Helping You Choose: Bad Travel Company Experiences

[bazzanoid]

Hi all,

There's been a lot of 'who to travel with' style posts lately, including my own

Let's make life easier for those in search of answers - If you've had a bad experience using a particular flight / travel / rental company, please post your experiences here!!!!

Cheers!

 

[karentan]

Hi all,

There's been a lot of 'who to travel with' style posts lately, including my own

Let's make life easier for those in search of answers - If you've had a bad experience using a particular flight / travel / rental company, please post your experiences here!!!!

Cheers!

DONT USE VIRGIN WEDDINGS!!!! they made us so

 

[Amyrlin]

Travel City Direct, they are OK if nothing goes wrong, bad food, but that is the same for every ailine. However, when things go wrong they are terrible. We were stranded 24 hours, yes, they put us up in a hotel, but this are required to do ths by law, they did not at any point tell us what was going on, they did not send a rep, we were lied to by several members of staff on the phone, food was inedible, no provision even for drinking water, rude staff when you did find one and when trying to take up the poor treatment with head office after getting back the attitude is very poor, not even an apology and they will refuse to talk to you on the phone.

In addition to this I am still waiting for them to refund money paid for tickets they they did not send out in time to reach us. This is since last September. It soumnds liuke they may be getting a bit better, but they could hardly be worse.

 

[Stitch's Greatest Fa]

Travel City Direct, they are OK if nothing goes wrong, bad food, but that is the same for every ailine. However, when things go wrong they are terrible. We were stranded 24 hours, yes, they put us up in a hotel, but this are required to do ths by law, they did not at any point tell us what was going on, they did not send a rep, we were lied to by several members of staff on the phone, food was inedible, no provision even for drinking water, rude staff when you did find one and when trying to take up the poor treatment with head office after getting back the attitude is very poor, not even an apology and they will refuse to talk to you on the phone.

In addition to this I am still waiting for them to refund money paid for tickets they they did not send out in time to reach us. This is since last September. It soumnds liuke they may be getting a bit better, but they could hardly be worse.

DITTO - exact same experience July 2005, 23 hour delay

 

[mushumadness]

Virgin 24hr delay, shipped to a skanky hotel, next day went back for the flight only to wait 4 extra hours for the staff to show up, plus they ran out of FOOD on the way out

also worst custome services goes to virgin, trying to get a refund through them is awfull, it been two weeks since we cancelled and the moneys still not back!

 

[carolfoy]

only ever got a bad delay with Virgin and although it wasn't their fault (computer system went down at Gatwick) they had no knowledgeable staff at all! they sent us from one check in desk to another and even tried to kick us out of the queue (we'd been queueing 5 hours at this point) as we weren't 'priority'! thankfully we got a 'space controller' to sort us out and we flew 7 hours late

 

[Hobbes]

I've always raved about Virgin in the past but I think they're resting on their laurels a bit too much. Last year i flew with them and the plane was just shabby, plus each time i relaxed in my seat it kept reclining of its own accord and I'd end up staring at the ceiling

 

[MrsJobba1]

We flew from Manchester last Aug with Monarch - 11 hr delay,

Not told much - however they stated before we went on that the problem was that one engine needed replacing !

I have never been so frightened on a journey

 

[Red-Snapper]

Never had a problem with Virgin.

Went with BA one year and they went on strike - never again. Nobody could of cared less. Ended up fixing up my nown alternative flight back and then ringing BA to get them to agree it.

Anyway, another few posts and we will have rubbished everybody

 

[Miffy2003]

I'm not sure how helpful it is to list all the companies people have had bad experiences with. As Red Snapper points out almost certainly every company will get mentioned here.

I have had great travel experiences from Virgin and BA

 

[mushumadness]

hiya miffy

its not very much use at all, all it shows if that all airlines have problems,

i like tcd others hate it

i dislike virgin others love it

we should all agree to disagree

 

[tartangirl]

we should all agree to disagree

Maybe we could agree that all airline food (in economy) is awful

With Virgin I always pre-order the Low fat option - I think they mean 'Lower' fat as it's just the chicken dish with a bit of fruit. Not Low fat at all.

 

[mushumadness]

lol true

my mum gets gluten free and all she got last year was a stick of BREAD!!!

 

[mike230652]

we had a 24 hour delay in Orlando in 2002...Britannia told us exactly the problem ( hydraulic leak in plane and stuck at Bangor, Maine)
Within 2 hours we were all safely transferred by them to the Airport Radisson ( 4 * ) with a $50 dollar food & drink voucher each + washing kit, toothbrush etc. They even gave us 2 bedrooms for 4 people ( 2 adults and 2 kids ). and we got a £95 payment each for delay within 7 days of UK arrival.

Can't speak highly enough of Britannia...who made a delay almost pleasurable.

Mike

 

[Miffy2003]

we had a 24 hour delay in Orlando in 2002...Britannia told us exactly the problem ( hydraulic leak in plane and stuck at Bangor, Maine)
Within 2 hours we were all safely transferred by them to the Airport Radisson ( 4 * ) with a $50 dollar food & drink voucher each + washing kit, toothbrush etc. They even gave us 2 bedrooms for 4 people ( 2 adults and 2 kids ). and we got a £95 payment each for delay within 7 days of UK arrival.

Can't speak highly enough of Britannia...who made a delay almost pleasurable.

Mike

That's great to hear, Mike - delays are a real pain so it is brilliant that they handled it so well for you

 

[flowrida]

Travel City Direct - as mentioned previously ok if no problems - we were stranded for 56 hours at Gatwick with no representative in sight for the entire time- not worth the risk!

 

[zara]

Wait a minute - Am I the only person in the world who actually likes airline food? I actually look forward to my airline meal. Three cheers for airline food

 

[tashasmum]

After visiting WDW for 10 years last summer we went with First Choice and stayed in a villa. I should say Villas - We had three in three weeks.
The first was for one night, it was dirty not big enough for eleven of us and had fittings hanging off the wall. after a battle with First Choice, the villa company (not First Choice) moved us to another villa, but we had to move out after a week as the others had swapped management companies and wanted it back so they moved us to a lovely villa on a building site.

First Choice answer to all this was not our problem, take it up with the Villa Management Company, so this year its back to Virgin

 

[zara]

The only way to guarantee a nice clean villa is to book privately with an owner. We do flydrive with Virgin but book villa or condo separately straight with an owner. The villas that are allocated to package holidays are usually older and a bit worse for wear. Doesn't work out dearer either.