Travel Republic - Money taken...no flight

jkkne

Hello all.

Made a holiday booking with travel republic. flights, hotels, transfers.

The confirmation emails came through all at once (though the flight service said not confirmed)

About an hour after I made the booking they advised me that the flight was no longer available and the other option was a much much later flight which would see me lose a day in resort and get back to the UK at an ungodly hour.

I asked about cancelling the whole thing and they said 'You can cancel the flight but you'd lose the transfer and accomodation'

I argued this was incredibly unfair as it was booked as a package and I had no idea the flight wasn't available!

They said they'd speak to a Supervisor in the morning. Do I have a leg to stand on if they refuse the accomodation and transfer money back?

keigcf

I wouldn't know, but think it stinks if they don't let you cancel the lot!

vegasvisitor

Funny, I was looking up their website earlier in the year for a trip to Malta in June. They had availablity on a hotel I couldn't get elsewhere. I called them, they said they'd confirm it all shortly afterwards, but if they couldn't get the hotel I could chose another. Well my whole point in using them was to get the hotel, so I could get my flight direct with Ryanair anyway - but would be prepared to book a package with them to get the hotel. Didn't sound too good. Decided to call the hotel direct to ask, and they said that there was no availability left, other than the Thomas Cook rooms which they prebook in bulk anyway (presuming I could get a booking with Thomas Cook).

Ended up booking with Thomas Cook. I then read somewhere else that Travel Republic have sent people to hotels with no rooms available etc, and various problems. I'd insist with them that it's a package etc. Did you book by c/card? Not sure if that would help.

eevie

A similar thing happened to us this last summer, except our flights had increased in price and we were asked if we wanted to pay the extra, we had the hotel confirmed and travel republic said we could not cancel. I was really cross as there were other flights with different airlines around a similar price and travelrepublic had taken 4 hours to let us know of the increase, and of course by then the other flights weren't available. Having said that it was the day after a travel company specialising in Turkey had gone bust and our flights were to Dalaman, Turkey, I think lots of people were trying to re-book holidays. In the end we spoke to a supervisor who agreed we could cancel the whole lot, hotel included. But after all that we decided we wanted the holiday and could not change our dates so we took the hit, but it was nice to know they would have let us cancel the hotel.

Alan_Bowen

Be careful, the whole Travel Republic operation is based on the fact that they do not, ever, under any circumstances, sell package holidays. This means you are entering a whole series of completely separate contracts, any of which can fail, leaving you with half a holiday. They may be cheaper than elsewhere but then they don't pay for an ATOL licence and don't take responsibility if things go wrong because you have no contract with them. You pays your money and take a chance, if it all goes well, fine, if not.......