Warning about First Choice Flights direct and what can I do in this situation? Any advice appreciated please!

[PussinJimmyChoos]

Booked a flight only for DH, DS and I to Greece in March with First Choice Flights

I made a note of the booking reference number and then waited for e-mail to come through. It didn't, we rang them and they said to check our spam, we did this and still nothing.

We rang a further five times, each time asking for the confirmation - still nothing received and still no tickets in the post to this day

We have now decided to cancel the flight as the service has been so rubbish, we are not confident that when we trek to the airport with DS, that everything will be in place and also there are the troubles in Greece, so its probably not wise to go with a toddler.

We rang them regarding this and they are refusing to cancel the flight. I appreciate that the ticket was non refundable at the time of booking, but given how bad their service has been and the troubles in Greece, we would have expected some leeway from them

We also paid extra at the time of booking for

a) Luggage allowance (I kid you not!)
b) Seat allowance
c) Meals

All in all its been a pretty dire experience

Any advice?

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when were you meant to travel?? Most on-line flights are ticketless?

Should have clarified, we booked in March to travel in June

The troubles with greece are irrelevant at present. Thre is no advice not to travel to Greece AFAIK so they would not consider that as a reason to cancel.

Did they confirm to you verbally that you defnitely had a confirmed booking? Was it the email confirmation you were waiting for? Did they explain why you had not recieved it or offered to post one to you.

When do you fly?

If it is a ticketed holiday they often don't come out til 2-3 weeks before the flight. For example I am flying to Vegas at half term and, although booking online ages ago, my tickets arroved this weekend (3 weeks befre flight).

Due to fly in June but the issue was that despite booking in March, we did not receive any e-mail confirmation and had to chase about 5 times. We finally got e-mail confirmation today when we talked about cancelling but the service has been so poor and we have been passed around so much, we don't have any faith in travelling with them and so don't want to go anymore. We did explain that to them but they weren't having any of it

Which is why I book at a travel agents. They can price match with online, and you have a person to explain what you are being charged for, when you can expect tickets, and you get an instant printout at the time of booking.

I don't understand why you had to pay for luggage extra as First Choice allow 20kg per person i.e. per booked seat. If your ds is under 2 yrs and you haven't booked a seat for him he has no luggage allowance. You could have been asked to pay an extra baggage allowance, which is better than having to do it at the airport when they weigh your stuff.

In flight meals are optional, they are not included in the flight.

Sometimes a charge is made to guarantee that you will all be seated together, but that is optional, otherwise you get to check-in early so that there are enough seats unallocated to seat you together. Or if you need extra leg-room or another need.

I don't understand why they took so long to send a confirmation though.

Have just looked through the small print at the back of a First Choice brochure, under the heading Your Flight. They outline luggage allowances - some discounted airlines may only permit 15kg checked luggage, and 5kg hand luggage. They may charge for a baby's luggage, although if you are on a Thomson flight a baby may have a free 10kg allowance in addition to a pushchair, even if they have no seat.

I'd go to a First Choice shop and speak face to face with someone about this, if only to clarify your position and explain what your options are.

You don't really have a legal leg to stand on I'm afraid - the service so far may have been poor, but you have the email now, and there is no reason to believe you won't get on the flight or anything like that. If the tickets are non-refundable, then that's the contract.

I'm sure there is something about electronic contracting that means your contract is not settled until hyou have reeived an email confirming the transaction. Perhaps worth a call to CAB to see if that is the case?

Will see if I can find the directive that I mean.....

Sorry, you have the email now. I think there may still be a 48 hour cooling off period after the email....

Will rack brains now.