last minute.com booking not con firmed

Shookup

Yesterday I tried to  book flights to and from Madrid for the end of July.
I went with last minute.com because they have a covid19 no quibble guarantee for 90 per cent of the value of your flights in future vouchers.  Not perfect I know but I figured it was better than nothing. HOWEVER something happened that I didn't anticipate and it has left me very anxious.
After I filled out what I thought were forms online to book flights, it turns out that I have simply filled out a request to book form.  In the 'my bookings' section it says my booking is being processed and they will send me an email when they have booked me on the flights.  Scrabbling around on their site I then find that they may delay processing your flight booking for numerous reasons, including if they feel they want to change the price!  There is no indication of how long processing a booking can take.  In the meantime, I am left in limbo, unable to book with another company.

I rang them up and the guy was very assertive.  He kept saying that my options are to wait, for how long he doesn't know, or to 'cancel'.  He would be able to instigate the cancellation process.  I was reluctant to do this as I fear that if i agree to 'cancel', I am ackowledging that a booking has been made and I will only be entitled to vouchers minus various fees.
They processed my payment on my barclaycard immediately as a 'pending transaction'.  I tried phoning Barclaycard yesterday to see if I can cancel a pending transaction.   I couldnt get through on the phone.  Live chat was really hard as it kept cutting out and I got the impression that last-minute.com can keep the transaction pending for months.  This is a real problem as they could keep me waiting ages to process it.  I might not know until the actual day of the flight!
I am starting to get suspicious.  Do lastminute.com plan on keeping me in the dark over whether I am booked on the flight for a while?  Will they be weighing up the situation in terms of whether they want to give a covid19 guarantee?
I would have been better off just booking the flights direct for cheaper and risking it.  At least then I would have known if I was booked on or not.
The guy I spoke to at lastminute.com said he was working from home and there was little he could do.  He advised emailing, which I have.  I have emailed them saying I want them.to stop processing my booking by Monday if they can't book us on the flights by then as I dont want the stress of not knowing if we are booked on for all that time.  The email address I was given is customercare@lastminute.com.  

Does anyone have a better email or phone number for last minute.com?
Does anyone have any advice as to what I can do either through last minute or Barclaycard to cancel my pending payment?

I would warn people against being reassured by lastminute's covid 19 no quibble policy as I have a sneaking suspicion they may be keeping their options open through techniques like this.

Nebulous2

It may be more complicated than normal for them to book flights. It may be dependent on quarantine laws etc if the flights are going ahead. 

Unfortunately you’ve landed with the two companies I’m with, and they’ve both been absolutely terrible during the pandemic. 

Shookup

They have now confirmed the booking thank goodness