what a quick response!!
my travel have replied today concerning the letter they had from ABTA(no mention of my letter). they have offered double the compenstion. this means £200 in the form of a cheque. its amazing what getting abta involved does!
my partner is happy to accept this amount now and put an end to it all.its not as much as we asked for but i only asked for a high figure because i knew they would offer less. it works out that we have 1 persons premiair fare back so we are happier about that.
i am replying with a letter to say that they are still in the wrong regardless as they shouldn't advertise these things if they are not available and that they are still advertising it this year with still no mention that if you want kids meals or a choice you have to pre-book. maybe this is because this isn't true!
thanks for everyones advice.

Hi guys
Just an update for all who are going through the same as ourselves.
We've been offered 50% of the cost of our ruined honeymoon to Mexico last year by Airtours.
We have decided to take it and finally move on from all this hassle. I also claimed and received some money back from my credit card company.
I always like to be fair about things and put both sides across. In this whole matter Airtours have not answered a single question I put to them in either letters or phone calls. They were quite insulting and patronising at times. And it has taken them 7 months to offer a reasonable amount in refund. But they stuck to the 28 day rule when corresponding and when I requested a cheque instead of the laughable vouchers, they sent that very quickly and when I requested the matter be passed to a senior member of staff, this appears to have been done also.
I was claiming for lost wages and prescription charges due to having picked up food poisoning at the sub-standard hotel we were dumped in but legally, I didn't have a hope in hell because I couldn't prove I caught the bug there. I'm realistic enough to understand that.

And finally, if anyone reading this whole thread still thinks that this kind of thing won't happen to them, then for goodness sake take out good insurance, pay for your holiday using your credit card, take extra money for if it does all go wrong and if it does, then come on this website for sound advice and good support.
Best wishes to all who've helped and sympathised with me during this awful few months.
I truly hope no one else EVER has to go through what we have and that every one of you has the best holiday ever.
Jules

Hi Dizzy - I'm so glad you've let us know the outcome of your complaint with Airtours. I remember that you were treated really shoddily when they kept changing your booking, especially with it being your honeymoon, and I hope you're now on the road to full recovery health-wise.

x

Hi,

We can sympathise with all those that have had problems with Airtours. We had the exact same problems in 2001 on a holiday to Dom. Republic. To cut a long story short 22 of us left the hotel (which we had named Colditz). We had to pay to move including our own transfers! but we were so desperate to get out we would do anything. The rest of our holiday was great albeit that we had lost nearly 4 days.

When we returned 3 couples kept in touch and made complaints to Airtours, their replies were both condecending and ignorant. They would not acknowledge that the hotel was not as they had advertised it and said that because we had all booked late deals that was just tough basically. We went to ABTA who were very good and told us that we had a good case. Airtours were contacted by ABTA who still would not give in. We all made the decision to take the case to the artbitrators.................and won the case! Airtours were ordered to pay our money back along with the fee and other expenses. We went to Kenya the next year and the other 2 couples went to Cuba and none of us have been near Airtours again. We have been going to Goa ever since and this year we organised our own flights etc.

I think that because the process can be long and sometimes frustrating Airtours hope that people will cave in and just take what they have offered.

I hope you are on the mend Dizzy and it is such a shame that you had such a special time ruined because of this company's incompetency