Administrations costs for changing Holiday Details - are they justified?

[rrfcfan]

Hi there, I have booked a holiday to Florida travelling 08/10/2006 for 2 weeks with my wife, 2 kids (11, 9) and younger Brother. We opted for a villa,car, flight package with TravelCityDirect. Unfortuantely due to circumstances beyond my our control, my brother will be unable to travel.

As my brother was the only driver amongst ourselves, we had to change the accomodation to a hotel situated near the parks, cancel the car as there is no-one to drive it and remove my brother from the holiday package.

An email was sent to TCD last Saturday requesting the necessary amendments to the holiday. I called them the following day to confirm if they have received my email and asked when these holiday amendments will be arranged.

I received a call 2 hours later saying that the holiday package has now been amended.

I went online to confirm these details and to my horror I have been charged £130 for the cancellation fee, £50 amendment fee and £10 booking fee?

Just to put salt in the wounds, the Flight prices have also risen by £50 per head (a further £200). When I contacted TCD about the Flight price increase, they responded that this is necessary as we were not taking a hire car.

So in total I have lost £390 to change the holiday booking , which probably took someone at the sales desk minutes to amend. These amendments were raised 12 weeks before departure.

Why does it cost so much to change holiday details? Also should I have to pay an extra £50 per head for the flight just because I dont require a Hire Car?

Are these holiday amendment fees justifiable?

Can I request for the amendments fee to be re-imbursed?

[Rich44]

Just to put salt in the wounds, the Flight prices have also risen by £50 per head (a further £200). When I contacted TCD about the Flight price increase, they responded that this is necessary as we were not taking a hire car.

I thought this kind of carry on was made illegal like saying you only get the sale price of the holiday if you take out their overpriced travel insurance. Seems a bit harsh that to me

[rrfcfan]

That is exactly what I thought!

What can I do now to dispute these costs?

[rrfcfan]

I have called the Holiday Company again today to get the flight prices reduced to the orignal price, once again they have replied that I have changed my holiday booking and the flight prices have changed because I didn't require the hire car.

It seems we are going round in circles about this.
Has anyone else suffered the same fate?
Can someone suggest my next step to adjust the flight prices? The customer services representative suggested I should write a letter to the Customer services team. How do I approach this.?

[pcr1]

Technically it's a service (there is no breach of contract here) and actually they'd be entitled even to do nothing and leave the contract "as is".

It doesn't cost anything near that to do a name change; takes a few seconds. But it's a money maker, and a lawful one too.

I don't understand, however, why they have charged an amendment and booking fee. Each part will be booked with a different company. The flight and hotel may be booked together, or apart, but the car hire is usually separate. So there may be charges from each operator they are passing on to you.

You need to be careful when booking holidays as making changes can be costly.

[benjee]

If you are changing arrival airport then yes I can understand the fee for the flight, but if you are still on the same flight there should be no charge for amending this as technically they are only removing 1 traveller which means an extra seat for the flight operator to sell (hardly rocket science!)

I would check this, if same flight then argue the flight charge.

[pcr1]

Originally Posted by benjee

If you are changing arrival airport then yes I can understand the fee for the flight, but if you are still on the same flight there should be no charge for amending this as technically they are only removing 1 traveller which means an extra seat for the flight operator to sell (hardly rocket science!)

I would check this, if same flight then argue the flight charge.

They've cancelled a seat, and need to resell it. I think it's perfectly reasonable to charge this on the basis that:
(a) they now have to resell that seat and will probably get less for it
(b) it's not their fault you've cancelled, and legally they don't even have to cancel it in the first place

Basically you've cancelled a flydrive holiday and rebooked a flight and hotel. This is a costly way of doing things.

When you book a holiday you enter into a contract.

If you kick up a fuss you might be able to get the booking fee back.

[heidi1]

In my experience of this, it depends firstly if a fly drive was booked, then a hotel seperatley, and it depends on who the flydrive is with (tour operator) as the additional charges are set by them. But, I have never come accross a flight "increase" like this before. In most cases, the car comes free, save for the insurance which is usually around £300.00, if you do not require this any longer, then its tough about the flight price, they should not be increasing that!

The cancellation fee is loss of deposit.... sorry, but you have to take that on the chin, standard practice!

The booking fee should have been charged when the initail booking was made, not half way through!

Operators do charge heavily to amend holidays, and it could be that the booking fee is an amendment fee the agent has charged (TCD) for sorting out the amendment on your behalf, believe it or not, it takes the agent quite a while to get it done. There's the getting through to people, explaining, etc etc which is quite time consuming so that charge should be noted as amendment fee or words to that effect, not booking fee!

Take what you want from this lot and let us know how you get on, good luck!

Heidi

[LondonPam]

It wouldn't be the first time I've booked a flydrive saying I'll have the hire car and said I would pay the insurances when I get to the airport. I then sort of forget to collect the car lol I've done it twice now as it's worked out cheaper.