hi Alison,

I can understand how you must be feeling, because we had a very simialr experience, (More of less identical to yours - but with my travel)

Suppose to have been flying from leeds to alicante, 6 in morning, got to check in got told the flight had been cancelled (Due to weather conds - and the aircraft had to divert to france on the way back to leeds - well, so they were telling us!!), coaches would be waiting to take us to manchester,where we were would be departing at 2 in afternoon, (Finally gets to manchester) - no information at all, infact they didn't seem to have a clue! 2oclock came, then 3, , only then did they supply us with a £5 voucher, stood in queue for food, then announcement was made that we were boarding! Boarded the plane, plane set off down runway, at this point I said to other half "This plane's going too slow, to take off, ", as soon as I had finished saying that, the captain announced to the staff that they were to get to their "Positions", the plane screached to a halt, (Extremely scary - woman were crying, as were the kids! - included myself ), told to get back off aircraft while the engineer's looked at the plane!, got on back on an hour and half later,(at this point my stomach was in knots, and little lad was crying - thinking plane was not safe).gets back on a couple of hours later, We then had to wait nearly an hour while 7 passengers bags were unloaded (as they refused to get back on aircraft). Finally set off at 5.55 .

To put the icing on the cake ,we couldn't claim anything as we were just in the 12 hours delay. (11 hrs 55 mins!). Instead of getting to hotel around dinner, we got there after midnight! What an absolute nightmare!, and have never booked with my travel since. Wrote numerous compaints (Over a period of 6 months), but gave up in the end,- as we were not getting anywhere!

This sort of experience does put a dampner on the start of your hols, and I'm glad you enjoyed your holiday/accomodation, when you finally got there!

Regards, BBB

We flew with Thomson last year to Lanzarote. The original flight time was 6:55am, this was changed to 9:30am when we received our tickets. On arriving at Manchester there was a 5hr 30 min delay due to 'Technical' problems and we eventually took of at 4pm, arrival in Lanzarote 9pm.

On the return flight, guess what, on arrival at Ariciffe airport, we were informed that we had a 5hr 30 min delay due to 'Technical' problems and to rub Coincidence onto Coincidence the flight from UK landed at 9pm, we saw it through the terminal window.

We also wrote and complained to Thomsons but did not get anywhere, so this year and from now on we will not fly Thomson, there are enough other operators out there.

OMG. This brings back memories.
Flying from Manchester to Tenerife for Xmas, we went over the Pennines in the afternoon at snail speed in a taxi due to fog and were supposed to fly around 8 pm.
Looking out from the windows at Manchester airport, we could see the fog getting denser as the evening drew in, ( why didn't they close the airport then.?)
At 11.55 pm having had no information, they announced that we would be taken to Birmingham by coach, so at 5am we were still in Birmingham Airport instead of being in bed in Tenerife and finally arrived in our hotel totally shattered around dinner time (local time)

Same thing coming home 2 weeks later, most of the UK was fog bound and Manchester Airport was closed, so we had to land at Newcastle, but had a Spanish pilot who was not able to land in fog (no idea why), so we had to land in Luton for this "officer" to come on board, then take off again to Newcastle.

The fog had been causing disruptions all day long and most of the coach drivers had done their permitted hours driving throughout the day, therefore only two coaches could move passengers from Newcastle and that's when the "riot" started in the airport, people really "lost it" big time"¦only those with children could board the coaches.
Luckily we had our 10 year old son with us and we got away on one of the coaches crawling on the motor-way back to Manchester, where the arranged taxi had been waiting most of the night managed to collapse into bed around 9 am and vowed never to fly again.

Those two dates were the only time Manchester Airport was closed that year.!
December 1991 and we were given nothing the airline was Monarch.

Sorry that you've had to experience a similar scenario 15 years later, but I personally like Thomson flights/aircraft...just don't like Thomson prices for their package holidays and avoided them for a few years because of this.

I don't think you can slate a company because of one bad experience, the Weather, Air Traffic Control and Technical Problems are sometimes beyond Thomson's or any other Airlines control....No one likes to be delayed, especially me
From my experience, it is the total lack of communication on a regular basis from the relevant sources, that "winds" passengers up.

I hope you had a good holiday despite this.

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

I'm sorry to hear your holiday got off to such a bad start, alison

but sanji you are right.

travel delays are really frustrating, especially when you see your hard-earned and well-deserved week or fortnight's break being frittered away in an airport.....

and especially when you aren't kept well informed as to what's going on...

and also when the coach drivers aren't available...

but at the end of the day, safety must come first, and bad weather is no respecter of our holidays

We were flying with Spanair from Southampton to Majorca one August. The flight was due to take off at approx 10pm......During the evening it pelted with rain. The incoming flight did not arrive.....we watched the arrivals screens...then suddenly it disappeared from the screens.

It had landed at Gatwick, because Southampton airport has a short runway, and the pilot wanted more leeway in the wet.

So we had to reclaim our baggage and wait. They were going to ship us all up to Gatwick...but there were no coaches available because it was the end of Cowes week and all local coaches were involved in that. So the staff scrambled as many taxis as they could...and we all made our way to gatwick in the rain, a journey which, by booking from Southampton, we'd all hoped to avoid!!

Our flight took off at about 3 am, and we arrived in resort at about 7am feeling exhausted.

I think nearly everybody who has flown has a story like this....it is annoying, but there's nothing you can do about it.

I would imagine that Alison is entitled to compensation as her flight was delayed over 12 hours.

I dont think compensation applies due to weather. There maybe a claim of your holiday insurance.

Kind Regards
Stewart

I'd agree with Stewart on this. A "considerable" delay caused by the carrier resulting in, say, a night's accommodation lost in resort does permit you to make a claim against the tour operator.

Weather and other genuinely unforeseen events would exonerate the tour operator. Some technical faults might not if, say, they were likely to arise. A decent example of that might be a crew out-of-hours issue.

A snowbound airport is not foreseeable.

I am often amazed though by the ineptitude of the carriers/tour ops. when dealing with these situations. OK, snow cannot be avoided but training in how to deal with 200+ delayed passengers can surely minimise the problems so often reported.

Airports experience closures/delays/aircraft cancellations - why can't they have dedicated staff able to step-in and help passengers - their costs being billed to the carrier/tour operator?

EU regs now require carriers to provide food, water, accommodation (in some circumstances) and INFORMATION about your rights. So often these basics are either not provided directly (vouchers issued instead) or inadequately provided.

I believe the travelling public would be far more understanding of the situation were the carrier/tour op. to provide accurate and regular information and perhaps be less concerned with minimising their own costs and more concerned with ensuring their customer's comfort.

I must confess that some of my customer care skills were improved by the TOs.

Like many others I have sat in airports wondering what was happening. No information and the reps noticeable by their absence, or when they were there not given a straight answer.

I always insisted that the customer was kept informed, even if I could not give them positive news. At least they knew they were not forgotten.

Some progress has been made in recent years with regard to meals and accommodation, but that has taken legislation.

There would be far less claims for compensation if we were told the facts. People are funny that way; they will put up with a great deal of inconvenience without complaint rather than be fobbed off with the usual waffle.

fwh

I have am not complaining because of the bad weather, it is the way we were treated by Thomsons that aggrieves me. They made the decision to bus us to East Midlands when this airport had been closed all day too, and then to employ bus drivers who through no fault of their own could not complete the journey as they had worked their maximum hours. For such a large long established company you would have thought that Thomsons would have better communication and organisational skills.
At the end of the day we had a good holiday, but there were many more people on our flight who were only holidaying for 7 nights and were actually catching a cruise from Tenerife which left without them, and after a 14 hour delay had another 8 hours to sail to catch up with the ship.

I'm wondering if the problems that were faced by the original Poster can be placed on the shoulders of Thomsons alone, or on The World Of Tui which Thomsons is now a part of?

We always travel with Thomsons and have only ever had cause to complain once and my complaint was dealt with and I received the compensation that I had requested. In fact my family and I will only ever book and travel with Thomsons now.

I did prefer the old Britannia Flights though, as opposed to the new ThomsonFLY flights.

But as someone has said, should you really stop using a Company simply because of one bad experience

Blaming Thomsons for the drivers running out of hours is unfair. The drivers would be employed by a company that is contracted to carry out the transfer. The name on the bus does not always mean what it says. Depending where they originated, from then it is the fault of the bus company for not checking the drivers has sufficient hours left to complete the journey.

The transferring of passengers by coach from one airport to another is not cost effective. The decision to do so would be based on the advice that Thomsons were given regarding the weather conditions and forecast. If anyone should be blamed it is the airport authorities who, as with many local authorities, and other organisations and companies, cannot cope when we have snow.

But then even the general public seem to use it as an excuse for a day off. They do of course expect that others will be at work if they have a problem.

If we are to have global warming and extreme weather change, the response in cases such as yours does auger well.

fwh

BHIC,
I will never use them again.I've said that four times now but this is the fifth and final time. I have had several bad expreiences with them all down to building work which they either didn't bother to tell us about or were very vague. We have had to change our holiday completely this year because of them. Oh no, never again.

When a package is booked the tour operator is ultimately responsible for the level of service provided by the sub-contractors. This would include the carrier, the hotel, the transfer company, car-hire (iff booked at time of initial booking) and the myriad sub-sub-contractors etc.

When a problem causes a flight change/delay such as reported here the carrier has the responsibility to care for the passengers until such time as they can be "carried" to their destination. Generally, that means food, water etc. and overnight accommodation if appropriate.

I'd guess that flying out of Luton at 2-2.30am would not have benefitted from an overnight hotel stay and the rules permit this to be skipped if the provision of such would cause further delay.

Rules about flights only require the carrier to get you from A to B. There's no rules that stipulate HOW they should transport you. They could theoretically coach you to Calais, over the channel, coach to Cadiz, say, then ferry to Tenerife. You'd have little complaint against the carrier.

The Tour Op. though really should ensure your welware and comfort is assured. It was in so far as they transported you safely to Luton and I'd guess, at no time left you freezing on a bus. You COULD have moved into the service area but I suspect the bus had the engine/heaters running some or all of the time.

I'm uncertain what it is you expect from Thomsom on this occasion. Have you a monetary value in mind that would satisfy you ? What is this amoun t ?

At the very least we expect an apology for their lack of organisation and communication skills. We and many others on this trip had paid a considerable amount of money for our holidays and expected to be treated with a lot more courtesy than we were. Maybe if you had been treated the same and stuck on a freezing bus for two hours not really knowing if another bus was going to turn up then you may feel differently about this. If you look at my message you will see that there was no communication with any representative throughout the 14 hours before we eventually flew out of the country and believe me being stuck in an unfamiliar place without anyone to advise is not pleasant. Perhaps you would like to try it!!!! I am sure that my family will not be the only one complaining about this, as there were actually three bus loads of passengers all in the same position.

Having read the posts made after my previous one, two things register in my mind.
1, The total lack of communication between unfortunate passengers and the relevant sources, still exists today.
2, In 15 years TO's have learnt nothing.!

IMO: Thomson are no better/no worse than any other TO...
I could tell you a tale about Direct Holidays where they "shipped" us out to an hotel outside Alicante with no alternative in the immediate vicinity to go out and buy something to eat, and provided us with a meal that was only fit for the pig swill... not people.
The hotel charged the "earth" for drinks and had unfortunate passengers at their mercy...or in my case 5½ hours....and once again, no information when we would be "shipped" back by coach to the Airport.

Whilst I was non too pleased, I must say that I "felt" for the families trying to keep their tired toddlers amused....and I don't think the actual guests of the hotel were too happy at being "invaded" either.
The people who were flying to Gatwick faced a 9 hour delay, I have a sneaky feeling we "pinched" their plane and yep, they were taking them to the hotel we had just come from.

It happens...you vent your anger and frustration and unless your delay comes under the new legislation, then apology or not, it will not turn the clock back.
Just my opinion, of course.

Sanjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Me my wife and 2 children were booked on this flight to take us to the cruise ship in tenerife.I travel often and have never come across such disgracefull behaviour from an holiday company before. we arrived at the airport at 9am the flight was delayed due to snow which you can accept, at 4pm thompsons informed us that coaches would be layed on to take us to the east midlands airport at appx 5.30pm to 6pm this is where the greed and lies of thompsons become evident, they informed us the journey would take 4 hours, the coach drivers then told the passengers this was untrue as the roads were bad and the journey would take at least 6 hours we then asked about the drivers allocated hours thompsons said this was all arranged yet another lie everyone was kept for 2 hours on the coach in the middle of nowhere for the drivers to swap around. now i had decided not to board the coaches i had phoned the east midlands airport and they infornmed me the airport was closing due to the snow when i asked thompsons about this they denied the airport was closing yet another lie i now realised how decieving and crafty thompsons were being by sending everyone to another airport excludes them from any liability and compensation. the final straw for my wife and i was when thompsons told the passengers many of them in there seventies and eighties and many young children that if they did not board the coaches THERE IS NO WAY THEY WILL HAVE THERE MONEY BACK a lot of passengers were in tears and very distressed. Another lie was told when everyone was reasured the cruise ship would not leave without them GUESS WHAT it sailed without them making them go on another long journey to the next port of call oh by the way the east midlands airport DID CLOSE thompsons were detemined to get the passengers on the ship at all costs total GREED it would be nice if someone had video taped what went on and send the tape to one of the holiday complaints tv progammes i think it would look very bad for them as for myself we will recieve a full refund because there are ways to do things but i feel very sorry for everyone who had there holiday ruined by a very devious and greedy holiday company.

Thanks for that shingle.

It's nice to hear from the "horse'e mouth" (no offence). Wouldn't it be equally nice to hear from Thomson. They could always post an explanation on this board as I'd be very surprised if they do not monitor this forum.

Video's a good idea. Mancherster airport, summer 2005, serious delay going to Florida with Travel City Direct. I recall a passenger did exactly that whilst people were quizzing the rep. at the airport. That rep. requested filming be stopped and called a couple of armed police over who were patrolling in the area. The passenger was told to stop filming.