Destination 2 - AVOID

twhill38

We booked our honeymoon through Destination 2 after looking at their website and seeing the credentials and all reviews it seemed positive and like a large, competent agent. We were fortunate enough to pay outright for the holiday (it will be relevant later) and received receipts as normal.
Cut to our wedding day night, we travel to Heathrow ready to depart for our all inclusive two week break at 6am and get to the counter to be told that the flights weren't booked, rather they were reserved but no one went back to confirm! There were seats still available, so we decided to try and phone Destination 2, assuming they would have agents working to support travellers but were amazed to find you can only contact them from 9am onwards (30 minutes after our flight departed), we finally got through to an agent at 9:45!!!
They offered a full refund in 21 days, which they later reduced to an immediate refund, which was appreciated, but we had still received no explanation as to how this happened, what went wrong or an apology.
We raised a complaint after and were told that they would not enter in to correspondence over the phone (!?!?), not great customer service already. Over email we were told that the the complaint would be resolved in 21 days, their normal procedure, my wife chased regularly for an update and was told consistently that it was with 'management' but it wasn't their fault. I would have hoped that after taking our money so readily they would be there to help rather than absolve themselves of any responsibility but hey ho! Finally more than 60 days later we received a response from 'management' saying that they were sorry, but it wasn't their fault and that they had already given a refund. As a gesture of goodwill we will make a £150 payment in 7 days and if you book a holiday with us in a year we will give you a £100 discount. Well I am sorry, but after ruining our honeymoon, not having agents able to help travellers out of office hours, ignoring our complaint and taking longer than your OWN complaints procedure timeline and to be offered a measly make good, we advised we would not accept the £150 as we would rather leave honest feedback and we have no plans to book via this company again and suggest anyone gives it serious thought prior to booking!
Good luck

Westin

What an unpleasant experience for you.

I know if an ABTA member (which they appear not to be) they would have to provide you with a 24/7 form of contact for such eventualities.

Was the time between booking and travelling short?

Did the airline not offer for you to pay for seats and continue your honeymoon with a view that you could contact Destinations2 later on after reaching your holiday destination?

** I will ask one of the board moderators to move your post to a more appropriate forum where hopefully others can add advice.

heatherw_01

Hi, we move threads if we think they’ll get more help elsewhere (please read the forum rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board. If you have any questions about this policy please email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.

bradders1983

twhill38 wrote: »

We booked our honeymoon through Destination 2 after looking at their website and seeing the credentials and all reviews it seemed positive and like a large, competent agent.

...but yet not an ABTA member, seemingly.

cubegame

I'm not quite sure why you didn't buy the available seats at the airport and board the plane.