MSE News: Kiss Flights goes bust: your travel rights

bagand96

And the rebirth begins (again)

Looks like Viking Airlines are "positioning" themselves to start selling their flights directly:

http://www.ttglive.com/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=3208370&CMPI_SHARED_articleId=4262673&CMPI_SHARED_ImageArticleId=4262673&CMPI_SHARED_articleIdRelated=4262673&CMPI_SHARED_ToolsArticleId=4262673&CMPI_SHARED_CommentArticleId=4262673&articleTitle=Viking surfs over to direct selling

I would suggest anyone that considers booking with them, now, or in the future, invests in a rather large bargepole.

Moonchild

bagand96 wrote: »

And the rebirth begins (again)

Looks like Viking Airlines are "positioning" themselves to start selling their flights directly:

I would suggest anyone that considers booking with them, now, or in the future, invests in a rather large bargepole.

Selective quotation from that article:

The airline is...[partly] owned by..... Black Pearl Investments

Now, where have I seen that name before??

Anyone about to book with Viking Airlines should do some googling of "Black Pearl Investments & Kiss Flights" and "Black Pearl Investments & XL Airways", especially if you have lost flights / money with the demise of the of Kiss or XL.

bagand96

Moonchild wrote: »

Selective quotation from that article:

Now, where have I seen that name before??

Anyone about to book with Viking Airlines should do some googling of "Black Pearl Investments & Kiss Flights" and "Black Pearl Investments & XL Airways", especially if you have lost flights / money with the demise of the of Kiss or XL.

Wise advise. Phil Wyatt, ex chief executive of XL, has a private registration plate. It is K155 XLA. XLA was the three letter code for XL Airways. I'm sure K155 doesn't need much explaining! Of course, thats all coincidence.

Moonchild

bagand96 wrote: »

Phil Wyatt, ex chief executive of XL, has a private registration plate. It is K155 XLA. XLA was the three letter code for XL Airways. I'm sure K155 doesn't need much explaining! Of course, thats all coincidence.

Wow. I've always found personalised number plates the epitomy of cheap and tacky. That's just confirmed it. Good research bagand... although I heard it was KISS FLY and attached to a Porsche...

Although he confirmed it was K155 XLA here, which has lots of interesting links: http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airports-routes/342161-kiss-air-6.html

Strange how looking back it seemed to obvious...

bagand96

Strange how looking back it seemed to obvious...

It was always obvious, the Kiss website launched with XL's terms and conditions! Despite all the protests in the media to the contrary, it was clear what was going on. Its legal though.

Trouble is, the public will always demand cheap seats, and they'll book based on price only. Such companies will provide them cheap flights, but its unsustainable. Most travel agents are happy to book customers on these companies and take the comission. (I say most, Co-op Travel chief exec was very vocal when Kiss launched, saying he would never do business with them).

I'm amazed ATOL will bond these outfits though, especially when they know who is behind them!

suki49

Need advice. We booked with lostcostholidays to fly to Egypt. We have had an email from them saying that some flights have been disrupted due to Kiss Flights failure. Our flights are booked with Viking, the small print says that lostcosttravelgroup.com are a selling agent for Kiss Flights. So what does all this mean?

Very confused and worried, sorry if this has already been covered.



Thank you

Bren.

bagand96

suki49 wrote: »

Need advice. We booked with lostcostholidays to fly to Egypt. We have had an email from them saying that some flights have been disrupted due to Kiss Flights failure. Our flights are booked with Viking, the small print says that lostcosttravelgroup.com are a selling agent for Kiss Flights. So what does all this mean?

Very confused and worried, sorry if this has already been covered.



Thank you

Bren.

It means, unfortunately that your flights are not happeneing. Did you have any other travel arrangements with lowcost? If you did, you need to speak to them and find out where you stand. You can either find alternative flights, or try and cancel your other travel plans.

EDIT: Lowcostholidays have some Q&A's for people affected like yourself http://www.lowcostholidays.com/FAQs.htm It seems that lowcost include supplier failure insurance and they will find you a new flight. However you will have to pay for this and then reclaim for your Kiss Flight. What happens if there is a difference in cost between a new flight ad your original flight is not mentioned.

suki49

Thank you for reply. At least we know where we stand now! We had also booked hotel accommodation with lowcost.

We'll see what they come up.

Thanks again.

Bren

caiti

On Monday night my son booked a holiday through an online agent using my credit card (with permission) for himself and his girlfriend travelling next friday.
On tuesday the agen phoned to confirm it was ok flights were returning following saturday early hours. they wanted to confirm this before finalising the booking
same day kiss went into liquidation
He got a text wednesday to say his flights were with Kiss and holiday cancelled
He has had no confirmation, tickets anything and did purchase insurance at same time.
I contaced barclaycard who said the transaction was still pending but I had to contact agent as they cannot cancel it - it had been authorised.
They also said I could authorise barclaycard to go into dispute with travel agent but had to wait until 28th August for this.
The agents after many attempts at contact just say via email that I will have to wait for them to send a claim form

Can I use the distance selling cool-off period?
If the transaction is just pending, should they go ahead and take it bearing in mind they authorised it on the same day as the liquidation?
Should I pay the credit card bill when it comes in or risk paying interest and not be able to use it for my own purchases until it is sorted? (It is a cashback card I use daily and pay off every month)
Thanks for reading this and for any replies

cantcope

I've just had a letter from bookableholidays.co.uk saying that if were due to travel before 1st sept we would get a full refund (we were due to travel on 17th sept.
it advises we rebook flights on their website, they are £548 each!!!!!
it says if we dont advise we are not rebooklng flights a week before we travel they will cancel our other elements (accommodation).
They say they are contacting people in order of departure date and to be patient.

I contacted them on tuesday nigght using their web contact form and got the standard reply so i guess i'll just have to wait for a call now.

I've tried their number all day long and just keep getting the voicemail saying they are busy and to try again later. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

am i really not entitled to a full refund? i cannot afford £548 for another flight but i also dont want to lose the money i've already paid for my holiday