well, im not too keen on them, we were told we were getting a 5* hotel in rhodes, and it looked all well and good on the net etc.. but when we got there it had recently had its name changed, and there were loads of bad reviews before its name had been changed, and the hotel was diabolical to say the least. definitely no more than a 2 star, take what their sales staff say with a pinch of salt and do your homework - make sure you check reviews!

Caroline & Kirsten

I would say there no more than ok. You pay for what you get. Their cheap but occasionally nasty.

regards

Stew

My girlfriend and i were at manchester for the 11.15 alexandair flight to kos.Arrived at 9.00 cued for check in but before they allowed us to do so we were first told there was no crew to fly the plane and we would receive more info at 1.00pm.
At approximately 11.30 we were told more info would be given at 3.00pm.At approximately 5.00pm we were gathered together and told there was a mechanical problem with the plane and it had to fly to milan for repairs.Although we were booked on an all inclusive no refreshment vouchers were offered throughout the day.
We were then told we had to stay in a hotel in manchester,after a bit of a wait we travelled there by coach.A rep appeared at the hotel and told us we would be given a meal and would be picked up at 10.30-11 in the morning.
With 140 passengers cueing at 7.30 for a meal it was horrendous,after this we had a couple of drinks in the hotel bar at our own cost and retired to bed.
Following morning was another cue out of the hotel for breakfast at 9.30 which obviously took ages but we still had to be out of our rooms for 10.30.While 140 fed up passengers sat around the lobby still no rep appeared.Calls to sunstar were answered by sales but when directed to admin/complaints the phone was'nt picked up.
Cowardly sunstar then rung the poor guy on the hotel desk to tell him to tell us we would be flying at 8.00pm possibly.Here's where communication with sunstar ended.No coach was laid on for the airport or anything so we were all stuck in the lobby wondereding what to do.
One guest managed to contact the actual airline who said there was no chance of a flight at 8pm that day.
By 12 noon some passengers gave up and went saying they would cancel so we checked our insurance and it said after 24 hours delay we could too.We then tried ringing them to confirm but they were closed .Tried sunstar and still no reply from the admin side but the sales staff told us to claim on our insruance as it was nothing to do with them now!We then thought we would take a taxi to airport to find a sunstar rep to cancel.No sign of anyone there so we went to the airport agency desk as we were advised to do by a fellow passenger.The bored lady there took our names and advised us in doing so we would be covered for a refund through our insurance.
We eventually left the airport at around 2.30pm after a delay of 27 and a half hours from our departure time.Tried sunstar again to inform then,again no admin would take our call and the sales staff wouldn't take our information.
Arrived home exhausted,stressed and upset and a lot poorer.We phoned our insurance company on monday to be told we couldn't claim as we hadn't checked in,explained we weren't allowed to but to no avail.Up to press we are over 1000 pounds worse off and have a lot of legal wrangles to look forward to.
I also phoned to manchester hotel we stayed in out of interest on sunday to see how the remaining passengers were getting on,apparantly they were flying early monday morning.Rang the hotel back on monday and apparntly they were going monday night at 7pm which according to this thread they eventually did.I feel so sorry for them and hope they enjoy their remaining4 days of holiday.
Would be really grateful if anyone could offer us any advice.

Just returned 70 hours late from a theoretical 5 star holiday in Kos with Sunstar Leisure, who used Alexandair airline.
Totally disgusted at the service provided by Sunstar (they took the booking, so ultimately responsible) with regard to this delay, inaccurate updates throughout, with lies and avoidance tactics, combined with an antiquated aircraft that was at least cosmetically poorly maintained, (broken tables, seats, lights etc) and had in fact made an emergency landing in Milan on one engine, as the other had according to the media, burst into flames!! but it was the only aircraft owned by Alexandair, (Sunstar agent said it was one of three and had slight technical problems) later admitted the truth, so lies, lies, LIES.
We need to all mount a mass claim against Sunstar, Alexandair, Indigo Travel, and Trust accomodation, to ensure that the buck is not passed and that the public are not ever subjected to this type of abuse and stress ever again.
Please contact me so that we may arrange a joint effort.

Edit to remove email addresses and coloured font as per T&C's. Please use PM facility for contact. luci HT Mod

Hi GarethTS and welcome to HT!

Perhaps you would like to contact Ros Fernihough travel law solicitor, details HERE, for free impartial advice.

You may also wish to download the Safe and Sound booklet which explains your rights which is available by clicking on the link in my signature.

luci

DO NOT stay with Sunstar Leisure. Their pictures and discriptions can be misleading. All inclusive doesn't necessarily mean all day - in fact, the hotel we are in is only all inclusive for bar snacks and ice cream for 1 hr!

Other than at their meal times you have to pay for your food and trust me, even at meal times you would wish you ordered delivery pizza.

There are various problems that I won't go into - but include food, pool, cleanliness etc - however, the worst of it is their customer service. They do not answer their phones and when you do get through they ask you to call back as they have no information.

They are an incredibly frustrating operation - DO NOT BOOK WITH THEM

*Edit to remove libellous comment -Glynis*

Oh dear!! All this negative information came too late and we have now booked through Sunstar!!! But on a positive note, I did do a lot of research on the Hotel we are staying in and on the cruise ship (We are also going on a cruise down the Nile) and all the reviews etc. are VERY good. Hopefully we can be the exception to the norm and have a very nice time.
Ps. We were told when I booked this holiday that Sunstar are owned by the Daily Mail group, is this correct??

What hotel are you staying in in egypt? there should be a lot of info on the egypt forum! and also if you know the name of the cruise boat, someone may know it. Who are you flying with? if youre not sure you should be able to work it out from your flight number.

Caroline & Kirsten

The hotel is the Sonesta St. George in Luxor, loads of reviews on this, all good! The cruise ship is the Ms TiYi, no reviews at all on this boat, but their own web site looks good (?)
Can't see how SunStar could mess things up???

the hotel is a well known one, so you will be ok there, did you find out who you were flying with?

Caroline & Kirsten

Have found out that the airline is Excel, are they any good?

You shouldnt have any trouble with excel, ive flown with them a few times a few years ago, and found them to be one of the best charter flights ive taken and i get away quite a bit! food and service was good. you can check out their site at http://www.XL.com you might be able to find out bit more about them there. ignore the PM i read it befoe your post!

Caroline & Kirsten

We Booked with them 10 weeks before travel.
But they did not bother telling us that our Hotel booking was never booked. They did not tell us at the airport or at the hotel (that we thought we were staying at) they finaly turned up atfer 5 phone calls 14 hours after we landed.To tell us to move to a hotel 90 km away that they had never visted or knew where it was. It got worse after this !

Hi,

I am tempted to book a holiday with this company for summer next year - but dont seem to be able to find out much about them, apart from a couple of negative reviews. As there is quite a large family group, dont want to let anyone in my party down if it all goes wrong but at the moment they are beating all other quotes we have recieved by miles. (For my family of 4 there is 600 pound difference). We are hoping to go to the hotel Jupiter - Alcuida, which again I know gets mixed reviews but at least we know what we are expecting - so what else could go wrong!??! Or shouldnt I ask?! I also noted there was no ABTA logo on the ad but they are ATOL protected - what does this mean? Please help...

DAWN457
- have you thought about booking flights,hotel and transfers separately - we can usually beat Sunstar by about £300 (2 adults /2 children).

If you have quite a large party I would recommend you investigate it - though you do need to devote quite a bit of computer time to do your research !
Have alookat the DIY board.

Friends of mine went to Crete at Oct half term with Sunstar and were very disappointed as the hotel was being packed up around them... they complained but nothing was done. They even had to leave the hotel on the last day and go to another as their hotel shut down completely !

oh dear!! well we decided against booking with these in the end and have now booked with broadway travel - fingers crossed!!

Dawn457 - we have used Broadway travel (they often act as agents for Medhotels but are cheaper !) several times with no problems at all

hi, i was wondering if any1 can help me out. i was on the flight from zakynthos to manchester that made the emergency landing in italy, i have emailed the company several times about claiming but still i get no reply. where can i go to make a claim?

thanks guys