XL.com Cancelled My flights!

0501clair

Hi I booked flights with XL a few weeks ago at a great price. Two sets of return flights from Manchester to Alicante, first in July 08 and the second in Oct 08 for 2 adults & 2 kids toatl cost £240.00.

I have received letters this morning stating both flights have been cancelled. I have the options of cancelling or amending for no additional cost.
The flights are no longer available and the nearest to the dates are £300 per booking more expensive.

I am gutted.

My previous dealings with XL weren't much better. Two years ago on a one week break to Alicante with my 2 children the cases were lost on the way there and arrived 3 days after we did and on the way back the cases were lost completely!!:mad: It took months to sort out and I accepted compensation for the lost belongings at a loss just because I was so fed up with it all.

I feel very stupid for booking with this company again and putting any trust in them, I really shouldn't be surprised but the flights were so cheap that I couldn't resist.

Does anyone have any advice of how I should deal with XL?
And if not please be careful when dealing with this company their customer service is terrible.

Thanks

budgetflyer

0501clair wrote: »

Does anyone have any advice of how I should deal with XL?
And if not please be careful when dealing with this company their customer service is terrible.

Thanks

Shrug your shoulders and move on. They have given you plenty notice (over a year for the OCT flights) so you arent entitled to anything other than a refund.
Look on the bright side, if they are as bad as you say they were, you have maybe had a lucky break.

fatnbald

0501clair wrote: »

Hi I booked flights with XL a few weeks ago at a great price. Two sets of return flights from Manchester to Alicante, first in July 08 and the second in Oct 08 for 2 adults & 2 kids toatl cost £240.00.

I have received letters this morning stating both flights have been cancelled. I have the options of cancelling or amending for no additional cost.
The flights are no longer available and the nearest to the dates are £300 per booking more expensive.

I am gutted.

My previous dealings with XL weren't much better. Two years ago on a one week break to Alicante with my 2 children the cases were lost on the way there and arrived 3 days after we did and on the way back the cases were lost completely!!:mad: It took months to sort out and I accepted compensation for the lost belongings at a loss just because I was so fed up with it all.

I feel very stupid for booking with this company again and putting any trust in them, I really shouldn't be surprised but the flights were so cheap that I couldn't resist.

Does anyone have any advice of how I should deal with XL?
And if not please be careful when dealing with this company their customer service is terrible.

Thanks

Thanks for that.

You have answered a problem I had today when I was booking some flights with them to Malaga next June and the bargain flights and travel dates that we found the other day were no longer on their site.
I was blaming the other half for not booking them at the time she found them, looks like they have pulled a lot of them.

budgetflyer

Thats really weird. My "Scheduled" MAN to MALAGA flights for start of July 08 have disappeared too, when I search the dates.
The timetable still shows the route though http://www.xl.com/Customer_Info/FlightTimetable.asp?Airport=MAN&sortBy=

Looks like I may need to "Shrug my shoulders and move on" too:rolleyes::D:D

jetboy

0501clair wrote: »

Hi I booked flights with XL a few weeks ago at a great price. Two sets of return flights from Manchester to Alicante, first in July 08 and the second in Oct 08 for 2 adults & 2 kids toatl cost £240.00.

I have received letters this morning stating both flights have been cancelled. I have the options of cancelling or amending for no additional cost.
The flights are no longer available and the nearest to the dates are £300 per booking more expensive

I'm slightly confused here. You are saying that the nearest flights to the dates are £300 more expensive yet they have offered you cancellation or amending for no additional cost. Why not just take the amendment then if it costs nothing? I sympathise that the dates may not suit but it looks like their offer is reasonable.

Bigbaldgit

They did something similar to me this year. I booked flights for my family holiday in Aug 07 to Fuerteventura from East Mids 07. In Jan 07 (I booked in Oct 06) they sent me a letter saying they had pulled out of East Mids and offered me flights from Manchester instead (same dates). The Manchester filghts were an earlier time flying out and back and we lost most of a day, but we had to take them becuase we could not get near on price with anyone else by this time.

This might not sound like a great deal to a lot of people but it messed us about a lot. It meant a longer drive and £80 for parking - (I'd have got a lift to East Mids for nothing) and I kicked up stink. Here I learned a lesson - don't bother. They ignored dozens of e-mails and it drove me bonkers. Being a persistent old so and so, I stuck with it, and they eventually offered me pre-booked seating at no extra cost but they would not give any more than that becuase I had been given plenty of notice.

The revised filghts from Manchester went like clockwork, the plane on each leg was brand new and had tons of legroom and we had a grat holiday.

Wouldn't put me off booking with XL again, but might put me off complaining - which is a shame, because I love it.

0501clair

Sorry maybe I didn't make it clear. They have said I can make an amendment to the flights, in other words change them but any additional costs will have to be paid. Basically I can cancel or pay more. They rang me this morning and asked what I wanted to do, I said I wanted my money back and the not so very nice lady said it could take upto 10 days

Gee thanks XL it took 1 day to be debited from my bank account and they have accumilated the interest!!

Saint_Chris

I have just come back from malaga, i originally booked my flights with xl.com ages ago, and they to pulled the man/malaga route.

I had to re-book at more expense and did with jet2, who i can say were great, flight left on time both ways and was no problems on board.

I've had problems with xl.com before and i would advise anyone not to book with them it just isn't worth the hassle. Also getting the money back from them is a right pain in the butt.

budgetflyer

Yes, as suspected-got written confirmation my flights cancelled too.I have lost £40 in deposit for hotel. Not a disaster, just a bit annoying.I will try and get the deposit assigned against another booking.

0501clair

Please let me know how you get on. I didn't receive a phone call from the manager today as promised. I am hardly surprised though.

Im now on a mission to spend the refunded money (hopefully I'll get it back soon???) on a holiday at Xmas!

budgetflyer

Theres no point complaining anyway. Oxygen is precious, why waste it as they are well within their rights to cancel this far ahead.

Id booked these on the spur of moment £60 each for me and wife. As it turned out, dates clashed with when the rest of family wanted to go away to Cyprus so its kind of worked out for the better.