Olympic holidays just changed our flights.....

RHYSDAD

Hi all, what would a wedding be without drama!!
We've booked six flights through Olympic with Monarch to Paphos in Cyprus this June. We paid £80 each as a deposit with the rest due shortly. We got day flights as we have two boys under four. We had an email today stating that we now haven't got those flights, we've been booked on another flight (another airline too) for both journeys to Larnaca, around 3 hrs drive away from Paphos. The flight going out is 12 midnight with the return leg 12.30am Local time. A phone call to Olympic today basically resulted in us being told tough and if we wished to cancel those flights and rearrange them we'd lose that deposit. T&C's I think do state this but as we paid by credit card, could we get acrefund via them on the grounds of a breach of contract due to the complete chaos caused by these new flights?

magyar

What? The Ts and Cs state that they can change your airline, destination and time of flight and you get no refund? That's completely wrong. If you booked through a travel agent and they changed your flights then you are entitled to a full refund.

delwynshd

Yeah load of rubbish you can cancel these flights free of charge

Cancel them and book elsewhere

Thanks
Del

apt

If the change in flights is less than 12 hours the only way you will get a full refund is if you can shame Olympic Holidays into giving you it or take a small claims case and hope to persuade the judge that Olympic's terms and conditions are unreasonable. As you have young children there is a fair chance of this, but it's not guaranteed. If Olympic tries to play hardball and you do not want to take them to court another option would be to write to a newspaper consumer complaints column.

bagand96

Not that this will help you, but some background to this.....

Olympic Holidays, the tour operator, have had a long relationship with Monarch Airlines to provide the flying for their charter flights. However, this year, something went wrong. Monarch's version of events is that Olympic just weren't willing to pay sustainable market rates for the flying. Olympic dispute this, but either way Monarch are not doing any flying for Olympic in Summer 2011.

This only unfolded at the beginning of the year, and has left Olympic very little time to arrange a flying programme for a summer season that starts in May.

Anyway, that doesn't help you. Out of interest who is your new airline? Cityboy provides very good information on the EU regulation legal side of things. Bottom line is olympic have changed your flight times, but crucially your airport. This is unacceptable, do not take their word for it. Speak to them again and advise them you do not accept these changes. If I were you I would also seek advice from Consumer Direct and ABTA.

RHYSDAD

Cityboy wrote: »

That would of course mean you are ignoring your rights under EC 261/2004 which gives the passenger the option of either cancelling with a full refund or re-routing:

Article 8
Right to reimbursement or re-routing
1. Where reference is made to this Article, passengers shall be offered the choice between:
(a) - reimbursement within seven days, by the means provided for in Article 7(3), of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought, for the part or parts of the journey not made, and for the part or parts already made if the flight is no longer serving any purpose in relation to the passenger's original travel plan, together with, when relevant,
- a return flight to the first point of departure, at the earliest opportunity;
(b) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity; or
(c) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at a later date at the passenger's convenience, subject to availability of seats.
2. Paragraph 1(a) shall also apply to passengers whose flights form part of a package, except for the right to reimbursement where such right arises under Directive 90/314/EEC.
3. When, in the case where a town, city or region is served by several airports, an operating air carrier offers a passenger a flight to an airport alternative to that for which the booking was made, the operating air carrier shall bear the cost of transferring the passenger from that alternative airport either to that for which the booking was made, or to another close-by destination agreed with the passenger.

Full Reg here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:EN:HTML

Thanks cityboy, that's great info. So, just to make sure i'm correct here: As Olympic (tour operator) has rearranged these flights, THEY have a duty to re-imburse our deposit in full as they have drastically altered our arrangements causing us much inconvenience, not Monarch? thanks for clarification.

delwynshd

Yeah they will have to give you a refund they have took you into another airport

You will get the deposit back

Del

HXDave

Hi Cityboy,

just a quick thought here, and would love to hear your thoughts on this. you are mentioning EU261/2004, and the fact about re-imbursement & re-routeing. However this is how i see it. As Bagand96 states, Monarch airlines have cancelled the flying program for Olympic this year. Therefore it was more likely that Olympic were showing the flight schedule for probably what it was hoping to operate, however (and whilst i hate to say this due to the way Monarch trated my friends), effectively Monarch have nothing to do with the booking, and never had a contract to fly that route for Olympic on the dates quoted.

Effectively, from how i see it, Olympic have been booking people onto flights that do not exist. Naughty, i know, however in all fairness they were flights they had operated in the past, and probably just expected to get the same this year.

Now as for the original question, Olympic booking conditions (in the brochure) state that any flight change over 12 hours is a significant change, however whilst a change of UK airport would be classed as a major change, the change of arrival airport (paphos - larnaca & vv) is not. So RHYSDAD, just check your original flight times against your new flight times. if there is a difference of more than 12 hours (as i expect there will be), you have the right to 'withdraw from the booking compleately in which case we will, as soon as possible, refund all money paid to you'. Not sure if the booking conditions in the brochure are identical to the online ones, however it is section headed in the brochure IF WE MAKE A CHANGE.

Reh=gards

HXDave

richardw

HXDave wrote: »

Olympic have been booking people onto flights that do not exist. Naughty, i know, however in all fairness they were flights they had operated in the past, and probably just expected to get the same this year.

It is perhaps because of this kind of naughtiness that this regulation EC261/2004 was introduced.

HXDave

Richard, i agree, but EU261/2004 is aimed at airlines, not tour operators. It is the tour operators directive that covers them (not exactly sure of the regulation). I agree, if monarch had actually planned to operate the route, and then pulled the plug, blame monarch. However in this instance, i think the blame 100% lies with Olympic.

HXDave

Alan_Bowen

As many are about to discover, virtually every single booking with Olympic Holidays for summer 2011 is about to be changed. They appear to have a new relationship with Strategic Airlines, (no me neither) to fly a lot of their routes this year. This appears to be an airline registered in Luxembourg but owned by Australians that was registered in France but alledgedly had its licence to fly revoked.......Worryingly it appears to be only operating one aircraft in Europe at the moment, its main operations are from Oz to Bali. I would suggest where the flights times permit you cancel and look elsewhere, but be aware if you were an early booker, the likelihood is that prices will be much higher now due in part to increased demand for Greece in light of the difficulties elsewhere and the serious rise in fuel prices