Big travel firms have got little to shout about
You can email me at vicbarlow@ icloud.com
TOP of the morning to you my marvellous Maxonians. Do you remember the summer of 2020 when instead of taking the holiday we booked and paid for, we were stuck at home desperately trying to obtain a refund from our cancelled vacation?
You may recall the tactics tour companies used to avoid communicating with us like leaving the customer service phone to ring out for hours and leaving our emails unanswered.
You will remember the stress and anxiety it caused you and your family.
I was refused a refund on a flight I was due to take to the USA that had been cancelled. Unbelievably, the reason the tour company gave was that I was a ‘no show.’
This was an idiotic but convenient phrase they conjured up to refuse refunds on the grounds I failed to show up - for a cancelled flight.
This particular company insisted my flight had gone as scheduled until I produced a photo of the boarding gate with a large sign stating CELLED.’
“We expect passengers to turn up at the gate on time,” they told me. “Unless you have received notification from us directly of a cancellation.
“Are you seriously telling me that you want passengers to travel to the airport from all over the UK to take a flight they know is cancelled?”
“It is part of our condi‘CANtions.” Conditions they had suddenly invented.
I did finally receive a refund after weeks of wrangling but not without the intervention of VISA.
Fast forward to today and the same company is sending me emails almost every day inviting me to fly to one of their ‘luxurious’ hotels in Europe and beyond.
If you too were made to jump through burning hoops to get your holiday refunded I suggest you shop around and maybe go with a smaller operator with a track record for good customer service throughout the pandemic.
There are plenty of online ratings for the best and worst tour operators during the pandemic, you will be surprised by the big names appearing at the bottom of the list (or maybe you won’t).