Airtours holiday complaint

[dorisfluffy]

Hello
I'm writing to Airtours on behalf of my parents who are 68 and 60 years old, to complain about a holiday to Hotel Argos in Ibiza they went on in May. Does anyone know what address I send it to or any acts and regulations I can put in it to make them take notice?
My main complaint is that when they arrived the hotel was overbooked and they had to stay in another hotel over night. When they got back to their hotel they asked to speak to the manager to see what compensation they could be given for the inconvenience. They were told by the manager with a big smile on his face that he had arranged for a room with a sea view without the suppliment. Fantastic! BUT they'd already paid £168.00 through Airtours for a sea view. They decided to accept no other compensation offered and complained to the rep and got nowhere apart from having a complaint form filled in.
Any help will be much appreciated.

[cosworthcarter]

Hello there, a couple of years ago my mother in law had a bad experience with an airtours holiday, and we put in a complaint.

Basically their holiday was one week in a prestige hotel all inclusive over christmas - with a prestige hotel my parents in law were looking for luxury - they didn't get it - they had to change rooms 3 times for either no hot water, no water pressure or broken items in the room. The food was also cold at the hot buffet - and totally unacceptable for a prestige holiday.

Airtours were very stubborn and would not accept that they were due any compensation AT ALL!! as they had no record of any complaints from the rep.

However, we took it all the way to arbitration through ABTA and eventually a few days before the arbitratory meeting was due to take place my parents in law accepted an offer of £300-

I think your parents first port of call would be to contact the travel agent with whom they booked the holiday, they should help with who to contact. If they have no joy there the airtours website has details of post travel contact information. Write to them giving all your greivances and how much you are looking to claimback, don't forget to photocopy and send copies of the tickets, any booking details etc.

I am quite sure that they will deny any liability - but dont be put off - they will try and fob you off all the way along the line -

If you believe there is a case - don't be put off by their negativeness take it to the top

Good luck

[dorisfluffy]

Thank you very much for your help. I've been into the travel agent with mother and they were very helpful, we have an address to send a letter to now so here's hoping they take notice, if not I'll take it further.

[abroadgirl]

hi we travelled with airtours and complained when we got back see my thread dirty accomadation they offered us £82 we said no they can shuff it up there ****, cut a story short we took it to small claims and before we get a date they have offered us £430 and an extra £66 for extra expenses take a look at my thread good luck
abroadgirl

[dorisfluffy]

Hello all,
An update of whats happened so far:
I wrote to Airtours on 2nd June requesting a resolution or at least a reply within 14 days, the reply I got was the standard letter saying they'll get back to me but it can take up to 28 days this was on 13th June. Well of course I received no other letters off them so after giving them a little more time I wrote to them on 27th July demanding a reply stating the timescale they had given themselves and the fact they had failed to stick to it. I sent the letter on 27th July and I'm still waiting!
Has anyone got any good news about what the outcome of this will be?
Cheers DF

[abroadgirl]

Originally Posted by dorisfluffy

Hello all,
An update of whats happened so far:
I wrote to Airtours on 2nd June requesting a resolution or at least a reply within 14 days, the reply I got was the standard letter saying they'll get back to me but it can take up to 28 days this was on 13th June. Well of course I received no other letters off them so after giving them a little more time I wrote to them on 27th July demanding a reply stating the timescale they had given themselves and the fact they had failed to stick to it. I sent the letter on 27th July and I'm still waiting!
Has anyone got any good news about what the outcome of this will be?
Cheers DF

i would now make a claim with the court like i did that moved them and we got our money good luck they can be stubbon i know just go ahead with the claim at court keep us updated as to what happens
abg.

[heidi1]

Hi,

I'm surprised tge agent just gave you the address to write into!!!

Normal practice is for you to write the letter, send it or take it to the agent. They then send it on your behalf with a covering letter to the tour op. Dont suppose it make much difference anyway, but I'm surprised this was not offered. The help and support of an agent is the main thing you pay them for, when things dont go quite right, they should be fighting your corner!

Each letter you send to a tour op, they are allowed 28 days in which to reply. The first one is normally to fob you off with an apology, or to tell you they are investigating.

Abta arbitration process requires you to have sent and received at least 2 peices of correspondence with an unsatisfactory outcome. If you have done this, then you can get ABTA involved, they will then assess your claim and get heavy with the tour op if they feel your case is strong.

If you dont want to do that then small claims is an option, but if you lose, you will be liable for all the costs, so just beware!

Best of luck,

heidi

[ericollyandyoyo]

Take them to court. If you lose in the small claims then airtours cannot claim the costs. I had a similar problem with last choice and after a lot of correspondence and a 'final offer' from the md's secretary of 400 filed in court for 2,000. Got a call within 7 days offering 1300 which is exactly what my original claim was for