XL....MONEYSAVING IS NOT the be all & end-all-a lesson learnt

saintscouple

saintscouple wrote: »

I'm still confused on this.............

We booked our holiday through Global Late Deals.com, whereby flights were with XL - accommodation through 'Triton'.

i have tried, and tried, and tried to get hold of the agent, but the only thing they will say is that they are working through those effect by departure date and that they will call me.

I've looked at the t&c's and it does state they will 'offer' an alternative holiday at no extra expense to us (or refund if lesser value), if unacceptable we can choose another holiday but pay the extra if required, or have a full 'quick' refund.

Can Travelman, or anyone else please very if the printed t&c's are correct, or indeed are they 'required' to offer an alternative flight to my original destination?

If the latter is correct, a link to the ATOL term would be appreciated for referral.

Thanks in advance.

My situation has just got more confusing - managed to speak to someone at Global Late Deals, who advised that my XL flight was infact being operated by Libra - Hence they have to wait till Monday to find out from Libra if they will still be operating that flight.
Still confused as my flight number starts with XLA - anyone care to say in laymans terms what this means?

Fleago

I too am sad to see Kosmar go, MidlandsMum; we had been to Greece with them many times and were due to go again next year. We always found their holidays to be very good value for money and the standard of service in resort was always very high.

I agree about using a good travel agent; ours was on the phone to us on Friday afternoon, which I was very impressed by because we are not travelling until next year, to explain that we are affected and to talk us through what it meant and what to do and yesterday they helped me to rebook to the same resort at the same time next year. Yes, it's a service that can be a bit more expensive than booking the elements of a holiday myself, but I honestly think that it is worth it for the peace of mind it brings.

That said, I do, however, feel deeply for those who have lost out, including the staff who have lost their jobs, so my post is not meant to be smug or "I told you so" in any way, it's just a reflection of my experience of being "caught up" in the collapse of a holiday/flight provider.

MidlandsMum

Happy to.

Libra bought X number of flight seats on XL at a reduced rate to sell as part of their package holidays or to sell as flight only as they wished. The airline is now not operating this flight (as we all know). It is now Libra's responsibility to get you an alternative flight at no additional cost to you. If they cannot provide this then they are duty bound to offer you a full refund on the cost of your flights. It is then up to the agent you booked with to get you another flight or try to get the rest of your holiday (acomm, transfers) cancelled free of charge and give you a full refund.

Hope this helps.

pingu

budgetflyer wrote: »

TRAVELMAN
You completely miss the point of moneysavingexpert.com
Its not a means for you to make a living
Its to help people cut the cost of living.

If you help people freely and ungrudgingly the rule of KARMA says you will get at least double back- maybe not directly in pounds and pence but in some way or another.
So you rubbing your hands with glee at others misfortune, because they didnt overspend 100quid or so for the same deal with a TA like yourself really helps no one, least YOUR REPUTATION.

Your main problem always was, you expected EVERY enquiry from MSE ers to end in a booking.Any successful salesman will tell you, its a numbers game.
The more you help folk and give quotes for, the more business you would have got.
Instead you spat the dummy out, disappeared only returning to stick the boot in to those unfortunate to suffer from this airline collapse.

With this economic climate, your hands are likely to get sore clapping btw as more airlines, tour Ops and TAs go bust.
Lets hope your company isnt one of them:rolleyes:

i agree apart from the last sentence i don't mean the company(co operative travel) lets hope he does!

i have not got long as i am going to watch a cricket match sun is shining for change:D

but i will come back and give you Chris(travelman) some beating because you deserve it:mad:

richardw

TRAVELMAN wrote: »

were booked AS PAPRT OF A COMPLETE ATOL PACKAGE then you would have been entitled to a FULL REFUND &/or a re-book to a different flight AT THE ATOL-HOLDERS EXPENSE.

If you booked flights & accom separately through several of the ...ahem...'web' companies touted about here as being the 'moneysaving' solution...then YES-money back IF flights booked thorough an ATOL company (ie freedom flights) BUT you'd need to re-book your own flights-AT WHATEVER THE FLIGHTS WERE NOW-MOST INCREASED BY A HUGE AMMOUNT. Nett result-MONEY LOST.

er nope.

The pot of money I have saved by not booking a package holiday is enormous and is more than adequate to cover losses that I may suffer, travellers need to be aware of the risks, that is the key here.

jetboy

Couple of points here. Firstly It is not the consumer who brought on this mess. XL holidays would've been priced at a level to deliver a reasonable return. Unforseen circumstances have unwound the whole industry over the last 8 months. Nobody expected oil to be $100+ a barrel. By the way AVTUR as used by airlines is still $139 a barrel. That said, XL had debts of £143 million. Not that long ago that would'nt necessarily been such a massive problem. Mytravel had debts of £910.9 million once upon a time. Nobody pulled the plug. The finance industry has gone trigger happy. Bearing in mind it will cost at least £10 million to repatriate the XL cutomers downroute too. This all smacks of the mess made by our esteemed banks following the Northern Rock debacle. Nobody would lend money for mortgages unless at silly rates for months. Now it's too late and recession looms, suddenly we can get fixed rates at 5.6% again..bit late though. Financial institutions are shooting from the hip..that's why we will see another 30 airlines go. Willie Walsh is not exaggerating. In the aftermath of 911, the banks closed down Gill Airways...and it wasn't even losing money!
As for travel agents versus buy online. I can understand that opinions of those who claim the high street is the only way. Travel agents have been feeling the squeeze for years. If you find a good one, you're on a real winner. Unfortunately there are a very large number of mediocre ones. That was the reason I came away from using them years ago. I have saved thousands by not employing their services. That said there is a place for them and if you believe they are giving peace of mind in the current climate then fair enough. Personally I'm quite happy to continue online, armed with credit card and airline failure protection.
The gap left in the market by the collapse of XL will be hard to fill initially and I fear that any bargains for next year will be very few and far between.

worldtraveller

richardw wrote: »

travellers need to be aware of the risks, that is the key here.

Exactly! :beer:

Moneysaving is often about risk v reward. As an example, in the past 20 years I have never, ever, paid full fare (flexible) for an airline ticket, be it economy, business, or first class. I fully appreciate that some people need the flexibility on their tickets, but often it's a total waste of money and purely poor planning by individuals, or companies. My savings? Ten's of thousands of pounds! I haven't used travel agents for at least 15 years now. IMHO, they know much less about my required travel routes than I do, which is based on research and experience. I'm sure that there are many good agents out there, but, in my experience, they employ people generally lacking in knowledge about all the options available. Good travel agents, that give a valuable service and have staff that have knowledge of their clients requirements and all the available options will undoubtably survive. However, the "run of the mill" agents, that just want a quick commission, without providing a service, will fail.

arealbasketcase

So if a mobile phone company went bust because we were all shopping around for better deals, that too would be "our fault".

I do hope O2 don't go bust, but then I'm on Vodafone......

richardw

TRAVELMAN wrote: »

If you've booked with xl.com with a debit card then NO REFUND.

er, not strictly correct, there is some benefit with visa delta cards.

Wonder how long it will be before we get a holday risk checker on this site?

poet123

Travel agents are a dying breed. The advent of the internet and its ever increasing accessibility mean that anyone who is even slightly computer savvy can do as good or better job than they can provided you take some basic precautions.

I have not used a TA for years as although I always get quotes from them, I have found I have always been able to put together a package cheaper and with more flexibility than any of them can offer. The exception to this rule is the cruise consolidator who buys up or reserves cabins on particularly popular sailings,in my experience they can get a better price/availabilty than a private consumer,and most other TA's.

I always pay by CC for flights,check out the reviews of rental owners/properties/ask copious amounts of questions, and then go on gut feel. I have not yet had a bad experience.

I have however come into contact with many TA's who just use skyscanner to find flights.....I can do that,and who have no knowledge over and above the info contained in the Gazetteer.

I recently used a Travel Counsellor to obtain quotes for a cruise. I wanted a 4 berth out of Southampton next July/aug. I was told there were no such cabins available, and so I searched for other options. She gave me quotes for those options,all of which I could have achieved better prices for myself. Whilst researching the options I came across a consolidator who had the cabins I wanted, on the my ship of first choice. I booked with them at a brilliant price,far better than I could have got by going through the cruiselines directly.

Then,out of courtesy I emailed the TC to tell her that I had managed to find the cruise I originally enquired about.(and which she had said was unavailable). I was stunned to receive an email in reply implying that I had wasted her time,and the inference was that unless she was guaranteed a booking in future I should not ask for a quote!!! I was quick to point out that ;-

1. she had been incorrect in her contention that all such cabins were booked

2. I had booked which proved that if she had been able to provide the product I required I had always been ready to book.

Her response was still the same.....needless to say I cannot see her POV at all,how can you be annoyed that a customer has booked elsewhere when you mislead them and could not provide what they wanted???? Her indignation was astounding to me.:rolleyes:

With regard to the current travel issues,all monies will be repaid if you used a cc and also the Visa chargeback should cover Debit card payments. You can easily resolve any related issues if you work through them methodically,it may be a bit time consuming but still far cheaper year on year(when things are going smoothly)than using a TA.:D