I personally wouldn't be booking with anyone to be honest.
The consumer watchdog has been to lenient with the travel agencies, in regards to refunds within the stated time in law.
This years holiday.
- Thread starter jarrod248
- Start date
The consumer watchdog has been to lenient with the travel agencies, in regards to refunds within the stated time in law.
That’s good.
Toastie
LE
Can you elaborate please?
You are quite correct. Imagine Cruising took 5 months to refund us - it took legal threats and email to the Customer Services Manager to un-gum the works.
Sure, some travel firms will take your money and use it to pay their overheads long before you get on the plane or sit by the pool so if anything goes wrong you have to wait for them to claim it back from the airlines or hotel. A few of the bigger companies take your money and put it into a trust account where it’s held until you return from holiday before being released to them.Only some companies can do this as they have to be cash rich.
The other benefit through using an agent is if you book a flight directly with an airline and they cancel you have to wait for a refund or re arranged flight whereas with an agent they can use the whole of market to find an alternative flight.
I’m not a travel agent but work in IT in the travel industry.
Toastie
LE
I would agree that 6 months is taking the piss and the antics of Ryanair are, well, Ops Normal for RYR.
However, not as a criticism but as an observation, I think there are reasonable mitigating circumstances:
I work for a U.K. airline that carried 12m passengers in 2019. We exclusively operate leisure flights as part of a large tour operator and we do about 90% of their flying so in round numbers, that tour operator took@13m Brits on holiday in 2019. Before the bug cropped up, we were on course for 10% growth in 2020 so let’s say 14m. If we say the average group size is 4, that’s 3.5m group bookings. These numbers are very conservative, the figure I heard was nearer 6m.
The bug comes along and 6m people try to contact a call centre that normally handles about 1,000 calls a day, basically a 16.5 fold increase. These are all after full refunds rather than advising Auntie Betty that she does indeed need a passport for Benidorm.
The call centre is in lockdown and operating at 50% strength for spacing of staff and the company is in the process of buying thousands of laptops and rigging home phone numbers to the system so agents can work from home.
Then the company decides to offer a rebooking incentive so the even more complex process of cancelling one booking to transfer it to another starts.
Then (pick a country) closes its borders so repeat. Then (pick a country) opens its borders so repeat. Pretty much daily. For months on end.
Is it any wonder?
However, not as a criticism but as an observation, I think there are reasonable mitigating circumstances:
I work for a U.K. airline that carried 12m passengers in 2019. We exclusively operate leisure flights as part of a large tour operator and we do about 90% of their flying so in round numbers, that tour operator took@13m Brits on holiday in 2019. Before the bug cropped up, we were on course for 10% growth in 2020 so let’s say 14m. If we say the average group size is 4, that’s 3.5m group bookings. These numbers are very conservative, the figure I heard was nearer 6m.
The bug comes along and 6m people try to contact a call centre that normally handles about 1,000 calls a day, basically a 16.5 fold increase. These are all after full refunds rather than advising Auntie Betty that she does indeed need a passport for Benidorm.
The call centre is in lockdown and operating at 50% strength for spacing of staff and the company is in the process of buying thousands of laptops and rigging home phone numbers to the system so agents can work from home.
Then the company decides to offer a rebooking incentive so the even more complex process of cancelling one booking to transfer it to another starts.
Then (pick a country) closes its borders so repeat. Then (pick a country) opens its borders so repeat. Pretty much daily. For months on end.
Is it any wonder?
Toastie
LE
@tazmanian_clogdancer
thank you for your reply. Our posts crossed and my above post is in response to others regarding the time lag.
I was more interested in the comments about airlines getting back up to speed?
thank you for your reply. Our posts crossed and my above post is in response to others regarding the time lag.
I was more interested in the comments about airlines getting back up to speed?
No worries, From what we've been told it's everything from pilots having enough hours to fly the planes bringing the aircrew and trolley dollies back and getting back up to peak at the various airports so to start there may well be a squeeze on supply as the whole world seems determined to go on holiday once this is all done.
I also concentrate on the call centre side and the companies I contract for quickly moved to home working by purchasing laptops and sorting out teleworker phones. All business was shifted to firstly bringing those on holiday home and then refunds. The money going back out everyday was eye watering. I like Mike G he used the word twaddle on GMTV to describe Grant Shapps and his it's illegal to book a holday line.
Toastie
LE
Sounds to me like we are on the same page! Shapps’ comments were a disgrace and the rest of the Govt’s response to supporting aviation has been woeful. About the only time they’ve addressed it was to raise APD in the recent budget. They’ve sat by whilst the industry haemorrhaged money and jobs, completely failing to grasp the simple fact it costs a very great deal to maintain the assets.
As far as being ready is concerned, the Number 2 focus has been and is being 100% ready to flick the switch and ramp up operations, pretty much overnight when the time comes. Not knowing when that time is going to come has been a major failing in the Govt response; taking a running **** at a rolling doughnut is not a sound basis for decision making.
The Number 1 focus has been cash preservation. My employer has behaved in an exemplary manner unlike many in the industry. They have paid me well, kept me informed and looked after me. I’ve received loads of innovative training to keep me on the ball and my pay has been changing monthly commensurate with their needs but all with unbreakable logic and justification behind the change.
Operationally, as I say, it’s all geared to having us at a rolling boil to go live when it kicks off and for that reason, I think we will be able to deliver. We have to be because as you say, it’ll be a feeding frenzy. We are basically being given flights at minimal notice at present, flying cargo. Normally if someone rang me and said “drop everything, go flying” I’d **** them right off unless they paid me the going rate for that as per our contracts, but now, because they’ve treated me so well I say “how can I help?”
To that end, gotta go, need to pack a bag as I’m just off to Gatwick to take 45 tonnes of Mercedes engines to Greenville, North Carolina tomorrow! It brings cash into the company, it brings cash to me and it‘s keeping us ready to fly people desperate for a holiday when the day comes. Trust me, there’s a huge amount of planning gone into it and everything is on a hair trigger. Bookings are already piling in.
Mrs Slocombe
Old-Salt
I'm going on holiday to a quarantine hotel.
I've heard the room service is pretty good.
exbluejob
LE
But the food not so much, only pizza as that's all they can fit under the door.
In thinking of going to Copacabana again. Might walk this time.
Simmerit
LE
May be a long time then. They are now talking about a third wave.
I can’t see us getting away this year either.
History_Man
LE
We have abandoned this year.
Currently booked Summer 2022, January 2023.
And planning Autumn 2023.
lastwalt
LE
Lot's of layby's to crap in on the NC500, and now there's the SWC300 as well!
Dan Gleebles
LE
Are lay-bys the only option?
lastwalt
LE
No, there are beaches and the occasional phonebox.
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