Jet2 Compensation

leanne117

So 3 weeks ago my family and i went on holiday, we booked a Jet2Villas holiday (flights and accom) when we arrived there they told us that the villa we booked wasn't open/available for another month so they were trying to figure out what to do with us (we booked 18 months in advance and there are 3 adults and 1 child). After 4 hours waiting in the airport we were told there wasn't any available villas on the island at that time and they were going to send us to a hotel for the night while they figured it out. The hotel was on the opposite side of Menorca than we were supposed to be. The next day they said they were still trying to find something for us and so that went on for the entire week and we were stuck in the hotel until we left and came home. We were told to complain as soon as we came home so i sent an email complaint. It's been 3 weeks since i emailed, as far as im aware they have to respond within 28 days but really my question is, what should i expect from them, should i be asking for anything, what can i expect to recieve as "compensation"? Theres so many problems with what happened, we obviously got a completely different holiday than the one we booked, we had to spend much more money than we would have and mainly my daughter is disabled, she is registered partially sighted, which is why we booked a villa, it's small and easy for her to navigate unlike a hotel which is too big. My family members who came with us are pestering me with questions about whats happening or whats going to happen and i have no idea so i thought i'd see if anyone here had any idea what we can expect.

eskbanker

Jet2 Holidays have a compensation tariff for significant changes imposed by the provider, but £40pp doesn't seem adequate in this sort of scenario, so ultimately it'll come down to negotiation - what do you feel would be appropriate? A (larger) sum of money? A replacement villa holiday?

The fact that they didn't alert you to the unavailability of the accommodation in advance is very poor practice so they're on weak ground here, and if you're unhappy with what they offer then they're ABTA members so you can escalate there if necessary.

It's not obvious that they need to respond within 28 days, so personally I'd tell family members to back off from 'pestering' you while you go through trying to sort this out!

TELLIT01

First step, as eskbanker says, is to tell your family members to back off.  There is nothing much you can do until the time has elapsed.  Maybe suggest that the loudest moaner should take over the negotiations with Jet2.  I've found those type of suggestions can be remarkably effective.

Alan_Bowen

The ABTA Code of Conduct requires a response within 28 days of receiving your letter, normally operators send a letter or email acknowledging the complaint at least, did you send the letter to the holiday company rather than the airline, where it may get lost amongst all the delayed flight claims? 

You are certainly entitled to compensation, did they just book you in on  B & B basis, in which case you would have had to eat out every day whereas you could argue with a villa you would have bought food in a supermarket and saved money. Try and work out the difference in cost, you also need compensating for the loss of enjoyment, particularly for your daughter you may have found the hotel slightly overwhelming. I have to say I am surprised this early in the season they couldn't find a single villa in Menorca, it does not auger well for the peak period at all

bagand96

Moving you to a different resort, in a completely different type of accommodation is almost certainly a significant change to the holiday.  As per Jet2Holidays T&Cs:

Significant changes: If we are constrained by circumstances beyond our control to alter significantly any of the main characteristics of the travel services that make up your package you will have the rights set out below. Examples of a significant change are: change of your UK departure airport; complete change of destination/resort; a change of more than 12 hours to the time you leave the UK or your destination; if we downgrade your accommodation by one full star rating (where applicable). If we have to make a significant change to your holiday, we will inform you or your travel agent as soon as reasonably possible if there is time before your departure. You will have the choice of either accepting the change of arrangements, accepting an offer of alternative travel arrangements of comparable standard from us if available (we will refund any price difference if the alternative is of a lower value), or cancelling your booked holiday and receiving a full refund of all monies paid for the holiday, except for any amendment fees. We will tell you the procedure for making your choice. We will pay compensation as detailed in clause 10 below for all significant changes except where the major change is due to an “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstance”.

So if they'd notified you of this change before you travelled you'd have had the choice of accepting an alternative or getting a full refund.

Through no fault of your own you didn't get any advance notice.  Therefore by default the options of acceptable alternative or a refund were denied to you as you'd already travelled.

For that reason I'd be asking Jet2 for a full refund.

leanne117

Alan_Bowen said:

The ABTA Code of Conduct requires a response within 28 days of receiving your letter, normally operators send a letter or email acknowledging the complaint at least, did you send the letter to the holiday company rather than the airline, where it may get lost amongst all the delayed flight claims? 

You are certainly entitled to compensation, did they just book you in on  B & B basis, in which case you would have had to eat out every day whereas you could argue with a villa you would have bought food in a supermarket and saved money. Try and work out the difference in cost, you also need compensating for the loss of enjoyment, particularly for your daughter you may have found the hotel slightly overwhelming. I have to say I am surprised this early in the season they couldn't find a single villa in Menorca, it does not auger well for the peak period at all

I called their customer services and explained and they gave me the email address to send the complaint to. They booked us in on half board so we had free breakfast and dinner. We did save money in that regard but honestly it was buffet style food and it wasn't "great". We were told by the team manager for jet2 to keep all of our food and drink receipts to claim compensation so i did do that and i also mentioned it in our complaint. There was nothing near the hotel that was open so we had no choice other than to stay, eat/drink, in the hotel, which was fairly expensive. It did seem on our walks around that there were plenty of empty villas, just that they were not open/cleaned/ready etc until may. 

bagand96 said:

Moving you to a different resort, in a completely different type of accommodation is almost certainly a significant change to the holiday.  As per Jet2Holidays T&Cs:

Significant changes: If we are constrained by circumstances beyond our control to alter significantly any of the main characteristics of the travel services that make up your package you will have the rights set out below. Examples of a significant change are: change of your UK departure airport; complete change of destination/resort; a change of more than 12 hours to the time you leave the UK or your destination; if we downgrade your accommodation by one full star rating (where applicable). If we have to make a significant change to your holiday, we will inform you or your travel agent as soon as reasonably possible if there is time before your departure. You will have the choice of either accepting the change of arrangements, accepting an offer of alternative travel arrangements of comparable standard from us if available (we will refund any price difference if the alternative is of a lower value), or cancelling your booked holiday and receiving a full refund of all monies paid for the holiday, except for any amendment fees. We will tell you the procedure for making your choice. We will pay compensation as detailed in clause 10 below for all significant changes except where the major change is due to an “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstance”.

So if they'd notified you of this change before you travelled you'd have had the choice of accepting an alternative or getting a full refund.

Through no fault of your own you didn't get any advance notice.  Therefore by default the options of acceptable alternative or a refund were denied to you as you'd already travelled.

For that reason I'd be asking Jet2 for a full refund.

I do agree, if we had been told beforehand we would not have travelled. We weren't offered the choice of going home once we were there, even though we did mention it. We would have rather have gone home in all honesty. In the end we all felt like we needed a holiday from the holiday! 

eskbanker said:

Jet2 Holidays have a compensation tariff for significant changes imposed by the provider, but £40pp doesn't seem adequate in this sort of scenario, so ultimately it'll come down to negotiation - what do you feel would be appropriate? A (larger) sum of money? A replacement villa holiday?

The fact that they didn't alert you to the unavailability of the accommodation in advance is very poor practice so they're on weak ground here, and if you're unhappy with what they offer then they're ABTA members so you can escalate there if necessary.

It's not obvious that they need to respond within 28 days, so personally I'd tell family members to back off from 'pestering' you while you go through trying to sort this out!

As far as i'm concerned complete refund of the holiday would make me happy. I paid for the holiday through my bank but my family members all gave me the money for their portions and some of them don't feel as though they would want to go on a jet2 holiday again, so that puts a replacement holiday out of the question. Although some kind of compensation on top for the huge pain in the !!!!!! that it was would be nice.  Thankfully i have never done anything like this before so i have no clue if i should be asking for things or not and what would be a reasonable thing to request/expect.

TELLIT01

Although it's must have been a truly horrible experience, I think it was very much an exception when travelling with Jet2.  I've had a couple of very minor issues in the past - nothing like your experience but have always found their customer service to be head and shoulders above other tour operators.  I would ask why the villa wasn't available, and why you weren't informed prior to travel. 

leanne117

I personally wouldn't have a problem travelling with them again, the flights were good and the staff did the best they could, considering. At the time they said they didn't know it wasn't available until the morning, a couple of hours before we got there basically. The manager at the airport said a colleague happened to be in the area where the villa was that morning and saw they were closed up and was like oh no don't we have someone coming. I mean it sounded very weird but 🤷‍♀️ I did ask in the complaint why we weren't told so I guess we'll see!

elsien

I can’t see you getting a complete refund because although it’s not the holiday you wanted you have had the use of the flights and you have had accommodation and food while you were there.
Compared to the price of what you booked, what sort of figure would you be aiming for as compensation?