MSE News: Holidays 4 U collapses - your travel rights

gtdavies

hi all could someone point me in right direction
booked flights with hols4u claim form says if booked with credit card contact them as caa will not pay out,barclaycard says i must apply to caa?
what do i do?

gtdavies

teeni wrote: »

Hi
I booked with travel republic and had free cancellation insurance apparently i didn't realise but when i cancelled the accommodation and transfers they refunded all but the original debit card charge of a couple of quid I cancelled on wednesday afternoon as soon as i heard. The cancellation was completed yesterday and the money is in my account this morning.
Go on to the site and manage my booking and try cancelling see what it does . i believe travel republic gives it free as i have booked a new hol with them last night and it says cancellation insurance is free of charge.

good luck

with the claim forms i have 5 sets of fligts booked do i need to fill in one for each which will be a total of 72 pages this is a mine field.
on the claim form it states that if you used a credit card for part or full payment then the caa will not refund that payment and contact the card issuer

bagand96

gtdavies wrote: »

hi all could someone point me in right direction
booked flights with hols4u claim form says if booked with credit card contact them as caa will not pay out,barclaycard says i must apply to caa?
what do i do?

Again.....

All the advice you need is contained here: http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/1052/20110...UClaimForm.pdf

Simply put:

- if you paid via a credit card directly with H4U/Aegean then you claim from the credit card company. You may need to send a copy of the covering letter from the CAA claim form to your credit card company to convince them of this.

- if you paid via a credit card but booked via a travel agent you claim from ATOL

- if you paid via any other payment method you claim via ATOL

The CAA have a helpline if you have any questions 08444 933037

teeni

gtdavies wrote: »

with the claim forms i have 5 sets of fligts booked do i need to fill in one for each which will be a total of 72 pages this is a mine field.
on the claim form it states that if you used a credit card for part or full payment then the caa will not refund that payment and contact the card issuer

Sorry cant help as i said i have been refunded the cost of the accommodation and transfer by travel republic as i was given free cancellation protection when i booked and full cost refunded except for debit card fee a couple of quid.

With regard to the flights i have claimed via charge back as i paid with my halifax visa debit card. I sent all the documents they required off yesterday and was told they would process it in 10 days or so posible a bit longer dependant on how many claims they get and that i should have full cost returned.

I never used a credit card so slightly different process

HXDave

Unfortunately, due to Martin Lewis's advice to shop around, and to get the cheapest deal possible has ended up costing a lot of people what will seem like a lot of money. People who have had to re-book flights at additional expense, or people who will lose accommodation costs and possible transfer costs.

Now dont get me wrong, I use Martins advice quite a lot for lots of household things, however i always make sure i am not at risk.

I would be grateful if Martin Lewis could explain to his followers on here exactly how, by following his advise to shop around and get the cheapest deal, has ended up saving people money?.

Perhaps Martin should concentrate more on 'safer options' for your money, as opposed to just 'cheaper' options for your money.

And yes, i am a travel agent. We do get a bad press, but at least we make sure peoples moneys are safe!

HXDave

Our_Felix

Well HX Davie, Sorry this is going to be a bit long winded post now - I don't see how Martin Lewis could know which companies would be going to the wall when shopping around - Thomas Cook could go tomorrow, who knows? I don't know the exact figure of what was wiped off their stocks this week, but it was not trivial! (along with the CEO)

I believe in shopping around, for anything, but nothing is certain in this life, especially in the current financial climate.

Everyone is happy enough with Martin Lewis when they are getting refunds on council tax, bank charges, lower gas and electric bills, etc, so I don't see how Martin can take the fall for this one!

ANYWAY, back to my actual reason for posting:

I have two flights booked with Aegean and paid for in full, one for September and one for next July. I have used my visa debit to pay for both. As the one for next July was paid for only mid May, I have taken a letter into the Halifax with a copy of my invoice, requesting a refund on the 120 day rule where the bank on my behalf should be able to claim back my flight under the 120 day Visa chargeback rule. Your debit card has to be a Visa debit or Mastercard for apply under this rule. According to the article chargeback from the bank should be a much speedier process (hopefully).

Where did I get this information?

There is a very helpful template letter in an article somewhere on this website which I downloaded to take to the bank (sorry I just can't find it at this moment).

For my September flight which I booked last year I am waiting for a copy of my bank statement to accompany the paperwork, and will be claimig from the CAA as directed on the ATOL website, then unfortunately like everyone else, waiting months and months for a refund.

I was unfortunate enough to be caught up in the Excel Airways demise a couple of years ago (paid for with my credit card). My bank (Natwest) really tried to give me the run around about claiming through ATOL. After a couple of letters and several heated exchanges on the telephone, I was lucky enough to get my money back from the Natwest, within three months. I can't find the paperwork at the moment, but it was my final letter giving them seven days to act, that actually got me the refund.

I have to say that in part was due to the very informative and helpful advice given on this website and my dogged determination not to be jerked about any more by Natwest.

Everyone affected by this will have hassle, check exactly what you are entitled to, by whom, and stick at it. Good luck to all.

HXDave

Well HX Davie, Sorry this is going to be a bit long winded post now - I don't see how Martin Lewis could know which companies would be going to the wall when shopping around - Thomas Cook could go tomorrow, who knows? I don't know the exact figure of what was wiped off their stocks this week, but it was not trivial! (along with the CEO)

Felix, i quite agree with you when you say no one has any idea who may be next to go. My point is that more emphasis should be put on the sucurity of a holiday, not just the price. By promoting the fact of 'shopping around' and trying as many companies as possible, it has lead to people booking holidays that are not as well financially protected as other holidays. I will admit, in my own office, i have 2 bookings with Holidaus4U, basically because the price suited the clients. Both clients have now lost their holidays, but are safe in the fact that they will get ALL their money back (ok, could take 3 months, could take 12). However there are a lot of people who will not be as fortunate, as these forums clearly show.

It's ok going for cheap cheap cheap, but you need the security factor there too, and i believe that Mr Lewis fails to point this out in a lot of cases when dealing with holiday issues. But then accain, he's a money man, not a travel man.

HXDave

roddydogs

I, and no one I know had ever heard of H 4U, only "Phones 4U", why do people book with these "Cheepo" outfits, were they that "Cheap" anyway?

Our_Felix

roddydogs wrote: »

I, and no one I know had ever heard of H 4U, only "Phones 4U", why do people book with these "Cheepo" outfits, were they that "Cheap" anyway?

If you travel to Turkey regularly, you would have heard of this company. They specialised in Turkey - I and dozens of my friends and people I know who travel to Dalaman on a regular basis, have used Aegean flights a lot. Their service has always been extremely efficient.

The only time the flights are really cheap is if you book them a day or so of them coming on sale on the internet. They used to sell a certain number of seats at cost, when the flight cost was covered, they then increased the price on a daily basis, usually £20 per person, per day. When you booked the flight you could not pay a deposit and had to pay in full, but you could be sure that the flight would not be reduced in the future, you would not be sat next to someone who had paid a lot less for the flight than you had. Also if you booked early you were guaranteed no surcharges.

I have always found them extremely efficient to deal with.

It is the same with some of the EasyJet flights when they first come on sale, but everyone has heard of EasyJet as it is a much bigger set up.

Our_Felix

This is not a recommendation, merely a suggestion!

I have had to rebook flights for September (have now been well-robbed by Thomas Cook) who incidentally took their website down the very evening of the demise of Hols4U/Aegean for 'essential maintenance'. This came back on line a few hours later with the duly amended prices and duly amended luggage charges! I suspect many people who rebooked (like myself) were getting a bit panicky by 10 pm (having spent over 2 hours comparing flights with everyone I could think of) when the flights were disappearing fast, like they were not going to get fixed up and jumped in with Thomas Cook as soon as they could.

Whilst searching I went on to the website for a company called Airflights.co.uk (I can't post the web addy as I am a newbie) - they had lots of availability but when checking a lot of the flights were coming up 'Carrier TBA'. The timings of some of these flights were identical to the times that the ONUR flights would have been operating by Aegean.

If anyone is still struggling to find flights, it may be worthwhile taking a look at this website and paying with your credit card. It says the company is fully bonded, etc. This company has been operating for years (but obviously that doesn't really count in the current climate).

I have no vested interest in making this suggestion, but hope it may be of help to someone who has been stuffed by this latest travel industry fiasco.