Hi everyone, unfortunately i'm on here because myself and friends have ended up cancelling our holiday due the travel agent messing up. The travel agent is "lowcostholidays" and we booked a holiday for 8 people in the party area of magaluf. We paid a £880 deposit and everything was fine. 3-4 weeks ago we noticed they had changed the hotel location to one 4 miles away in the family area of magaluf (as you can imagine they wouldn't want a group of lads staying there as much as we wouldnt want to stay there either) We then complained asking what had happened to our booking and got a e-mail saying oh sorry we forgot to tell you that hotel is booked up and this was the best we could find! After suggesting another hotel they said no again and said either we take the new hotel or have a refund. We asked for a refund and got just £239 of the £880 we had paid. They claim that the rest covers the flights and thats not there fault.
I e-mailed again asking for a full refund pointing out that it was there own fault and they just basically told us to do one.
If you are thinking of booking a holiday please please please avoid Lowcostholidays. If you have any information as to how to go further on this i'd also appreciate that (ive looked on the advice section of the forum and found a few things out)
Did they state in their email that you would only receive a refund of the accommodation? If not then this was misleading. You could have kept the flights and made your own accommodation booking.
They said they couldnt refund us the flights as it was not a "package holiday" unfortunately its a bit late to start trying to sort things out especially as everyone is near enough £100 down anyway.
Davey,
Welcome to the forums, looking at what you have put it looks like they have done a dynamic pakage whereby flights and hotel are separate.
You may be able to salvage your holiday and not end up with much of a loss. Depending on who the airline is and how it has been booked your flights may have been booked directly using your debit/credit card meaning that flights are paid for and are still valid.
Contact your bank or look at your statement to see if a payment has been made directly to the airline, if this is the case, contact the airline directly and explain what has happened as the flights basically belong to you and not the holiday company.
Have had this situation before and agent advised that you can cancel but flights would not be refunded and are still valid so if we can't offer you anything, you are free to book accom elsewhere.
Hope this helps
Welcome to the forums, looking at what you have put it looks like they have done a dynamic pakage whereby flights and hotel are separate.
You may be able to salvage your holiday and not end up with much of a loss. Depending on who the airline is and how it has been booked your flights may have been booked directly using your debit/credit card meaning that flights are paid for and are still valid.
Contact your bank or look at your statement to see if a payment has been made directly to the airline, if this is the case, contact the airline directly and explain what has happened as the flights basically belong to you and not the holiday company.
Have had this situation before and agent advised that you can cancel but flights would not be refunded and are still valid so if we can't offer you anything, you are free to book accom elsewhere.
Hope this helps
Cheers Leisurelad. Unfortunately the area around magaluf is about fully booked. As you can imagine that show on bbc3 has obvioudly made it more popular this year and the inbetweeners movie as well. We still have the flights but i think most people dont want to go anymore as been messed about so much. Cheers anyway though
Sorry to hear of your predicament Davey. I'm afraid this is one of so many cases of dynamic packaging complaints we hear about. Basically if you'd been sold a proper package holiday you would have been better covered in the event that the agent offered you a refund. They would have to refund the total costs paid e.g. flights, transfers, accommodation.
Lowcost holidays sell dynamic packages which is a very misleading term- it just means that they put together a holiday for you, picking out all the different elements and so if one part of that holiday 'goes wrong' e.g. wrong hotel booked, they will not offer the flight or transfer money refund.
I caught a program on the tv about it, just this morning. A family had booked one of these 'dynamic' packages without being told it wasn't a proper package covered by the proper package holiday Ts & Cs. They had a favourable outcome when the owner of Hayes travel became involved but I'm afraid that most agents will fall back on their Ts & Cs to cover themselves.
Lowcost holidays sell dynamic packages which is a very misleading term- it just means that they put together a holiday for you, picking out all the different elements and so if one part of that holiday 'goes wrong' e.g. wrong hotel booked, they will not offer the flight or transfer money refund.
I caught a program on the tv about it, just this morning. A family had booked one of these 'dynamic' packages without being told it wasn't a proper package covered by the proper package holiday Ts & Cs. They had a favourable outcome when the owner of Hayes travel became involved but I'm afraid that most agents will fall back on their Ts & Cs to cover themselves.
Thats exactly what they did shirley. What was the programme? Im doing everything i can to A. get my money back and B. make people aware of these things. It went wrong because of lowcostholidays and the way they treated us is nothing short of a disgrace. The day that company goes bust will be a very happy day.
"Don't Get Done Get Dom"
Davey, although the owner of Hayes travel got them their money back, i think it was more of a goodwill gesture as the terms and conditions for a dynamic package say they've done nothing wrong. it's not just low cost holidays that sell these packages, there are a whole host of other reputable agents that sell them and I'm afraid you'll be a VERY lucky person if you can claim they did something wrong.
I didn't see the whole program but if you want to proceed with your complaint, you'd do well to watch it.
take a look at this thread http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=155359
I didn't see the whole program but if you want to proceed with your complaint, you'd do well to watch it.
take a look at this thread http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=155359
May I ask which hotel they tried to move you to?
davey,
i am not sure how you have actually lost any money over this. you would have been entitled to a full refund of your hotel accommodation and you still have your flights.
in an attempt to rescue your holiday have a look at alpharooms or travel republic as they are both competitive for hotel only bookings. there are other firms that do cheap accomodation as well -maybe other members here will offer you some alternatives or just google for cheap hotels in magaluf.
this is the joy
of booking dynamic packages and you have quite rightly advised us of your problems with "lowcostholidays" as a warning to others.
it does seem to be a feature of those companies that do dynamic packages that they do not appear to give any customer service and are a rule to themselves with regard to changing accommodation at short notice -ok, it may not be their fault all the time
- but when i have had problems in the past with this sort of thing travel republic and alpharooms have been excellent.
i am not sure how you have actually lost any money over this. you would have been entitled to a full refund of your hotel accommodation and you still have your flights.
in an attempt to rescue your holiday have a look at alpharooms or travel republic as they are both competitive for hotel only bookings. there are other firms that do cheap accomodation as well -maybe other members here will offer you some alternatives or just google for cheap hotels in magaluf.
this is the joy
of booking dynamic packages and you have quite rightly advised us of your problems with "lowcostholidays" as a warning to others.it does seem to be a feature of those companies that do dynamic packages that they do not appear to give any customer service and are a rule to themselves with regard to changing accommodation at short notice -ok, it may not be their fault all the time
- but when i have had problems in the past with this sort of thing travel republic and alpharooms have been excellent.
Does your paperwork show two different prices?
Like a price for flights and an alternative price for Hotel. Or does it just show one price?
Sometimes there may also be a seperate price for transfers but if you just have 1 single price then it should be classed as a package holiday!
Like a price for flights and an alternative price for Hotel. Or does it just show one price?
Sometimes there may also be a seperate price for transfers but if you just have 1 single price then it should be classed as a package holiday!
Presumably they booked you onto easyjet flights and they will have taken your money and handed it over to easyjet.
So those flights are still yours. What dates where you travelling ?
Surely there is a bedbooked somewhere that has accommodation in Majorca, there is a massive recession out there and Majorca is awash with accommodation.
I dont think you will have any luck getting the flight money back from lowcostholidays they will already have passed it on to Easyjet or a similar budget airline who has to be paid upfront.
They will have covered this in their terms and conditions.
So those flights are still yours. What dates where you travelling ?
Surely there is a bedbooked somewhere that has accommodation in Majorca, there is a massive recession out there and Majorca is awash with accommodation.
I dont think you will have any luck getting the flight money back from lowcostholidays they will already have passed it on to Easyjet or a similar budget airline who has to be paid upfront.
They will have covered this in their terms and conditions.
We still have the flights but i think most people dont want to go anymore as been messed about so much. Cheers anyway though
It seems to me that Davey and his mates have decided they don't want to go any more but as they still have their flights I don't see the sense in forfeiting the holiday as it will leave them out of pocket. Makes much more sense to try and book some alternative accomodation and salvage something.
They said they couldnt refund us the flights as it was not a "package holiday" unfortunately its a bit late to start trying to sort things out especially as everyone is near enough £100 down anyway.
Why is everyone down £100?
cos they've paid £800 and the flight money has been taken off this when giving them a refund!
but they still have the flights to use Chivas, so if they found alternative accomodation that cost the same or less than their original accommodaion they wouldn't be out of pocket. they'll only be out of pocket if they decied to forfeit their flights and sacrifice their holiday.
Thats true but he's said they don't want to bother now so they are all nearly £100 down!
so they are all nearly £100 down
Well to be exact £80.135 but only because they decided that they didn't want to go after all. As Shirley said, they're only of pocket because
they decied to forfeit their flights and sacrifice their holiday.
You don't say when you were going, Daveyk, but as others have said, if it was me I'd have persevered and looked for other accommodation - even trying to book direct - because it's hard to believe that there are no beds to be had at all in Magaluf given the current economic situation and so many people having to give up going on holiday because they can't afford it. I'm not sure whether you've cancelled the flights or not but if you have replacement flights for an alternative holiday are only going to go up the closer you get to your planned departure date.
sM
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