Travel republic changed flight to morning flight???

hikerme

Hi, me and two friends are going away on the 25th to greece and the original flights were at 10pm at night however they changed these flights a few weeks back to 10am! ... We are not able to make this 10am flight due to a last minute exam change but our original time of 10pm would be fine. We booked through travel republic and they state that this is a minor change therefore its not refundable. Is there anything we can do, they are using olympic holidays as the airlines.

Thankyou!

Shimrod

This guidance from Abta is probably a good starting point - it sounds like you may have a case for a refund but you will have to argue the point.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-advice/9432147/When-tour-operators-change-your-flight-time.html

hikerme

Thanks I will contact them tomorrow stating, that this change has caused us many problems and see what they say I guess.

hikerme

As its not over 12 hours do I have a leg to stand on?

Caz3121

hikerme wrote: »

Hi, me and two friends are going away on the 25th to greece and the original flights were at 10pm at night however they changed these flights a few weeks back to 10am! ... We are not able to make this 10am flight due to a last minute exam change but our original time of 10pm would be fine. We booked through travel republic and they state that this is a minor change therefore its not refundable. Is there anything we can do, they are using olympic holidays as the airlines.

Thankyou!

If they were able to refund you the flights, would you be able to buy alternative flights for that same evening?

hikerme

There does seem to be a few flights out there that are still going in the evening so yeah we would be able to.

bagand96

I think that you will be bound to Olympic Holiday's T&Cs as that's the operator (Travel Republic are just an agent). These are Olympic's conditions from their website:

Occasionally, however, we may have to make a significant change to your confirmed arrangements. Significant changes are deemed to be the following:

• Change of UK departure airport (except between the airports serving London: Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton and Stansted)
• Change of your time of departure from the UK by more than 12 hours
• Change of resort area
• Change of holiday accommodation to accommodation of a lower official rating

If we have to make a significant change, we will notify* you as quickly as possible and you may then either:

• accept the change, and the contract between us will then be varied to incorporate the change; or
• take alternative arrangements altogether (subject to availability). If the alternative arrangements selected are of a lower price
• than those originally confirmed, the difference will (if already paid) be refunded to you. If the alternative is more expensive,
• then you will have to pay the difference; or
• withdraw from the booking completely in which case we will, as soon as possible, refund all money paid to us.

So it seems you would be able to get a full refund of the flight part of your booking (if your flight has been moved by more than 12 hours - 12 hours exactly may not count as a significant change) But do check that other flights are bookable for similar price before cancelling!

Not sure if Travel Republic will charge their own admin fee or not.

hikerme

okay thanks for the information, I shall contact them tomorrow morning and let you know what they say.

hikerme

Olympic holidays refuse to talk to anyone other than travel republic, what a load of rubbish...

bagand96

hikerme wrote: »

Olympic holidays refuse to talk to anyone other than travel republic, what a load of rubbish...

That's standard practice. You booked with Travel Republic, it's them you need to deal with.

hikerme

Yeah I understand, I have also spoken to travel republic and they are just telling me to wait 3 days for them to get a response. Each day we are waiting the flights are going up by around £10 a ticket