Goldtrail Holidays

sweetlittlethoughts

My friend and i are due to go to Turkey in July - we booked through a travel agent called R-Travel. They phoned us to say they would be in contact with us on the Saturday and phoned last night to search for alternative flights etc... they say there is nothing and all they can do is search for something else for us but would mean we would have to pay £150+ on top of what we have already paid.

The holiday we want is on another website at the original price but the travel agent says they cannot book from there.

We have asked for a refund but are told we can only get alternative holiday and pay extra or get a credit note to use within 18 months.

I'm not sure where we stand or what to do as i understand that even if they did agree to give us a refund we woulnd't recieve it in time to book another holiday!

Any help greatly appreciated!

r18rws

Contact the agent again, if you have a Goldtrail booking they should provide claims forms to get money back from the CAA.

If they have made a package for you, then they must give a refund if you request one, although a credit note for an alternative may be better as if you find something straight away you wont have to pay out again and wait for the refund process.

Alan_Bowen

Never take a credit note from any travel provider, any ABTA protection that there might be for holidays that have been booked disappears unless you have an actual holiday booked if the company should stop trading.

There is no reason why you shouldn't get a full refund if R Travel booked a package holiday with Goldtrail, the CAA who run the finanacial protection scheme announced yesterday that they would fast track claims because of the time of year. Fill in a claim form and get the ball rolling. If R Travel haven't sold you a Goldtrail package but you knew the flights were booked with Goldtrail, you may only be able to claim the cost of the flights back if the accommodation was booked with someone else but R Travel should have told you it was not a package before you booked. In that case you may not be able to recover the cost of the accommodation since that is a separate contract altogether.

If, worst case scenario, you had never heard of Goldtrail at all before it failed, R Travel has acted as the organsier and they are legally responsible to give you a full refund. If they refuse, complain immediately to ABTA and the CAA.

r18rws

Alan is absolutely right, dont take a credit note unless you intend to be booking in the next fe weeks as it has not financial protection.

If you are looking to rebook straight away the agent may use it to just transfer money from one holiday to the other saving you waiting for a refund and paying out again seperately.

mossyinnotts

Ponkle22 wrote: »

Please don't faint (cue drum roll.....), I have heard from Bookable Holidays. I couldn't hear properly as I was in a very busy high street at the time, but the gist of it is that we are due to go at the begining of August but Bookable said they could not find availability on any flights. I dont know if this is true but as we rebooked ourselves on a flight BH will send us a claim form (they are not sure what type of claim form or who it is from - which is a bit bizarre) and we can claim the original cost of the flights. If we had not booked more flights we could have claimed the entire holiday back - at least that is how I understood it.

As I was in a noisy location at the time of the call I forgot to ask about any Admin fee and wasn't told about any - so presume its only for those with transfers or hotels to cancel as I have not booked transfers with them and am keeping the hotel.

Have to say the girl who phoned was very good on the phone and you couldnt be angry with her if you tried. I wonder if she is left to deal with all these calls on her own?!

The bad news is we have to bear the extra cost of rebooking flights less than 2 weeks before we fly - which is painful but we did not have to make that decision.

I'm in a very similar position.

Anyone have any info with regards to bookable's claim procedure? It seems as though they are deliberately avoiding their obligations, (and customers). They have told me that an ATOL claim form would not be processed, only theirs, suggesting that they still hold the money.

al21

I am still waiting on claim form from Bookable, to reclaim original flight costs. They booked me a packaged deal, they booked flights with Goldtrail and hotel with Lowcostbeds.com

I eventually managed to get through to them the weekend before last, but as they could not offer me flights on my date that I was due to travel, advised I could look for alternative flights myself as my hotel was not connected to Goldtrail. I tried to call them/hanging on for up to an hour at a time last week from Wednesday-Saturday before eventually speaking to them on Saturday afternoon at 4pm after phoning from 10am that morning! My phone bills will be a fortune. I spoke to sales team on 4 times and was promised callbacks from a manager. Needless to say no response. Anyway, I managed to get flights on my travel date and this was all sorted on Saturday and was advised confirmation and claim form would be in the post. Nothing arrived. I previously received confirmation and my transfer and hotel vouchers.

So a lot of hassle, a lot of my time spent with a phone stuck to my ear on hold and more money. Then what happens, I get a call on Tuesday to say, unfortunately more bad news the company that they used to book my hotel, has overbooked, so now I don't even have my hotel! Shocking! They could only offer one alternative, not suitable as on a hillside location. They said I could look for alternative accomodation to which I replied no, they will do this for me, as already been messed about and spent over a week trying to get through to them on the telephone. I got another a hotel, but not my choice and downgraded from a 4* to a 3* and only gave me a choice of two hotels. Doubt I will be using this company again!

I hope everyone else managed to get sorted.

Ponkle22

Al21 - that is dreadful situation to be in!!

Think Bookable should change their name to Shockable.

I'm also still awaiting my claim form to arrive from Bookable. Wonder how long it will take or if it will ever arrive?!

Ponkle22

Oh very interesting! I wondered why they were offering to administer the claim forms. Not that I've received mine yet.

(Ponkle22 taps foot......)

mossyinnotts wrote: »

I'm in a very similar position.

Anyone have any info with regards to bookable's claim procedure? It seems as though they are deliberately avoiding their obligations, (and customers). They have told me that an ATOL claim form would not be processed, only theirs, suggesting that they still hold the money.

hippychicknos1

Ponkle22 wrote: »

Al21 - that is dreadful situation to be in!!

Think Bookable should change their name to Shockable.

I'm also still awaiting my claim form to arrive from Bookable. Wonder how long it will take or if it will ever arrive?!

R-Travel are not much better....(Lol)

Ponkle22

I will bear that in mind in the future - re R Travel. Thanks for that.

I wonder how Travel Republic have been treating their customers over the Goldtrail fiasco? I have used them in the past successfully (but then I used Bookable last year successfully.......).

Interestingly Bookable (aka Shockable) holidays have (without me knowing) seemingly stiched me up a little bit re the hotel. I have been in contact with my hotel directly (as got to know the staff last year) and I requested two rooms next to each other (as we have children) and it turns out Bookable didn't let me know that they booked me one 'Promotion' room and one normal room (whatever a promotion room means - all I know from the contact at the hotel in broken english - it means it should be a different price to a normal room, but not sure which one is the cheapest). It apparentely means the hotel has a special section for promotion rooms - not sure if they are cheaper rooms or not, but last year we had different rooms (not next to each other) and they were identical rooms.

The hotel kindly is trying to help us out (as they are so very helpful and kind, as usual) but Bookable should have made it obvious that they had booked us two different types of rooms, particularly as it was obvious I was booking for two children and two adults. Forewarned is forearmed....

Not very impressed.

Ponkle22 ps: still not received claim form yet for lost flights.....