How was the flight booked, was it all on one ticket or did he make two separate bookings?

Did he book it himself on the internet or via a travel agent?

luci

HI,

No he booked it all through Southall Travel, the flight details only have all BA flight numbers. Southall Travel say there is nothing they can do.

I would say, go back to Southall Travel and get them to sort it out. That is what you pay a travel agent for, to sort out any problems.

He should visit or call them and ask to speak to a manager.

Failing that, BA should sort it out if it is all on one ticket with them and they booked the connection with Kingfisher.

I shall move this topic to our Complaints forum where it may get a better response.

Keep us posted.

luci

Many thanks Lucy, but he is on his way to Goa now, so may be a couple of days until I hear from him, but of course I will keep you updated. Many thanks for your help.

Hi,

Sorry about the delay but my friend has been on holiday in goa. When he got to heathrow he went to the BA desk who sorted out the flight problem , so he thought everything was ok. On Friday he went to got airport, and you guessed it no flight. They took him aside into another office and they went through all the booking with him, and it seems ba booked the flight say at 10.30 and by 12.00am southhall travel cancelled the flight. The outcome was he had to pay 150 for his flight to mumbai, as he had to pay for lst class travel on Air India as that is all they had left, theyalso held the flight for him. So he is home now but £150.00 out of pocket. He phoned southall travel who told him to email the customer car line (of which there is none) as they would not deal with him over the phone. So he is just waiting now for their response. What would any of you recommend? Do any of you know anything about things like this?

Many thanks for your help.

Is Southall Travel IATA, or ABTA bonded? If so, go through the professional bodies. If not, possibly a matter of the small claims court .... GOOD LUCK whatever your friend decides to do, and at least he got to Goa, though with a financial sting in the tail.

Oh incidentally, make sure that all communications with Southall Travel on this matter are made by RECORDED DELIVERY (signed-for service) and don't be surprised if it takes some time to resolve.

Personally I would contact Trading Standards/Consumer Direct before contacting Southall Travel and seek their advice. Contact details can be found here. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/index.htm

From personal experience I have found that gets results.

fwh

Any correspondence should be written and not emailed and as said, sent by a signed for service so that he will have proof that they received it.

My friend Hudo has been telling you of my predicament with Southall Travel. I rand them again this morning and asked to speak with a manager, as expected, no one available, so asked to speak to K**, as she was the one who cancelled our seats back to Mumbai. She was "busy on the phone " but would call me back within the hour. Still waiting 8 hours on. Contacted C.A.B. this morning, and they are passing the details on to Trading Standards. steve n.

P.S, thanks fwh for your advice, and Hudo for pointing me in the right direction x

We had a similar issue with our goa flights last year with return leg booked with Kingfisher. But it was promptly taken care of by Southall. We had teh ticket but the airlines didnt seem to have our info in their system. Booking history showed flights were cancelled by the airline. For us, BA was not very helpful and they would direct us to southall and wouldnt sort the problem when they could have. What kind of a rule is it that if you have booked with the agent you have to go back to the agent for all the service. Its the airline who operates the flight and they should try to help the passengers. Luckily we didnt have to pay anything. And if i am not wrong Kingfisher has now ceased operations with so many people complaining about not getting refunds.

hi,

My friend is still waiting for his money, as this has been since mar/april. It is like a game of tennis backwards and forwards but with no-one paying any money.

Any one have advice my friend would be really grateful.

I have also had a negative experience with Southall Travel and I would advise travellers to avoid this company and book directly with the airline where possible. They advertised the lowest rate flight on their website, which we booked with a debit card. Several hours later we received a phone call to say that due to a technical issue they couldn't accept the debit card payment and we would need to remake the payment via bank transfer. I said that obviously we couldn't do that until they had refunded the original payment. They also said that they couldn't guarantee to hold the flight at the rate we had paid.

Leaving aside the professional legality/competence of their behaviour, we then had to deal with a series of phone calls from different members of their staff none of whom were able to resolve the issue to our satisfaction. In the end we asked for our money back. We received a refund, and booked directly with the airline, by which time we had wasted a week and the fares had gone up £100.

Sadly, the days of the honest and helpful bucket travel shop are long gone. Don't waste your time with these guys.

Southall Travel were never "helpful" and when working at FC in UK a number of years ago in the Customer Service department, we used to dread getting them on the phone...

Has anyone had any recent experiences in booking with Southall Travel - I've sen some real bad stories on their practices?

G

Avoid Southall Travel like the Plague, I booked with them to go to Miami with Virgin Atlantic and then hurricane Irma happened. Virgin Atlantic have issued a mandate on their website which states that people flying to Florida can rebook for a later date and change of destination at no extra cost. I have called southall travel customer services (no direct number by the way) and they take a call and say we will get back to you and never do. I have been on the phone constantly and they do not acknowledge the information that Virgin Atlantic have put out on their website. The underlining statement is they want to charge me money for the change when its clearly none chargeable. They want to capitalize on the back of this disaster, shows you what kind of a company they are ! If you get in a problem then they are as helpful as a chocolate tea pot and will be thinking of how they can make money from that situation. They are worse than a cowboy outfit ..... PLEASE AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS !!!!

Guy STAY AWAY... This company is the biggest con company ever, they never give you good deals you forceful sales techniques and have the rudest sale advisors, a manager is never available to talk to and they drag it out so you have no option but to loose money. We booked a ticket and within 30 mins recieved bad new meaning we could not fly, contacted then hr later to cancel for a refund and they refused. Guys if you are in a similar situation please reach out to me. I will be taking them to UK watch dog etc and having article printed in local mags and papers. All credicard payment people please do a charge back.. Bank will pull ur money back from their account, it also damages their credit files by doing this and make the time that they receive money into their account longer and classed as hi risk

Would your travel insurance not cover it?