Lastminute.com - travel cancelled on medical grounds

Simmyp

Dear MSE,

I am absolutely at my wits end and want to warn all to stay away from LASTMINUTE.COM.

July 2014 my best friend and I booked a city break to NYC; flights and hotel for October 2014. Late Summer 2014 I, the main traveler (person who booked the trip) received some unfortunate news that my Grandfather had terminal cancer and the hospital were unable to treat him. He was deteriorating quickly and so I decided to contact Lastminte.com and ask due to medical grounds could trip be cancelled. I provided medical evidence and unbelievably they agreed to give me credit. (I retain the whole email thread of the conversation). They confirmed how much my booking was and informed me I had until July 2015 to re-book and travel using the credit.

Christmas was difficult, I wanted to see how things with my Grandad progressed. I left it until New Year 2015 to contact them and attempt to rebook. The first week of Jan 2015 until now I have been on the phone to the customer service pretty much daily!
One Saturday I actually had a 5 hour telephone conversation with a customer relations team rep. With him, I had 2 conference calls with the Virgin Atlantic customer service team.

Problems:
1. It was difficult to actually get a lastminute.com agenct to understand my query every time I rang as they didn't seem to read the notes! Each phone call 20 minutes for them to understand and then transfer me to customer relations.

2. They stated 1 journey of the trip was used, this was not correct.

3. The hotel would not be able to refund me despite me having an email from lastminute.com in 2014 stating the hotel would refund me.

It took several days for Lastminute to actually speak to the hotel in NYC due to time difference, as i guess, the hotel were happy to refund me. As per the initial email!!



4. I know longer see the 2nd traveler due to fly to NYC with me as he has moved. They refused to change name on ticket, even for an additional admin fee.

They would not give me refund or credit of the second travelers ticket which was £607.31. Therefore, I am losing £607.31. They will only let me use the credit/ticket in my name.

5. Despite the airline - Virgin Atlantic stating they will waiver the admin fee of changing the date on the ticket (again, have this in writing) every time i discuss a date with lastminte.com they have to call virgin to OK it!! This always results in them having to call me the next day as Virgin CS desk closed.

6. Lastminute.com customer relations team reps were due to call be back the follow day on several occasions and failed to do so. "Systems crashed." is what I was told.

7. When asking to speak to someone more senior, "I'm sorry, there is no one higher." So who measures their performance? Clearly no one given the lack of customer service!

8. When on conference call with Lastminute.com customer relation team and Virgin Atlantic customer service (even V.A Supervisor intervened.) Lastminute.com stated they got there rules/regs and policies from airline, virgin stated well if you the third party want to allow the change you can. Lastminute.com and Virgin Atlantic were contradicting themselves not knowing who had to listen/set the rules. Was quite embarrassing to witness.

When I contacted Virgin directly I spoke to very helpful rep who attempted to assist me but was tied due to the fact I had booked through lastminte.com.
She explained lastminute.com were hiding behind the "third party" status and could be more accommodating if they wanted to be.

So far, I received a full refund from hotel BUT have 2 airline tickets flying with Virgin Atlantic costing £607.31 pp of which i am close to losing. They refuse to refund me despite me having medical evidence. They will only let me use one ticket to travel.

Any help out there would be much appreciated. I have spent probably near 15 hours on the phone since Jan 2015 and have emailed in between.

Thank you so much in advance. A person who just wants what she paid for, nothing more

JReacher1

I don't think they had to give you anything. A person not travelling on the trip being ill is irrelevant as far as the booking agent is concerned.

I'm quite impressed they have been as good as they have been.

jaylee3

I agree ^^^

I also think that although it's a shame your grandfather died; he was not close enough a relative for you to qualify for any cancellation insurance.

daytona0

Simmyp wrote: »

Thank you so much in advance. A person who just wants what she paid for, nothing more

Sometimes it is better to be honest You clearly don't mean what you said there, because if you just wanted what you'd have paid for then you'd have two tickets which HAD to be used at the agreed time.


But in response to your numbered problems:

1. lastminute.com is a sort of agency. They don't control the airliners or the hotels, so you bringing a complex problem to the table doesn't bode well for the hold times you might experience

2.Why would they state that? Either it is a truth, or it is an error on their part. Either way we can't really pass comment on that.

3. Lastminute could tell you that the hotel is willing to give you a million pounds, and you might even get an email. It doesn't mean that the hotel has ANY liability for such an email though.... Your beef should be with lastminute if they sent you the email, but they aren't necessarily obliged to honour the email offer! Sounds like this was sorted out though...

4. Not being funny but they couldn't have been any sort of friend if, in February 2015, you are no longer in touch with each other. I mean how the hell does that happen?! You should have given a homeless person/charity 607.31 instead because at least then you'd have something to show for your donation. Me thinks that this is a key part of your post and something crucial is missing here..... Does this link to point 2 by any chance? Seems legit...

5. Lastminute are a 3rd party who talk to hotels and airliners on your behalf. They thus need to speak to the airliners EVERY SINGLE TIME you ring up with a proposed change! (have you ever seen a "Lastminute.com" boeing 747 in the sky? nope? thought not!!)

6. Not saying this is right, but a lot of people couldn't be bothered dealing with this type of impasse/saga. Yes, highly unfortunate about the cancer BUT there is someone on the end of those 20 minute phone calls, and if you are ringing up multiple times (with multiple notes) then you are possibly de-motivating people who want to help you get it all boxed off (especially if you are being argumentative, demanding or unreasonable). You've just got to ring it up and smash out a suitable resolution. BEAR IN MIND that you are potentially technically entitled to a 'better luck next time' card at best, because many of these lastminute bookings are non refundable

7. Haha, crash course in call centers: You get a mix between really good (empathetic) 1st tier agents (grunts) whom you speak to first. Then you've got the managers who are only like a pound extra an hour along with a hoarde of administrative crap to deal with. They deal with complaints and have a slightly higher level of discretion. They also do quality monitoring. SOMETIMES you might be transferred to a grunt manager, which is just a 1st tier agent who is a bit more assertive than the others (with no extra power/money). You usually can't go higher than that without emailing in, because a lot of these companies outsource their call centers meaning that the manager's boss is the line manager who monitors about 3+ companies at once. They don't even consider customer queries. Your best bet is to email the ceo (readily found with a quick google search) but even then their ceo's may not care and refer you to customer support. The funny thing is that many grunts are actually helpful people.

8. No idea what is going on there.

TBeckett100

Did grandad leave any £££s?

DCFC79

Your experience of lastminute won't stop me using them Simmy. A shame your grandfather died.

dodger1

This is what holiday insurance is for. I had to cancel a family holiday due to a heart attack and the insurance paid out in full less a small excess. Neither Lastminute or Virgin need to give you anything IMO.