Holiday Problem - Airport and hotel nowhere near each other

tomtontom

dex986 wrote: »

I understand what you're saying tomtontom but I said Egypt as a country of destination and then selected Luxor as the airport. It would be a bit like selecting USA as the country, JFK as the arrival airport. One would not expect to see hotels in Vegas in the subsequent list.

There was a list at the side of the page that allowed you to narrow down the location, there was also a map there so you could see how spread out the results were. You failed to read (or use) any of this. I am sympathetic but can't believe someone would spend so much money without doing the slightest bit of research.

tomtontom

dex986 wrote: »

I understand what you're saying tomtontom but I said Egypt as a country of destination and then selected Luxor as the airport. It would be a bit like selecting USA as the country, JFK as the arrival airport. One would not expect to see hotels in Vegas in the subsequent list.

Indeed I have just checked this. You can't select USA alone, you have to select a state. I tried Germany and India, you cannot select by country but by area. Therefore you will get lists of hotels for the area. For Egypt you can select by area but also by country alone. Why have these restrictions for other countries but not Egypt?

In answer to your second question, probably because there would be too many results for those countries.

Buzby

By what? Postcode, distance by road? Country seems reasonable, but how is this different from booking a hotel in Campbeltown or Stornoway after flying into Glasgow. One you can drive to in 3 hours and is 200 miles away. The other is 200 miles plus a ferry.

Independent travellers need to know what they are doing - or take a prepared package.

Caz3121

If you had chosen Luxor as the destination, you would have seen only flights and hotels for Luxor. Similarly if you chose Sharm you would get only Sharm flights and hotels.
Your search was too wide selecting a whole country. It looks like the system performs 2 separate searches, the first one on flights using the information you entered and the second for the hotel. The second search is not driven by what you select for the flight but is based on what you entered in the initial search

stephb34

dex986 wrote: »

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies. As I suspected I may have to accept the fault lies with me although I take heart from the post by lea2012. That is essentially what has happened in my case.

The company is lowcostholidays.com and I've just noticed they are not ATOL protected. If you go to their website and choose London as the departure and Egypt as the arrival. Date is from 16th July for two weeks. The cheapest flight is currently a Thomson flight to Luxor. If you select that you are taken to a list of hotels. All the hotels are Sharm El Sheik based. There is no information on distance from airport, nor can you sort the list by distance.

You really need to see if you can get these flights with Thomsons to Luxor cancelled or changed. I have a customer who does flight only to Luxor several times a year, but over the last year has been struggling to get there as the big 2 pull their flights when there is trouble in Egypt. She gave me a right ear bashing only last week because TC aren't flying in there, but her main gripe (nothing to do with me) are that Thomsons keep selling her and her friend flights to Luxor, taking full payment, then a few weeks before she goes telling her the flight isn't going and offering her Sharm or Hurghada or her money back, which makes her cross because they've had her money for at least 6 months. So in July if your flights are cancelled you still have the hotel you've paid for because you haven't booked a package, unless they switch you to Sharm then your problem is sorted, but I wouldn't dare risk that.

lea2012

To me this is clearly a LCH error. As you have pointed out, every other country that they operate in is split into areas, eg Turkey you have to select either your resort or Antalya, Dalaman or Bodrum area.
This should be the same for Egypt, whereby you can only choose Sharm, Hurghada or Luxor Area and then be able to select a hotel connected to those airports/areas.

I would imagine that LCH are not really aware of this error on their system and it could prove quite costly for them. Be glad that you discovered it now and not when you arrived at Luxor.

You need to really push them on this matter as it's ridiculous that they have this option for Egypt, and considering the current state of affairs in Egypt I think making your own transfers would be too risky. Although they are not ATOL protected I do believe that they still have to adhere to some form of EU law/legislation. I would imagine that AlanBowen, who has previously commented, can give you some more advise on this or have a look through older posts on LCH using the search function of the forum.

I would also suggest posting something on their facebook wall and twitter feed asking if anyone else has faced the same problem? Might get them moving.

Alan_Bowen

When LCH fled the UK on 1st November last year, they claimed they provided financial protection through a scheme based in Palma Majorca. As they have no similar scheme to 'Flight Plus' which this looks as though it would be if sold in the UK, LCH claimed that all sales would be treated as packages in order to guarantee protection even if they failed in terms of a legal definition, to be a package.

Having just waded through their 13 pages of booking conditions, it seems they still do. Legally therefore you have the protection of a 1990 Package Travel Directive ( one of the good things that came from Europe) and what they have sold, due to their failure to ensure compatibility between flights and linked accommodation is not acceptable. They also state in clause 13 that they will take reasonable care and skill in putting the package together, and it is clear they haven't.

So you do have rights, the only problem is how to enforce them. They are not answerable to the CAA or ABTA, you haven't booked a scheduled air service by an IATA airline, so you can't complain there either. Maybe the best way forward is to say that unless they put it right you will go to Watchdog, which just happens to be in mid season at the moment, I don't like people who make threats, but if they won't be reasonable, that may be your only option. Good luck!

budgetflyer

Priceless info Alan

richardw

Other options are Visa Debit chargeback and then the European small claims procedure if the chargeback fails.

Or try and change to a hotel near Luxor that would suit you without the 25% fee.

Voyager2002

richardw wrote: »

Other options are Visa Debit chargeback and then the European small claims procedure if the chargeback fails.

Or try and change to a hotel near Luxor that would suit you without the 25% fee.

You could use the wonderful research Alan provided in order to persuade your card provider to implement a cash-back.