To never book an 'un' package holiday again. Furious!!!

[Halle71]

So, last year we went to Sri Lanka at Easter and found out 3 days before we were due to fly that our airline had changed our flight to leave a day earlier and return two days later (WTF?) and our travel agent forgot to tell us. This was a massive ballache - extra time off work, time off school and 3 nights extra accommodation. Not to mention the stress.

Must be unusual right? Airlines can't just do that can they?

Anyway, had the January blues a couple of weeks ago and booked our summer holiday. Booked Ryanair flights to Girona, an airport hotel, a villa for the first week and Eurocamp for the second week. Great deal because we booked so early. I thought.

Just had an email from Ryanair saying they have made significant changes to our flights. Now, instead of leaving for Spain at 6am we leave in the evening (and don't therefore need the airport hotel). But worst of all, they have changed the date of our flight. Instead of coming back on SUNDAY 3 Sept, we are coming back on MONDAY 4th Sept. A FUCKING SCHOOL DAY, WORK DAY (we have booked all our holiday for the year). CUNTS.

I literally don't know what to do 😥😥😥😥😥

[WayfaringStranger]

Oh gawd, that is awful. Is this the same company?

[Floofborksnootandboop]

The very reason we only book package holidays now

Can you cancel the airport hotel? And take the Monday off unpaid?

[Birdsgottafly]

What do the T&Cs say?

The advice is to always book insurance straight away.

The people that I know that has happened to have always had at least £100 back.

[rookiemere]

No use to you now, but I generally book hotels etc. as cancellable for trips so that if anything happens I can cancel or amend, easily done through booking.com .

Do you have insurance anywhere - through a bank account perhaps?

[OneWithTheForce]

Don't tell your employer and just ring them from the airport saying flight been delayed to following day

[Meeep]

I didn't know this was common! What an annoyance.

[parrots]

This happens quite a lot in my experience, its one of the downsides of booking well in advance. Agree that decent travel insurance helps

[PremierCru]

What has your insurance company said?

[Madbengalmum]

The very reason i will not book ryanair.

[LIZS]

Can you get another flight back with another carrier? Package holidays and charter flights can also be changed after booking. Is the airport hotel refundable?

[OneWithTheForce]

Apologies for hijacking but is it possible for me to get insurance for a holiday already booked?

[Madbengalmum]

Too add they are swines for cancelling and changing flight times.

[LeBoob]

There's usually a clause that says if they make flight changes you are able to cancel the flight. We have just done this with KLM flights & received a full refund. You need to act quickly though

[GallivantingWildebeest]

Apologies for hijacking but is it possible for me to get insurance for a holiday already booked?

Yes. But you can't claim for something that you know will happen (eg flight times have already been changed).

But if you buy holiday insurance now and have your bag stolen, for example, then you can claim for that.

[watermelonmartini]

Monarch changed our outbound flight last year to leave two days' later, thereby reducing our holiday from a week to five days. They refunded both flights in full (four people) and I booked from a different airport. Good luck.

[titchy]

Yes of course you can get insurance for a holiday already booked!

You clearly can't make a claim about something you now know about, but get insurance now, and if something happens in a few weeks you're covered.

[DaphneDeLaFontaine]

Cancell the fights and book new ones. Loads of companies fly into Girona.

[Stevie77]

How annoying! You must be rather unlucky though (sorry ), we travel a lot and it has never happened to us. Anecdotal, I know, but still.

Hope you've had travel insurance an can get money back for the inconvenience.

[Dilligaf81]

This happened to me for a weekend break they just withdrew the sunday flights and we had to come back monday evening. I didnt tell work and called them from spain on the sunday to say the flights had been cancelled. It happens l, dont let it ruin your trip which sounds amazing.

[Astoria7974]

You will be eligible for a refund. Get it and book to Barcelona airport. Girona is only an hour away.

[lovelyupnorth]

Ryanair will give you a full refund as big change and book with some one else

as for other people not booking ryanair, crack on more cheap seats for me - flown with them loads 3-4 times a year and never had any problems bar one late flight.

also worth asking the hotel if they'd change your booking as we had a flight change with westjet which for us meant was easier to go the next day and the hotel changed our non changable booking.

[OneWithTheForce]

Thanks gallivanting

[amusedbush]

Jesus, that's really bad luck. We travel 2-3 times a year, never book package holidays and have never had anything like this happen.

Agree with PP - cancel the flights and go elsewhere. We generally make amendable hotel bookings, which are more expensive than non-refundable but gives you flexibility should anything come up.

[flappynewyear]

I've travelled extensively on un-package holidays (in fact haven't done package for 20 years) and never had this problem.

[manwhotoldeverything]

Similar happened to us years ago. Outbound flight changed from late afternoon to 6am. It was the morning after our wedding! We were able to cancel with full refund and rebook with an alternative airline. If they have changed the actual day that must be possible. It may cost you almost as much as a flight to actually call them and cancel though