i think that clearly shows that any letters that are sent are automatic and from a database of pre writen letters.

they are , i can tell you that first hand ,

Hi there,

Just found this website and felt the need to reply to MOAN!!

We booked with Airtours to the Binimar apartments in Cala n Forcat, Minorca (AUG 2004). We booked the holiday on the understanding that the accommodation was 3+ stars rated and had a family friendly, "village" style atmosphere, and were looking forward to our holiday. The holiday was booked online via the Airtours website.
Unfortunately for us, we chose the Binimar apts.

The first problem occurred on our flight from Glasgow to Mahon. As soon as we got on the plane, the captain explained that we would be making a short detour via Bristol Airport due to "commercial operations". As it turned out, this was to drop off a member of the flight crew for another flight and we were delayed about 1 hour/ 1&1/2 hours as a result of the detour.
As soon as we arrived at the Binimar apartments we noticed that the lovely whitewashed buildings shown on the website had been "replaced" with a multicoloured village?? Not attractive to the eye. More like a Butlins Holiday camp.
After check in, we went down to our apartment, approx 5 mins walk and thought we had entered a Butlins holiday camp. We walked into our apartment and were very disappointed. The apartment looked as if it could do with an upgrade, but particularly in the bathroom. We had a look around.

To summarise our problems, we had -
1) Inadequate/ broken Locks on balcony doors.
2) A Broken pane of glass on balcony doors.
3) A fridge freezer with no door on the freezer compartment.
4) A broken Shower nozzle.
5) Broken Patio Chairs.
6) Stained/ damaged bed settee mattress.
7) Pools shut with no clear explanation as to why.
We spent days waiting on zero responses from the customer service reps.
9) Unsuitable/ inappropriate solution to our problem ( move to other apts at cost of 300 euros + transfer costs)
10) Lack of lifeguards at pool area.
11) Unsecured luggage storage
12) Unsuitable changing facilities (departure Lounge).

We had to deal with these problems and an inadequate level of customer service, in a 7 day period and this completely ruined our chances of a fun/ relaxing holiday. We booked the holiday thinking that 3+* accommodation would allow us a comfortable, relaxing holiday of a good standard and we ended up in sub standard accommodation looking forward to returning home!!

We have written to Airtours and were told initially that it was just a matter of personal taste!!
Then we were offered £105 off a future holiday with them. What good is that!! I would never book with them again after the experience!!

I you are planning on booking a holiday with Airtours.....Do yourself a favour........Book elsewhere!!

I had similar problems in Salou, After countless letters.. some very sturn almost abusive I received 10% of my total holiday cost back.. you have to just keep writing/ emailing them I got a good result !

I agree- just keep on at them.

I was fortunate to win a holiday to villas doradas dom rep in march last year, we still pulled out quite a bit of money for airport hotel , travel to manchester,insurance, spends etc.
The first 4 days we had torrential rain and whilst I dont blame the tour op for the weather, I blame the reps for how they handled the situation. Our room had 12 leaks and mould all over the wall, we had 12 buckets to collect rain, rain came under the door, dripped throught the fan and resulted in no electric for 5 days, our bed was wet and took 7 days of complaining for dry sheets and 13 days to fumigate sand flies that had taken residence in it myself and hubby had 3 bouts of upset tummy each and glasses were washed in tap water (rep even saw this) food was not kept at proper temps and despite asking for any other accomodation we could not be moved 2 nights before we returned I collapsed with severe food poisoning and was taken to Hospital where I joined 14 other guests 6 months later I was still having probs as I had damaged severely the lining of my stomach.

Anyhow, I filled in report abroad and wrote on return, stating that although I had won it, I expected the rep to help when we were in dia need of it. I received (what I now know to be a bog standard reply) a fob off letter, saying had I not drank too much and lay out in the sun to long, no mention of accomodation probs, I wrote several times and kept getting the same letter back

Then I discovered this site , so taking the bull by the horns I wrote one final letter, said I was disgusted that they could send a letter saying 'sorry you had probs, hope you will travel with us again' and more or less stuff all your problems etc, I said I had trawled the internet and discovered that whatever the problem was, mild or severe, you sent out the same bog standard letter to everyone and had they no pride in their customer service, I sent web links to reviews and similar problems and told them I was going to the national paper who were already interested in the story and suprise suprise only a week later I receive £170 back as ' a gesture of good will'

Perseverance does pay- and a good stroppy letter

Crikey! Some of you have had an awful time and then not got anywhere with a complaint. My sympathies to you all, especially as I appear to be inhabiting a parallel universe as far as customer service with MyTravel is concerned.

Flew out to Crete and the return MyTravel flight was delayed 29 hours due to a mechanical failure of the very old plane. It wasn't the delay that upset me so much as the 6 hours we spent waiting to be told that the flight had been cancelled, especially as we had all seen the crew leave the plane and then the lights go off after just one hours delay. We then spent a further 4 hours at the airport waiting to be found overnight accommodation. When we arrived at midnight there was no food available for us and breakfast at 5am consisted of some very stale bread and cheese. On my return I wrote to Manos immediately detailing the whole episode in consderable detail. As I has kept a detailed log of events this was easy! Three weeks late my compensation of £100 in vouchers arrived. Not bad because I made claim on my holdiay insurance too for all extra expenses incurred including the large breakfast at the airport.

Six months later, Manos again and the most dreadful damp apartment in Corfu. Mould growing on the walls, in the fridge, on our clothes after only 24 hours. The smell was awful. Tracked down rep who was wonderful. He got us moved immediately, gave us a complaint form to submit when we returned home. We duly sent this off and less than a fortnight later we got £100 compensation which we accepted.

My advice would be always complain immediately, don't wait and don't be fobbed off if you cannot find the rep...find another one! Keep a detailed log of events. Keep complaining and then put it all in writing when you return home. Yes it's your holiday and valuble time is being wasted BUT if you don't pursue it then the company just consider that it must have been OK. Also when you complain on your return be polite but firm. Catalogue everything. Send in you evidence. ASK for compensation...don't be shy, but don't suggest an amount.

Finally, you have access to arbitration through ABTA if you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint but there is a time limit on when the complaint should be made.

Good luck and happy holidays!

I appear to be inhabiting a parallel universe as far as customer service with MyTravel is concerned

Can we join you, cos AirTours are pretty awful at compensating for their mistakes...

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=16082

Hello Pollensa, I have read your account and am sorry that you have had such an awful time. We can only go by our own individual experiences.

My husband used to work as a senior manager in customer service and his experience is very helpful in ensuring any complaint we do make is taken seriously.

If you have problems with a Rep then insist upon speaking to, or meeting with the senior area manager. If they too are useless just make sure you have everything logged so that there is no refuting events by those who have refused to offer you good customer service. If I have to resort to a complaint I always send a copy of my contemporaneous notes with an offer that the originals can be viewed if necessary. If you have gone to the trouble of making contemporaneous notes they tend to take you seriously.

I hope that your next holiday is more relaxing and better value for money

Magster...I think you were fortunate to have had fairly straightforward dealings with AirTours, or that your complaint very clearly centred on them. My complaint ended up a wrestling match between AirTours and Instant Holidays, each blaming the other. It was a bit like sucking on a lemon while hitting your head off of a wall.
In all my dealings with AirTours, both during our holiday and in letters afterwards, I found every AirTours person I communicated with to fit one of two norms...
(1) They were totally cynical about the company and made no effort to defend it or provide customer care.
(2) Or, they were so completely incompetent that they had not yet realised just how bad the company was and had not yet reached the happy state of (1).
An example of exchanges between us is these...

MyTravel letter... "You did not receive an in-flight meal because, unfortunately, you did not take advantage of this option".
My reply... "But we did ! We paid for and received an in-flight meal, I did NOT complain of not having received one. I can only conclude that MyTravel are confused on this point. Did they attempt to properly understand any of my complaints ?"

MyTravel letter... They stated that the dirty, damp apartment was "normal for a room that had been underused over the winter season".
The lack of a plug in the bathroom sink is "common, and a plug can be hired for a small charge from reception".
Both these points refer to a 4-A apartment complex for which we had paid almost £500 each !

It was clear that in their replies the AirTours staff had either not properly read my complaints or had not bothered to understand them. Fortunately this concluded with me getting all of my excess charges back, but not all of it costed to AirTours which is the pity. I would pull my fingernails out before I would travel with any MyTravel company again.
Travel with caution.

Pollensa, it does sound as though you drew the short straw in every way possible. Sods law rules sometimes. If, god forbid, anything like this ever happens to you again, I suggest the small claims court.

Best wishes

MANOS anagram = MOANS !!!!!!

Although we have had the occasional niggle with holidays, we've never had anything really bad and certainly not approaching some of the nightmares people have described on this forum. These company's don't seem to give two hoots about your holiday once they get the money out of you and seem to go to extreme lengths not to acknowledge in any way that they are responsible - even though they often quite clearly are.

Just remember all the good holidays you've had!

We had a very long delay in March 2003 with My Travel (flight MYT056, 21st March 2003). The DC-10-30 (G-BYDA) we were flying on from La Romana to Montego Bay developed a hydaulic fault in flight. Once in Montego bay, we ended up having a 52 hour delay while MYT sent out one of their A330-243's to take us back to Manchester. Although I can understand that it was a big problem to some people, I loved the extra 2 days of holiday! Anyway, My Travel handled everything perfectly in my view (put us up in the Rennaisance Jamaice Grande, Ocho Rios for 2 nights, all inclusive), complimentary drinks on the flight all the way back to MAN, and gave us a letter on disembarking explaining the delay and that they were giving everyone £100 in compensation, plus a letter if anyone wanted to make an insurance claim. This arived within 2 weeks. I've used MYT on many occasions, this being the only major delay I've expereince with them. I personally think they handled everything perfectly and couldn't fault them in any way. I wasn't expecting the £100 and didn't make an insurance claim because I was very happy with the way things were handled and turned out (16 night holiday for the price of 14 plus 2 days in Jamaica!). I know it would have been inconvenient for some, but I loved ringing my boss from Jamaica telling him I wouldn't be in work today because I was stranded in Jamaica, put a very bit smile on my face!

These things happen from time to time, there isn't much you can do as a passenger apart from make the most of the situation. Maybe I would have felt differently if it happened outbound, but feel very happy with MYT and the way they opperate. The £100 was put towards my next holiday to Lanzarote, with MYT! Sounds like things could have been handled better in this case though.

Darren

I'm glad this turned out well for you and I'm guessing that MyTravel handled it in the way they did because they had a very large group of people (potential mass complainees) on their hands. They could probably see in their minds the headlines in the Sun newspaper.
In my case, and I've seen it in many others, they try to isolate you, convince you that you are the only person in the world who has ever complained about the particular hotel or service. It must therefor be your fault. Fortunately a quick "Google" round the net soon roots out all the other complaints similar to yours. Where there's a pattern there's a fault.

Went on this cruise, wished I hadn't. from start to finish the whole thing was a huge dissapointment.! flight over to Rio in Brazil. 11 hours horrendous!! we was packed into a small plane with no room and I mean NO room to move. couldnt even put down the tray in front.! no entertainment only one drink with meal then nothing until we nearly landed. really awful. then on ship it was run down and dirty in places ike the Lido. and it go's on and on. Have written to Mytravel, had reply (waste of time). so have written again and contacted Ros. will let you know how I get on

Brendat,

Sorry to hear about your problems. Did you travel on a My Travel aircraft? I've always found their Airbus A330-243's excellent and their DC10 (not in service anymore) excellent. Their Boeing 767 isn't too bad either.

Darren

Hi Darren, No it was not Mytravel plane I belive it was a Portugeze. think the name was Trans- something. it was a 2-3-2 seater so not an airbus .Brenda

My Travel, My A**E.

Worst holiday of our lives, should have been a wonderful Xmas/New year Holiday in Jamaica with our friends to celebrate our Wedding Anniversary.

After SEVENTEEN hrs on the plane (should be 9), ONE meal in that time, 2 bar sevices, no drinks for the children for TEN hrs......................you really don't want me to go on. On the way home the plane was supposed to go to Manchester..........NOPE, thrown off to fend for ourselves at Gatwick, had to queue for an hour to hire a car at a cost of £100 and drive FIVE hrs home after a tireing flight!!

Hotel a disgrace, a week in bed with food poisoning....etc.

I've just instructed solicitors as soon as I've got home, I'm not messing around, just let the proffesionals deal with My Travel. I've had enough!!!

Lisa.x

This was terrible holiday pool scummy, food undercooked and always lukewarm, wife ended up with food poisoning. Wrote to Airtours took four weeks to acknowledge letter saying will respond in another 28days. Have now passed the complaint on to Solicitors, hopefully will get a quicker response, but I won't hold my breath.