ive had the same thing happen, i had booked flights to prague for march and hotel with airmiles, and they cancelled mine last week and told me they were cancelling all flights to prague from east midlands due to plane technical fault, i emailled the complaints dept and as expected received no replies, ive now rebooked with easy jet from gatwick the cheapest i could find as i didnt want to lose out on the hotel i had booked, this was a xmas present for my daughter and her boyfriend, so i wasnt too pleased about it . good luck in sorting this out, have you got a hotel booked too

Assuming you are flying out of Friday 2nd November, I've just checked the Thomsonfly site and there is a flight from Bournemouth on that date. Flight TOM4367 departing at 0825, arriving Prague 1120.
We're flying from Bournemouth to Prague on Wed 9th Jan 2008 and have already had two flight time changes - not a problem to us though.
So I'm not sure why they can't put you on that flight??

Sorry forgot to say that the cost is £44.99 pp outward flight on 2nd Nov.

I told everyone we should of gone with BA but nooooo they dont listen to me annnnnyway.

ellie_meg
Lucky enough we are staying in a friends flat out there so if it does come to the crunch that we have to reschedule i am sure it wont be a huge problem. Reason we choose that weekend is because its a birthday celebration for me and another its just a pain in the arse trying sort this out.

rhodes2003
I went into the thompson agent today and asked them about it, but it was the usual agent v internet shit. We are different companys within the same group blah blah blah I dont have access to them details.

I have a feeling they will try and sting us all for the extra cost of the seats (we originally paid £65/70) as the bird on the phone mentioned that this morning.

You should read through the thread of ellie_meg's previous post on the same subject, I said then that there is something very odd going on at Thomson and your experience confirms it. I think your contract would have been Airport A to Airport B and you will have no right to a change of route using Airport C. However, you could try (and this is a bit desperate) to argue a comparison with the way British train companies view a Station A to Station B contract. In that case, assuming that the country isn't shut down by weather or terrorists, they will get you there even if that means paying for a taxi to Station C to catch a different train. To be honest I think the best you can hope for is a prompt return of your money.

Yep, same thing with us, we are off to Marakesh in five weeks, three girls, booked a fantastic Rhad, first got an email couple of weeks ago saying the time of our return flight had changed, ok bit of a pain but doable. Two days ago they emailed us to say our Saturday flight had been cancelled and they had put us on the Friday flight not too convenient as we are all struggling for holidays from work, we rang them and said OK we would take the Friday flight but could we come back home on an earlier day, yes they said but we would have to pay extra because we were changing the booking, when we complained they said we could have our money back. We don't want that we want to go to Marakesh, anyway they are thinking about it and said they would let us know. Why do we have to pay to change when they can change and cancel at the drop of a hat. Problem is we got our flight really cheap when we booked them and now, nearer the time and especially when they have bumped all the Saturday people to a Friday the prices are through the roof, no wonder they want to give us our money back. Will keep you posted

im starting to think the same, wonder if all the cheap flights are costing them too much money so they have decided to change or cancel loads, i forgot to mention about 3 weeks before i found out they had cancelled our flight we also got a flight time change of about 10 hours , i wonder how many flights have been affected ,im amazed there isnt more people complaining on here about all these changes and cancellations

forgot to say we flew to marrakech with them in jan for 5 days it was fab and had no flight changes, so if you get there have a great time, ive loaded quite a few photos in the gallery if you havent already seen them

I've been keeping an eye on the Flyforbeans website (new start up from Cardiff) and there is an interesting quote in the MDs blog about aquiring aircraft "we're talking to a number of leading leasing companies who have quite a few 737s available". So if Thomson have a technical problem with serviceable aircraft, as they claimed when they cancelled flights last week, how come they haven't done the same? Presumably the "faulty" ones are leased so they can dump the problem on the leasing company. I get the feeling that Thomson Fly is losing too much money and TUI Group are pulling the plug.

Thomson will have clause what would say if enough seats haven't been sold they have the right to cancel the flight.

What you could try is book seats with another airline and on your return take thomsons to the small claims court and try and get back the difference. But they could use many excuses for cancelling the flight but the only one that could let them off is they can prove so few seats were sold the flight was un-economical.

i know what you are saying but my flight wasnt til march, surely they havent given it enough time to sell all the seats or are you talking in general of all the flights to prague from east mids , i was told 6 mths of them have been cancelled. ive had no reply from their customer complaints dept either which hasnt surprised me as im sure they have been inundated with emails from all passengers that have had their flights cancelled

Just returned from Jersey, it was amazing but turning up at Coventry airport to depart we were told that our flight had been cancelled 5mins before check-in opened. This was the only flight to jersey that day and being we are only going for 3 nites didn't want to miss it. The next days flight was fully booked so they told us to ring Flybe and get new flights for a flight leaving in 1 1/2 hrs! I rang and booked 6 tickets one way to jersey with flybe costing £970!!! Our previous tickets cost us £120 for all six of us both ways... Is there anyway we can claim for the money we had to spend for the new tickets?

Please help...

Much depends on why they cancelled the flight, was it a preplanned decision (like most of these have been) or was it a specific problem on the day like a broken plane or sick pilot.

See the Air Transport Users Council where there is an interesting section on cancellations. Odd that you were encouraged to contact another operator who could get you there only 1½ hours late when the delay compensation rule kicks in at 2 hours! I would ask the AUC whether the phrase Re-routing to your final destination as soon as possible in the rules would cover use of another airline, ie should they have paid the £970

ThomsonFly said the cancellation was due to technical reasons... But upon reaching birmingham international for the flybe flight we were told that the boarding was delayed becuase they had to find another free flybe aircraft becuase the other had technical reasons. So flybe went out of it's way with a 10 min delay and was able to provide an alternative aircraft. Why couldn't thomsonfly get us another plane? I had to wait in Paris 2 hours while British Airways got us a charter plane so we could go home 2 years ago.

So can I claim the £970 for the "technical reasons" or is this Extrodinary circumstances stated in the AUC?

I think they have pulled a fast one on you. They will almost certainly say the sudden technical problem resulted in unexpected flight safety shortcomings and hey presto, no liability for the compensation.

The question remains, does the requirement for them to re-route you as soon as possible mean only on their own planes or were they liable for getting the Flybe tickets themselves?

The big question is did they clearly display the notice informing you of your rights under EC directive 261/2004? If they conned you into walking away and buying your own Flybe tickets you might still have a case but you need to speak to the AUC.

Flybe themselves were probably just lucky with the aircraft they had at Birmingham. They have a fair number of movements there and if one aircraft had a fault which they knew they could fix within a few hours they would be able to swap allocations around. I've been in this position at Zurich with the old Swissair, they tried to fix the plane to no avail so just refueled one which turned up whilst we were waiting and wasn't due to go anywhere else that night.

My Thomsonfly story.......

Booked a return flight to Lisbon; Manchester to Lisbon; in Septemeber 2007.

Received an e-mail acouple of days later altering departure by an Hour - no major issue.

Last week received a cursory e-mail from Thomsonfly cancelling the flight and confirming refund. No explanation.

No personal contact.

No attempt to book an alternative - despite the website saying that they will do this.

Pathetic attitude by a "major" holiday business and one that I shall not be using again.

I have aslo booked and pre-paid for car park but thankfully not hotel.

Does anyone have any thought whether it is worth pursuing Thomsonfly for my car parking charges?

I have used easyjet;ryanair and other budget carriers without any problems. Thomsonfly are trying to set themselves up as a flight operator but in my experience do not come close......

I've come to the conclusion that Thomson Fly are actually trying to close themselves down!

Was the car park booked as an add-on from their website or completely seperately?

if the carpark was booked seperatly you should be able to get a refund
i had to cancel a holiday and we got the carpark money back (that was cardiff airport)

The car park was booked seperately with Manchester Airport. The rate terms indicate that it can't be changed.

Totally seperate from Thomsonfly.

I am more disappointed than anything else.....you expect more from the established names........especially with a current advertsing campaign!!!!!!