My complaint:
Booked flight with Travel2Be to go to Sharm and timeline is as below initially sent on 4/9/22
Timeline to Travel2Be
FOR URGENT ACTION – COMPLAINT
Dear Sir / Madam
Booking Ref. 21373850
Confirmation number WOGQFB and UX6RSL
Please find attached timeline of our abysmal service by Travel2Be / Turkish Airlines and we seek an urgent response (within 21 days) together with refund and compensation.
Yours faithfully
William Mervyn McNeill FRICS Carole Lesley McNeill
Turkish Airlines – Timeline
5 passengers – Dublin – Sharm El Sheikh 21/8/22 – 28/8/22
Booking Ref. 21373850
Confirmation number WOGQFB and UX6RSL
6/7/22 Booked Flight with Travel2be 21/8/22 returning 28/8/22
Booked return trip Dublin to Sharm via Istanbul – cost £4,582.34 and paid in full same day
7/7/22 Received e-ticket outlining full trip itinerary
7/7/22 Informed of schedule change and action required for part of trip, i.e. Istanbul to Sharm. Actioned by checking into “my trip” 8/7/22
8/7/22 Received further e-mail regarding change and informed would be managed by one of Travel2be agents (which was never actioned by Travel2be)
10/7/22 Received 2 e-mails from Travel2be requesting “missing information”, i.e. passports etc. one e-mail for outbound flight and another for inbound flights
13/7/22 2 no. reminder e-mail for missing information same as e-mails of 10/7/22
16/7/22 Provided all missing travel documents (passport information etc.) that was required including the relevant information for the Istanbul to Sharm flight
13/8/22 Received E-Ticket – Istanbul to Sharm flight was no longer indicated and informed to phone airline direct.
Hence phoned Turkish Airlines in Dublin same day
I explained our situation regarding the outbound connecting flight was no longer available and checked re the return flights
Turkish Airlines in Dublin informed me we were booked on the return flight in 28/8/22 and to turn up at the airline check in desk and all would be OK
13/8/22 I also wrote to Travel2be, quote as follows
“thank u for our e ticket. Since our out bound flt from Istanbul to Sharm has been cancelled by the airline we would like to cancel the Dublin to Istanbul flight on 21st August. Turkish Airlines have told us this is possible, with a full refund, but we are to contact you. Please contact me urgently”.
We never received any communication from yourselves
13/8/22 We booked alternative flight out to Sharm from Dublin at own expense via Aer Lingus and Tui at cost of £1,065
20/8/22 Received e-mail from travel2be indicating “Refund for online check in service DUB-IST-SSH”
Quote – “Unfortunately we were no able to check you (and any other passengers on your flight booking) in online for the flight DUB-IST-SSH. Since we were unable to provide the requested assistance, we will process the refund of the amount corresponding to the Check-in service. We advise you to go to the website of the airline to complete your check-in or contact the airline directly if a problem occurs”
21/8/22 Received e-mail from travel2be which indicated Booking Code WOGQFB, for outbound journey, i.e. flight Dublin to Istanbul only, which indicated to contact the airline or travel2be and made no mention of the return journey and since we had contacted Turkish Airlines on 13/8/22 who indicated we were still booked on our return flight on 28/8/22 we had complied with this e-mail
27/822 On our return date we received another e-mail from Travel2be – indicating “Refund for online check-in SSH-IST-DUB”, this belated notice alarmed us, but we still arrived at the airport as suggested by the Turkish Airlines representative in Dublin on 13/8/22 and we had never cancelled any part of our flights expecting only a refund of the outbound flights, while the return journey was still “live”
27/8/22 We arrived at Sharm airport for Turkish flight home from Sharm to Dublin to be informed by the Senior Turkish Airlines Check-In Representative (Hazem Nassar) at the check-in desk that seats were available on the flight from Sharm to Istanbul but the flight from Istanbul to Dublin was fully booked, and although Hazem tried his best to get us rebooked there were no alternative flights to return to Dublin by Turkish Airlines until 1st September
We were never informed, that our connecting return flight from IST-DUB was fully booked and we were never informed if we didn’t take the outbound journey (in which IST-SSH was cancelled by Turkish Airlines) that we should have cancelled our whole booking!! And rebooked the full journey, but this was not the contract as paid for nor the dates that we needed to be in Sharm, i.e. from 21/8/22 returning 28/8/22
Hazem further informed us if we took any part of the return flight by Turkish Airlines, i.e. SSH-IST we would lose our whole refund including that we had paid for and sorted out for our outbound journey, see 13/8/22
27/8/22 We had to make alternative arrangements to fly home on 29/8/22 school at a cost of £5,208 as we were returned to return to our business and commitments as fast as we could, and as our daughter returned to school
To date we have not been refunded
This unsatisfactory mess was stressful, inconvenient, and costly as
1. We had to urgently book 3 additional nights’ accommodation in Sharm (US$460 – £399.65)
2. Fly from SSH to Naples, Naples to Milan and Milan to Dublin returning home at 5.30am on Wednesday 30/8/22 (at a cost of £5,208) which was extremely stressful as there was a short period between arrivals and departures of connecting flights, i.e. Naples to Milan
This was stressful for our daughter, our son, his girlfriend, due to commitments for school and work and particularly stressful for myself (William McNeill) as I have a heart condition and this stress was dangerously unhealthy as recognised in Milan by the Airline Steward at the Check-in Desk
3. To date, financially this has cost us £11,254.99 and we immediately require the refund of the Turkish Airlines flight at £4,582.34 and the difference £2,090.31
We seek the following:
a. Refund of Turkish Airlines flights as quicky as possible for financial reasons – £4,582.34
b. Refund of unnecessary additional costs – £2,090.31
At this stage, if we can settle the outstanding amounts we are not seeking compensation for
a. Loss of business due to the additional 3 days we had to stay in Sharm
b. The stress that we suffered on outbound and particularly return
c. The benefit of the holiday was ruined
We trust that all can be resolved in the next 21 days otherwise we will explain our situation on the media, together with legal action, in which we will seek Turkish Airlines / Travel2be to be responsible for the cost.
Wililam Mervyn McNeill FRICS Carole Lesley McNeill
We have had numerous correspondence to Travel2Be, with last they made contact with us on 9/10/22 indicating we would receive our refund in 12 to 14 weeks and did not need to take any further action, I can provide this e-mail if you give us an e-mail address to forward it to as we have tried to photograph it and for some reason it won’t upload onto your system.
Our most recent correspondence was 27 April 2023 and we have had no correspondence from Travel2Be since 9/10/22 and unfortunately we have been extremely busy with work and family issues but we have not gone away or intend to go away until this is resolved
We would urgently be obliged if you can help us resolve, we can provide further details and e-mails of correspondence if required
Suggested solution:
As outlined in our correspondence under our Timeline
