Just received a letter from balkan .

the flight on which the above clients are booked has been withdrawn due to lack of support , therefore we are transferring all pasengers affected by this to the scheduled flight on the same day . Please be advised that due to being a scheduled flight , once tickets have been issued no amendments can be made . Please accept our sincere apologiescaused by this change . However , you will appreciate that it is completely beyond our control .

This is actually better for us as it lands at 22.35 instead of 01.30 .
Best wait and see though

there is another topic further down called change of flights about this, were you travelling from manchester

hi when are you travelling anf from which airport.
also which airport are you arriving at
sorry for all the questions but i am still waiting for balkan to contact me with a flight home as yet we dont have one.
thanks
debs

Hi DeborahJ

We fly from Birmingham on August 2nd. Although booked with First Choice our flight is with Thomas Cook. This was changed the back end of last year- looking at the Birmingham Airport website, it seems that FC and TC are 'sharing' the plane. We actually fly back on the 17th as it leaves at 00:50- theorectically this means that if you need a Friday flight from Varna, why can't Balkan get you onto the TC one? Ok there might not be space, but they could look into it. Only other problem of course is that if you fly out of Manchester, you don't really want to go back into Birmingham.

Where do you live- could you get Balkan to change your flights completely?

Best of luck- holidays are meant to destress you, not get you even more worked up before you've even gone!!

Pam

From reports here (as per billconroy's post above) and elsewhere, at least some Balkan Holiday Air flights to Varna have been withdrawn due to lack of support. In these cases, Balkan are reported to be switching passengers to scheduled Bulgaria Air flights instead.

Having experienced some of the rescheduling & delays on Bulgaria Air's flights last summer I wonder whether these switched passengers will be better off or not.

Over a 3-week period last July & August, two of three Bulgaria Air flights from/to Gatwick were delayed by 8 hours in one case (outbound from the UK) and 6 hours in the other (inbound to the UK); the third flight was rescheduled at least twice in the week preceding its departure from the UK, only to finally depart at its originally scheduled time.

Baldur

sorry guys
we travel out on the 15th june (42 days ) and return 29th leaving from gatwick to varna . But like baldur says do not bet on leaving at advertised times .

well balkan have finally got back to me.
They have moved us onto a first choice flight, and have moved our time on by 11 hours.
We are on a ten night holiday from 10th to 20th of august and were due on a 16.30 flight home which was ideal for then getting train from manchester.
It also means we have to be out of our room from midday and dont get picked up for the airport untii about 11pm.
Colleen from balkan told me the flight wll leave on the 21st of august at 02.05, having being checking the varna airport site and first choice website i know this flight is due to leave at 03.05.
It also means another day will have to be booked off work. Because its only an eleven hour change they are refusing to let us cancell.
Think i will ros on monday and see if there is anything else we can do AS WHEN THEY TOOK OUR ORIGINAL BOOKING THEY KNEW THERE WASNT A FLIGHT HOME.

dont fly with balken!!! i went once and never again/ they changed our flight last year flying from manchester onto newcastle then on to varna. the stewadesses couldnt speak english, and never smiled and the pilot accelerated whilst turning the coner to the runway at manchester. we didnt let it spoil our hols though, were going again this year, but with first choice.

Just had a phone call from the travel agents to say we're going to have a letter from 1st Choice to say that our flight into Varna has been changed to Bourgas We've now got a 2hr journey (at least)into Albena Not quite sure what to do now, from what I can gather we have been offered a change of holiday. until I see the letter and whats on offer I will just have to sit here and fume
TC

That's exactly what happened to us, and I wasn't prepared to put up with a 2 hr transfer with two small children, so we have changed our holiday from Golden Sands to Sunny Beach, not really what we wanted but we didnt have an option of cancelling.

From a report elsewhere and only 3 weeks before their departure, one family's scheduled return flight from a 10 day holiday with Balkan in Golden Sands has been withdrawn.

They have informed that, due to the flight withdrawal, their holiday is now only available for a 7 day stay!

They have been offered the opportunity to take the 7 days (with no mention of compensation so far), cancel & obtain a refund or take an alternative holiday (which may incur additional charges).

This must be one of the worst scenarios that I've seen so far this year.

Baldur

Hi I know that this isnt as extreme as other peoples misfortune but these changes are stacking up. When we paid the holiday off we then recieved a letter telling us that our flight from manchester has been brought forward 2hrs so that we could stop at eastmidlands to pick more passengers up! We arrive at varna 10mins earlier than the oringinal time. So we are going to sat on the tarmac at eastmidlands for nearly 2hrs!! Why couldnt balkhan just put a coach on for the passengers from midlands to manchester? Its 2 hrs away and surely alot cheaper than having to tak off and land twice???

anybody thought of going to the watchdog(bbc tv programme) website and raising this on there?

It seems now that Bulgaria has become so popular Balkan has no longer got the moopoly on the hotels ,lots of other companies are offering holidays here at competative prices and so Balkan can't fill there planes,meaning all these flight changes

The reason they keep passengers on the plane whilst picking up at other airports is if they coach you to anther airport this is classed as major change and people can cancell and get a refund.
So by going to other airports its not a major change.
(well not by balkans standards), so no refunds given back if you cancell.

Hi we are the family Baldur is referring to. I don't know what to do, I don't want to take their option of just 7 days - we have found out since they will refund us £200 for the lost days however if I had wanted a 7 day holiday I would have booked that in the first place.

We could get a full refund but where else can you get half board without paying an extra £500 or more which we haven't got. Plus we booked our holiday at the beginning to Jan to ensure we got the hotel, location and date we wanted.

One option might be to go fo 2 weeks instead we didn't want this long as my partner is self employed and it means missing 2 weeks money however it is £40 cheaper than 10 days - only problem is who says Balkan wont do the same again.

I am so annoyed, I have booked time off work, got my lev, booked my children out of school, got my insurance, sorted my pet care and basically only have to get my cases out and we were ready to go. Surely Balkan can't keep getting away with this. To me they don't even seem to care.

Alpech
A very disappointed Balkan customer

right- when were you wanting to go and where? Where were you flying from? Does it have to be a specific hotel? Have you investigated DIY? What price were you paying? Perhaps we can put our heads together and see what other possibilities there are.

hi alpech
I wish we would be given the option to cancell,as i would straight away.
even if it means holiday somewere different and go back to bulgaria next year.
I know the stress they are causing and it spoils memories of happy holidays which includes( or it does for me ) the run up to going, planning and discussing the yearly holiday.
balkan need to sort out their flight programme and apparently 10 night durations, which you and ourselves had booked.

Hi thanks for you help.

We were going to The Marina Grand Beach with seaview from 1st to 11th June. Travelling from Manchester to Varna. We are 2 Adults and 2 Children aged 6 and 2. Half Board for £1,273.

We could leave 31st May but from 1700 only and need to be back on or before 14th June. Ideally we would like 10 or 11 nights.

Any ideas would be appreciated, I don't know of any other operators to Bulgaria that offer the 10 days?

Alpech