Most MP3 players now record, even sneekier. Needed it with our rep at SC Breezes.

Yes Mp3 players as well,nice one Stupot 1951.

lisa b, who was your flight with and what (apparently) was the cause of the delay?

Blimey Lisa b
That sounds rough. Keep on and on at Airtours/MyTravel/DH. They will fob you off, and ignore you. Even their own employees moan about them. Let us know how you get on.

*Edit libellous comments removed - GLynis*

Hi Guys,
Just back from paphos at 4am this morning..........great hol as usual, 5hr delay though!
Anyway, flight was through My Travel, but with Air Luxor. They decided to go via Gatwick which we were told would be just an hours detour to pick up a few passengers! This ended up being 3 hrs. Then they decided that they didn't have enough fuel to go directly to Jamaica and went to refuel via the Azores...........4hrs out of the way, funny that the fuel prices are significantly cheaper in the Azores and this was a Portugese Airline eh?
The other thing is that we heard the same story from a lot of other people at the hotel that came before us or arrived after us, so the airline had EVERY intention of going to The Azores. The thing that was most disgusting was that they hadn't provided enough food, drinks or entertainment and that they even tried to stop people from going to the toilet when the plane was on the ground!
I won't give up don't worry!
Lisa,x

mytravel, direct holidays, going places and airtours are the worst travel companies ever and their customer service is so poor, its like talking to a wall.

We should all take their asses to court like the Americans did over the IPODS with Apple.

I am currently trying to get a pettition together so we can bring attention to their awfull treatment, if anyone is interested in signing this please pm me. Myself and another lady are doing this and we inend to send it to trading standards, Abta, media and of course the tour ops. We would need you holiday reference number beside the signature please.

These tour compnaies should be stopped.

*Edit libellous comments removed - Glynis*

All those companies are basically the same group Airtours or Mytravel whatever you want to call them.

The only way to deal with the complaints with these is to go through a solicitor and sue them for compensation. I know this is getting very much like the States for suing, but perhaps if they keep getting hit in the pocket the might actually wake up and smell the coffee!! and research there holidays and hotels properly and give the customers what they want not what the holiday companies think we want.

Sorry to hear about all your problems but I've always experienced the opposite from MYT and Airtours. Last time I travelled with them we had a 52 delay due to the now retired DC10-30 (G-BYDA) developing a hydraulic fault as we flew from Dominican Republic to Jamaica. The aircraft was grounded and took 7 days to be fixed. My Travel put us up in a 5 star all inclusive hotel in Jamaica until they sent one of their A332's to take us home. All drinks on the return flight were complimentary and we got a £100 cheque (per passenger) within 7 days of our return for any incovienience cause (ringing my boss to say I wouldn't be back at work for 2 days as I was stranded in Jamaica was quite funny!). I couldn't fault them in any way and still regard them as an excellent airline / holiday company. They have their problems like anyother airline / tour company but deliver the goods to the majority of passengers. I'm not saying they are perfect, there are always going to be problems, just I've never experienced any major issues with them.

I've always found their customer services helpful as well. I take a large underwater video camera with me normally for diving and MYT have always been helpfull when I've phoned to ensure I can take it onboard as hand luggage, very helpfull and polite.

Darren

That's brilliant, just what we as customers should expect when we are overly inconvenienced!
On our 17hr flight to Jamaica the passengers were threatening the staff with violence and they still wouldn't even give us ONE free drink, for the extra 8hrs that we were on the plane when we should have been at our ALL INCLUSIVE resort...........we had to pay for everything, and that was ONLY when the staff decided to serve us.

Darren

I have read a lot of your posts and you have always spoken highly of the company. Maybe we should all go on holiday with you because it seems you get treated very well.

Do you think if i inform DH that I know you they may give me my deposit back?

Are you a known travellor with mytravel, a share holder or a relative of the Director? I am sure you are none of the above but we had a guy on here ages ago encouraging people to book a holiday with the company and even gave out contact details to book. Surprise, surprise, he nolonger exists on here anymore or does he?

Anyway I am glad you have had good experiences but keep in mind this topic is for complaints. It doesnt help people to know that you're sorry for their nasty experiences but what a great time you have had with the company. My wedding has been ruined by this company. People who have saved hard all year have had their holiday ruined as well.
Instead of informing us what a great time you had, as you seem to know the company so well tell us what we could do in order to receive a better service like you have done?

booked my wedding holiday to mexico on the back of their wedding package they sold me. Weeks later i discovered that this wedding package did not exist. I stupidly only cancelled the wedding package (even though it did not exist the wedding dept assumed I was taking their wedding package which was not the one I was sold to from a direct holidays employer) I then booked direct with the wedding co-ordinator at the hotel.
This is brief so much more has happened but I would be here all day telling you how badly Direct Holidays have treated us.
The wedding co-ordinator requested that I get written conformation that we have a reservation at the Toucan as DH have constantly over booked their room allocation. You see in my opinion they knowingly over book and then encourage customers to go to another hotel which obviously the tour op have got a better deal. They could purchase more rooms at the hotel but it costs to much money and that is why customers are bumped.

Anyway DH have refused to comment or guarantee our reservation. It took them 8 weeks to reply to my letter, they only did this when I asked a supervisor at MyTravel to ask them to contact me. I have now been waiting since 13 of August for a reply to my second letter. My wedding has been cancelled, we felt we were left with no choice. I am so angry that DH have refused to return our deposit. I will never use this company again and urge all customers to contact Granada TV and tell your sto

Hi Future Bride

I cannot get my head round this problem of bumping. How can someone sell you something they have not got

Would not your invoice date prove it should be first come first served. Last in first out. Why dont they come under the "duty of care" that other service providers are bound by.

People are being bumped after they have paid in full for their holiday, if you paid for a blue mazda car for example they could not deliver a green ford!!! The law on this is beyond me.

Wendy - I think when you read the quotes from Notgoingtotucan below you'll see its not a simple case of Mytravel selling you something they can't deliver or that its a case of hoteliers overbooking. This chap had booked his holiday to the IB Tucan in Mexico 14 months ago and rooms were available if the company chose to send him. Like many others, he chose not to accept their offer of alternative accommodation and got a refund, but many others have not been so lucky and got bumped on arrival in Cancun.

Dear Mr. Phillips:

thank you very much for your e-mail,,,, I have no idea what's going on,,,, we dont have your reservation, Direct Holidays already used all their allotment, but we stil have some rooms available,,,, can you please get in touch with your travel agent in order to get this situation taken care of.....

If we can be of any further help, please feel free to contact us.

My best regards,

Miriam Velez
Gerente Corporativo de Ventas
Corporate Sales Manager
Iberostar Hotels & Resorts

"Dear Mr. Phillips:

I already contacted Airtours/Direct Holidays, they have copy of your e-mail,,,,, I informed them that I do have rooms available.

I have no idea whats going on, but yes,,,, as I informed you, they already used all their allotment.

I'm really sorry about this.

Regards,

Miriam"

Dazbo
Good for you. Great customer service etc. So a satisfied customer of the MyTravel group does exist. Fab!!! But could you start a thread in another section of this website as this is for the poor so and so's who DIDN'T get good customer service or even the holiday they booked and paid for. Thanks.

Wendy
I couldn't get my head round the unethical business practices of some Tour Operators either. I found out what they get up to the hard way as have so many other people. After all the hard work that people put into their annual holidays, sorting them, paying for them, researching, phoning, organising and of course getting excited about them, some idiot at the TO decides that they are going to send you somewhere else completely and then lie to you about why this is happening. Its got to stop. And we, as the consumer , have to make sure it does.

You book your holiday a year in advacne, a few weeks or days before departure the TO contacts you and tells you the hotel has over booked.

This doesn't make sense as its the TO who sells you the rooms they have been allocated in a contract by the hotel. When over booking occurs they offer to send customers to another resort which the TO has obviously got a better with. The TO is making good money from this scam, and it is a scam.

Then the customer emails the hotel where apparently their is no room only to be told that they have rooms available. So why can't the Tour op just book the customer in to these spare rooms, it costs them to much.

*Edit -- libellous comments removed - Glynis*

A friendly warning because walls have ears if you know what I mean. Be careful what you say. Unless you have firm evidence that will stand up in a court that it is the "majority" you are on dodgy ground and the company could take action against you and also this board.

*Edit - quote removed from a previous post as it was libellous. Rest of post left as a reminder to all posters - Glynis*

well i know for a fact that direct holidays were advertising holidays in zante for 2006 before they had even signed the contract with the apartments.

I had been after a certain 2 bed apartment in zante for two years only to be told they were sold out int the school hols.

So to prove a point a kept phoning asking to book from dec 05. The brochure came out 1st may i think.

From about feb the studios came on the system for the whole year and i could book them. The 2 bed apartments were on the system but not in the six week school hols. I was told they would be loaded on the system for 9am 1st may.

I knew that this would not be the case. Sure enough 9am that morning the system was showing the 2 bed appt as completely sold out for the whole of the school summer holidays

When i e-mailed zante direct for info they told me that DH had not even signed the contracts with then yet and they did not know what TO they would be signing with.

To avoid any action being taken by any holiday company "in my opinion" in front of any comment as then you are not offering it forward as fact.

Sorry Wendywu, that it is no legal protection at all. Unless you can provide accurate evidence for your 'opinion' you are still liable to be sued. By using terms such as 'fraud' and 'con' on this board people have been accusing TOs of criminal behaviour and to try and qualify it as simply their 'opinion' does not in law diminish the force of the allegation. The fact is that unless you can prove that the allegation is true then it doesn't matter how you qualify it - you still leave yourself open to be suing. If I accuse you of being a criminal with no evidence to back that up then you can legitimitely sue me for defamation of character and I would have no defence in court if I simply claimed that it was my 'opinion' and had stated so at the time I made the allegation. The important thing is whether I made the allegation and whether I can prove that there is evidence to substantiate it or not - not whether I claimed that I was stating an 'opinion' or a 'fact'.

SM

In my opinion refer to previous post.

And wait and see in the near future... it will all come out.

Apologies to holiday truths , the last thing I would want is for for DH to take court proceedings. Although I wonder could thay afford it? And would it not be up to DH to prove me wrong regarding the opinion I made earlier.

And in my opinion their was an employer of Mytravel promoting the company on this site. When the sh~t hit the fan this person nolonger posted comments.

Seems unfair that us customers have to be careful what we write and yet these companies get away with murder.

So in my opinion DH knowingly over book-and try to blame it on the hotel. They offer customers alternative accomdation which DH has obviously got a great deal on and ask the customers if they would like to go there instead. In the meantime they have all your money building up interest- its looking good on the books for the share holders- then the customer discovers their is room at the Inn after all (of their chosen hotel) but DH won't send you because it will cost them more money to book you into you chosen hotel. Buy hey they should pay the extra -its their fault that they have over booked their room allocation. But alas they wont, all they're interested in is making the money.
This is of course my opinion along with hundreds of other people I have had contact with including some inside info.