Goldtrail Holidays

grantk76

Got to take issue with this response.

Have I at any point criticised any Travel Agent other than the one I am currently trying to deal with. So no tarring here!

Although this holiday was booked over the phone the company was still ATOL registered which is supposed to give some peace of mind. I take it your employer is also ATOL registered??? Reagrdless of weather you buy something over the internet, phone or in a shop the service should be the same!

It is unacceptable and a disgrace, it is good to see that you have carried out market reasearch and 99% (not 98%or 99.7%) of your customers are happy after similar situations.

Thanks for your help though StephB34 it is invaluable!!!

stephb34 wrote: »

grantk76 wrote: »

It is good to see that some people have had a call from their travel agents however communictaion does not appear to be a strong point with Bookable Holidays. Is it right that us innocent customers have to call them at our expense only to wait around and then get the phone slammed down on us??? Completely unacceptable and an absolute disgrace. A change to there website or a circular e mail would be adequate at the moment but for all us people who don't know what is happening.

At a time like this when we are advised to speak to our Travel Agent we should be able to get a hold of them. Does anyone know if we can claim from ATOL/CAA before we have spoken to our Travel Agent as I don't think I will ever hear from Bookable again. I assume we can't as Bookable Holidays would be Goldtrails customer.

This is what annoys me that as travel agents we all get tarred with the same brush. As a high street travel agent each time these things have happened XL going bust, ash cloud event etc etc, straight away we have contacted our customers and sorted out their problems, helped them claim money back from Atol, helped them fill their forms in found them new flights etc or given them their money back and 99% of our customers leave happy and will definitely come back to us. The problem mainly is when people have booked over the telephone or via the internet and all you can do is ring or email and if those Travel agents choose to delay help then you're up the creek without a paddle not knowing whether to book new flights or not. So to all those people out there deciding whether to save a few quid doing it themselves think again as to how gutted you'd be if days before you're due to go it all falls apart and these telephone and internet companies wont answer you.

manamanah88

I woke up yesterday morning to hear about the news regarding Goldtrail. I had booked a holiday to Turkey through Cheapholidays.com, otherwise known as Flightline.co.uk, to leave on 31st July, and unfortunately they had booked me Goldtrail flights.

I rang Cheapholidays.com's customer service number straight away (it was an 0845 number because none of the free/landline numbers I tried were being answered).
The customer service rep checked my details and confirmed that I was booked with Goldtrail. He then went ahead and booked me 2 replacement flights with Easyjet, flying on the same days as planned, with slightly different times. This was done at NO EXTRA CHARGE, despite the new flights costing double the original price!
I assume that Cheapholidays/Flightline will be able to claim the cost of the ndw flights back, as they are ATOL and ABTA protected?
They also made arrangements for my transfers to fit the adjusted flight times.

I was very impressed with how quickly this was resolved, so fingers crossed my holiday will go as smoothly...

sandiuk

Booked a package week ago with Bookable Holidays to go to Kos early hours of this morning.
I woke up yesterday to hear the news of Goldtrail and only through fluke had I seen that the flights were with Goldtrail.
I have been trying to get some sense from them since 5:30am yesterday morning. Twice, I spoke to someone (in sales - no one in admin available) and twice I was told that they were prioritising imminent departures and I would get a phone call to let me know what was happening. Still waiting!
It's only that I contacted Viking Airlines that I knew not to turn up at the airport at 1am this morning because the flight voucher wouldn't be accepted.
I'm still in limbo as I can't rebook anything until I know if Bookable are going to help with any offers of transfer etc - although, given their customer service this far I think I can safely assume no help will be forthcoming. We need to travel before the end of Thurs with work holidays booked etc but I can't be sure I'll get a full refund from the cc company (thank goodness I booked using one and not dc).
Any advice anyone????

Ponkle22

That is disgraceful! I actually got through today and only held for 12 minutes (ish). I was told the person on the phone wasn't qualified to speak to me about it but her colleague was and she was dealing with the people abroad and those due to fly today. Said they were phoning those people first then the rest of the July bookings and the beginning of August bookings. Don't hold your breath!

I was told (after I pushed the question repeatedly but politely) that the people they are phoning have already re booked their flights (mostly).

They should either send out a blanket email with basic info (like hang on we are trying to rebook or find yourself another flight and we will be in touch) or put the same info on the website.

Not telling us anything and saying we must wait our turn for our phone call (will we be at home when they finally call us anyway!!) is NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

Disgraceful.

Ponkle22

sorry, to clarify - in the above post where I write 'they' I mean Bookable holidays.

delwynshd

Book flights with anyone you can, you will be sent the refund forms regardless from your TA, they will not book you onto alternative flights free of charge or ammend them without taking payment from you for new ones

If these are trailing there feet about contacting there customers you are only going to lose out on the cheaper seats

Del

Ponkle22

I'm starting to wonder now whether Bookable just say they are phoning around but its a ruse. Otherwise the poster above would have received a phone call by now.

We the customer are not allowed to phone them - when we do we are told we have to wait for them to ring us. Disgraceful!!

Don't they have a customer services team?#

Who on earth do you ring if you are stuck abroad? The sales team at Bookable who know nothing?! (obviously you ring the CAA etc but all the official bodies are telling us to contACt our Travel Agent in the first instance).

I am not impressed.

peachyprice

I'm not caught up in the whole Goldtrail fiasco myself, but one thing does come to mind, perhaps the likes of Delwyn can answer.

If I've got it right, people weren't actually flying with Goldtrail because they weren't an airline, just a 3rd party booking agent for various arilines, the flights are still operating have I got that bit right? So a completley different situation to XL who were using their own planes.

If so, the flights you were all booked on should still be available to book direct through the airline, otherwise those flights, especially the ones that are due to depart in the next few days, are going to be leaving half empty. Why aren't the airlines selling the seats to the original passengers, and the passengers claiming the money paid for those seats from their travel insurance or the CAA?

delwynshd

I cant say if the planes are gonna be half full or not

Goldtrail had purchased XYZ number of seats and also regardless I would just book new seats to make sure your holiday plans carry on. The aircraft that goldtrail chartered will now be cancelled so there is defo less seats around now, they may put an additional few flights on but I cant see this making the sittuation any better than it is

Del

Del

Leigh-Anne_60

Delwyn

AFAIK Goldtrail chartered aircrafts(from the likes of Onur/Saga) not just seats - So its whole aircrafts that wont be going!!

At a guess i would say Goldtrail had at least 15% market share of Turkish hols/flights -Thats a big gap that has just been created!! For peeps wanting to book last minute & the businesses in the Turkish resorts its not good news!

LA