FLIGHTMARE
Travel agent won’t compensate us after our one-hour direct flight was changed to five-hour stopover
OUR consumer champion helps a reader win back £500 after a flight disaster
Q) I HAVE been trying to get compensation from Hays Travel after it cancelled our flight and rebooked us onto a much longer flight with a stopover, but it won’t budge.
We booked a holiday for May this year to the USA and Caribbean, with a flight to Nassau booked from Miami.
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But when I came to pay the remaining balance in February, I discovered the direct flight had been cancelled and we’d been rebooked onto a flight with a layover in Atlanta, adding an extra five hours to what should have been a one hour flight.
No one had informed us or confirmed we were fine with this.
I contacted Hays and requested some compensation but we have never heard back.
Can you help us get some recompense for this inconvenience?
Fay Edis, Wareham, Dorset
A) YOU booked what should have been the trip of a lifetime to Florida and the Bahamas in May this year, costing £7,466 for you and your family.
The trip was booked last October through Hays Travel, but you didn’t have to pay the remaining half of the balance until February, so hadn’t checked in the meantime.
But when you came to pay, you noticed the one hour flight you had booked had been cancelled and you’d been moved onto a flight that stopped over in Atlanta, the wrong direction to your destination, with a stopover at the airport.
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Your flight would now take between four and five hours instead of one, which you didn’t feel was fair for what you paid for the flight.
You contacted Hays and asked to be changed back to a direct flight, but were told you’d have to pay an extra £369 each on top of the hefty sum you’d already forked out.
Feeling hard done by, you made a formal complaint to Hays Travel, but you have repeatedly been told someone would look into it, and then never heard back.
You even sent a written letter to the office, but you never got a response.
Frustrated, you finally wrote to me and asked if I could intervene.
Unfortunately, booking a flight doesn’t always guarantee that you’ll end up on that route.
Airlines are within their rights to cancel flights and put you on an alternative. However, you should be offered a refund if the change is significant.
This didn’t help you in your case, though, as you had already booked the rest of your trip and couldn't get a refund on the whole lot.
When I contacted Hays Travel on your behalf, your local branch escalated your complaint to your tour company and you were offered £350 compensation, which you felt was a bit stingy.
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After some pushing, Hays pushed your tour company to offer you £500 in compensation, which you are happy with.
Our Squeeze Team has now won back £178,021 for readers.
How to contact our Squeeze Team
Our Squeeze Team wins back money for readers who have had a refund or billing issue with a company and are struggling to get it resolved.
We've won back thousands of pounds for readers including £22,000 for a man asked to pay back benefits to the DWP, £2,800 for a family who had a hellish holiday and £635 for a seller scammed on eBay.
To get help, write to our consumer champion, Laura Purkess.
I love getting your letters and emails, so do write to me at squeez[email protected] or Laura Purkess, The Sun, 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF.
Tell me what happened and don’t forget to provide your phone number so I can ring you if I need more information. Share with me any reference number the company has given you relating to your case, or any account name/number if you're a customer.
Include the following line so I can go to the firm on your behalf: “I give permission for [company's name] to discuss my case with Laura Purkess at The Sun”.
Please include your full name and location in your email/letter.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected]
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