Why does everyone keep suggesting that the TOs make changes from greed?

It has been pointed out, that in many cases the slots change for reasons beyond their control. Some of these not long before the date booked. Factor in that you advertise a holiday, and fail to attract enough people to make it financially viable, plus a multitude of other reasons, then to be fair, whilst it might not suit us, they have no choice but to make changes.

There would be a bigger outcry if they just cancelled everything.

They are a business with shareholders - some of your pension may depend on them. In business you would like everything to go smooth. It very rarely does in my experience. You rely on other suppliers to do their job efficiently, if they cannot/do not deliver what is asked of them when required then you have problems.

I agree that we find it hard to reconcile their actions, when we are the ones who are effected.

The question of telling people when a change occurs would involve much more than people think. It is not only just your flight/holiday. If they were to do that then even more people could have problems. A flight change could result in enough people cancelling/changing that others, who might accept the change could find their own cancelled.

There is a tendency to think only of yourself, you do need to look at the bigger picture.

Elsewhere on HT there is a thread about Excel - lots of people posting complaining about delays and poor service. I have flown with them for my last five holidays. They have a 100% record of delivering on time.

Of all the thousands of flights and holidays I suspect that most do not have a problem. We only hear about it when someone is not happy.

fwh

I cannot believe the rubbish this spies character is putting out and it hardly surprises me that high street travel agents are losing buisiness to the internet when people like spies are employed there.
The bottom line is that the customer is king today,especially so when the customer can so easily take his buisiness elsewhere if he or she is dissatisfied.
As for this so called compensation culture,it doesnt exist to the extent spies believes is the case,but if a customer believes he has recieved a raw deal he is entitled to complain,and expects his complaints to be taken on board,and recieve compensation if necessary without being ridiculed for doing so.
A couple of hours change in a flight time is an inconvenience,in fact a hellish inconvenience.
I travel with budget airlines frequently and they are generally punctual,and in the event that an airline goes out of buisiness we are comforted by the fact we have purchased insurance.
As for booking with an abta bonded operator ,there are different types of bonded schemes and the customer will not automatically book with abta bonded members especially with the reduced protection they now offer.
I hope the person who is upset that the flight times for her holiday have changed, learn from her experience and book elsewhere in future.

Biggest load of piffle i have read yet

Its easy to say that just because you have never had a poor experience travelling with XL and that your perception of high street travel agents is a positive one,but some people do experience difficulties and encounter terrible customer service and have justifiable cause for complant and as I have said should have their complaints dealt with thouroughly and not fobbed off.
And as for booking with the internet and experiencing problems,i had a rather unpleasant experience in Ibiza last year for which i was compensated within a fortnight and as a result would not hesitate to book with them again,after all they did investigate our complaints and valued our custom.
High street travel agents while not having a monopoly on bad customer service arent blameless either,after all they do charge high supplements,change accomodation and flights without reasonable notice,change airports,operate inconvenient night flights with the alternative being another huge supplement and have a poor reputation for covering themselves in small print on the back of a brochure while making outlandish claims on the inside,in addition they do tend to charge over the odds for package holidays and screw you with insurance.
While I have stated that high street travel agents do not have a monopoly on bad practice,it is the duty of this forum and of those who have had bad experienced difficulties to complain,otherwise nothing will ever change and the paying customer will continue to be treated with contempt.

Samsung - that was uncalled for!

This thread is in danger of becoming locked.

Why cant everyone be civil to each other. Let's face it people have different opinions and as such these should be respected.

Kath HT Admin

hi...kath.........your comments are spot on .
whats to stop people airing theirs views,and many of others have our own ideas .but there is no call for people to be rude to each other.
regards......john-doe...................

Having only had a good experience with Excel in no way suggests that I think they are better than others. It only says I have not had a problem. I will be flying with them again this year - you never know I may change my opinion of them.

I neither endorse nor castigate the high street agents, or the TOs. I have had good ones and bad. If you read through the posts here on HT as well as other sites, you find that people have good and bad experiences with them all.

The fact that we both may book the same holiday, and mine is the one from hell, only shows how diverse our expectations may be.

Some claim booking direct on the internet is best, yet there are also many who have found to their cost that is not so. We each have our own experiences and preferences.

Supplements charged by high street agents are only being passed on from the TOs - elsewhere we have advised people with children to book them as adults to avoid supplements. It really is a case of understanding the system in many cases.

Insurance of any kind is something people view as a necessary evil, yet have something go wrong (I have) then it is a lifeline.

T&Cs are not as some might think a means of wriggling out of responsibilities. They do protect you as well as the operator. When you are able to use them to your advantage you congratulate yourself for being astute. When they work against you then everyone cries foul.

Buying a holiday is in no way different than buying a fridge. a car or a house. There are always T&Cs that apply - the fact you personally do not have to use them does not mean that others do not. Ask trading Standards if you want proof.

Customers are not treated with contempt. In most cases the problems are exacerbated by poorly organised customer relations departments (as well as the attitude of some staff - which applies with all businesses) and customers who have expectations far in excess of what are reasonable.

I do not defend TOs and Agents, but I am realistic and experienced enough to understand that they cannot please everyone, no matter how hard they might try.

fwh

What was uncalled for ? piffle isnt rude.

Noun
piffle

nonsense; foolish talk

Samsung, I don't need an explanation on what piffle means and I am certainly not going to get enter a debate in this topic about the t&c of the site.

If you don't want to abide by the rules that's fine. Feel free to contact me by pm if you wish me to rescinder your membership.

Kath HT Admin

The main complaint with flight changes seem to be when folk pay a big supplement to travel during the day at say 10.00 am. Supplements for this are often up to 50 pounds per person.

The flight is then cancelled/consolidated for whatever reason.

There is then a choice of a 6.05am (check in 03.05am :shock:) or 2pm (check in 11am) flight.

Nine times out of ten the customer is given the 6.05am one which they could have booked in the first place and saved 200 quid if 4 are travelling.

I fail to see how this senario is ever fair to the customer. I don't feel the 'compensation culture' arguement people are putting forward on this one is valid at all.

Folk just want to be treated fairly.

Well said Doe that is exactley what i said in an earlier post, people pay big big supplements to travel when its convenient for them but i wouldnt think they get any reduction of these supplements when flight changes are made to a flight were the supplement is lower. Cheers Jayjan

well put doe. mo.

Hi - totally agree doe - as someone else mentioned why shouldn't we get what we payed for?

I booked to go to benidorm last august with direct hols from leeds/brad (Which is only a 15 min journey by taxi), lovely day flights. On the day of arrival got to leeds aiport only to be told our flight had been cancelled, and we would be travelling from Manchester, (Which incedently we could could have booked in the first place - for over a 100 pound less), and the great day flights had changed to a horrible night flight, (Again we could have booked the horrendous night flight and saved about 40 pound person)

Direct holidays didn't want to know, we wrote several letter's over about 6 months, but it was like banging my head on a brick wall,- they didn't want to know.

We have never booked with them since.

WOW

Three people agreeing with me. I feel all happy.

Sorry to go a bit but (my personl view only) I feel there is a lot of poor practice in the travel industry, and this thread illustrates it. The consumer has very few rights as I see it and the ones they do have are had to enforce withour a huge battle.

I love a holiday brochure as much as the next person, but the other day I though.

a) The prices in them mean virtually nothing. They bear no relation to
what you pay. You have to ring up, check on the net, or go into a
travel agents to find out what you will pay.

b) The flight times appear to mean little as it seems for most people
they change (to something worse).

c) I then found myself wondering if the lovely pictures of the pools etc
were up to date or actually 10 years old. How would we know?

Sorry. Rant over.

Doe.

There is then a choice of a 6.05am (check in 03.05am ) or 2pm (check in 11am) flight.

Nine times out of ten the customer is given the 6.05am one which they could have booked in the first place and saved 200 quid if 4 are travelling.

One point, you would pay a higher supplement for a 06:05 flight then you would for an 11:00 or 14:00 departure.

I had a customer travelling with Cyplon changed from morning flights to evening flights via with a tech stop in Pafos on the way. Cyplon would not refund the flight supplement which is unfair but a 3 hour flight change isn't unfair.

Well I suppose you are the expert.

But it isn't my experience of looking through travel brochures/web sites that earlier flights cost more than later ones, and it doesn't seem to be the experience of many others on here.

I'd sooner fly on a 11.00 or 14.00 flight than the 06.00 flight. The majority of accommodation wont allow you in the room or villa until 14.00 or 15.00 for cleaning purposes, so what do you do hang around with cases, kids and what-else, very stressfull. Jayjan

Hi all, I too have never ever come accross an afternoon flight being cheaper, than an early morning flight - never!

Only a couple of weeks ago I booked for other half and a few mates to go to benidorm - He had a choice of 2 flight times - a flight leaving at 01.50 was coming up at 29.99! where as the flight (they chose) leaving at 10.50 was 69.99p!

Only once did I ever book a night flight , this was the first and last time I ever did, (and only because it was much cheaper - and our first time abroad!!), - never again, , - we had to be out of our rooms by 10 in morning, and coach wasn't picking us up until after midnight, - total nightmare (Especially as our youngest was only about 5 then!)

Give me a nice mid morning/afternoon flight anyday!

Regards, BBB

i agree with chris & bellyballyboo, i go on planes around 5-6 times a year and never have i paid more for an early morning or evening flight ,only the day time flights and thats travelling to different places too so not sure where spies got this info from

Usually early morning or horrible night flights will be cheaper than day flights, not more.