What our are rights with this dire situation with Travel Republic and Easy Jet

gally56

Thank you in advance to everyone who replies
OK my situation is this we booked a package holiday with Travel Republic and paid for the Easy jet flights back in November and the Hotel and airport transferst in full back in February of this year.
Our holiday is from Friday July 24th till Sunday August 2nd and we chose and booked the following flights under Easy Jet

• Outbound Flight
• London Luton 24/07/20 arrives Palma (Majorca) 24/07/20 (EZY2277)
• Depart: 24 Jul 2020 19:35
• Arrive: 24 Jul 2020 23:00
  We chose this time as it meant my wife and I could still go into to work and still have plenty of time to pack and get the flight as I work Nights and she would be finsihed by 1pm

• Inbound Flight
• Palma (Majorca) 02/08/20 arrives London Luton 02/08/20 (EZY2278)
• Depart: 02 Aug 2020 17:30
• Arrive: 02 Aug 2020 19:05

We received "Corona Update emails from Travel Republic telling us we would hear from them on the situation of our holiday  within 10 days of our departure and so we were expecting to hear around July 10th and I checked my inbox religiously. 
When July 10th came we still had not received any update on whether our holiday was on or had been cancelled.
Just by luck I  stumbled across an email in my spam folder dated July 3rd stating "A member of our customer support team has raised a customer support request on your behalf" which I would find in "My Booking" details which I immediately went into and it said this
Dear Customer,
We hope this finds you safe and well.
With FCO lifting restrictions and permitting travel to your destination, we are delighted to inform you that your holiday will be going ahead as planned.
For your safety and protection, airlines, hotels and other travel providers have put in place enhanced measures to help prevent the spread of viruses. This means that services and facilities may have been adapted or changed, for instance, different cleaning and welcoming procedures or dining reservation systems.
As a package holiday customer, you have the following 2 options available:


Amendment of your holiday to a future date

• Changing your holiday to a future date is not a problem, once you send us new dates, we will speak with the providers you are due to travel with to confirm availability. Any difference in cost will need to be paid for by yourself.

• We want to explain that is sometimes taking longer to make these arrangements as many suppliers are operating with reduced staffing numbers, often managing this with us via email only.


Keep your holiday as it is and continue to travel as planned

• It is common for airline and hotel suppliers to amend their schedules or inform us of changes, but rest assured if your holiday is impacted by any changes then we will work with you to find a suitable alternative.

• When going on holiday you agree to the Customer Covid-19 waiver as detailed below;

• I acknowledge that, owing to the Coronavirus outbreak, Travel Republic has made me aware that the products, services and facilities included in my booking may be subject to short notice change, closure, intermittent availability and additional measures (including cleaning, enhanced health screening procedures and social distancing). I confirm that I accept any changes to my booking arising from the same, and release Travel Republic, its suppliers, agents and group companies from any liability to me or anyone travelling on the booking in respect of such changes.


What next?

• Please reply to this request by 12pm Friday 10th July 2020, with how you would like to proceed.

• Following your reply, we will then confirm next steps dependent on the option you have selected.

• If we don't hear from you by 12pm Friday 10th July 2020, we will assume you will be travelling as intended and we request you pay your balance in full.


With kind regards,

The Travel Republic Team
So okay great our holiday was still on but when I went to check in on our flights using the reference Travel Republic gave us I found that we were now booked on a flight going out at 6 am and that our original flight had been cancelled we have received absolutely no notification of this from either Easy Jet or Travel Republic
The only reason we have is we paid to fly out on Friday 24th at 19:35 as we will both be working on that day my wife till  1 pm and my shift doesn't t start till 6am  and "MY Booking" still show us as being down for that flight.
However when i went to check on on Easy Jet I find out that that flight has been cancelled and they have us flying out at 6 am   under a different flight number which is very hard to do as I don't start work until 6 am and our return flight
Neither Travel Republic not Easy Jet sent us any notification whatsoever of the flight cancellation or that we were being put on this flight and as it stands at the time of me writing this thread Travel Republic have us still down as flying out on our original flight and times and our airport transfers are based around those same flights.
I have left several messages to Travel Republic and have no response and this leaves us with some dilemmas
If we can both get the day off work we can catch that 6 am flight but with no idea of whether or not our Airport Transfer will be there or that its still expecting us to be arriving at 11 pm that evening.
As our original flight has been cancelled and we are being put on one that is over 13 hours earlier with no word of any warning from either Easy Jet or Travel Republic are we entitled to compensation for the disruption of being forced to take work day off ?

If one of us cant get the time off to catch that 6 am flight then how does this effect our holiday in the outcome of a refund? as it states in that notification message from July 3rd on my booking details that I didn't come across until July 11th stating "If we don't hear from you by 12pm Friday 10th July 2020, we will assume you will be travelling as intended and we request you pay your balance in full."
In all fairness I'd rather they had cancelled the whole holiday and I cant cancel it as it gives me no leeway to claim my money back
Any help or advice or how to proceed is massively appreciated

jonam.forum

The change of flight time is enough that you could ask to cancel and get a refund.
With regards compensation for the late notice change you'd need to know when EasyJet changed the flight and whether they put it down as covid-related as the compensation doesn't apply for that.
Given it's a package holiday you should have protection for the whole holiday package under ABTA and any parts that do not work such as transfers - obviously that's scant help if you're at an airport with no transfers, so it would come down to whether you are comfortable arranging an on-the-spot transfer if yours isn't there and then claiming that back.

gally56

jonam.forum said:

The change of flight time is enough that you could ask to cancel and get a refund.
With regards compensation for the late notice change you'd need to know when EasyJet changed the flight and whether they put it down as covid-related as the compensation doesn't apply for that.
Given it's a package holiday you should have protection for the whole holiday package under ABTA and any parts that do not work such as transfers - obviously that's scant help if you're at an airport with no transfers, so it would come down to whether you are comfortable arranging an on-the-spot transfer if yours isn't there and then claiming that back.

Thank you for you rreply we are going to use the cancellation of our original flight and the failure to notify us our holiday was booked an and paid in full way before the Virus struck

gally56

How could we find out when out flight was cancelled ?