Short notice cancelation

[dot.hawkes]

If thomas cook rings you at 5.20 pm 35 hours before you were due to leave for the airport for your holiday and said they had double booked but u could go to another resort or have a full refund plus compensation, what would you do? I am expecting to be given the choice of a number of destinations, and I want double my money back.

[Dee Sa]

no harm in trying, whats the betting the compensation comes in their own travel vouchers.
Get in touch with Gill in the Sat Telegraph travel section, she will get more for you, especially if she publishes your letter.
Good luck
Dee

[dot.hawkes]

well we are going in at 10am but not making any threats of legal action yet as I think they would be in their rights to refuse to deal with us, i know if a customer of mine threatens to go to the Office of fair trading we have to withdraw our customer service. Anyhow, there are so many aspects to this holiday that cannot be changed, one couple is celebrating both thweir 70th birthdays and their golden wedding whilst away, which is why we are all going. No amount of compemnsation can make up for that disapointment.
I have never known anything so shody.

[PatriciaH]

See if anything on here helps dot x

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/nireland/your_wo rld/travel_northern_ireland/problems_with_holi days.htm#ProblemHolidayOverbooking

[Reverandfunk]

Not wishing to be the Grim reaper but I bet the small print says basically they can cancel/change arrangements at any time, offer you limted alternatives etc etc.

[dot.hawkes]

the small pront says that it is a contract guaranteeing they have reserved the flights and accomodation from their allocation at that resort subject to updates and ammendments, which aren't the same as saying we have no holiday because they didn't reserve the rooms and flights from their allocation, so hopefully we wil get it sorted in a few hours, the taxi is booked for 4.30am tomorrow and that is �110 and if we cancel that we may be liable for the fare!

[jno]

Thomsons did that to me years ago (I had booked 10 months earlier the day the brochure came out, and it was less than 24 hours' notice). There wasn't a lot of consumer protection in those days but I demanded 50% of my money back and got it plus the holiday but in an inferior hotel. I doubt you'll get a huge amount of money if you also take a holiday, they'll say they have filled your fortnight to your satisfaction. But clearly they do not have a lot of legs on which to stand...

[jno]

PS could try posting this in Law, lots of QCs hanging round there with expert opinions.

[dot.hawkes]

ooo smart idea jno

[PatriciaH]

Dont forget to let us all know how you got on dot : ) hope it all turned out to your advantage...

[dot.hawkes]

Huh! Thomas cook could not give a flying u know what about their customers! I would be out of a job if I treated people that way. i have spent over 4 hours in there today and ended up with a full refund, but not a penny compensation because only my friends booking was actually messed up and not mine, so as a party we couldn't go. There was no apology until the minute she counted the �722 into my hand! I am absolutley disgusted and will be making a complaint about this all to their office and to abta.

I have no holiday now tomorrow, but my friends were able to re-book for end of July, but I didn't want to go with Thomas Cook after all of this and they stood to lose more money than i did so they rebooked.
My daughter says we should go into town tomorow and book Cyprus, but I shall see, I am just so disgusted at the moment, how shoddy to ring someone like that and try to get them to cancel to save their skin, it is truly outragious.