Flights to USA & EUROPE with orange

lynn44

Just seen ad for orange purchase the £30 month contract and receive free flights to USA or Europe

MeNoMoney

lynn44 wrote: »

Just seen ad for orange purchase the £30 month contract and receive free flights to USA or Europe

Not alot of places to choose from and you have to pay for the insurance/airport tax's/creditcard fees yourself.
So i wouldnt exactly call it free,more like 40% off flights if flight to US,which is still great,but it aint FREE
EG.
Just bought a return Flight to US with B.A. for £207 for flight + £211 more in tax's :mad:
What a bloody rip-off (good old rip-off U.K. again:mad:

KILL_BILL

MENOMONEY wrote: »

Not alot of places to choose from and you have to pay for the insurance/airport tax's/creditcard fees yourself.
So i wouldnt exactly call it free,more like 40% off flights if flight to US,which is still great,but it aint FREE
EG.
Just bought a return Flight to US with B.A. for £207 for flight + £211 more in tax's :mad:
What a bloody rip-off (good old rip-off U.K. again:mad:

should have gone with virgin

99point99

I was duped into an Orange contract under the pretense that I was to receive a flight to the States (so long as I paid the airport tax). Oh...and it was 'subject to availability'....which rather conveniently for Orange means they dont actually have to give you a free flight apparently (well according to Ben that is, an Orange customer services representative - I spoke to him on Monday 21st Jan at about 2pm). Sounds like misrepresentation to me.

Furthermore, Upon joining I completed their flight booking form and they contacted me about a week later and told me that the flights were not available at that time - but they would contact me when they were possibly in December (no date given).

Their contract states:
"On receipt of your Booking Form, the customer will be telephoned by TLC within five working days to acknowledge receipt of your Booking Form and to confirm flight availability and any charges arising from additional passengers, suppleme/nts and taxes. Companion tickets can be quoted for at this time."
http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/show/offer/flights_giveaway_terms

My problem is:
A: They didnt inform me of the charges for the airport tax ie. the AMOUNT and WHEN it was due. What kind of contract is this?!
B: They did NOT specifically give me a date of WHEN I was to pay for the taxes, or ANY deadline when they were due.

Afterwards Orange chose to call me on 14 December demanding I pay £195 upfront or lose my flight. Unfortunately on that particular day i did not have £195 to hand (just spend my salary on xmas gifts!). Orange's representative flight booking agency TLC refused to offer me a realistic time to pay - they demanded the money within 24 hours. I therefore lost the flight and so far Orange have not responded to my written complaints sent 14 December and 2 January. They also refused to resolve my dispute over the phone as they claimed that they do not resolve disputes over the phone and that I must wait for written correspondence (2 months). A gentleman by the name of Ben was rather unhelpful when I called on 21 January, he claimed Orange are not liable for misrepresentation because their flights are 'subject to availablilty'. I am unprepared to accept this, I feel that Orange misrepresented their deal and 'flight availability' has nothing to do with my dispute. Its a contract issue. They did not honour our agreement and forced an unfair 'position' on me.

I read up on it and think they may have breached:
TRADE DESCRIPTIONS ACT 1968,
and the MISREPRESENTATION ACT 1967,

Their 'free flight' (yes, on some marketing literature they actually have the audacity to call it 'free') - yet it is anything but free. They did not disclose a time limit to pay for the airport tax in their T&C's - so I am taken aback that TLC imposed a 24 hour time-limit for me to pay the airport tax. I also feel they should have disclosed the cost of the airport taxes in advance, before they demanded them, as stated in their T&C's

Please read through their mini site for details:
http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/show/offer/flights_giveaway_terms

If I havent heard back from them by February 18th they're getting a summons.
Very Angry Consumer.