Lastminute.com

[fedupwithDCA's]

We booked to go to Thailand in December, was a bit nervous booking through lastminute, as normally book a package through a Travel Agent, We arrived at airport, all OK. Eventually arrived in Bangkok, all OK. Arrived in Phuket and collected at airport, great. Got to our hotel on Christmas Eve, not so great, after waiting quite sometime we were asked if we had any other documents as there was no trace of our booking. Fortunately I had saved all the correspondence on my hotmail account, so printed off what we had. Hotel staff were very good and said they could put us up for time being, until problem was sorted. Obviously as it was Xmas Eve we could not get hold of lastminute by phone and emails were left unanswered. We finally managed to make contact on 27th and they told us we would need to speak to their manager, who had taken over our case. Our hotel could originally only take us until 28th when we would have to move to another hotel, which was more expensive and we would have to pay additional cost. We agreed, while family tried contacting lastminute for us, as we could not get through. On 28th we were told that a payment had been made to our hotel, but each day we had to check to see when we would have to move out. Eventually we were moved on 30th, to a lovely hotel but it was across a busy main road, whereas our other hotel was right on beach. Apart from spending a lot of time on reception, phones, computer and transfers between hotels we did not actually unpack until 1 Jan and we flew home on 5th. We also found that there were no transfer booked between domestic airport and international, fortunately we discovered that the day before we left and arranged transfers from the local travel company.
When we arrived home we had mobile phone bills in the region of £350 compared to our normal ones of £60, some obviously was for wishing family a Happy Xmas and New Year but a lot of time was telling people where we were and where we had been moved to. We wrote to lastminute and they have refunded our additional expenses, paid for our Gala New Year dinner and given us £150 compensation each. We told them were are not satisfied with the offer only to find they have credited our credit card with the money. I feel that our holiday was an expensive waste of money, it cost us £4000, plus spending and out of pocket expenses. Are we able to ask for more, as I only had 5 days leave left to last me to April and that is why we went at Xmas so I could use the days over Xmas and New Year to have a decnt time away and came back more exhausted than when we went. Any advice please?

[Bookworm]

Difficult one, as what you have lost is not quantifiable.

They've refunded your additional costs, they've paid for your NY dinner (presumably, that was not originally included?) and they've offered you compo of £150 each. So, you're not out of pocket any more, right?

The argument is that you still got a holiday in Thailand, you still got all the days you had booked, you still got a hotel, etc... So in real terms, apart from the fact that you didn't get the lovely time you were hoping for, you didn't actually lose out, and they have offered compensation for the time spent moving hotels and what not and not being on the beach.

You can always go back and say that you don't think that the compensation paid is adequate, and you could say that you feel that a payment of £xxx would be more appropriate, but it is a very subjective matter and I fear that should you go to the FOS, they may well say that the compensation already paid was adequate, but you could always go to them anyway if LM.com won't increase their offer, worst case scenario, the FOS won't give you more, and you're no worse off than you were.

[fedupwithDCA's]

The additional costs they paid for was the transfer, hotel and £150 each. They have not paid phone bills as will only pay for those shown on bill to be to them, but as we could not get through from Thailand and had to ring family to ring them they say they won't refund them.

[Bookworm]

I doubt that anyone would award you that then, sorry. My advice from previous post still stands: Try to push them for more compo, and/or FOS, but be prepared for the fact FOS might not award you more than what you have already had.

[Chesterexpress]

Originally Posted by Bookworm

I doubt that anyone would award you that then, sorry. My advice from previous post still stands: Try to push them for more compo, and/or FOS, but be prepared for the fact FOS might not award you more than what you have already had.

Can you please explain why you suggest reporting holiday problems to the FOS?