Flight booked from wrong airport!!

Ginalbryant

Hi, any advice I can get on this will be greatly appreciated!!! Back in April I booked a holiday via love holidays.com. In our search criteria, I selected 'any London airport' as we live in Kent. When we decided on what holiday we wanted, the flight was from gatwick...which was fine. A calendar also appeared on this page, showing us flight prices on different days and giving us an option to change days. One of the dates was cheaper so we selected that date instead and it took us to the next page. (There was nothing stating that the flight would be at a different airport if we chose to change to a different date). It was literally just a calendar of the month, with different prices on. And to be honest as our search criteria stated London airports only, we weren't too fussed which airport it was from.

However!!!! I have since realised that the flight on the new date we selected is in Manchester!!!! I've gone back through the booking process to double check that it didn't clearly state the airport would change when it gave us this calendar with price options and it doesn't. The only thing that changes was a very small part of the booking itinerary on the side of the page, where the departing airport changed from GTW to MST (or whatever the letters used for the shortening are!). It didn't even cross my mind that the airport would change, let alone change city, as this wasn't stated on the page with the calendar. As it never flagged up that we would be changing airports, (and yes I know this is very stupid on my part) we just carried on with the booking.

When we noticed shortly after booking (after the initial screaming and pulling my hair out!) I called the holiday company and said is there anything we can do. At this point we had only paid a small deposit of about £200. She said no we can't change the airport without paying70% for the original flight and then paying for completely new flights. I suggested that surely it would be cheaper for us to then just cancel the holiday and rebook, but she said flights have to be paid in full. We have still only paid about £600 and the remaining £1500 is due in a couple of weeks. Having spoken to a friend today who used to work for Thomson (who our flights are with), they said if we call and explain and grovel, depending on the kindness of whoever we speak to(!) it's possible they will change the flights for us. I am trying to get through to Thomson at the moment but a bit tricky as I am in work.

Does anyone have any advice? And, please please please, no comments on what an idiot I am and why didn't I check better as I have had this for the last few months from my boyfriend and I'm fully aware!!! :rotfl: I just feel it is a bit unfair that they didn't specify that the other flight options were at different airports, especially ones that weren't in out search criteria.

Sorry for such a long thread!!!

Thank you

hcb42

Can you not go from Manchester? Whereabouts are you travelling from?

You can try grovelling but computer might just say no - might be cheaper to suck it up and just head to Manchester, you can probably get an airport hotel if needed for less than the cost of change here.

heatherw_01

I honestly can't see them changing your flight but you can call them to try.

You not get a train to Manchester Airport if needed.

basil92

You booked in April!

Why leave it till the end of July to try and rectify the mistake?

Just fly from Manchester. Your travel costs getting to Manchester are probably far less than re-booking etc.

leylandsunaddict

As soon as you select a different date if changes the panel]to the right of the calendar and states from and to which airport eg Luton - Palma Mallorca. It's not just 3 letter codes. It also spells out the airports on the next page where you select room types, transfers, luggage etc, then again on the page where you enter passenger details, and finally on the last page where you pay. Sorry you made a mistake, but I'm not sure how you missed it.

The agent is right, flights have to be paid for in full when they book them. Thomson should not be touching this booking. The agent owns the booking and they should be the only ones allowed to change it.

Ginalbryant

It'll be about a 5 hour drive from Kent, plus my boyfriend is a cab driver so he leases his car weekly which means we'd be paying £300 for the car for week, plus petrol etc, it's going to cost us about £400 extra. Also we land at midnight on our way home so he's not going to want to drive then, so a hotel will just be an added cost. I'm trying to think of cheaper solutions solutions, like flying to Manchester but I've no idea what this will cost. And then we have to take into account flight delays etc!!

PeacefulWaters

Family railcard. Train to Manchester airport. Overnight hotel. All part of the holiday experience.

Enjoy it!

Cheaper return flights from Heathrow to Manchester will be around £90 each.

Ginalbryant

I did try to rectify it in April when I spoke to the holiday company. It's only because someone said to me today to try going to the airline direct

Ginalbryant

I've gone through a "dummy run" booking and it didn't state the new airport in full

Ginalbryant

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Family railcard. Train to Manchester airport. Overnight hotel. All part of the holiday experience.

Enjoy it!

Cheaper return flights from Heathrow to Manchester will be around £90 each.

Thank you....you're right I should just get on with it :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Ginalbryant

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

As soon as you select a different date if changes the panel]to the right of the calendar and states from and to which airport eg Luton - Palma Mallorca. It's not just 3 letter codes. It also spells out the airports on the next page where you select room types, transfers, luggage etc, then again on the page where you enter passenger details, and finally on the last page where you pay. Sorry you made a mistake, but I'm not sure how you missed it.

The agent is right, flights have to be paid for in full when they book them. Thomson should not be touching this booking. The agent owns the booking and they should be the only ones allowed to change it.

I've gone through a "dummy run" booking and it didn't state the new airport in full