You do have 7 nights holiday, the first night of your stay is the night of the 29th October you have to pay for this night otherwise you wouldn't be able to check straight into your hotel room on arrival (as international check in time is 2pm). Your nights at the hotel are 29th, 30th, 31st, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and then you will check out in the daytime on the 5th November and fly home (i'm guessing) very early hours of the 6th November so you will probably be about 10 hours without a hotel room. Most hotels will keep your luggage for you so you can have a wander around on the last day but you will have to check out around 12 lunch time. Or you can sometime pay a little extra to keep your room until later in the day, but you have definately got 7 nights in the hotel. Hope this makes you feel not so cheated , have a nice holiday

Agree with blinkbonny, but I am suprised you didn't receive a cancellation invoice as most reservation systems would automatically generate one as soon as the booking was cancelled?? They must not have sent it? Not really good enough! Sorry you lost your holiday.

I bet the problem on the outbound flight was to do with the little girl not wanting to sit in her seat with the belt on (understandable if she was upset, ears hurting etc) I have experianced this myself and as understanding as the cabin crew were they explained that there was no-way I could hold my son on my lap as he was over 2 he HAD to sit in his seat for landing, difficult when your child is fussing! It is for their and your safety. Looks like this one got a bit blown out of proportion!

Actually the fact that the lead name has signed the booking form means that due to data protection the travel agent isn't able to discuss the booking with any other person whether they are named on the booking or not. If you read the form that you sign it states that 'due to the data protection act we are unable to discuss your booking with any third party' ......well thats what it says on ours. As the for the OP having to pay the majority of the extra costs , it depends on which members of the party dropped out , if they were pax that were supposed to be part of the occupancy of their particular room then it depends on how it was all split up in the first place.........this is why group bookings are always a bit of a mare!

It's all to do with data protection, who ever signs the booking form is agreeing to the data protection act and laws and as that wasn't you there isn't much you can do. If you do write then see if you can get your travel agency to write a covering letter explaining that although the lead named passenger has no cause for complaint, there are other members of the party that were not so happy with the service/facilities etc etc. The problem is the head office may still not take any notice and chances are any cheques for compensation or acknowledgement letters may go direct to the lead name on the booking, so make sure you put your name and address on the letter. FYI in future it may be a good idea to do your own booking and then link the booking together after they have been made this way you will always have the ultimate control over your own personal part of the booking! Good luck!!

Compensation for stress caused, definately!!! And disgust at their 'so-called' customer care! Be prepared to wait a while for the answers and money though, companies will take as long as possible in the hope you will give up and go away! Photocopy EVERYTHING!

Do you still have the original email booking confirmation?? Is her name on it? I would take this to the airport and see if anyone can help. Good luck!

Is there any BMI representative or agent at the airport that you could speak to, to save you the costly phone calls?? There must be someone at the airport that can help you??

Your complaint should definately be with first choice, virgin were only your 'airline' and the complaint you have is nothing to do with your flights, what first choice did with your holiday was to 'dynamically' package it which is NOT the same as a package holiday. As travel agents we always make sure to explain to someone when we are going to arrange a holiday this way as it is not 'bonded' in the same way as a 'traditional' package. This should have been explained to you at the time of booking. First choice must have booked flight only and then transfer only and then hotel only this as I say is NOT a package and you don't have the same cover, I would only book something like this as a last resort because if something goes wrong with 1 part of the booking you would have to seperatly sort out the other parts - very time consuming!

How many people does each 1 bedroom apartment sleep?? Usually it is only 4 and 2 x 1 bed is 8 beds but I count 10 passengers??? hmmm