomas cook, monarch, viking, and numerous others viking was the cheapest then thomas cook(night flights) and monarch and a few more i didnt want viking even though the cheapest and thomas cook times wasnt suitable so i opted for monarch paying the extra for peace of mind the viking flight was the same price as it is now 144.00 cheaper than than monarch if id have wanted to pay for the cheapest i would have but i find i have been put on it anyway as they quote "i agreed to pay a price at time of booking" yes i did for a decent timed flight, with a carrier i was familiar with i did not expect to pay for a flight that does not exist and never has the prices of goldtrail flights (viking) have remained the same. I dont even know when they planned to tell me either i only found out by chance over a query ABTA are investigating OTB dont want to know just passed it on to goldtrail they dont appear bothered about there reputation either
I would have preferred to be given a choice of carrier as an alternative or at least refund the difference but they are not interested if you think how many people are on that flight and how many are out of pocket how much profit have they made i will never ever book with OTB or similar company it was my first time and certainley the last will let you know the outcome

Sandy:

Could you provide the route and date you are doing if possible as i am gonna do a little research for you as it may help your case or at least answer some questions.

I have full access to viewdata here so by you providing me with the route and date, i can then go and check it all out and see whats what directly in the operators system.

Cheers

we are flying manchester to zante sun 5th of sept returning 1 week later the following sunday any help or advice greatley appreciated forgot to say my total flight cost was 504.00!!

Same situation as many off you.
Booked 7 seats on a ( supposed ) flight from Aberdeen to Bodrum, at considerably more expense than other Scottish airports, but was happy to do so as its the most convineant.
I travel through Aberdeen airport a few times a month due to my work and on one occasion i decided to ask at the info desk about the flight ( reason being that i only found out it was a goldtrail flight after the confirmation and have had a previous problem with them )
Long and short of it is that the info desk at Aberdeen informed me that no flights to Bodrum were operated from Aberdeen it was Dalaman only!! this was in April.
Waited it out thinking maybe it will go ahead, but no, Airflights phoned end of June to say the Goldtrail flight had been changed to Dalaman and i would be getting a 4 hr transfer to Bodrum by coach, i refused and asked for a full refund.
I tried and tried to contact Goldtrail but no joy, i got back to Airflights and demanded my money back as i had written proof by now that no Aberdeen to Bodrum flight ever existed and as such was in breach of all sorts of consumer laws, didnt get my money back but was transfered onto a Glasgow flight, the fact is the Glasgow flight price is £130 per person cheaper than the Aberdeen flight, a grand total of £910!! they will not take phone calls or answer e-mails and it makes me sick that Goldtrail seem to continually get away with this con.
The laws when it comes to air travel seems to be very much against the consumer, im sure if you went to a garage and bought an Audi for £20000 paid for it, went to pick it up and the garage said " we never really had an Audi, heres a Fiat punto instead" but kept the full money, that would be illegal, why the hell isnt the same sort of thing clamped down on within the travel industry??

jambo:

I think you might have been misled by your agent here. We had clients booked onto some Bodrum flights that were recently cancelled.

Goldtrail offered 2 alternatives or free cancellation which most companies would, however if you have booked them in conjunction with accommodation through airflights then maybe they were trying to re-protect you.

Depends on how clever the agent dealing with it is, they could have said ok, we will canx these ones, re book you on the glasgow flight and give you the difference back as a push for you to keep your business with them but this doesn't seem to be the case.

Is you old booking and the new booking under the same goldtrail booking reference, if it is then they have probably just moved you across, if they are different, maybe they have canx and rebooked pocketing the difference !!

Sandy:

The only ones i can see so far is:
Monarch Dep @ 0500
Viking Dep@ 0500

Monarch Dep @ 1430

There are other but they are thomas cook and thomson flights

The later one seems to be an olympic holidays chartered flight but there may be more tour operators on that flight too.

Did you by any chance have flight times similar to this
Dep 0830 / 1330
Rtn 1430 / 1630

Thanks

yes the flight times were those very good flights!!! you can see why we booked i would have been better taking the thomas cook night flight seeing as we wont be going to bed now!!! you say there is a monarch flight advertised for 0500 i bet it turns out to be viking you can see why i am so unhappy paying 500.00 for flights i didnt want to go with the cheapest id never heard of viking so i thought go with someone i know its the first time ive booked this way but will never again!
i really dont know where we stand legally but i truly feel they should have wrote to customers saying monarch flights are not availaible or the truth they never were and offer either a choice of alternative carrier not just the cheapest a refund or some compensation i will loose all our money if we cancel so that isnt a option any suggestions?

leisurelad ive just got all my paper work out obviously it still states monarch so i logged in to my OTB booking reference and i am now even more angry the details have changed to the viking flights BUT it now states we have booked no hold luggage!!!!!! on booking originally it was 15kg -20kg there is no way i am paying this company anymore money im furious i am really loosing the will to live! i cannot believe how they get away with it!!!

MMM - this is where it gets interesting:

Ok, from what i gather you booked quite a while ago, as far as i am aware Goldtrail Greece flights were generally always in the morning.

Am i right in saying that you choose the 1430 flight, if this is the case then maybe this is something OTB have manually done, basically advertising the more expensive flights but will actually book you onto the early one pocketing the difference and then give you a flight time change at some point to say, sorry, flights have changed. Am not saying they have done this but they wouldn't be the first company to do this !!

Reason why i say this is because a quick google search entering ... goldtrail flight times ttg, bring up a few articles including this one from the travel trades weekly magazine.

http://content.yudu.com/Freedom/A1l0lw/ttg15012010/resources/24.htm

This was published back in January and now rejogs my memory that there were the goldtrail flights to greece all published to depart at 0830. The times though changed not soo long after this whereby they then showed viking flights at the correct times. From what i can remember though, the flights number in the booking system read something like TBA or MONTBA and not actually anything specific.

Now the 0500 monarch flight does exist as it is also for sale through avro who is monarch sister company so this is ok.

Regards to baggage, this should be honoured, if it is not then there is something seriously not quite right at OTB. As all goldtrail flights that were booked with baggage, if changed to another carrier then the baggage allowance would also be transfered. If they don't then i think you may need to start questioning OTB with how your booking has been conducted and even question about the flights that they booked were ever infact booked.

Hi leisurelad right i have got my original OTB booking printed off on line
flight details:MON7125 Departs manchester 08:30 arrives Zante 14:30
MON 7126 Departs Zante 15:30 arrives Manchester 17:30
"quote" your flights have been reserved for you with goldtrail travel ltd
Costing 2 adults £239.00
then next page says (never noticed before) in booking these flights for you we charged the following 2 adults 252.50 the total we charged you 504.80 this does include a discount of 17.20 (very kind of them!!!)this was booked october 2009 i also would not have booked a flight that said TBA
the new ATOL receipt states
Flight details:
05/09/2010 flight number vik273 departs Manchester at 05:00 lands Zante at 10:40
12/09/2010 flight number VIK274 departs Zante at 11:40 lands Manchester at 13:30
Baggage Allowance
No hold bags have been included for this order you will receive only the hand luggage allowance that is detailed below. Should you wish to add hold bags to your order please submit an in flight extras request via the Manage Your Booking section of our website.
Hand Luggage Allowance: 5kg per person
Flight Price per Adult/Child £261.00 £522.00
(Includes all security tax, fuel supplements and APD taxes)
Total Financial Protection per Adult/Child Free
In-Flight Extras £0.00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total Flight Price £522.00
this latest ATOL Reciept date is 29/10/2009!!! that is impossible i have the original and it is totally different
who do you think has made the hefty profit OTB or goldtrail??? and who do i contact regarding the baggage you just get passed from one to the other in my opinion they are both a total con and i for one wont let it drop im furious!! any suggestions as to what to do next

Thanks for your info leisurelad.
The reference number is the same and you are right in that my accomodation is also booked through airflights but thankfully nothing to do with Goldtrail.
All i can do now is learn from this and be 100% sure in the future that Goldtrail are not involved in any of my travel plans.
I really dont know how they get away with a lot of the stuff they pull on customers, morals, customer satisfaction, trading ethics etc must be very low down on there priorities.
Thanks again for your input.

Sandy i am very mythed as to why your invoice is showing 2 different costings.

Reason being is that if it is a general time change then that is all it is and a new invoice will show the new timings. costings do not change on general flight changes made by goldtrail.

What i am now wondering is whether it is OTB messing around with peoples flights and pocketing the difference. A MON7 flight number would normally suggest this a tour operator charter (ie:some company has bought all the seats and selling off to other companies) and will not be sold through monarchs sister companies.

This flight may have existed during the programming stage but is no longer actualy a live flight.

Something is not quite right purely because you have invoices with different prices on, not normal at all and whilst goldtrail may have been showing these flights, these were back in january when the greek programme launched but all of this changed not so long after with most of goldtrails flights showing vik flights.

I really think you need to speak to someone at OTB as something doesn't match up and also get the baggage issue sorted.

Keep us posted

thank you would it be worth emailing the OTB Forum people on here thankfully i have both reciepts the original and the updated one i will copy them both and forward them on to on the beach i really wish id not bothered and never booked in the first place its a shame because there is probably lots of good web sites to book seperate flights and accomadation but it has totally put me off never again
why would they quote MON7 tour operator flights if they are not permitted to do so....
will keep you updated

i have emailed the OTB forum see what they say

Hi Sandy,

The MON flight numbers i can only presume where more of a *flying schedule draft* with the intention of using them but they probably got a much better offer and better terms from viking, hence all the changes.

In regards to getting anything changed or back from OTB / Goldtrail, highly unlikely. Even though your flights are now soo much cheaper, even cancelling and trying to rebook them would not really benefit you as OTB canx terms are some of the most harshest. I don't think they will admit it but OTB and refunds don't mix. The pages of reviews sums them up.

I think that you can only put this down to experience and if using an agent via the net, might be best to call them first and tell them what you are looking at and ask exactly who the flight supplier / tour operator is in order to avoid goldtrail flights.

Personally, i have used goldtrail for my clients year in year out without many problems and accept them for what they are and have also used them myself in the past without issues but i do believe their greek programme has been a bit hit and miss since it started.

Let us know how you get on sorting out the other bits on your booking and if you are going to try and take it further, the link i posted below may help your case a little too.

Cheers