I would write and complain to cosmos, it might only be £10 but you were mislead and who knows this mught be a scam by the reps thinking nobody would complain about £10. If you pay to sit together then you should sit together. You don't say who the airline is, if its monarch then that is comos's own airline. It could be they are intitled to sell the setting together but somebody isn't doing their job properly to book the seating. But I would complain and ask for my £10 back.

Mike

The airline was Excel. I definately feel mislead & it was quite embarassing at the airport!

I would definately complain. Doesn't matter if it was only £10. Someones probably making a lot of money dishonestly. I'll be very interested to hear how you get on. Hope you got the name of the rep who sold you the seats.
Good luck

Bridd

With excel you have to pre-book seats before you leave the UK.

I thought that you had to pre-book all seats in the U.K if you wanted to sit together

But yes I would certainly write a letter of complaint. If the rep knows that you would not be sat together then she is misleading you plus all other holiday makers. I know that some reps want to make a fast buck but this is ridiculous

I'm a bit confused here - why are you saying that it is the rep who'd be making the fast buck? I thought all seats were pre-booked in the UK at the time of the original booking with the Tour Operator, and thus they, not the rep at the airport or in the resort would be 'making the fast buck'?

Hi Alsacienne,

If you read through Jo's post again, she does actually say she bought the ticket from the Cosmos rep, therefore he / she being the person who had led her to believe and accepted payment for pre-bookable seats!

All i know is that my cosmos rep handed out a form saying that to pre-allocate seats to guarantee you would be sat together on the trip back you had to pay £5 each to Cosmos the day before you left your hotel & you received a hand written ticket that you handed into the check in desk. But i was all rubbish. We sat together anyway but that had nothing to do with Cosmos.

OHHHH! That's naughty! Good for you Jo - this little money maker needs to reach the ears of the TO. Best of luck with your complaint .

I wonder if it could be the airline staffs scam though?

If they tell the reps we can book seats for you with these tickets etc
then the reps sell them to you not knowing that when you get to the airport the airline staff then deny knowledge and point the finger back at the reps ??

(wonder if its anything like the £10 you have to put in your passport at Dalaman ?)

Askcy,

The £10.00 is a visa charge a system operated in many other countries not just Turkey. We charge everybody leaving the UK £5.00 or £20.00 Air Passenger Duty only difference is we make the airline collect it.

The cost for sitting together a whole different story. In my opinion few people get split up so why pay it but people choose to do so. There is no reason in resort why they cant offer this service but the reps obviously need to be at the check-in to make sure customers are getting what they pay for. Would be worth alerting Cosmos because if it is something they dont do they they would refund and ask some questions of the resort reps. If it is something they do do and the check-in agent was wrong in her knowledge in accepting these notes then i guess they would turn around and say you sat together so go what you paid for.

Kind Regards
Stewart

Yes Jo I would definitely write to Cosmos and put them in the picture. Make it clear that you are not only looking for a refund, but also alerting them to practices by their reps which now appear suspect. Remember to send your letter by recorded delivery, 63p + normal postage I think. They must reply within 28 days.

Let us know how you get on.

luci

The £10.00 is a visa charge a system operated in many other countries not just Turkey. We charge everybody leaving the UK £5.00 or £20.00 Air Passenger Duty only difference is we make the airline collect it.

we were told that it had to be a nice new note and that if we only had a £20 note then we wouldn't be able to pay for two, it would only pay one with no change !!

Edit to activate quote. luci - HT Mod

So you are aware of the fact that it needs to be a realitively new note ( they dont want old ripped ones ) and one £10.00 note per passenger as dont want hassle of giving change ( time consuming and plenty of arguments of I gave you a 20,50 etc you thieveing turkish ..... ), and your problem is ....

Kind Regards
Stewart

If you pay airport charges/visa's its an official thing, I can't imagine its official that we won't give change so if you pay with a £20 we will take £10 and ??

When we went we hadn't been told about this charge by anyone..
It was only a word with someone we bumped into about 2 days before we went that alerted us to it.. otherwise we wouldn't have had any English money with us...

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office website in the travel advice section makes it very clear that holders of UK passports must pay £10 cash per head for their 90 day visitors visa on arrival in Turkey and that it should be an English note because Scottish notes won't be accepted. So, Askcy, unless you're convinced that the FCO is also in on this scam I can't imagine why you think it's a scam or or anything other than an official charge. As for the 'no change' rule, why does that make it suspect either? My local bus company also won't give me change and no doubt rakes it in with all those extra 5p they've had off me over the years when I've forgotten to make sure I've got the right change and had to give the driver a £1 coin for my 95p fare into town :-) It's my problem - I know the rule and appreciate that they do it for convenience and quickness. It doesn't take much imagination on my part to understand why the Turkish immigration authorities would want to do the same for the same reasons.

Life is too short and so are my holidays for me to spend time and energy on looking for a rip-off or scam around every corner. What has happened to us that we have become so obsessed with trying to make sure that 'Johnny Foreigner' doesn't make a penny more out of us than absolutely necessary? Let's not forget that the job description for 'tourist' begins with 'Spend your money to help our economy'. If we don't like the prices we have to pay, we have a simple solution. Stop going or using the services of the TOs etc that take us there and that we think are overcharging us and the market will soon equalise itself.

No, I'm not saying that we shouldn't keep our wits about us and most people who are used to flying on charters would smell a rat about being asked to a tour rep for a pre-allocated seat and, yes, Cosmos do need to be made aware of this. But please let's not adopt as a default position the view that anybody and everybody is always out to rip us off. I live in a small seaside town on the east coast of Scotland and if all our golfing visitors always assumed that we were all trying to rip them off at every opportunity I'm sure that we'd all get very fed-up and resentful and surly with people who complain or try and avoid paying legitimate charges and reasonable prices for the goods and services on offer here.

SM

Not that It's really an issue that I want to push and consider to be a total scam but..

If you came from France and got on this bus near you would you expect to pay in French Currency? (first slightly suspect thing).
When you did pay would you be allowed to us any note that is of legal tender no matter what condition its in (second slightly odd thing, but I can understand they don't want to be trying to collect together lots of raggy notes to get changed at the bank). Now suppose there are two of you in your party and the charge is £10 for the journey, you pull out a £20 note (or what ever country you have come from) and he takes the £20 and then points to your partner and says and her?..and you have to pull out another note this also being a £20 as you haven't anything lower. They won't take 1 £20 for two people which must be easier than having a £10 each (this bit really does seem iffy to me)

Oh an tourist starts with a place being attractive to people, so they want to visit not a place that you should go to just to help out with the ecconomy...

When you're queuing at the Visa desk at the airport take a look at the notice on the wall telling you what all the various nationalities have to pay. I haven't counted but there must be a couple of dozen countries there. With that many different currencies crossing their counters, I can understand why they want to keep it simple.
I don't see the problem providing a tenner per person.
Bridd

its not a problem to provide a £20 for two people either and don't say its extra processing or they can't remember what all the different notes look like as they know a £20 is enough to pay £10 out of!