Excellent news Crockett many thanks for letting us know how well you were looked after

great to hear good news.

i'm going with easy jet, i'd best pack a tent just in case lol

I second that Crocket we were also in Tenerife,Thomson were GREAT!!!

We were in Fanabe all inclusive on a flight only basis, Thomson office were brilliant!!! Many guests at our hotel were with Easy Jet, Ryanair and even Monarch and were abandoned! Thomson gave us up to date advise all the time to enable us to enjoy an extra 3 days with no worries...well done Thomsons!

Forgot to add, we were flight only too.

Its great that Thomson did a good job but I think its important before slating the other companies that you guys are talking about package holidays versus DIY holidays. Crockett said he/she was glad that they did a package as Ryanair, easyJet and even Monarch customers were abandoned.

When a company does a package holiday they know exactly were their customers are and have a legal duty to look after them as they have booked a Package holiday.

How could Ryanair, easyJet and Monarch even know where all their customers were staying???

In the case of Monarch, people who booked a Cosmos holiday would have had more info because Cosmos would have known exactly where their customers were but for those doing DIY its unfortunate but how can you expect an airline to track down every customer and provide constant up to date information? Ryanair for instance carry about 160,000 passengers every single day, to have the staff to track them all down would basically be impossible.

I'm sure some customers using Thomson for a flight only would have had similar problems to all the other airlines. (There seems to be an equal mixture of praise and anger directed towards the airlines from flight only customers)

I'm not taking anything away from Thomson and its great that they looked after you but you were on package holidays and that makes all the difference as your easier to track down and you didn't just book a flight, you paid this company to provide you with your accommodation and so when things go wrong they need to honour their side of the agreement.

Mark 757,See my post above yours, we were flight only with Thomson and were well looked after.We were kept in our 4 star hotel and even given full board,originally paying only half board.
EU regulations 261 put full responsibility on airlines, not package holidays .

Hi Serena,

I had read your post, as I mentioned there seems to be an equal amount of praise and anger towards those on flight only.

Just out of curiousity, when the flights were first cancelled, were you already in a hotel where Thomson had customers? I'm just curious as to how they managed to contact you to offer you a hotel or did you contact them?

I'm guessing if you were staying in a hotel where they already had customers then it would obviously be easier for them to also assist you.

I think its one of the once in a lifetime events where some people got great service, some not so great but with any luck none of us will experience this again.

Good on Thomson for doing the right thing for you though, it obviously would have taken a lot of uncertainty from your mind and let you have an extended holiday without the worry.

yes we were Mark,we also had a great rep but even if we hadn't, we would have rang the thomson help line to see what was happening or found a hotel with a thomson rep in.

And from the opposite point of view (but "on topic")...
we were supposed to be flying out to Tenerife with Thomsons on Tuesday 20th
and it was cancelled on 19th
we have been promised a full refund (not that it has appeared yet, but they did say it would take 2 weeks)
and we booked a stay in UK instead as we had time off work arranged etc. and it was for a special anniversary

so I can't help wondering who was stranded and stayed in the room we were supposed to have
a huge bill for the Thomsons when you add it all up........

We were to go to Tenerife on 16th April and of course all flights were cancelled.
I had booked a DIY holiday. Apartment with Thomson and flights with jet2.com
So far I've got my parking charge back from the airport and my money back from Thomson for the apartment we booked. I'm still waiting for jet2 to refund the price of the flights. Their customer service has been non-existent and during the 'ash crisis' they were telling people to rebook flights and they would refund the money (so they would have had double the money off you). Thankfully I didn't rebook flights with them.
Had a private transfer booked in Tenerife with http://www.resorthoppa.com. Having difficulty getting the £41.72 refunded from them. I know it's not much, but a nice little earner for them if they don't refund their customers who had paid upfront.

I know but if the experience of my neighbours is anything to go by, Jet2 were putting their effort into getting people home. They where in Tignes skiing on a DIY and had flown to Chambery from Newcastle with Jet 2. They should have returned on the Saturday afternoon and received a txt followed up with a phonecall from Jet 2 telling them to go the airport for their originall check-in time. They were met there and put in a hotel overnight where a coach collected them on the Sunday morning and bussed them all the way back to Newcastle. They'd left their motorhome there so had a quick nap and then drove home to the east of Scotland arriving up here at around 11.00am on the Monday morning.

They had nothing but praise for the prompt action on the part of Jet2 in making alternative arrangements that got them home within 36 hrs of when they should have.

SM

The reps over here do a fantastic job I agree!

But the actual company Thomson/First Choice were trying to charge the difference between the flight cancelled and a new one. This is in direct contravention of European Law. And also they were not making it possible to change your flight online either so that made it very difficult!

Where as the Ryanair site although it crashed for a bit, they at least gave the opportunity to change to any other available flight for up to 30 days later for no cost!

So just for a flight on Thomson/First Choice they were trying to nobble people unlike Ryanair. That is just my experience of the companies when the Volcanic Ash problem occured!