Travel problem

[waltekar]

Booked w/end break to Gibraltar thru travel agent on line on 1.10.08 for outward leg on 27.03.09. Upon return 30.03.09, our flight did not exist. Apparently BA's timetables run from March to October our flight was at 18:10 instead of booked flight 11:50. On-line booking sheet prints off, in left hand corner states Booking Confimation, but half way down after all refs & details says"You should have received a booking ref on the top left hand side (we did) and above itinerary should show passenger names, flight & hotel details & pricing (it did). This means we already processing request via our 24 hour online centre. You will now receive further email from Online dept with your airline & hotel confirmation refs. In the event you do not hear from us for more than 48 hours, please contact us on tel No." We did not receive further email and as it was such small print, we didn't notice until too late. Didn't want to stay at airport for 9 hours so paid/travelled home with EasyJet. Have sent 2 emails, no acknowledgement, 1 recorded letter, they acknowledged receipt by email & asked me to acknowledge receipt their email. Phoned them on 05.06 asking what are their intentions, was told she had been away, but my letter passed to Customer Services, she would find out situation & email me. Again, have received nothing.
Under 'small print' another paragraph says "By entering your travel & payment details above, we have accepted this request as a definite booking which is now subject to cancellation charges......" "Should any aspect of the above travel itinerary remain unconfirmed (due to unavailability, price variation or other), we shall contact you as soon as possible to advise you of the same and offer you a suitable alternative which may or may not be accepted by you".
As we did not receive that 2nd email & didn't contact them, do you think I should pursue it or not?
Your assistance would be greatly appreciated - thanks

[dzug]

Pursue what? I can't really see you have any case at all.

[waltekar]

I would like reimbursement for the tickets I bought from Easyjet to get me home.

[jno]

well, I sure would, on the basis of that last paragraph you mention. If you've tried them and got the usual runaround, you could try taking it up via the newspapers

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/columnists/g illcharlton/5443294/Ask-Gill-pay-Italian-traff ic-fines-or-face-courts.html

[redcrx]

"we didn't notice until too late. Didn't want to stay at airport for 9 hours so paid/travelled home with EasyJet"

so you didnt read all the paperwork - not their fault

it was a 6hr 20m wait, during day, hardly an overnighter on the floor of the airport and its not as if they were refusing to fly you home, the time had been changed slightly.

You made the decision to book a flight with someone else, perhaps you shouldve got BA to agree to a refund before booking

I cant see that youll get very far with a claim

[waltekar]

My 'beef' isn't with British Airways, my contract was with the Travel Agents, who as far as I can see, failed to let us know that the timetable had changed in March, if we had known that the flights home were early evening, instead of early morning, we would not have booked the trip with that flight. We were picked up from the hotel at 09:00 to check-in, so it does work out almost 9 hours.

[waltekar]

Jno - Many thanks for the site, I have just had a quick look at it and I will send something to them, to get their view as to whether it is worth pursuing or not.

[dzug]

It's always worth trying.

But the travel agent's line will be that they sent that second e-mail and it's not their fault you didn't receive it.