View Full Version : T C Direct
Anyone flown with these before
Had a quote for a flydrive 22/09/06 @ £1510 based on 2 adults +2 Kids + 7 seater @£1630
Seems good but not sure about TCD
Anyone got any thoughts
You have heard the saying "you get what you pay for" this is certainly true with TCD. We are having a long battle with them at the moment regarding flights we booked for Nov. 05. Just over a week before we were due to travel they phoned to advise us that our flights had been cancelled[msnsad], however they were able to offer us alternative flights with Thomsonfly. As it was so close to our holiday date we said we would accept the flights but were not happy about the level of service being offered. When booking with TCD you get comp.meals, comp. drinks and comp headsets plus a seat pitch of 32", Thomsonfly offer none of the comps and only a 29" seat pitch. We therefore put it to TCD that they were not offering what we had originally paid for. Their answer was that they had carried out their obligation by offering alternative flights and that if we were not happy to write to customer services. This we did before we left for Florida, on our return no reply from TCD so we called and explained that we had no response to our letter of complaint. The reply was "your letter must have been lost in the post", we were then advised to E-Mail a letter of complaint which we did immediately. The reply received stated they were not prepared to consider any form of compensation as we had not made a complaint at the time of alteration and we had accepted the alternative flights. Our arguement is with only a few days to go before travel we had little or no time to make alternative arrangements and also no funds as a refund would not have arrived before our holiday.
The saga is still ongoing, after another letter to customer services with no outcome we have now drafted a letter to the chief executive of TCD a copy of which we will also be forwarded to ABTA[msnscared]
We await the outcome[msneek]
On top of this Thomsonfly then charged us $444 on our return excess baggage[msneek]
We would think very hard before booking with TCD again[msncry]
SunLover
11-01-2006, 05:22
If you do a search for TCD at the top of this page, you will find there have been LOTS of previous threads about them :(
If you do a google search for Travel City Direct reviews you will find many, none very good I am afraid[msnscared] Here are a few..............
I thought I was just unlucky - I travelled with my wife and 2 daughters aged 13 & 8 from Manchester to Florida on the 19th of August. We checked in at "The Station" (when we eventually found it!) just before 07.30 for our 11.15 flight. We eventually left British soil just after 8pm - a delay of almost 9 hours. Like other people writing here, we didn't see or hear of anyone from Travel City Direct the whole time we were in the airport. I have since found out that after a delay of over 4 hours, passengers should, according to regulation (EC) 261/2004, be adequately cared for, be fully informed of their rights, given meals and refreshments in a reasonable relation to the waiting time and be offered 2 free phone calls amongst other things. The only thing from the above list that we received were a sandwich & bottle of water (twice). Has anybody else here complained about this to Travel City Direct and what was the outcome? Going to Florida, I think we ended up with the really old 747 already mentioned on this page. Returning on the 2nd of September, on a plane which appeared to be about 12 months younger than the other, we had a delay of only 45 minutes - bliss. All in all, if Travel City Direct continue to use Air Atlanta Europe, I would avoid them like the plague.
The 747-200s used for the Manchester Sandford are very old, shabby, poorly maintained and gives cause for safety. Nothing works. The overhead lockers dont shut, the air conditioning wont adjust, The inflight entertainment was broken. The lights wouldnt dim for night flight. The agency-hired flight crew apparently couldnt care less. I have just received a letter back from Air Atlanta Europes customer services, which is basically a standard letter of apology and doesnt address the points I raised. These planes should have been s[bad language filtered out]ped years ago. Travel City must realise this if they are going to renew their contract with Air Atlanta in 2006.
'If you like airports book Air Atlanta UK' That should be this airlines moto. I had reservations about their delays having read this website and so contacted both the Airline and Travel City Direct and was reasurred that all the delay problems were behind them and my flight from Manchester to Sandford on 20th August would be fine. How misleading they were, on arrival the check in staff handed out a letter stating 'due to technical difficulties our flight was delayed from 11:15 to 18:15' in truth it left at 18:40, this meant we arrived well after midnight U.S. time. Not great with two seven year old's. The return on the 3rd of September was also delayed for the same reason but this time it was for four hours. Suffice to say I will not book with Travel City or Air Atlanta UK again. I have travelled to the US on many occassions and also with Travel City before, my recommendation is avoid this airline and the travel company, I certainly will.
Just to add to the very long list below. We travelled to Sanford on 14/08/2005 (not 13/08/05 as promised) and found the service from start to finish appalling. Complete lack of information and duty of care from the faceless Travel City Direct. I too will be writing to Travel City Direct. My husband has telephoned Travel City today to be told that nobody could actually take his complaint over the phone - there was no-one there to talk to him! They took our money and left us in the lurch.
Manchester to Sanford - Saturday 13th August Arrived at check in at 7 o clock well in advance of our 11:15 departure. Got to check in and the member of staff told us the flight was on time and upgraded us to 1st class!! We couldn't believe our luck. We boarded plane half an hour late to find that there obviously was no such thing as first class and the plane was the same throughout. My friend next to me had water dripping on her lap from the roof, the assistant said it was the air conditioning and that it would stop once we h
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by dcnurse
You have heard the saying "you get what you pay for" this is certainly true with TCD. We are having a long battle with them at the moment regarding flights we booked for Nov. 05. Just over a week before we were due to travel they phoned to advise us that our flights had been cancelled[msnsad], however they were able to offer us alternative flights with Thomsonfly. As it was so close to our holiday date we said we would accept the flights but were not happy about the level of service being offered. When booking with TCD you get comp.meals, comp. drinks and comp headsets plus a seat pitch of 32", Thomsonfly offer none of the comps and only a 29" seat pitch. We therefore put it to TCD that they were not offering what we had originally paid for. Their answer was that they had carried out their obligation by offering alternative flights and that if we were not happy to write to customer services. This we did before we left for Florida, on our return no reply from TCD so we called and explained that we had no response to our letter of complaint. The reply was "your letter must have been lost in the post", we were then advised to E-Mail a letter of complaint which we did immediately. The reply received stated they were not prepared to consider any form of compensation as we had not made a complaint at the time of alteration and we had accepted the alternative flights. Our arguement is with only a few days to go before travel we had little or no time to make alternative arrangements and also no funds as a refund would not have arrived before our holiday.
The saga is still ongoing, after another letter to customer services with no outcome we have now drafted a letter to the chief executive of TCD a copy of which we will also be forwarded to ABTA[msnscared]
We await the outcome[msneek]
On top of this Thomsonfly then charged us $444 on our return excess baggage[msneek]
We would think very hard before booking with TCD again[msncry]
[/quote]
Denise,
I've been here a few times and so have friends and family, that's why none of us use either charter or travel agents, however, Sue them through the small claims court. I've taken two travel agants through the small claims court and on both occasions they've settled to my satisfaction before it got there. Even if it does get to court, from your description you've got an open and shut case. County court Judges very, very very rarely find in favour of large corporates over individuals unless the claims are really tenuous or stupid (and I have that on a reliable authority[msnwink]. The small claims court is the best thing to happen for the consumer for ages. It'll cost you about 50 quid which you'll get back if you win, and it's a doddle to do. DM me if you want further information.
That goes for anyone else, use the consumer laws that are there to protect you, when enough people take action against poor service or products, the emphasis on good customer service will change.
LiesaAnna
11-01-2006, 11:36
some good advice there Paul
heathercobbett
11-01-2006, 11:56
Homer,is is really worth spoiling that happy anticipation you get in the lead up to a special holiday worrying about your flight?
Good luck with your fight,Denise
Robert5988
11-01-2006, 12:59
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:The saga is still ongoing, after another letter to customer services with no outcome we have now drafted a letter to the chief executive of TCD a copy of which we will also be forwarded to ABTA
[/quote]
ABTA must have a huge file on this 'airline'(I use the term in its loosest possible connotation)
The firm are a disgrace!
Yes apologies to those booked or considering booking with TCD, I'm sure it'll be value for money, however if I was going with someone and asked a question about what folk thought and no-one told me their bad experiences, and then I had a bad experience myself, then I'd be rather angry that no-one told me.
So if you don't want to any hear bad news, then you're better not to ask.
Fourdents
11-01-2006, 14:04
Denise
If you send any letters to TCD..... ALWAYS send it registered mail so they have to sign for the letters and have no excuse
Linda
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Macka
Yes apologies to those booked or considering booking with TCD, I'm sure it'll be value for money, however if I was going with someone and asked a question about what folk thought and no-one told me their bad experiences, and then I had a bad experience myself, then I'd be rather angry that no-one told me.
So if you don't want to any hear bad news, then you're better not to ask.
[/quote]
I so agree Macka, it is a shame that some peoples holidays are spoiled by a company like this one, and I don't think it has anything to do with 'likes' or 'dislikes', its got to do with factual experiences from other folks, if you ask the question and you listen to all that's said in response to that question, you then go away and make up your own mind, and take your own chances, end of story!
I would NEVER EVER use them again, once was enough !
Lesley S
11-01-2006, 16:56
We have used them, and they were OK. If the price was right, I would still use them.
McjohnjM
11-01-2006, 18:21
Have just returned from Orlando after flying wtih TCD and have no complaints what so ever, entertain worked, lockers locked, air conditioning was good, had to ask my husband to turn it down as it was quite cold and seats all went back. Both outbound and inbound flights left approx. 1/2 hour late but made up the time on the inbound flight.
We have used most carrier travelling to the USA and from our experience they are all very much the same, we upgraded with TCD and had wider seats with 38" pitch all for the same price as we would have paid with Virgin for a basic seat.
We have had a very rude steward with Virgin and had to send a letter of complaint when we arrived home, with only a feable apology at the end, we have had overheating with AA as the air circulation machine broke down, my ankles swelled up and I could not put on my shoes when we landed, we have also had major delays with United,however we have flown long distance on many occassions and these are only a few, I think we now just grow to expect that sometimes things will not always go right.
Travel City Direct are fine, I should point out that I also fly business class on occasions and still find things going wrong.
Hope this helps
Kim
It can and does happen from time to time with all airlines, that is the nature of the business, but I think you were very lucky Kim because it happens with alarming regularity with TCD![msnmad]
EEEEEEKKKK[msneek]
Thanks for your comments
It would appear to be a very polorising company TCD
2 camps of people
Camp 1 never again
Camp 2 no problems
There is no grey area really it's just one or the other
I did some digging on other (not as good as this [msnwink]) forums and saw the same polorisation
It would appear that TCD have some problems and when things go wrong the go wrong big time!!!
But £480.20 saving is a weeks villa rent or lots more money to spend in parks on stuff etc and my old northern boy brain takes over!!!
That said however I now have to then weigh off the possibility of
Delays of up to 20+ hours
Poor Aircraft
Poor Food
No drinks
Poor entertainment
And we all know that "No TV and No Beer make Homer go crazy".
http://castlecops.com/albums/album01/HomerSimpson42.thumb.gif
So top and bottom of it the thought of losing the best part of a day + Unhappy kids + Unhappy Wife = looks like we will plump for Virgin but I just wish that they cut out the supplements rip off [msnmad]
£120.00 Weekend flight supplement
£240.00 Fuel Surcharge
£360.00 charges bit O.T.T. if you ask me [msntongue]take those out and the diff is only £100
Cheers all again
steph_goodrum
12-01-2006, 17:33
Homer
You could save the weekend flight supplement by flying and day Mon-Thursday.
As for the car hire I've just done a quote on the link on this site for 2 weeks 7 seater pick up 22nd Oct drop off 5th Nov. Gold option includes extra drivers and first tank of fuel and it was £370 fully inclusive, so /i'd recommend you also try the flight link and see if you can save anything on the Virgin flights as well.
I don't know where TCD get a figure of £1630 for car hire?
That was the plan originally but then of the 70+ villas we had to choose from the Villa we want is only free from 22/9!
And that is what the good lady and the ankle biters want so who am I to argue!!! [angel]
steph_goodrum
12-01-2006, 17:46
Homer
Why not do what I usually do, if there is a trade off between what we want and making a compromise, make a little spreadsheet or chart or whatever and work out a couple of scenarios, for example
if we travel on this date we can have xxxx , yyyy, zzzz and it cost us this much.
If you are flexible for instance the villa you want is available from 22 Oct so presumably would be available from 23rd (i.e. Monday) unless they already have a booking for Nov which stops the checkout date slipping by one day.
By doing that you have then saved the weekend supplement and that's almost one of the childrens Disney tickets paid for etc.
By putting down the actual costs of each time etc it helps to see exactly what you are getting and oftens persuades my other half that it would pay to be flexible.
23rd is a Sat so would have to be 25th
But then the only problem is Kids + School
Youngest chap would be on a school camp 25/9 (But does not want to go!) so will only miss a week technically so that would be OK
The 22nd is an inset day so he is off already
But if we go 25th then he will miss a couple more days (depart Orlando Mon and arrive back Tues so will miss those 2 days and maybe Weds depnding on tiredness etc
Looks like I am a slave to the supplement!!!!
steph_goodrum
12-01-2006, 19:08
I think I'm confusing the months here Homer, your original post said 22/10 so I took it to be Oct half term and 22 Oct is a Sunday, on your other post you have put 22/9 (ie Sept) and 23rd is a Sat.
How about travelling on 21/9 (if it is Sept ie Thurs and maybe having one night in an hotel till your chosen villa was available.
if you clarify the dates I'll have another think to see if there's any other suggestions, alternatively I'm misreading some of the dates so Ill hve another coffee and check the calendar again.
No coffee needed I am just a numpty who put the dste in wrong
22/09/06 - 6/10/06
Doing the spreadsheet as we speak!
steph_goodrum
12-01-2006, 21:20
Oh go on please can I have some coffee anyway? :)
We have used them also, and found them ok.
DOH!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.blandyuk.co.uk/imgs/homer_doh.gif
I could just use my Virgin Miles to reduce my price!!!!
Thanks to jillizzy mentioning it in another thread
Virgin here I come!!!!
IMHO I think that is a good call[msnwink]
If I am honest so do I!!!!