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Going to be a 15 hour delay on Thomson flight - what to do?
Comments
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It's not equal though, there are not always the same number of guests every week.
As far as we are concerned we paid for 7 nights at the resort and Thomson only paid the resort for 6. I don't think they will be silly enough to tell us we were paying for someone else the 1st night ... but then we can only wait and see.
How do you know that Thomson only paid for 6 nights? They could well be contracted to pay for the room, occupied or not0 -
Well they only had us booked in for 6 nights ... I doubt if they would go to the trouble of telling the hotel (as they didn't tell us) if it wasn't to save them money!0
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I would'nt mind betting they they had no intention of flying you out at the correct time,to save themselves a few quid.I realise they had to put you up for the night in this country.
they probably have some sort of special rate at the hotel in this country.
lets just say : £50 pr room per night here and about 100-120 per room abroad.
that leaves £70 floating X by say 100 rooms abroad(200 pasengers on the plane = 100 rooms)
100 x£70= £7000 a lot of money.0 -
Absolutely, they made money on it ... an airport hotel they use in bulk is going to be far cheaper than an All Inclusive resort.
We're also fairly certain the reason for a lack of information was also about money. If they told people the full story right away people would cancel (we certainly would have and made other arrangements) and they risk running a plane that isn't full ... as it was there wasn't a single empty seat on our plane.
It's all about the accounting, they clearly make more money doing it the way they have and also don't expect many people to complain and will make it very hard for those that do.
Meaning at the end of the day Thomson come out of a bad situation quids in ... very clever really (for them), but whatever happened to customer service and the reputation of a brand?0 -
Absolutely, they made money on it ... an airport hotel they use in bulk is going to be far cheaper than an All Inclusive resort.
We're also fairly certain the reason for a lack of information was also about money. If they told people the full story right away people would cancel (we certainly would have and made other arrangements) and they risk running a plane that isn't full ... as it was there wasn't a single empty seat on our plane.
It's all about the accounting, they clearly make more money doing it the way they have and also don't expect many people to complain and will make it very hard for those that do.
Meaning at the end of the day Thomson come out of a bad situation quids in ... very clever really (for them), but whatever happened to customer service and the reputation of a brand?
If this happens to me also I will willingly join forces with you and anybody else who is affected.
The Americans etc would not put up with this sort of treatment,and i am dammed sure I am not going to either.
I will be in contact with you if my holiday gets delayed!!0 -
Absolutely, they made money on it ... an airport hotel they use in bulk is going to be far cheaper than an All Inclusive resort.
Not neccesarily. Thomson negotiate hotels in resort months before and drive very hard bargains, and as a previous poster said, often just pay for the room for the season, occupied or not. On the other hand, the airport hotel would have been negotiated on the day, and although they probably have preffered suppliers, I doubt they get rooms at too much of a knock down rate. I mean, they needed hotel rooms for 200+ plus people at the drop of the hat... I'm sure Hilton didn't just say "yeah £50 room/night". Thomson had no choice but to put you up, so Hilton could have commanded premium prices.
Like I said before, I'm not trying to defend Thomson, but I do urge you when you complain to them to just stick to the facts, do not throw accusatiuons at them, especially if you don't know if they are true or not.
Chances are Thomson will not be forthcoming with any compensation you may want. Now, I'm not sure how far you are willing to take this, but if you want to go the distance it's probably going to involve ABTA, and potentially arbitration and even the small claims court (like I said, I don't know how much how far you're willing to go).
But if these authorities do get involved, then Thomson will get their chance to make a defence case; and have a legal team to do it. And it will take them nothing to whip out paperwork proving reasons for the delay, the aircraft operating (on your flight and previous), how many nights they did pay for your resort hotel etc
This will suddenly make the infomration you have, based on website forums, what you're son saw, assumptions etc look very weak and even damage the credibility of you're case.
I'm not saying this to put you off, but speaking from experience, the tour operators are horrible to deal with, and they will use anything they can against you.
When writing to Thomson, just state the facts of your complaint. You are of course entitled to explanantions as well. I'd advise not to accuse them however, but instead to question them, i.e. "why weren't we given the full details", "why did my hotel booking appear to be 6 nights only". Chances are they won't answer you're queries, but that will go in your favour in the future as you can state they failed to respond to legitimate questions.0 -
How do you know this was not planned weeks before?
The Hilton just happened to have rooms for 200 people at the drop of a hat!!
Now if I owned or ran a hotel and somebody came to me asking for 100 rooms for one night and asked for a discount,what do you think Iwould say?.
Most of the big companies out there are not run by the "bosses" but by accountants.
bagand96 you are typical of an english person willing to be fobbed off by these companies,too many of us here in this country look on the negative side rather than the positive. in your 3rd paragraph you make it sound like you are willing to accept defeat.(this is just my opinoin and not a personal attack against you so please do not take it the wrong way)0 -
angrypassenger wrote: »How do you know this was not planned weeks before?
That is exactly my point. How do you guys know it was planned before?
All I'm saying is if the OP lodges a complaint to Thomson/ABTA/Arbitrators/Small Claims Court and states things such as "i believe it was all a big plan for Thomson to save money", then Thomson will just produce the operating log for that aircraft for the days, or even weeks before, prove the technical problem that caused the delay to the flight, and then the complaint case will look completely rediculous, Thomson will win, end of story.
Stick to the facts you know people...0 -
That is exactly my point. How do you guys know it was planned before?
All I'm saying is if the OP lodges a complaint to Thomson/ABTA/Arbitrators/Small Claims Court and states things such as "i believe it was all a big plan for Thomson to save money", then Thomson will just produce the operating log for that aircraft for the days, or even weeks before, prove the technical problem that caused the delay to the flight, and then the complaint case will look completely rediculous, Thomson will win, end of story.
Stick to the facts you know people...
Nobody is going to state: "I think this was all a big plan."
We are all entitled to our own opinoin and we are free to discuss our idea's at any time on this forum.
Maybe it was planned maybe not,but i'm sure the people involved would like to have answers on why it happened.All the people on the flight were kept in the dark about what was happening,
At the end of the day we are paying passengers and not cattle.
What happened to the phrase "the customer comes first and is allways right even if he is wrong"0 -
angrypassenger wrote: »bagand96 you are typical of an english person willing to be fobbed off by these companies,too many of us here in this country look on the negative side rather than the positive. in your 3rd paragraph you make it sound like you are willing to accept defeat.
Not at all. The third paragraph is just a pretext to the 4th paragraph advising that if you get these people involved you need to be credible.
Willing to be fobbed off? If you must know, I took a tour operator to ABTA last year, and ended up dragging them through Arbitration. All i'm trying to do is offer Angel practical advice based on my experience to help he/she get the most from their complaint.
Oh, I won my Arbitration case :beer:0
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