You do not say how this came about. Meantime have a look here for an alternative standard number. There are several listed.

http://saynoto0870.com/numbersearch.php

fwh

Presumably they took the money by charging your card without authority? In which case why argue with them, go to the card provider and complain to them. I think there may be a time limit on this, 75 days rings a bell.

Thanks both. It came about because their website froze when I was booking the holiday. I waited about 20 minutes, presumed the charge hadn't gone through, so re-logged back in and paid with a different card - as I didn't want to lose the holiday and really didn't think the first payment had gone through. Unfortunately my credit card people can't help as they need an email from Low Cost Holidays with 'refund' in the email. As I am virtually being ignored I doubt I will get this. A month ago I received two calls from LCH saying the money wold go back into my account, but despite having sent them copies of my bank statement as proof I am still waiting. It is a daily headache. ABTA on Wed, then legal action if necessary. Thank you for your help on this.

Fatal mistake! Never do it again if you think a transaction has failed, always check first, especially at this price. You have authorised two seperate payments so the card company is not liable. And lowcost may say that you have entered into two contracts, although that would be a bit cheeky. You say "their website" froze but can you prove that? There are many reasons why activity on your screen could freeze and some aren't their fault.

My way is to check if I receive an email and if not then later go back into their web site and rebook.
Hope you get it sorted out.

Sue

In December i was due to fly out when Gatwick was closed due to snow. The day before the flight I contacted Low Cost Holidays to find out if my flight was going to operate, nobody could tell me. In desperation I decided to book an alternative flight from Stansted, I asked LCH to do this, but they couldn't do it, so I made the booking direct with the airline. Later I discover that my original flight was transferred to Stansted, but nobody informed me. On my return the booked airport transfer (resorthoppa - an LCH company) failed to turn up, on arrival at Gatwick it took 3 hours to get us off the plane + a further 2 hours to receive baggage - in total longer than my flight took to get from Lanzarote to the UK! Emails have been exchanged between Low cost holidays + myself, now they don't even bother to reply.

Neither Low Cost Holidays nor the flight operator (FlyThomasCook) appear to be willing to take any responsibility for this shambles.

The holiday was only rescued at the last minute by my snap decision to book a flight from Stansted out of my own pocket, otherwise I would have missed my entire holiday and ended up more out of pocket than I am now.

If your flight isn't cancelled then you must presume it is running. You asked the day before if the flight was going to operate, you'll probably find the airline still had it down as operating (which it did, albeit from STN). With the bad weather I doubt airlines knew themselves what flights were operating. I presume you were flying with Thomas Cook, now as these are a charter company its is more complicated for them when it comes to cancelling flights. They would've had a high proportion of customers on package holidays, and also they would have had to bring passengers back, its not as easy as scheduled where they can cancel and put everyone else on the next available flight.
You need to find out how they advised passengers that the flight was moved to depart from Stansted. If it was a case of everyone checked in at Gatwick then were put on coaches to Stansted then thats why you wouldn't have been informed - I'm presuming you didn't turn up to Gatwick on the morning having already booked the other flight?
As the flight did depart you won't get a refund of the original flights. However if it was a case of they telephoned/emailed everyone the day before to inform passengers to check in at Stansted and you didn't recieve this then you need to speak to Low Cost Holidays about this!!
I've heard a few complaints about Resorthoppa regarding not getting collected on the way back to the airport, however if you did get a reciept for the taxi I presumed you would have to have got they do refund you.
Regarding your journey on your way home please be aware although you were flying with Thomas Cook the ground handling isn't done by them, I presume it would be Servisair like a lot of airports? I know it is really irritating but the company themselves will have been severly messed around by this. Send a complaint in to Thomas Cook regarding this but don't expect any compensation or anything in return.

It is difficult to "presume the flight is running" when the aiport itself is closed to all passengers, as Gatwick was. TC were unable to give any advice on the flight the day before, nor could LCH. In fact LCH re-confirmed my details at 2.30pm the day before and this emailed confirmation stated Gatwick, although the airport had already announced that it was still going to be closed to passengers and the rail link had been suspended due to the conducter rail freezing. LCHs advice was to wait until the next morning, in which case I would have missed my flight anyway as there would not have been time to reach either of the airports concerned.

But noone knew when Gatwick was going to reopen, it could've reopened on that morning. And the flight did still operate.
The only way you could attempt to get some of the money back for the repurchased flight is by finding out how passengers were notified about the change of departure airport. However I'm presuming that as you didn't turn up at Gatwick on the morning despite their being no cancellation of your flight then the airline will not hold themselves responsible.

It's true to say that we didn't know when Gatwick would open, but we did know when it wouldn't open! Gatwick made a specific statement stating that it would not open on that day and that no passengers should visit. TC state that they would advise passengers of major changes using contact details held on file. I suspect that LCH failed to supply TC adequate contact info.

You need to speak to Thomas Cook or LCH regarding how they let everyone know about the change, as I've said they may have just let everyone turn up as normal then load everyone on a coach to Stansted.

Exactly what I have been doing, but neither party seem particularly interested. My post was put up largely as a warning to others.

Net Detective

The bottom line here is that you are entitled to a refund for the flight from LGW to Lanzarote according to EC 261/2004: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:EN:HTML

Article 8 states:

Article 8

Right to reimbursement or re-routing

1. Where reference is made to this Article, passengers shall be offered the choice between:

(a) - reimbursement within seven days, by the means provided for in Article 7(3), of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought, for the part or parts of the journey not made, and for the part or parts already made if the flight is no longer serving any purpose in relation to the passenger's original travel plan, together with, when relevant,

- a return flight to the first point of departure, at the earliest opportunity;

(b) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity; or

(c) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at a later date at the passenger's convenience, subject to availability of seats.

2. Paragraph 1(a) shall also apply to passengers whose flights form part of a package, except for the right to reimbursement where such right arises under Directive 90/314/EEC.

3. When, in the case where a town, city or region is served by several airports, an operating air carrier offers a passenger a flight to an airport alternative to that for which the booking was made, the operating air carrier shall bear the cost of transferring the passenger from that alternative airport either to that for which the booking was made, or to another close-by destination agreed with the passenger.

It is for the operating air carrier to prove that they informed the passenger of the cancellation beforehand. Check out Article 5.4

Thanks, I'll take a look at that

You might also want to google Harbord v Thomas Cook Airlines which upheld Mr Harbord's claim that his flight was cancelled despite the airline claiming that it had merely been rescheduled to depart from a different airport.

Oh it's Thomas Cook again.....So they should be familiar with the case!!!

But the flight wasn't cancelled as far as I understand? It departed albeit from a different airport? How did those passengers travelling on that plane get to the other airport. Did they go to LGW, checked in and were then bussed to Stansted. Where they informed to travel to Stansted?

I don't think that they checked in at Gatwick, as it was closed to passengers according to Gatwick's operations staff, although I am going to dig further into this.

But the flight wasn't cancelled as far as I understand? It departed albeit from a different airport?

The flight was cancelled since it didn't depart from its intended departure point. An airline can describe it howsoever they wish (rescheduled from a different airport with even the same flight number but the fact remains that the OP's intended flight was cancelled since it never departed from LGW. 261/2004 defines a cancellation as follows:

(l) "cancellation" means the non-operation of a flight which was previously planned and on which at least one place was reserved.

The OP's flight was 'previously planned' to depart from LGW and it never did, hence it is cancelled as defined under the Regulation.

Unforeseen circumstances are somewhere quoted in the regulations. I would say that an airport closure is unforeseen as it was not the airline that closed the airport but the airport operator.

Nothing is ever black or white and to say that you will be entitled to compensation is perhaps putting false hope to those seeking advise. With all means look at this piece of legislation but don't take it as given that you will get anywhere with it.