Airline buggering us about.....
Discussion
Earlier this year, my girlfriend and me booked a holiday to Austria on expedia. Nice Hotel etc, however, the Direct Flights we were looking at were extortionate, so we looked at other options, one being Glasgow - Prague - Vienna.
We picked the best time for us, on the outbound and inbound flights, being 2 hours from the airport in Austria, early morning flights were out, and being a hour at this end, late night landings here were also a no go.
Anyway, yesterday, my girlfriend gets a phone call telling her that the airline no longer fly into Glasgow, instead they use Edinburgh. Helpful. An extra hour onto the journey, but no big deal, the outward flight is early afternoon., as is the inbound flight.
So today she phoned them to say that edinburgh would be fine. It was only then did they tell her that the times have changed as well. And the inbound flight now takes off at 07.10. Not very nice, but just about bearable. leaving the hotel at 3am was something we really really wanted to avoid. But that isn't all, they also want to change the DAY we return. We booked the 31st, and have both booked holiday from work to that effect, now they are saying its either the 30th or the 1st. When my girlfriend protested mildly about the change of day, she was told, you can either take the flight or get a full refund. A full refund is useless to us, as booking a flight now would cost a fortune, and the flight is just a useless.
Where do we stand and what options do we have?
I would like the airline to pay for us to change airline, or compensate us for the loss of the day in the hotel that we have paid for, or pay for the extra day they want us to stay!
Opinions/help please.
TIA
Stuart.
We picked the best time for us, on the outbound and inbound flights, being 2 hours from the airport in Austria, early morning flights were out, and being a hour at this end, late night landings here were also a no go.
Anyway, yesterday, my girlfriend gets a phone call telling her that the airline no longer fly into Glasgow, instead they use Edinburgh. Helpful. An extra hour onto the journey, but no big deal, the outward flight is early afternoon., as is the inbound flight.
So today she phoned them to say that edinburgh would be fine. It was only then did they tell her that the times have changed as well. And the inbound flight now takes off at 07.10. Not very nice, but just about bearable. leaving the hotel at 3am was something we really really wanted to avoid. But that isn't all, they also want to change the DAY we return. We booked the 31st, and have both booked holiday from work to that effect, now they are saying its either the 30th or the 1st. When my girlfriend protested mildly about the change of day, she was told, you can either take the flight or get a full refund. A full refund is useless to us, as booking a flight now would cost a fortune, and the flight is just a useless.
Where do we stand and what options do we have?
I would like the airline to pay for us to change airline, or compensate us for the loss of the day in the hotel that we have paid for, or pay for the extra day they want us to stay!
Opinions/help please.
TIA
Stuart.
towman said:
Which airline Stuart? Not just for "name and shame", but my suggestion(s) will differ depending on who it is.
Airline is Czech airlines.
I spoke to Expedia today. Twice. The first time, they said that the only thing to change was the airport. Result
But he said that there was only 30minutes at Prague to connect.
This niggled at me for a bit then I phoned them back and spoke to someone else. He said that the airline advise 45minutes to connect, and that there was only 35 minutes in prague, and that the airline would not help if there flight was late, and we missed the connection as we did not leave the 45 minutes advised.
So we can either fly the day before or the day after. The airline will not pay for the hotel for an extra night, they will not compensate us for the money spent and wont pay someone else to fly us.
I had the same thing with my holiday to HK and Japan over Christmas/NY.
As I was away my parents offered to pay for the difference in price to upgrade me to Business/First Class on the way back.
But cos I bought via Lastminute, tehy wouldnt entertain it, even though Business/First was nearly empty.
The only way they would do it was if my parents bought a full one way ticket for me. They would not budge at all. On the way out, even though I had frequent flyer status Air France just looked down their noses at me. And to top it all, they forgot to allocate my pre-booked veggie meal.
Cathay did the same, but where as Air France did bugger all, apart from offering me extra Peanuts, Cathay raided their own food stash and came up with a decent meal and full apologies.
Moral, book directly and go with Cathay.
Claire - still had an amazing time in HK and Japan (went to the Tamiya factory and saw Mr.Tamiya himself
)
As I was away my parents offered to pay for the difference in price to upgrade me to Business/First Class on the way back.
But cos I bought via Lastminute, tehy wouldnt entertain it, even though Business/First was nearly empty.
The only way they would do it was if my parents bought a full one way ticket for me. They would not budge at all. On the way out, even though I had frequent flyer status Air France just looked down their noses at me. And to top it all, they forgot to allocate my pre-booked veggie meal.
Cathay did the same, but where as Air France did bugger all, apart from offering me extra Peanuts, Cathay raided their own food stash and came up with a decent meal and full apologies.
Moral, book directly and go with Cathay.
Claire - still had an amazing time in HK and Japan (went to the Tamiya factory and saw Mr.Tamiya himself
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