Volcanic Ash Refunds

stewartw60

Hi

My holiday got cancelled due to the volcanic ash carry on. We had booked with lowcostholidays. Our flights which were with ryanair were refunded after an age and lowcostholidays have said that we can have a credit note for 80% of the value of our accomodation to use within one year. I had booked using my bank of Scotland credit card and after contacting them I wrote a letter asking if I could claim back the 20% that lowcostholidays won't give me back. I received a letter back today saying that they would not give me any refund and I should contact lowcostholidays again. Can bank of Scotland do this or are they just trying to fob me off.

Thanks for any advice!!

Caz3121

it looks like you have a bundle rather than a package so the credit card company has no responsibility as the accomodation was still offered and available for you to use but you could not get there, some people have lost 100% of their accomodation costs - have you tried your travel insurance?

stewartw60

I tried them first. They weren't much use!!. They did however provide me a letter for the credit card company saying they wouldn't give me a refund.

I was really hoping that because I had used my credit card I would get my money back

Gutted!!

itsakidsworld

It may be worth writing a very nice letter to lowcostholidays asking if they will look at your situation and re-consider. Explain in your letter that you are not requesting any form of compensation from anyone, just some help in trying to correct an unfortunate situation. Go on to say how this could be a very good "free"(or almost free with the small admin costs involved) PR exercise for their company as all you are trying to do is get a full credit for your lost holiday to book at another time?

The problem people overlook is that companies are not to blame here and to be quite honest are well within their rights to keep as they feel in line with their terms and conditions. All said and done though, the majority of companies are looking at this situation and helping people as best they can so they are not out of pocket- with a small cost to the company- but again, a good cheap public relations advertising!!

If you know where the company are based and you can get there easily enough then it may even be worth a trip in person!

It is all about acting in as best an ethical manner as possible with this latest travel problem and hopefully it will open many peoples eyes, including both client and company

Sandypan

Hi I booked my holiday with low cost holidays as well and was standed in Spain for 6 extra days with no help from anybody except the knowledgeable people on this site. Low cost holidays sent me an email saying that they were only acting as a third party and basically not to bother making a claim against them. After reading this though I'm wondering if perhaps I should especially because a cheap 'bundle' with them has so far ended up costing me £1500. I have put a claim in with Monarch 2 weeks ago and still haven't heard anything back. I was also wondering what I can do about the interest on my credit card because of my extra expenses. I can't afford to pay it off but if they delay for another month I will have another load of interest to pay. I could swop it to a 0% bot I will still have to pay transfer fees.

stewartw60

I'll give the 'nice' letter a try after all I'm going to use the credit to book another holiday with them. Here's hoping I get a good answer!!

I was also thinking about trying the citizens advice bureau to see if there is anything I could do about claiming through my credit card even though Bank of Scotland have said no at the moment.

Thanks for your help!

Babycakes

I think the lesson here is not to book a holiday unless it is with a package holiday firm.

Lowcostbeds and Onthebeach seem to have the worst customer care going. Well customers have long memories - especially if they lose money through no fault of their own.

Libby_P

I too had my holiday (flights, transfers and hotel) canclled by low cost. I took note of their advice that my holiday was comprised of individual contracts with each of the suppliers. I therefore got in touch with both the airline and the hotel. I obtained, in writing, a statement that the airline was offering a full refund and information from the hotel exaplaining that it had not yet been paid by lowcost and would not be requesting payment at all because of the exceptional circumstances. I therefore emailed low cost to request a full refund (minus any admin charges). I have continued to try and make contact via phone and email since the holiday was cancelled at the end of April. Low cost have not responded to any emails and each time we have made contact by telephone they have cut us off after we have given our reference number. An 80% credit note is no good to me as I cannot take annual leave for the foreseeable future. Given that low cost have not paid out anything for our holiday I don't think it is unreasonable to seek a refund minus any admin charges. My next step is to take legal advice but I would welcome any suggestions/from anyone about other ways to contact low cost or their experiences......thanks.

Former_MSE_Alana

Hi,

We have received this response from lowcostholidays.com:

"We are sorry that you have had such a frustrating experience booking your holiday due to the volcanic ash cloud.

We can confirm that lowcostholidays.com are offering a 100% refund, and are one of the only travel companies who are doing this. If you speak to a member of a team or email info@lowcostholidays.com we will endeavor to get back to you as soon as possible.

We appreciate the patience most of our customers have shown and assure you that we have been doing our utmost to minimise the impact of the ash cloud.

lowcostholidays.com"

Engadine

LibbyP if the hotel have confirmed to you that they are not charging Lowcost Holidays then they should be refunding you no questions asked!

As for the claim above in their response that they are offering a 100% refund to people and are one of the only travel companies doing this is not correct. There are a number of operators who refunded clients months ago.