Thomas cook no show

Jbwightman

Hi,
I was hoping someone might be able to help me. My family have just returned from Turkey, booked with Thomas Cook (flights only). We originally had 10 people coming but a few months ago one dropped out, but rather than cancel we decided to keep the ticket for the extra seat as my mother in law is recovering from a masectomy (which has made her left side very sore and with restricted movement) and we thought her having an empty seat next to her would help (the seat we had already paid full price for). But when we arrived at the airport they said that they have the right to resell the ticket and we are not guranteed a spare seat. The plane was full, the seat was resold and my mother in law was left quite uncomfortable. We had booked reserved seats but these were not honoured as the plane was changed without us being notified. My question is can i claim a refund on the ticket? I know that normal policy for a no show is that you dont get a refund but in this instance we actually wanted the spare seat that we had paid for. This was taken from us and resold and therefore the airline sold the same seat twice. Surely this is wrong! I understand a single flyer not turning up cannot reasonably expect the airline to still keep their seat empty, but we did want to keep the seat that we paid for empty. Surely the airline should give you the option of keeping the seat or offering it up to be resold and if it is then you get a percentage of your money back etc. Does anyone know where i stand on this? Thanks

Stevie_Palimo

Your argument about the ticket being re-sold does not stand and if your other passenger had gone she would have been in the same position here, You could try and email in at [EMAIL="info@getoverit.net"]info@getoverit.net[/EMAIL] to see what they say.

Jbwightman

Why the need to be rude?

HHarry

Where's the rudeness?

Teahfc

I understand had you advised before the flight you could have claimed the duty paid back on the ticket, the airline is fully covered in its terms and conditions to re sell any available seat. Just have to put it down to experience I am afraid.

littlereddevil

You can reclaim the money you paid for reserved seats

Jbwightman

The rudeness HHarry comes from the last line telling me to email "info@getoverit.net"... my thread was my first ever post and it was a genuine question where i am asking other members if there is anything i can do. It seems that there isnt but there is a very big difference between the reply by Teahfc and Stevie Palimo... they both in essence say the same thing but Stevie adding the line about emailing a made up site comes across as intending to ridicule me. Only the other day Stevie posted on another thread this line "And I joined after seeing some people posts that aim to ridicule others"... i personally see his comment as rude.
But thanks to Teahfc anyway.

Stevie_Palimo

Jbwightman wrote: »

The rudeness HHarry comes from the last line telling me to email "info@getoverit.net"... my thread was my first ever post and it was a genuine question where i am asking other members if there is anything i can do. It seems that there isnt but there is a very big difference between the reply by Teahfc and Stevie Palimo... they both in essence say the same thing but Stevie adding the line about emailing a made up site comes across as intending to ridicule me. Only the other day Stevie posted on another thread this line "And I joined after seeing some people posts that aim to ridicule others"... i personally see his comment as rude.
But thanks to Teahfc anyway.

The way I see this is as follows :-


Your MIL would have had a seat taken would the additional person not have pulled out and due to you deciding not to notify the airline why should you be reimbursed here ????


Also flip this around and if you were needing a flight somewhere quickly and were on standby would your moral compass kick in and say Oh no cannot possibly use that seat as another person has previously paid for it ?????? - Probably not and I would bet you would jump on it.


Why can the airline not either help someone else or make additional revenue due to a no show ???


My belief here is that everyone seems to expect a free hand out when they choose to dislike something these days and it is very annoying, Why can people not just accept things at times and simply chalk it down to an experience instead of spitting there dummy out.

Caz3121

Some airlines do allow one passenger to purchase a second seat for their own use, this can be for broken leg, large musical instrument or passenger "of size", the difference being that this second "person" is checked in in the system and is recorded as boarded at the gate so the seat is not available for reallocation at flight closure.
The rules of the ticket will mean that, unless the passenger checks in and presents themselves to board at the gate then the seat will be lost whether a non-refundable ticket or not as they will be a no-show
You will often see, particularly in the US, long lists of standby passengers waiting to see how many passengers fail to show up a the gate so their seats can be reallocated to those waiting
I am not sure Thomas Cooks policy on overbooking but you mention that there was an aircraft change which means that the aircraft may have had less seats than originally so, had they not used the seats purchased by the people that did not turn up (which they are fully entitled to do as above) they would be having to pay compensation to those that had confirmed bookings bit could not be given a seat

Pollycat

I would write to Thomas Cook and ask for a refund on the reserved seats you paid for but didn't get.

As for the refund on the seat, you have no chance of getting any money.
As teahfc points out, had you cancelled the ticket you could have claimed the taxes back.

Stevie_Palimo wrote: »

My belief here is that everyone seems to expect a free hand out when they choose to dislike something these days and it is very annoying, Why can people not just accept things at times and simply chalk it down to an experience instead of spitting there dummy out.

As for the above, I do agree that some people (but not everyone) expect a 'free hand out' but I did not read this in the OP's post.
He was asking a perfectly reasonable question in a perfectly reasonable manner and certainly did not 'spit there (sic) dummy out'.

Blue264

Stevie_Palimo wrote: »

Also flip this around and if you were needing a flight somewhere quickly and were on standby would your moral compass kick in and say Oh no cannot possibly use that seat as another person has previously paid for it ?????? - Probably not and I would bet you would jump on it.

That's the most important point in this matter. If the flight is full, and there are people on stand-by, the airline have every right to use the seat of any person who didn't check-in.