Need Help with getting my refund with Jetline Travel!

Eastender

Hi everyone,

I’m trying desperately to get my full refund for a holiday that I had booked in Turkey with Jetline Travel, aka Deal of the Day Holiday’ After booking the holiday via phone and paid all the money, I was looking forward to my holiday. Then I was contacted by their agent, who told me that due to the collapse of ‘Holiday 4 U’ my holiday was cancelled, though they tried to offer alternative destinations but they were far too expensive. I was told that my flight fare would be refunded but not the hotel accommodation, even though I booked both flight and hotel via them.

The agent told me that I had booked a ‘tailor made’ holiday not a package holiday, as such I’m not entitled to all the refund, and claimed that Jetline Travel had already paid the hotel, which is a lie, as I contacted hotel in Marmaris and they replied that they had not been paid, as it was cancelled. The cancellation fee is £350! Even though we did not cancel the holiday and I thought it was a package holiday. The agent told me it’s all in their TC.

We did not receive their TC nor did I receive an e-mail confirmation of the holiday. After chasing them for several times, I managed to get the flight refund only. At the point of booking I was not made aware of that I’m purchasing a ‘unique’ holiday.

It’s totally unfair for this agent/tour operator to charge a hefty cancellation charge, even though I had not cancelled my holiday. This all Indian staff with heavy accent have proven to very difficult to get a written reply. The whole communication had been carried out by phone.:mad:

Eastender

Surely it happened to you guys, so please help me out.

This can't the be legal. Ripping off customers and charging 'cancellation charge'.

apt

This is the legal definition of a package.


“package” means the pre-arranged combination of at least two of the
following components when sold or offered for sale at an inclusive
price and when the service covers a period of more than twenty-four
hours or includes overnight accommodation:
a) transport;
b) accommodation;
c) other tourist services not ancillary to transport or
accommodation and accounting for a significant proportion
of the package, and:
i) the submission of separate accounts for different
components shall not cause the arrangements to
be other than a package;
ii) the fact that the combination is arranged at the
request of the consumer and in accordance with
his specific instructions whether modified or not
shall not of itself cause it to be treated as other
than pre-arranged.

If this is what Jetline Travel sold you it is a package no matter what they describe it as. Is Jetline Travel a member of ABTA. If so you could go down that route. If you paid by a credit card or visa debit card you could try to claim under section 75 or via cashback - but the latter has a 120 day time limit. A final route is via the small claims court, but you might have trouble getting Jetline to pay up if the judge decides in your favour.

Caz3121

have you checked your travel insurance policy to see if this covers you for supplier failure and consequential losses

Eastender

apt wrote: »

This is the legal definition of a package.


“package” means the pre-arranged combination of at least two of the
following components when sold or offered for sale at an inclusive
price and when the service covers a period of more than twenty-four
hours or includes overnight accommodation:
a) transport;
b) accommodation;
c) other tourist services not ancillary to transport or
accommodation and accounting for a significant proportion
of the package, and:
i) the submission of separate accounts for different
components shall not cause the arrangements to
be other than a package;
ii) the fact that the combination is arranged at the
request of the consumer and in accordance with
his specific instructions whether modified or not
shall not of itself cause it to be treated as other
than pre-arranged.

If this is what Jetline Travel sold you it is a package no matter what they describe it as. Is Jetline Travel a member of ABTA. If so you could go down that route. If you paid by a credit card or visa debit card you could try to claim under section 75 or via cashback - but the latter has a 120 day time limit. A final route is via the small claims court, but you might have trouble getting Jetline to pay up if the judge decides in your favour.

Thanks 'Apt' for your reply.

I see from my bank statement that they have taken money twice on two seperate payments on the same day. I wasn't told that they would take two seperate transcation, as I had agreed to pay them in one ago. But deceitfully they have taken 2 payments, probably to cover their back. The company is a member of ABTA. I did not have travel Ins but paid by visa debit card.

Eastender

Caz3121 wrote: »

have you checked your travel insurance policy to see if this covers you for supplier failure and consequential losses

Unfortunatly, did not have travel ins. The agent from Jetline Travel mentioned that and expected me to have the ins, so that my ins would pay for it all. I have been to other holidays but never dealt with such a dredful company before.

As soon as I booked my holiday, after seeing their advert on Internet site 'icelolly' under Deals of the holiday' I knew I had made a big mistake, as they kept adding charges and not getting even receiving confirmation e-mail, which they told it would take '10-15 working days' to get a e-mail.

bexsims

I have recently booked a holiday with 'Deal of the Day Holidays' to Marmaris in October. I have my concerns with this company after making the booking. They too have taken 2 different payments - one for the flight, another for accommodation and transfers etc. I have had the flight confirmation email but not one to confirm the rest.

I was also really disappointed after I got a quote from Icelolly.com, rang DOTD to book, when they rang me with a reference they told me the cost of flights had gone up by £62 each! I wasn't impressed to say the least and reluctantly agreed to this after they upgraded our room and included an extra night's stay as we arrive very early in the morning and leave late at night so we'll have a room until we have to leave for the airport at midnight.

I have since noticed that I could get the same flight (with Thomas Cook) for a lot less and have rang them to question their extra charges. I appreciate that flight prices fluctuate but they led me to believe that the price of this holiday would go up and up, when in fact it does seem to go down as well, and if I booked the same trip now it would cost £80 less!

I've also spoken to a few different operators at DOTD and they all say different things - after the total holiday price some add on a 'booking fee' which ranges from £15pp to £25pp, some state you must book transfers with them to get the deal advertised and some just give you the first price all inclusive.

I have certainly learnt a lot from this experience and although I hope for a lovely relaxing holiday in the sun, it is doubtful I will book with them again next year. I am a keen moneysaver and am gutted that I appear to have 'overpaid' for this particular trip!!

worried_jim

Why did the collapse of Holiday 4 U have any bearing on your holiday as they were a totally separate company? i am flying to turkey on Sunday with a holiday booked through deal of the day and was too told that i would receive everything via email with in ten days. It all arrived as described on the tenth day. I have since read some horror stories re dotdh and jetline but so far (fingers crossed) everything is ok. I hope you get yours sorted out soon.

worried_jim

Having returned now from my holiday I can give you the run down of the Jetline/deal of the day experience.
Turning up at Gatwick without a ticket was not a problem- didn't even need a copy of the booking email, just handed passports over and that was it booked onto the flight. I flew to Turkey with Onurair, the flight was on time but the temperature on the plane was very hot and uncomfortable, there were no free drinks/meals and the prices for food was a rip off. Fortunately Boots in the departure lounge get rid of all there sandwiches from 9pm onwards so everything was 75p- a real airport bargain so we took a few onto the plane.
We had paid for a transfer from the airport (£40 both ways) - could have got a taxi cheaper as it was only 8 miles. It was a small four door car (Mazda) and there was another couple sharing with us (that's 5 people crammed in) the driver couldn't fit the luggage in the boot so had to leave the boot open and tie it down with string. On the return journey they sent a Citroen C3 to pick us all up - he had to make two trips as there was no way we could all get in with luggage, this caused quite a bit of stress for the other couple as they were then worried about missing their flight. This is the company - http://taxitransfers.co.uk/ if you want to avoid them your selves in the future.
The hotel. Oh the hotel. When we arrived at 6am it was pitch black- all the lights on the pathways and drive ways where out. The reception had a desk a tv (all security guards watching it) and nothing else- no what's on boards or adverts for trips/things to de see etc. Jetline had charged us another £42 to upgrade our rooms which we paid but all the rooms were exactly the same with the same view so this was another unnecessary spend/rip off. The hotel was AI but the food was disgusting we ate the for one evening meal. I has to queue for 25 minutes for some bbq chicken- I could have ran that grill more efficiently- when you have taken some cooked food off, put some fresh on. We went to lunch most days, although I only has bread and butter, that is until they ran out of butter during the second week and didn't get any more! Slicing the bread was a chore as well as they has the world's bluntest bread knife. I naively thought that there would be pitta bread, humous and olives to eat but sadly not.
The pool and beach were very nice. However during the second week the pool became unusable as it had turned dark green and you couldn't see the bottom. It was useable after two days. The beach had a water slide going into the sea but again was not usable as there was no water flowing down it from the top as the pump as broken. The beach was private and view was stunning, the water was warm and clear and a real delight. It was just a shame that it wasn't cleaned and was covered in fag ends.
Other facilities at the hotel included a tennis court (no rackets or balls) a ping pong table (no bats or ball) a dartboard (only one dart). There was also an entertainment team and they did work very hard, well for the first six days of the holiday and then they left so no entertainment for the last week of the holiday.
We found out that the hotel was owned by a government corporation so the staff were practically un-sackable, we saw a huge fight between them one morning. They were very friendly but I have a suspicion that as soon as your back was turned they were being quite unpleasant about you in Turkish. By the end of the first week most of the staff had left as we found out the hotel was closing on or about October 10th see we could see why everything was getting wound down around us, those staff that were left did work. It seemed that the workforce was bloated so no body bothered to do anything as they just thought that some one else would do it instead.
The AI bar was always running out of drinks, white wine was the first to go followed by red (never replaced). Vodka often ran out but there was always some more the next day. The beer finally ran out for good on our last weekend, the draught had ran out a few days previously but they has been pouring Skol from big plastic bottles.
During the two weeks there were 5 power cuts (three of these affected the whole town) and two I would put down to Thunder storms. Our biggest issue was when the hotel ran out of water for seven hours! Not bottled water, but turn your tap on have a shower flush the toilet water. We tried a fire hydrant and this was dry too, we asked in reception what fire cover they had in place and were told if we don’t like it go to another hotel.

Of course we had read the reviews on trip adviser before we went and we thought that is surely can’t be that bad- it was. The town, Gulluk, (http://www.gulluk.co.uk/) was a delight and we had a fantastic holiday and would definitely go back to the town again- the friendliest place I have ever been to.

Would I book through deal of the day/jetline again? Definitely not. If I go to Turkey again I would only go self catering and if I didn’t book an apartment privately then I would use a big tour operator.