Kiss flights gone bust!!!!!!!!

photome

bagand96 wrote: »

XL go bust. Within days, Kiss Flights spring up, with an ex-XL director at the helm. The website has a very familiar feel about it, the T&Cs are word for word the same as XL's, and in parts still refered to XL (they did for a few days anyway before being removed).

The main airline Kiss Flights use is Viking. A Swedish airline that had been doing some flying for XL. Surprise surprise, Viking get some new investors, Black Pearl Investments. Guess who's behind that investment company? Some ex-XL guys of course! Viking Airlines acquire Boeing 737-800s, funnily enough, previously operated by XL. They set up UK bases for their new flying programme.

Meanwhile, another XL head honcho joins Goldtrail. They are a succesful Turkey operator, who employ the bloke to set up a new Greece programme for them. Their existing Turkey programme uses airlines based in Turkey, however for the Greece flights, they turn to, well, you guessed it..... Viking!

All very cosy and incestuous!

And in the eyes of a layman just wrong!

loobysue

when we booked and paid the "receipt" we have says thanks for your order, but it is only provisional and could take up to 48 hours to be confirmed? Is that legal? Has anyone had a "provisional" booking rejected, or, cynical me, incresed in price?


Yes we had the same with sunsaver.com, we booked flights to Turkey on Saturday onscreen price was £441 when it went through on Monday the cost had gone up to £535 and that was before Kiss went bust,

Doshwaster

silverhairgranny wrote: »

I'm glad i have never heard of them. horay for ryanair.

I have never heard of them either.

I always book independently rather than a package as there seem to be so many dodgy operators out there. People say that you should book package holidays as they are "protected", yet a tour operator is much more likely to go bust than a scheduled airline or an individual hotel. Easyjet/Ryanair, love them or hate them, are the two least likely airlines in Europe to go bankrupt.

People get attracted to deals from unknown companies of a week in the sun for £100 all inclusive. Those kind of prices cannot be sustainable.

looktothefuture

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

It's just not fair is it???? Second holiday ruined, no money left on the credit card to rebook (All in all this cheap get away has cost us £1500.00) and no one who's able to help! :(:(

First Goldtrail, and now Kiss!

Alias_Omega

How did Kiss compare on prices with the main carriers (Monarch, TUI, Thomascook)..?


In the past, we have only flown these main carriers, and when desperate used easyjet.

whatmichaelsays

mrme wrote: »

Hardly a surprise but I feel for those who are caught up in the mess. Hope the public are starting to see that they've had it good for too long and that the stupidly cheap prices that have been around are no more. It's simple really, to keep a plane in the air money has to be made (unless you're BA )

Unfortunately, that's the crux of the problem.

This insatiable desire to have holidays "as cheap as possible" is invariably forcing firms to push their luck as far as they can on pricing. Unfortunately, some are pushing themselves far too far.

looktothefuture

What I don't understand is that alot of the Goldtrail customers who lost holidays etc went back through those budget agents to get another flight/holiday - surely the increase in business kept them afloat! Why do this exactly a month to the day that goldtrail went bust!

I'm just angry!

1trainer1

any person who works in the travel industry selling europe will know about kiss flights, they are very big and very cheap.....

Im not angry as there are companies that we would never deal with and Kiss are one of those, there will be a few more failures in the weeks to come so anyone booked on a holiday be prepared for it to be cancelled at the last minute

looktothefuture

1trainer1 wrote: »

any person who works in the travel industry selling europe will know about kiss flights, they are very big and very cheap.....

Im not angry as there are companies that we would never deal with and Kiss are one of those, there will be a few more failures in the weeks to come so anyone booked on a holiday be prepared for it to be cancelled at the last minute

Some of us not in the travel industry may not be aware of that.... and some of us do not have the luxury - nor the money - to be picky about who we book with. Some of us have had to save up for an entire year to be able to afford our first oversea's holiday!

I do have a right to be angry... not only have I lost all of my savings in this holiday fiasco, I've also got to explain to my stepson, that the holiday he's been looking forward to since this time last year, won't be going ahead and we won't even be able to afford a day at a theme park to make up for it! Is this fair?

yomauk

If anyone could give me a bit of advice I'd be incredibly grateful

I have a holiday to Crete booked through an ATOL protected travel agent - Media Travel. The flights were through Kiss Flight unfortunately.

Immediate reaction is to ring Media travel to try and sort out alternative flights. However, every time I ring I sit in a que for 20+ minutes and when I get to the front I just get hung up on, its happened about 5 times now.

I have looked around and found other flights, for around the same price. Should I just snap them up? Or will the accommodation be effected? I'm just thinking that I paid by credit card and it wasn't separate prices for flights and hotel, I was billed one final price. Will I struggle to get just the flight money back?

Probably silly questions, I'm just panicking.