| Product: |
Airtours |
| Date: |
04/07/01 (625 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Nice resort
Disadvantages: Too big to care , Staff very young
We have just returned from an Airtours Holiday which can only be refered to as the holiday with the return journey from hell. I would like to begin by saying that the holiday itself was lovely, the aparthotel Bouganvilla Playa in Sa Coma Mayorca is an ideal location for families who want a resort full of entertainment for their young family. The airtours reps on the site go out of their way to provide a quality show each evening which is great for the kids and professionaly staged in their 'big top' setting.
Their downfall came during a crisis, in this case the Coach drivers strike. The organisation of taxi's from the hotel to the airport was poorly organised as everyone was expected to be in the reception 8 hours prior to their flight time even though many were sitting there for four hours before getting in a taxi. (even if this was the middle of the night) There was no offer of child seats for infants in the taxi's so they were expected to sit on parents knee's no matter how small. (illegal in this country)
At the airport itself the Airtours desk was surrounded by angry' guests as there was no forthcoming information at all. Our flight was indefinately delated and we had NO information about how long we were expected to sit on the airport floor for!
It wasn't Airtours fault that the coach drivers were striking but the bizzare thing was that the only 'delayed indefinately' flights were Airtours ones, all other flights on the board had take off times! Why didn't we? Where was our plane? they couldn't tell us!!
The supply of provisions was very good i.e. nappies, water, milk, drinks and KFC for everyone, this took away some of the concern of being in an airport with a 20 month old child and a four year old!
They took us to another hotel in Palma over Sunday night after 12 hours in the airport which was handled fairly efficiently, but still no information!
The next morning, fo
ur different flight times were quoted before we got on the plane and then we were sent to Manchester airport instead of Birmingham where we had taken off from!! Another bit of organisation required for the onward journey by coach. The coaches weren't waiting for us when we got through arrivals, another wait of 20 minutes!! Why weren't they there they new we were coming in surely it had been 37 hours since we left our hotel!!
Finally back to our car at Birmingham and the reassuring journey back home. Airtours take zero responsibility for all of the delay and won't be paying out any compenstaion for loss of earnings on the Monday, or wasted childcare costs, etc. etc.
The problem throughout the whole experience was the lack of communication from Airtours and the strange situation of the Airtours flights being the only indefinately delayed ones. WHY!!????
I will never travel with Airtours again as in my opinion they are great when the going is good, which I am sure is most of the time but in a crisis they really let themselves down.
Summary:
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Last comments:
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- 08/07/01 Airtours were probably (like the najority of other operators there) caught completely unawares by the strike. They can't just magic planes and so on out of thin air.
I work in the travel industry and although I don't like Airtours and would never recommend them (for various reasons) I do feel that this is perhaps a little harsh to expect them to do the impossible. They may be a large organisation with a lot of influence in the industry but at the end of the day they are just humans like the rest of us. |
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- 04/07/01 oi, Waikie! Do you work in the travel industry? You sound v. knowledgeable on this subject. I think what Liz was hacked off about was not being told anything - and lets face it we can all relate to this. Perhaps if Airtours had given the best explanation they could, then at least the passengers wouldn't have felt they were being ignored. Personally I think most flight and ground staff prefer to blank their customers rather than listen to their concerns and offer advice. |
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- 04/07/01 It's most likely that the reason Airtours planes were indefinetely delayed was due to not having planes near enough - planes and crew have to stick to strict schedules, and if a flight is missed then you have to wait til they can fit another one in. As for lack of info - I hardly think they do it deliberately, and considering how little is fixed when a crisis occurs, they do very well. It's up to Air Traffic Control and Airport Management which flight lands when, and which ones are priorities. It's your choice not to use Airtours again, but i'm sure if you'd flown with any other airline, you'd be thinking the same thing after such chaos. |
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