thank you XL

BillTrac

Well, maybe a more moral thing would have been to carry on taking bookings,if really necessary so as not to alert people to the problems.

BUT, then ring-fence those amounts. They could have then returned the monies, immediately to ease the paying-customers misery.

I do not believe for one second

a, that there was any chance that XL was continuing
b, that the CEO will be upset for too long

Bill

agosto

johnlongson wrote: »

thankyou so much for breaking the hearts of my family and so many people we have been waiting half a year for our holiday to florida which we have been planning for 4 years
we may not even get out £6000 back

'but we had to pay £2000 extra '

I might have lost the plot here, but are you saying (in this and your later post) that you have now paid another 2k ie 8k, for flights?

The only way you will loose your money is if you paid cash.

By credit card, you are entitled to like for like flights.
With debit card, you will get 'cash back'

I am not sure why anyone would pay a further amount if they oriiginally paid by credit card. You would be loosing out a 2nd time. (Though I appreciate not everyone pays by credit card.)

An airline collapse is far from new. I was caught out when Oasis to Hong King went bust, but I got like for like flights even though they were much more expensive.

Anyone paying by cash should definitely take out insurance. Otherwise, it is too big a risk, even more so with budget airlines which teeter on a knife's edge between profitability and bankcrupcy.
This credit crunch has hit all sorts of sectors and travel is just one. No-one, to my knowledge ever tries to go bankcrupt.

meester

BillTrac wrote: »

Well, maybe a more moral thing would have been to carry on taking bookings,if really necessary so as not to alert people to the problems.

BUT, then ring-fence those amounts. They could have then returned the monies, immediately to ease the paying-customers misery.

I do not believe for one second

a, that there was any chance that XL was continuing
b, that the CEO will be upset for too long

How ridiculous.

Have you any idea how stressful it is to have your business collapse, to be responsible for the end of a massive company, thousands of jobs, and thousands of holidays?

Do you think people that run businesses are somehow inhuman? Do you imagine he is indifferent to the fact that he no longer has a job?

The fact is, the management of XL did a buyout two years ago, and will have put a lot in to do so. He spent 30 years in the airline industry, and now his dreams have gone up in smoke, due to unprecedented market conditions, the double whammy of oil at $150 and the credit crunch

I'm fed up of all the 'eat the rich' rhetoric we get from people who imagine that these people have not invested heart and soul in running their businesses.

Reggie_Rebel

^^^
XL were the third largest TOUR OPERATOR, not just an airline.

Caribbean holidays could easily have cost £6000 for a family of four and just as easily cost and extra £2000 to secure an alternative

meester

Reggie_Rebel wrote: »

^^^
XL were the third largest TOUR OPERATOR, not just an airline.

Caribbean holidays could easily have cost £6000 for a family of four and just as easily cost and extra £2000 to secure an alternative

He's complaining that XL were much cheaper than the competition and now he has to pay what the competition charge. This complaint boils down to 'It's not fair that you are so much cheaper than the competition'. Sorry, but that's just tough.

claudialouise

i used travel city direct to book my attraction tickets to florida the day before they went under, i cant belive they took my money just hours before they announced it, i am so annoyed!!! now i need to find another 300 quid cos i cant claim, from what ive read on their website. and the bank told me i cant do a charge back claim on my debit card. :-(

Amy83

While I do feel sorry for everyone who's been caught up in this - I do have to comment on people saying things like 'how dare they take my money the night before they went into administration', 'they must have known they were going to fold' etc etc.

Up until the minute they actually went into administration they'd have been hoping and praying that they'd be able to ride it out. If they stopped taking bookings at the first hint that something was wrong then they wouldn't be very business minded! If you're loosing money then the obvious solution is to generate more, so not accepting booking would be completely against that principle.

Hope you all manage to get it sorted anyway

mad&jon

I hope everyone manages to get their money back/sort alternative holidays.

If you've booked a flight or package holiday the Civil Aviation Authority should refund you monies paid by completing a claim form - link here https://www.atol.org.uk the money can take a while to come through approx 6-12 months depending on how quick they are to process the forms.

I feel very sorry for the staff that have lost their jobs, its not easy in this market another job.

I do feel though that i have to comment on the fact that XL airlines/holidays were cheaper than their competition and this may be why they went bump, as they couldn't cope with the high fuel costs.

BUT - i do think that the public are encouraged to ask for discounts and try to get rock bottom prices on holidays, by dare i say it "Martin" ie you can get 15% off by phoning around. Most agents don't even earn 15% so how can you compete in a market when every customer wants a holiday at cost? If the tour operator and the agent don't earn any profit thats when companies go out of business and thats what you see happening now.

I know this might not be a popular view but i feel this must be said.

switch007

mad&jon wrote: »

Most agents don't even earn 15% so how can you compete in a market when every customer wants a holiday at cost? If the tour operator and the agent don't earn any profit thats when companies go out of business and thats what you see happening now.

I think the problem is when people search for a similar holiday themselves and wonder why the difference is way more than say 15%. I suspect this is quite often the case. It makes you wonder what a travel agent/tour operator is really for. If you can find your own flights and hotel (and good reviews) online with a little effort, the large markup does appear to be a bit of a 'rip off'. The difference between DIY and Travel Agents, just for the sake of ATOL protection, doesn't wash with a lot of people..

mrposhman

meester wrote: »

How ridiculous.

Have you any idea how stressful it is to have your business collapse, to be responsible for the end of a massive company, thousands of jobs, and thousands of holidays?

Do you think people that run businesses are somehow inhuman? Do you imagine he is indifferent to the fact that he no longer has a job?

The fact is, the management of XL did a buyout two years ago, and will have put a lot in to do so. He spent 30 years in the airline industry, and now his dreams have gone up in smoke, due to unprecedented market conditions, the double whammy of oil at $150 and the credit crunch

I'm fed up of all the 'eat the rich' rhetoric we get from people who imagine that these people have not invested heart and soul in running their businesses.

Exactly, its not everyday that your business goes bump and that can be the most stressful thing. Could you imagine working years of your life to create a business that you love and are proud of only to watch it disintegrate before your eyes.

Whilst I feel sorry for everyone involved who has lost money, its the staff I feel for the most. Some who were stranded abroad with no way of getting home (no ATOL or credit card money back for them) with the added woe of being told that they won't be paid for the work they did in August.

No business would want to go into administration unless it was the 1 and only option.