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Thomas Cooke.
I was a bit concerned, having booked a couple of flights with them for a Christmas holiday. The cost of which was £500. I was relieved to find out this week that the money will be returned to my card within 10 days. I had paid with a debit card and read in a number of places that refunds were only applicable to credit cards. The first approach to the bank was met with "you might be covered by ATOL", here are a couple of websites to look at. This was despite my protests that, as this was a flights only booking, and all the information I had read suggested that flight only bookings were not ATOL protected.
I am not sure if it was the banks intention to attempt to fob off my initial inquiry, hoping I would accept what they had said, and forget about it.
Subsequent to this I read a bit more, and discovered that using a visa debit card, has protection under a "chargeback" scheme, as long as you claim within 120 days.
So the money is winging its way back to me.
As an added bonus, I have rebooked the flights with easyJet at a cost of £175.
I am not sure if it was the banks intention to attempt to fob off my initial inquiry, hoping I would accept what they had said, and forget about it.
Subsequent to this I read a bit more, and discovered that using a visa debit card, has protection under a "chargeback" scheme, as long as you claim within 120 days.
So the money is winging its way back to me.
As an added bonus, I have rebooked the flights with easyJet at a cost of £175.
Comments
Nice return for £10.40 buy in.
Just out of interest, is that each flight or Total, 'coz that's some saving. Did you check with EasyJet the first time? and if you did, have the flight prices come down?
Really WELL PLAYED in last night's Major........ £3.5K spending money should make it a very, very nice Holiday...... and UKOPS to come too! About time you won another Bracelet
The money always comes in handy, but don't undersell it, it was just about 4k.
I originally booked the flights in May.
I used Skyscanner.
I always search all UK airports, and search the whole month.
They were the best I could get at the time from Bristol, and my dates were flexible.
Cardiff flights seem difficult these days.
The Thomas Cooke flights were going out on the 19th.
The return flights are with Ryanair and cost £246 for the two.
So the total came to about £370 each.
The new flights which weren't there in May, are on the 17th.
So this gives me 2 extra days, but doesn't matter because I am staying with Mel.
They are all robbers, the new flights were £51 each before you start on extras like luggage etc.
The bottom line is they have revolutionised cheap flights* and just choose to package their costs in a different way...surely the only key fact is the price you end up paying? Especially when you compare with BA/Virgin etc
(In my case going to Italy next week, we have only booked 1 hold baggage to keep costs down)
Long live Ryanair/easyJet et al as they keep the mainstream giants on their toes £...* Tony, you and I are old enough to remember Freddie Laker’s attempt to break the monopoly and offer cheap flights
What memories. No advance booking, just poll up at Gatwick with £100 in readies & stand in a queue. London to New York for £100 as I recall.
I just looked at the Ryanair flights, and they have gone up to £374 for the two returns on the 29th.
So the truth is that there is no rhyme or reason to booking flights, it is pot luck, and all the airlines are robbers.
They used to say that if you booked late they were cheaper, then they changed to booking early was cheaper.
They are just robbers.
For instance on the Ryanair flight the 2 bags are £70, the equivalent cost of one of the flights.
Robbers.
How much proof do you need.
Why cant they just advertise the price of the flight in full?
Why do they have to charge for every little thing?
Why do you have to pay for choosing a seat?
Who wants to sit with someone elses family?
I remember being at Bristol Airport on a work trip, and the family in front of me when checking in were sent to the back of the queue after going somewhere else to pay an additional £240 because they hadn't printed off their boarding passes.
Don't start me off.
The Ryanair guy said he would charge for using the toilet, if he could find a suitable door that accepted a £1 coin.
He is probably on the lookout for one that takes a £2 coin now, because of inflation.
Should we even start on the food?
I think not my first tourney is at 12.
HAYSIE wrote;
"Don't start me off."
You know what he's like, once you start him off he won't stop for weeks.
Ryanair and EasyJet have brought about a radical change which I for one have benefited all over Europe over the last few years and I can put up with a £1 charge for using a Ryanair toilet when I could fly two people for a total cost of £24 return from Bristol to Dinard or a return flight from Stansted to Finland for £ 0.01, with £15 taxes
In respect of the ‘ when you book and the cost you pay and the rationale behind it’ I’m sure you have read the basic business model behind the Ryanair operating approach....if not do check it out-it’s fascinating how they fund their operation
Have a good trip!
Boeing 707-138B in 1970
The early 1970s saw the airline and its owner battle with aviation authorities in the UK and US to gain approval for a low-cost, "no frills" transatlantic service to link London and New York daily during the peak summer period from May to September and four times a week during the remainder of the year. This was to be marketed as Skytrain for £32.50 one-way in winter and £37.50 in summer.[34][35] Two Boeing 707-138Bs were acquired from the administrators of British Eagle in 1969. Both were operated by Qantas when new.
They were subsequently purchased by Kleinwort Benson, which had leased them to British Eagle until its demise in November 1968.[36][37][38][39] These aircraft were earmarked for Skytrain.[34][35] Laker's original Skytrain application assumed a 62.9% break-even load factor. This meant that the airline needed to sell 100 out of 158 seats at a single fare of £37.50 per seat on each flight to start making money with Skytrain.[34][40][41][42] Sir Freddie announced Skytrain at a press conference at London's Savoy Hotel on 30 June 1971.[43]
Having worked for a year in my friend's Flight Sales business, when I came back from my travels around America, Christmas flights have always been very expensive 'coz so many people want to go abroad for the 2 weeks of Xmas and New Year, and the longer you leave it, the more expensive they get.
Cheapest flights of the year are the first 2 weeks of December, as long as you return before Xmas, especially if you return on the last weekend before Xmas, and it used to be very cheap in the first few weeks of January, but nowadays the mass exodus of retired people seeking some Winter Sun, has pushed the prices up a bit.
And you should have titled this thread....Thomas Crook
Once you have answered that.
Why have the exact flights that I booked in May, become more expensive in September?
To come up with a reasonable explanation for both questions is impossible.
You have produced a typical leave voter argument.
A supply and demand argument is usually applied to lower demand increasing costs. So an airline that runs a plane half full, has the same fixed costs, fuel etc, and would therefore need to charge passengers a higher price to cover their costs.
What airlines actually do is charge passengers more in peak periods like school holidays, because many people like those with children have no flexibility. So consumers are forced to pay through the nose, because they have no choice.
This is being held to ransom rather than anything to do with supply and demand.
They do it because they can.
Imagine if your window cleaner starting charging you more for cleaning your windows in July, August, and at half terms.
You would probably argue that it didn't cost any more than the rest of the year, and accuse him of ripping you off.
You would have to be a lunatic to argue that the passengers on a half full plane should pay lower prices than those on a completely full plane.
I object to all the additional costs.
If a double glazing firm advertised a price for a particular sized window, and after you attempted to buy one at the advertised price, they decided to make additional charges for removing the old window, making good, internal cill, external cill, glass, etc etc, they would be battered on Watchdog on the telly.
I warned you guys.
You've set him off now.
He'll be banging on for weeks now.
Here you go. Dynamic Pricing explained.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_pricing