Package Holiday: Flight Times Changed by Operator

We booked a package holiday a few months ago. We recieved notification today that due to "operational" problems the times of our return flight had been changed from 2:00pm to to 7:20am. Flight times were a most important consideration when we were booking as we are travelling with small children. The notification was a badly drafed photo copied page which looked to me like this is a common occurrence.

Has anyone got any experience of this? Can any one offer any advice as to what we should do/

Thanks,
ajapale

Yeah we had the same experience with flights to Lanzarote. They moved our flight from a lunchtime to a veryyyyyyyyyyy early morning flight. We had paid the daytime flight supplement so they had no choice but to refund this to us . Mrs hansov, hansov juniors and me had a long day!

Hi AJ,

This was something that always drove me mad when booking this type holiday and as far as I can recall most of the operators cover themselves by including this clause in the small print in their brochures.

If my memory serves me well someone mentioned on the board that its also not necessarily their fault because they have to depend on the airlines and timetables are arranged so far in advance that changes are inevitable!

Update: Have just found the previous thread and the ever helpful EvilDoctorK explains it better than me here

Yes, it's one of the risks of package holidays. And one of the reasons why I now bypass the travel agencies and book my own flights and accomodation, as do many others.

The times they are a changing....


Thanks Hansov and Suellen, Ill do a little more digging and let you know how I get on.

ajapale

We have just had the something simular happen to us.

We booked online in March for a package holiday in June and they rang us yesterday to ask if we would take evening flights instead of morning flights. We said no as they really dont suit us so they siad we dont have a choice we have to change.

So after numerous phone calls we were offered either cancel with full refund, not an option we want a holiday or so called alternative holidays which were not even in the same country never mind the same resort, some were up to 11% more expensive, not the same facilities basically whatever was left over at this stage.

The new flight times really dont suit us and as one of us will be arriving back in Dublin late have to travel for a further 2 hours and is working the next morning. Of course they told me it is the terms and conditions that they can do this but no matter how much we begged and pleaded no joy. In fact we were made feel we were being unreasonable.

They sent us through letters to be signed that they wanted returned today. Assuming (uncorrectly I have access to a fax machine) or signed and returned by email. I asked them how did they imagine I could sign it and return by email. (Yes, I have heard of scanners but that is not the point). Or by post only if they have it by Monday, I'm good but even I cant influence An Post.

Never, ever again will I book with this company, yes these things can happen but we booked in good faith, paid in full and maybe if they had been honest and professional in their approach with us and admitted they had over booked the flights, and told us in the begining that we had to change there wouldnt be such bad feeling now. But were not the easiest company to deal with from the begining, we booked online to avail of the slight discount, I will be returning to my travel agent from now on, I know these things can happen but a travel agent will make some effort to take your needs into consideration (in my opinion.)

Hacker what company did you book your holiday through?

I would love to say but I really dont know if it is allowed to name names.

I used to work in a tour operator many moons ago & this was a regular occurrence... and it wasn't our fault! We would sign agreements with various airlines for charter hire to our destinations & the airline would issue the timings to us for publishing in the brochure.

Then... they'd come back to us saying that they couldn't actually get the slot in DUB, ORK or SNN for the flight so it would have to be rescheduled. We would try to get another operator for the flight, but the timings would be (a) even worse or (b) on a different day... so we were stuck with it. Muggins here had the divine job of telling the travel agents or direct clients about the change & subsequently getting the face torn off her!

It is an absolute bummer but there truly is very little you can do about it - it's not an insurable reason to cancel, unless it falls under the "material change" clause in the booking contract... and it rarely does.

Yes, but the problem here was Panorama overbooked the flight, the flight times we booked are still going ahead. And even though they told us we were last to book, we booked this 3 months ago it took them that long to let us know. Too late to arrange something else, and the alternatives they offered we not comparable, and there are four of us travelling together but they were only going to move 2 of us only for we noticed on a the letter they sent us to sign. Sometimes it is the little things that make the difference.

Are you sure the aircraft type wasn't changed - we used to only be able to load the max seats per aircraft into the system before releasing them for sale i.e 156 seats or whatever the plane could accommodate. If there is an aircraft change, the amount of seats may either go up or down.

I honestly doubt that Panorama deliberately oversold the aircraft because charters aren't like sched services - people don't just not bother showing up. If you want to raise it further, speak to somebody in Niall McDonnell's office (he's the MD of Panorama) & the contact details are

Unit 10B Beckett Way
Parkwest Business Park, Nangor Road
Dublin 12
Ireland
Phone : +353 818 202020
Fax : +353 1 6296000