problem with tui holiday

christine.porter5

I haven't posted before so apologies in advance if there's anything wrong with the post or I appear to ramble...its a long story .... In august 2018 after much deliberation I booked a holiday with tui (first choice)to a hotel in Benidorm from Manchester with my family consisting of my husband ,my mother, my son, his wife and 2 children. We booked it for my mothers 80th birthday and chose the easter school holidays .My brother and his family were also coming from Gatwick to the same hotel ,he booked his hotel and flights separately to save money. My daughter who lives in spain also booked the hotel and drove there .We all agreed on the dates (because of the school holidays) my daughter could not come till the Wednesday 17/4/19 as she is a teacher and her holidays did not start till the Wednesday . We all duly booked our holiday separately happy in the knowledge that we had all got what we wanted. I had booked with first choice as they offered a Tuesday flight and the package made it much easier for my elderly mother and my sons family with 2 small children etc .All was fine unitl 4/1 this year just days before the balance of the holiday was due when I received an email advising me to contact tui asap .They advised me our flight on 16/4 was cancelled and we could have a refund or book another holiday a four days either side of our original date .Imagine our panic we had a family meeting and decided to change to the Saturday 13/4 flight to the same hotel ....my daughter could not change her dates but we agreed we would make the best of a bad situation as we were worried we would not get the same hotel if we swapped to another provider . We duly went on the holiday ,,the hotel was exactly what we had wanted but it was spoilt as we were all coming and going at different times/dates .Then on the Tuesday 16/4/19 people arrived at the hotel at the same time we should have been arriving and when I checked the tui advice book our flights were listed ! the flight numbers were changed but they were essentially the same flights (10 minutes difference on the Manchester flight exactly the same time on the Alicante return flight) I was furious .I went on line to check when we returned home those flights definitely existed so I wrote to tui to complain but received a vague reply which didn't answer my complaint at all I have now put a complaint in via resolver (no reply received yet)Surely there must be some recourse for what tui did? they told us the flight was cancelled 6 months after we had booked it but it appears it still existed has anyone experience of this and what are our rights it just seems a very poor way to treat customers..(by the way my brother booked with a cheap airline at the same time as me ...it cost much less and he had no problems )

Voyager2002

Ever heard of paragraphs?

I did attempt to read that block of text but still have no idea what the problem is, nor what you want to happen next.

Pollycat

christine.porter5 wrote: »

I haven't posted before so apologies in advance if there's anything wrong with the post or I appear to ramble...

its a long story ....

In august 2018 after much deliberation I booked a holiday with tui (first choice)to a hotel in Benidorm from Manchester with my family consisting of my husband ,my mother, my son, his wife and 2 children.

We booked it for my mothers 80th birthday and chose the easter school holidays .

My brother and his family were also coming from Gatwick to the same hotel ,he booked his hotel and flights separately to save money.

My daughter who lives in spain also booked the hotel and drove there .

We all agreed on the dates (because of the school holidays) my daughter could not come till the Wednesday 17/4/19 as she is a teacher and her holidays did not start till the Wednesday .

We all duly booked our holiday separately happy in the knowledge that we had all got what we wanted.

I had booked with first choice as they offered a Tuesday flight and the package made it much easier for my elderly mother and my sons family with 2 small children etc .

All was fine unitl 4/1 this year just days before the balance of the holiday was due when I received an email advising me to contact tui asap .
They advised me our flight on 16/4 was cancelled and we could have a refund or book another holiday a four days either side of our original date .

Imagine our panic
we had a family meeting and decided to change to the Saturday 13/4 flight to the same hotel ....
my daughter could not change her dates but we agreed we would make the best of a bad situation as we were worried we would not get the same hotel if we swapped to another provider .

We duly went on the holiday ,,the hotel was exactly what we had wanted but it was spoilt as we were all coming and going at different times/dates .

Then on the Tuesday 16/4/19 people arrived at the hotel at the same time we should have been arriving and when I checked the tui advice book our flights were listed !
the flight numbers were changed but they were essentially the same flights (10 minutes difference on the Manchester flight exactly the same time on the Alicante return flight)
I was furious .

I went on line to check when we returned home
those flights definitely existed so I wrote to tui to complain but received a vague reply which didn't answer my complaint at all

I have now put a complaint in via resolver (no reply received yet)

Surely there must be some recourse for what tui did?
they told us the flight was cancelled 6 months after we had booked it but it appears it still existed

has anyone experience of this and what are our rights
it just seems a very poor way to treat customers..

(by the way my brother booked with a cheap airline at the same time as me ...it cost much less and he had no problems )

OK.
Had a bit of a go putting some white space in a massive wodge of text.
It might make it a bit easier to read but it really is a long ramble.

I'm not really surprised the OP received a vague reply from TUI if the complaint was couched in a similar fashion to this post.

It sounds like the OP booked a holiday departing 16/4, was told the flight wasn't available so accepted a swap to 13/4but then found guests arriving on the date she had originally booked (16/4).

photome

OP as advised , paragraphs make it easier to read.


also there is to much rambling about teachers on holiday, brother from gatwick etc.


if you put all that in your complaint they wont read it all.


keep it concise


what is it you want from them

bradders1983

So I think the complaint here is that TUI told them the flight was cancelled, but it turns out it wasnt?

Is she 100% sure the initial reason for the holiday cancellation was that the flight was cancelled? May have been TUI overbooked their allocation of the hotel.

Also is it not feasible that TUI had two planes leaving to Alicante in quick succession from the airport anyway, with different flight numbers, and they cancelled one of them, thus leaving the other one running with the slightly different time on it? Feasible given they could have been planning to put an extra one on for the Easter rush.

Pollycat

bradders1983 wrote: »

So I think the complaint here is that TUI told them the flight was cancelled, but it turns out it wasnt?

Is she 100% sure the initial reason for the holiday cancellation was that the flight was cancelled? May have been TUI overbooked their allocation of the hotel.

Also is it not feasible that TUI had two planes leaving to Alicante in quick succession from the airport anyway, with different flight numbers, and they cancelled one of them, thus leaving the other one running with the slightly different time on it? Feasible given they could have been planning to put an extra one on for the Easter rush.

Re your first paragraph - that's my take on it. But I may be wrong.

Re the bit in bold, I think that's possible.
The OP says their 'flights were listed, the flight numbers were changed'.
So maybe not the same flights at all.

christine.porter5 wrote: »

Then on the Tuesday 16/4/19 people arrived at the hotel at the same time we should have been arriving and when I checked the tui advice book our flights were listed ! the flight numbers were changed but they were essentially the same flights (10 minutes difference on the Manchester flight exactly the same time on the Alicante return flight)

bradders1983

Its hardly beyond the realms of possibility there were 2 flights originally scheduled, Manchester is the busiest airport in the UK outside of London.

Westin

christine.porter5 wrote: »

Then on the Tuesday 16/4/19 people arrived at the hotel at the same time we should have been arriving and when I checked the tui advice book our flights were listed ! the flight numbers were changed but they were essentially the same flights (10 minutes difference on the Manchester flight exactly the same time on the Alicante return flight)

The story is rather confusing and could be interpreted several ways.

The ‘TUI Advise Book’ at the hotel in really not the best source of information to confirm that a flight was operating. Flight information on the tour operators notice board or in information files will often be quite generic and listed for the season or at least a long period of time. It is intended for notifying customers of return transfers and flight times. Just because the flight was listed does not confirm it was actually operating. It may have been a winter series flight that ended early, or a summer series flight which starts May/June.

The other point of reference the OP mentions is checking ‘on-line’ when she returned but no mention of where on-line she found this information and confirmation that it operated. No flight numbers given either.

christine.porter5

Thanks to everyone for your help and sorry it was such a long ramble Re the points raised : Re the long ramble about families We could not change the hotel because my brother and daughter had booked there so we were tied to it. I’m pretty certain there were not two flights to Manchester at that time on those dates I would have noticed plus the return flight was exactly the same time. It seems unacceptable to me that tui could cancel our flight when we booked so far in advance it’s poor customer service and I think I deserve an explanation

bradders1983

Flights can be cancelled for any reason, the length of time you booked has no bearing on it

christine.porter5

I should add that I have the flight numbers for the revised flights ...I checked on Bott & co flight checker and they both departed as I stated on 16/4 I have no problem with tui cancelling my flight it was my choice to then accept another flight but I do have a problem with them cancelling my flight when that flight still existed