Beware - 'recheduled flights'!!!

Dave_Needham

I can see there's similar threads above.....it seems Airlines/Travel Agents are starting to make 'a habit' of it?!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++'FLIGHT RESCHEDULING' - BEWARE!!!! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


When I booked to go away last Christmas to Kenya......as usual I took ages finding the shortest duration at the best price. Maybe ten days after i booked & got the e-ticket reservation etc......the travel agent "GOTOGATE'- (I think they're in Denmark?) emailed me to say the flight had been 'rescheduled' by the airline (Egyptair) and wasn't now available & the only other flight they could offer bore little resemblance to the flight I'd picked in terms of flight duration. The only other alternative, they said, was a refund. I called Egyptair and found the Agent 'GOTOGATE' had simply lied! There were other alternatives with much shorter flight durations.....DONT TRUST TRAVEL AGENTS TO TELL THE TRUTH!!!


Latest synario.....Took ages finding my Easter flight to Kenya - best duration/price etc......just under a month ago.....got the e-ticket, confirmation etc....then receive an email from the agent 'TRAVELTROLLEY' saying the Airline TURKISH AIRLINES have 'rescheduled' the flight and on the return journey would like me to wake up five and a half hours earlier (5am) to catch the first flight and then spend an extra five hours wandering around Istanbul airport until my next flight.......Have you noticed alot of 'online agents' don't seem to have a very good grasp of the English Language and i'm sure this doesnt help matters because the alternatives given by the agent verbally and even on an email didn't coincide with what I later found out (via the telephone) the Airline was offering!!!! The alternative was to change to another flight offered by the same agent but with a different airline, but conveniently these were substantially more expensive than those advertised with the same airline and BY THE SAME AGENT (TRAVELTROLLEY) online!!! Also a refund was going to take four to five weeks!!! This was conveniently blaimed on the Airline (TURKISH AIRLINES) by the agent (TRAVELTROLLEY)


If I had to rely on a refund to book another flight I wouldnt be likely to manage to travel at the time I need to during the school holidays and its taken nearly a month (since I booked) to be left in this predicament!!!



Is it me or is this reminicent of 'misrepresentation' legally.....I purchased something that asnt actually available (or only half of it was!)......it could be said to be verging on 'fraud' as I bet most people are not in a position to change their flights so close to the departure date having little chance of a refund in good time.


I found a much better alternative so I cancelled and I'll be watching 'TRAVELTROLLEY' very closely in terms of how long the refund takes, but i'll never book a train ticket so early again (twenty quid).....plus the eleven quid charge to pay by credit card.......wonder if Martin Lewis has any suggestions ('The Money Saving Expert") I've just 're-established' my claim, after reading his great website, following a twenty four hour delay due to a broken down plane at Christmas 2014!!! :O)


TRAVEL AGENTS/AIRLINES.......RAPIDLY EARNING THE REPUTATION OF POLITICIANS, BANKERS AND ESTATE AGENTS!!!! )

bagand96

Moral of the story here is don't use dodgy agents for the sake of saving a few quid.

Book direct with the airline. Or if you must use an agent (and sometimes it can be financially beneficial to do so) use a reputable one.

callum9999

Dave_Needham wrote: »

Have you noticed alot of 'online agents' don't seem to have a very good grasp of the English Language

They're not the only ones!

No it's not legal misrepresentation. Sometimes airlines have to rearrange flights - they can't ensure they make sure every single person on every single connection is going to keep similar flights. It's definitely annoying, but there's not a lot either you or the airline can do.

Murphy_The_Cat

I booked my flights in Sept 15 for July 16. They've already changed 3 times and they'll likely change again before we go.
Booked directly with AA.
Its all part of the rich tapestry of life, C'eat la vie and all that.
You simply go with the flow, move on and find something importanat to get worked up about.

callum9999

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

I booked my flights in Sept 15 for July 16. They've already changed 3 times and they'll likely change again before we go.
Booked directly with AA.
Its all part of the rich tapestry of life, C'eat la vie and all that.
You simply go with the flow, move on and find something importanat to get worked up about.

And you never know, maybe someday it will work in your favour. A flight rescheduling meant I got a full refund for a non-refundable flight that I knew I wasn't able to take and was resigned to losing.

Murphy_The_Cat

callum9999 wrote: »

And you never know, maybe someday it will work in your favour. A flight rescheduling meant I got a full refund for a non-refundable flight that I knew I wasn't able to take and was resigned to losing.

That sounds like a real double Brucie.
I'm flying from Dublin this time and needed a positioning flight from
Manchester to Dublin. Rather than leave anything to chance, I'm flying the night before and overnighting in a Dublin airport hotel. So when the DUB-LHR flight was brought back by 2 and half hours, it wasn't an issue.

I do have the 'excitements' of a 49 minute connection in LAX coming home to look forwards to :beer::D

bagand96

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

I do have the 'excitements' of a 49 minute connection in LAX coming home to look forwards to :beer::D

You'll be glad if it. 49 minutes is about 48 minutes longer than I'd want to spend in the hellhole that is the American Airlines terminal at LAX!

duchy

callum9999 wrote: »

And you never know, maybe someday it will work in your favour. A flight rescheduling meant I got a full refund for a non-refundable flight that I knew I wasn't able to take and was resigned to losing.

This happened to me
We booked a flight from a less convenient airport to the US as we were using miles for one ticket and there was no award availability from Heathrow for our dates .

Airline discontinued service and transferred us to Heathrow -so got the departure we wanted -plus one person needed to cancel -we hadn't bothered actually cancelling them off as it was a non refundable ticket - so we got a full refund on that ticket too.

Caz3121

I am not sure why you choose to book with third parties and not direct with the airline...I am guessing they appeared on search engines as the cheapest and you chose to do no research before choosing them to act as your agent (I expect anyone checking "gotogate reviews" or "travel trolley reviews" would not proceed with booking)
Re flight schedule changes in general...even if you book direct with the airlines...most operate a summer and winter schedule (these change at the same time as the clocks change) the earlier you book before the changeover the bigger the chance of their being schedule changes as the actual schedules will not be finalised for the next season until closer to the time..schedules should be getting finalised for summer schedule around now and anyone booking within the season should have little chance of changes
e.g. book in April to travel Sept...both are in summer schedule which would have already started at time of booking and is very unlikely to change
book in April for travel in November...this is the winter schedule that will be selling based on provisional timings and the schedule will not be finalised till around September time.
Airlines may also choose to reduce or increase the number of rotations on certain routes based on many factors...eg when flights restart to Sharm I would expect the numbers to be reduced
Some provisionally timed flights for the next season, some may change by a few minutes and others may change significantly
Although your Easter flights were only booked a month ago, the return flight will be in the new summer schedule

Murphy_The_Cat

bagand96 wrote: »

You'll be glad if it. 49 minutes is about 48 minutes longer than I'd want to spend in the hellhole that is the American Airlines terminal at LAX!

We're within the same terminal, so our hopefully our feet will hardly touch the ground :j

bagand96

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

We're within the same terminal, so our hopefully our feet will hardly touch the ground :j

Don't get me wrong it was quiet efficient. Just a bit of a hole. If you're arriving on an American Eagle operated flight they park on a remote pier (although considered the same terminal) and you get a bus to the main AA terminal. But as I said that ran efficiently.