Love holidays - need to change flight

Redchez77

A group of us booked a trip to Paris with Love Holidays as surprise for one of our friends, we all booked separately. Within 24 hours one of the party realised we'd used the wrong term dates and needed to change the the date of the booking. The lead party rang Love Holidays immediately and explained what had happened and they said to submit a change request. Over 98 hours later I still haven't had a response, only to say they are waiting for their supplier to get back to them. The supplier being Air France. One of the Party has however had a response saying the flight is non refundable (we half expected that) but also non changeable so basically if we change the holiday we lose the costs of the flights. If we cancel, we lose the cost of the flights plus a £75 cancellation fee.

I have contacted Air France direct and they said as we contacted Love Holidays within 24 hours they basically don't understand why we can't change the flights but we have to plead with Love Holidays regarding this. We've berated ourselves enough about the date mistake and not fully knowing the T&C', but in hindsight I don't think some of it was made clear enough at booking.

I suppose the question I'm asking…has anyone experienced this with Love Holidays. I've personally never used Love Holidays before or had to change a flight. I either book direct or with Jet 2. Are we destined to just lose our money?

Any advice/insights appreciated.

la531983

You just have to do a search on this forum to see the issues of booking with LH or any other third party, I am guessing it wasnt your decision to use them?

Woodstok2000

LH are a nightmare if you need any sort of support. Good luck.

Redchez77

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115313#Comment_82115313

No, but nobody's fault really. We haven't done a group holiday for years, so we just went with what we thought was the best option. Some had used Love Holidays before without any problems. Yes, I've had a search, nothing directly relating to our scenario, but I can see there are problems. I think we may have been burnt on this one.

la531983

Aye think the general theme is you simply have to wait for a reply and they are generally useless.

Redchez77

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115340#Comment_82115340

As feared, pretty appalling customer service.

mr_stripey

Check out the reddit page on Love Holidays. They are an abysmal company when anything remotely goes wrong or needs changing

Good luck!

la531983

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115348#Comment_82115348

Without leaping to their defence its a symptom of throwing a third party into the mix.

Make a mistake when booking with Easyjet, all you have to do is contact Easyjet.

In this case you are contacting one company who then has to contact another (hence long wait times) and even then the resolution may not be to your satisfaction.

Redchez77

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115367#Comment_82115367

I completely understand. But surely, as supposedly well versed third party you would think they'd have better processes in place, and if you are constantly using the same suppliers (as in airlines, in this case) they should have a standard set of responses based on who they have contracted with. I also think they should make it clearer at booking what rate you are purchasing on flights (as in flexible etc - could be my mistake, but I don't recall seeing that at all). They did say they would respond in 72 hours, it's now well past that. It's just frustrating all round. As someone who normally buys the extra insurances and flexible rates, a first time mistake on dates and using a new company and we are going to be losing hundreds of pounds.

la531983

Some of these companies are using airlines without permission, of course. Ryanair are very vocal in stating a lot of third parties have no permission in allowing third parties to be involved in bookings.

No idea if that is the case here.

eskbanker

…surely, as supposedly well versed third party you would think they'd have better processes in place…

Unfortunately they're a cheap bucket shop who slash overheads to the bone and offer a correspondingly dire customer experience for those who need any support such as changes to bookings, which are slow and expensive (if possible at all).

I think it's safe to assume when booking flights (anywhere, to be fair) that, unless clearly stated otherwise, you'll be on an inflexible fare, as those offering flexibility will generally be way more expensive…