Thomson Will Not Pay - Holiday Complaints, Holiday Forums

Thomson Will Not Pay

cletus1

2010-01-11 04:52:52

We were supposed to fly to Barbados on Wed morning owing to the bad weather the flight was delayed, and then further delayed to be honest I am a realist and understand that the tour op has no control over the weather
Anyway after no less than eight successive reschedules and sixteen hours delay from the original flight time at round 2330 we were taken to the gate area to board the plane only to be told to return to the departure lounge as the pilot had now gone over his hours (I fully support this one and would not want to get on a plane with a pilot suffering fatigue) one of the air handling staff arrived at 01:00 told us that the flight would not depart until 09:00 the rep from Thomson handed us an information sheet on their letterhead I have attached a copy on the link below on the basis of being handed the form I made my decision not to travel, as at that time I knew nothing about the Montreal convention or any other EU statutes

http://i817.photobucket.com/albums/zz95/cletus0898/form.jpg

if we had stayed that would have meant some 24 hrs of delay not including the 2 hours we arrived early prior to the flight so we decided sixteen hours was enough So we asked to be escorted back to land side to collect or luggage as we did not see the point of flying out for only six days feeling shattered on the first day

At no point did anyone offer a hotel, indeed when we rang the tour ops control centre they told us that all the hotels where full, which was a lie as we had already checked on a couple of popular hotel booking websites and confirmed availability we could not get anything to eat as most of the north terminal departures was closed, throughout the entire process none provided any information it was a very bad experience

have tried to claim the cost of the flight back from the tour op but am having problems
This holiday was booked as a package tour and the tour op is now claiming that the flight part of the holiday was only £160 each The ticket and invoices only show the price for the entire holiday
I believe we have been tread very badly!

During the last telephone conversation Thomson's are now saying they will give me nothing and to go to my insurers, they know I have the form above because they asked me to fax it to them.

Edited by MarkJ 2010-01-11 05:24:23
To fix link

MarkJ

2010-01-11 05:23:56

Re: Thomson Will Not Pay

I do feel for you.

£160 for the flights? How much was the total cost for the holiday per person?

Have you looked at your travel insurance?

I have fixed your link to the Thomson letter.

Mark

SMa

2010-01-11 10:17:42

Re: Thomson Will Not Pay

At no point did anyone offer a hotel,

But they did - the information sheet at the link you provide clearly states that you were entitled to a hotel. Did you request this of the Thomson rep at the airport before you asked to be escorted airside and decided to ask for a refund? Most TOs seem to work on the formula that the flights represent 40% of the total cost of a package which suggests that the total package cost £400 per head which sounds low for a week in Barbados.

The regulations you refer to as set out in the information leaflet only apply to the flight element of your holiday - you would need to check with your insurers re all all other elements and they MIGHT regard the fact that you chose to request a refund rather than flight out a day later as an indicator of 'disinclination to travel' which isn't usually coverred in most holiday insurance.

SMa

cletus1

2010-01-11 11:20:51

Re: Thomson Will Not Pay

Hi,

Thanks for the replies...

The form was not handed to us until 1am we had been at the airport for around eighteen hours at that point, and yes we did request a hotel before asked to go landslide we where told they where all full which was lies the total cost of the holiday for seven nights was £2060

MarkJ

2010-01-11 22:40:05

Re: Thomson Will Not Pay

cletus1 wrote:
the total cost of the holiday for seven nights was £2060

So they claim the flight portion of the cost is £320 which is 15%.

Tour Operators usually claim that 40% of the overall cost are for flights.

Something doesn't add up here. They are either having you on or having others on that try to claim for compensation non flight related :que

Mark

Aliceadventures

2010-01-12 10:27:06

Re: Thomson Will Not Pay

Do not accept the small flight refund at present.

Even Monarch's (charter) cheapest fare to the Caribbean is over £400 each. £160 would just about cover the Tax on the fare.

Please consider these things.

1. Your holiday insurance may cover you for "abandonment of holiday" if your flight is delayed over 12 hours (some are less). So you could claim back the 'holiday' cost. Next time check the words in the policy cover this.

2. Have Thomson offered an alternative holiday to be taken at a later date? The may ask for more money, do not accept unless you are happy to do so. Some travel date restrictions may apply and a time delay to take the option - ie to be taken within the next 'however many' months etc.

3. You are not alone. Other operators with passengers affected by snow delays/cancellations have done this. I'm sure it's not right.

A friend who had booked a Virgin Holiday to Antigua online on as a holiday package had the flight cancelled (6 Aug / snow) was offered and alternative at an additional cost (refused) after trying to contact them (response took 4 days) or told they could have the flight cost refunded, but would have to claim the hotel cost off their travel insurance. This doesn't make sense if it was a holiday, why refund one and not the hotel?

I can understand that the hotels in the destination have to be paid (no shows) and it is not right for their hotel businesses to suffer because of our snow (some are small family run businesses). But Tour Ops would be able to transfer the hotel booking to a later date or pay the client a refund, you'd think?

Your contract is with the company you paid, in this case the Tour Op and they should now try and rebook you an alternative or refund you the holiday cost. I don't expect the Insurance company will. Please let us know if they do.

The fact is that passengers who booked just the flights direct with British Airways and even easyjet and were given notification of a flight cancellation, were offered an alternative flight or a full refunded. It was all bookable online.

I hope you get a refund that covers your expense.

Sunaddict

2010-01-12 15:05:51

Re: Thomson Will Not Pay

We had a delay with Thomson a couple of years ago. After 5 hours we were told that we could cancel and recoup the cost of the flights. They stated that this was £85.00 per person - for a holiday to Jamaica.
When we got home and made a claim from them, we factored in the costs of the flight, £170 and deducted that before claiming for lost holiday time etc.

Laura1988

2010-01-12 19:50:02

Re: Thomson Will Not Pay

This would fall under 'abandonment' with your travel insurance.

leisurelad

2010-01-12 19:51:38

Re: Thomson Will Not Pay

Hi,

Thought i would add my little bit here as i use to work as a duty manager at the airport. It was a few years ago now but whenever we had a long delay, the regulations use to say that after 5 hours, providing that the trip no longer serves any purpose then if you want to voluntarilly offload yourselves then you may do so and we will refund the cost of the one way flight. The remainder would need to be claimed off your insurance if applicable.
We use to have a chart and a list of destinations whereby it ranged from£40 for say a short flight to the canary islands up to about £140 for a long haul flight to say Dominican Republic.
Because the cost of the actual flight element of the package isn't listed seperately as a cost on your ticket then this is what they would pay out.
If this ever happened on my shift i use to be blantly honest with them and say that it is not worth doing it and i use to show them the chart and how it worked for the charter airline. Totaly understood the clients situation but i think the main problem is that alot of the agents probably don't understand the rules and the way in which charter airlines work.

Sad state of affairs really but though i would add my bit as it may help clarify what they were trying to say.

Thanks

MarkJ

2010-01-12 20:00:09

Re: Thomson Will Not Pay

That stil begs the question when the boot is on the other foot, how TO's can claim that 40% of the total holiday cost is attributable to the flight :que

They surely can't have it both ways.

Mark

cletus1

2010-01-12 20:45:50

Re: Thomson Will Not Pay

Got a phone call this afternoon from TUI, not the office I had been dealing with up to this point; they have had a change of heart and are now offering a holiday of the same value i.e. a full refund flight and hotel
As I want a holiday we are off again, just hoping doesn't snow in Feb!!! lol

Shame they did not offer this on day one or two or three !!

shrimper

2010-01-12 23:10:39

Re: Thomson Will Not Pay

Great result. Shame they did not offer this on day one or two or three !!!!

Aliceadventures

2010-01-13 08:51:05

Re: Thomson Will Not Pay

Good news. It could be that they weren't sure of how to handle it straight away. I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt rather than think they were trying to pass the buck.

Again, lots of cancellations and delays at major UK airports today because of the UK snow.

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