The Oldest Travel Agency in the World goes into Administration and I get kicked in the Balls. PART 2

in #photography5 years ago


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So following up from my last post, I have further news on the state of my honeymoon. But first, a quick recap for those of you who have not read.. here are the cliff notes:
Thomas cook went bust, the flights for our honeymoon in now 2.5 weeks time were with thomas cook. We have a nice luxury holiday in Cancun but with no means to get there. What a kick in the balls!
Ok, now that you're all caught up, here's what's happened since then.

And you may be asking "What the hell does the Eiffel tower have to do with this story?", well all will become clear in due course dear reader!

So when I left you last time the travel agency we booked through started chasing the company we were booked with. They had been trying to organise replacement holidays and flights for people in date order of departure. So obviously the people leaving sooner would be seen to first.

So all week we've not heard much at all from them and were told to be patient. We used the time to look up what our rights were in case it all goes to shit and we need to rethink our plans or claim a refund from ATOL and what not.


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Well, yesterday we get word that they have some options, so we run down to the travel agent's shop after work just before they close and we get two nice options for replacement flights. We are instructed to come back in the morning and let them know which ones we want.

The options are to either fly Edinburgh - Paris - Cancun (£500) or Newcastle - Paris - Cancun (£200). Well, we think "lets do Edinburgh even if its a little more since that's where we live and its a little easier." Clearly we will fly Air France as the flights connect through Paris. Vive le France! (hence the pictures)

We go to the travel agent this morning and instruct them, they take payment and we leave happy. They are left hanging on the phone trying to get through to the booking company.

1 hour later I get the call, the flights are sold out. Newcastle has shot up to £2000 (from £200 yesterday) and all remaining flights are almost gone. One option left, Edinburgh - London - Dallas - Cancun and back.. + extra costs for more flights.. That was it ...

HONEYMOON CANCELLED

FUCK MY LIFE

Thanks for nothing Air France!

You can take your sexy accent, and amazing food and your culture and your delicious wine and beautiful women and shove it right up your nicely lit tower:


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I'm sorry, I didn't mean it.. i'm just mad. Our dream honeymoon that we booked

6 MONTHS AGO

and I spent so much money on .. is now being flush down the toilet.

Well, now we've decided on what we are calling a "Minimoon". We will go somewhere (probably in Europe, maybe even the UK still ugh so depressing) for a few days, and we will reschedule the honeymoon for later.. sometime next year. Any suggestions for where we should go for our Minimoon?


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Ouch! That's terrible luck and timing... 😥
Here's hoping an alternative turns up that's even better than the original idea! Who knows...

Thanks, Yeah very unlucky. Right now everything is crazy expensive because of the demand that's been created by the loss of flights.. if anything we might be able to find a short break to go on, and then plan something big in the new year.

all is not lost, but it is a big disappointment.

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Urgh! Sorry to hear this. I hope you got a full refund?

Thanks, yeah we are going to get a full refund thankfully. My plan is to put the money aside and rebook for sometime next year. its just so disappointing.

Yeah for sure but at least you're getting all your money back so that's not wasted. The universe is telling you that wasn't the right trip. Something amazing will come along I'm sure.

You're probably right, it wasn't the right trip. Its still disappointing though. But yeah, at least we're getting the money back so we can do something else with it. Its just not the kind of news you want to get 2 weeks before the wedding!

Man that is terrible news. So sorry to hear you’ve been fucked about so much!

Silver lining might be that, errr, you have an excuse for TWO honeymoons?? Treat yourselves.

Yeah, its just down right crappy.. but you are right, I see it as a good excuse for two honeymoons, a short break somewhere nearby right after the wedding and big luxury trip next year!

Aaahhh what a nightmare, I was supposed to fly to Turkey to visit the coffee roasters factory I import into the UK - flights with Thomas Cook so that got cancelled.

It’s really shabby your hopes got raised with those alternative flights - I can’t really believe the prices jumped so high in such a short time.

Anyway, mini moon in Europe I don’t know maybe Italy that can be quite romantic.

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Yeah, it's an utter shit show! I swear.. after putting the phone down with the travel agents this morning I thought "fantastic, all sorted now, honeymoon saved. its going to be ace! crisis averted!" so when they called back with the news it was just devastating.

I was thinking italy actually.. Rome, or venice. We might still get something decent through easyjet or something. We will see. Its a shame about your turkey flights getting cancelled. I heard from the travel agent this morning that he arranged a replacement flight to turkey for a customer and the price went up for him from £400 to £1500. its crazy.

Oh no! That's crazy! I don't understand how the prize can go up 10x overnight, surely the rest of the industry is capitalising on poor folks like you.

It's because the demand for flights has skyrocketed thanks to all the people who lost their thomas cook holidays and had to book new holidays. So flights and hotels are now in high demand. But yes, they are capitalising on people with this.

If you like Paris, then Bruges is lovely by Eurostar. You can get to Amsterdam by Eurostar too or easyJet. Amsterdam has so many fantastic museums, art galleries, affordable restaurants and pubs.

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Thanks Fleur. I've been to Bruges before with the Eurostar and my fiancee and I go to Amsterdam quite often. My parents have a house not far from there. we've been looking at italy and spain but all the flights out of the UK are crazy expensive right now because of this whole saga with thomas cook. I have an update though I will be posting about quite soon!