Air fares on the increase?

[dejavu]

I wonder if other 'flight only' visitors to Icmeler are finding, as we have, that fares are getting increasingly expensive. For many years we used TC because they offered the widest choice of times etc., (we fly from Manchester) but after a run in with the company earlier this year, I am less inclined to use them. In April we paid for their 'bundle' but did not get half of the so-called benefits of using this facility. On-line check-in was unavailable because of a computer problem, so seat selection was not possible either, and their text service via which they confirm your homebound flight two days before did not happen, so I ended up having to waylay their resort rep, Sophie, when I spotted her in the resort, and she was able to confirm it for me. So that was three 'benefits' denied me from their bundle. You will have seen from current threads that a number of people are almost tearing their hair out with frustration at trying to access the TC admin - my experience has been the same, so I am just voting with my feet and using other carriers. It is a worry though that even the so-called 'budget' air lines are getting more expensive mainly because of all the add-ons that pop up during the booking process and you have to be quite savvy about weighing up all the charges, and comparing them between companies. The fare that lures you in is certainly not the fare you will end up paying - double that amount is more likely.

My final TC moan is about reconfirming your return flight two days before departure. As a seasoned traveller, both for work and pleasure, of many years I never realised in all my flying that it is my responsibility to reconfirm the return flight. It is there in the very small print that one rarely ever reads but we found out in the worst possible way two years ago in early November. We took the taxi to Dalaman for our 9 pm return flight and arrived to find the Airport in complete darkness with just 3 security guards standing outside. Our driver helpfully went to enquire what was happening , was told there were no flights that night, and that there was a phone inside for TC customers to use. I learned from the so-called TC Helpline that our flight had been cancelled and that we had been transferred on to one that had gone at 2.30 pm! The person on the phone told me very firmly that all this was my fault, my responsibility, and that I would have to book new tickets all at my own expense. At that time I did not take my mobile phone abroad nor did I access emails while on holiday so TC had not been able to contact me. A number of other travellers arrived while I was there, all in the same predicament, and I believe in all there were around 20 people stranded. We returned to Icmeler by taxi, had little joy next day from the TC office who said there were hardly any flights as it was end of season, but that we could go and wait at Dalaman to see if there were any stand-by seats (teenage backpackers we are definitely not!) After some frantic thinking and minor hysterics we found our life-saver - Ali, who has his office below the ICR office. He found us two seats on a flight five days later and so we were 'sorted' . Considering the lack of help from other quarters, Ali turned out to be a real 'Angel of Mercy' and we never forgot his kindness and concern. Some lessons in life are only learned the hard way - when we got to Dalaman 5 days later we met, on the same flight, all the other stranded passengers, like us out of pocket and angry that to cut costs, TC had stuck us on an earlier flight even though they knew that we could not be contacted. IOt certainly was a hard and expensive lesson.

[Theresa]

I was under the impression that when you booked a package holiday that you were informed by your rep or by the pick up times posted on the notice boards at your accommodation of changes to your flight.
It was Sharon from ICR office in Icmeler that had pointed out to me that we were to call and confirm our return flights when we use flight only and have done so ever since.
On the point of flight prices on the rise I think this is partly due to the fact that we no longer have the option of Aegean flights and other low cost companies and rising fuel costs etc.

Theresa

[jnesbitt]

Reconfirming your flight time on the inbound journey is the customers responsibility, and flight only tickets do have the contact numbers printed on the ticket. If I book a flight only with T C I always wander round the apartments and hotels they have to check on my return flight time,about four days before, or speak to the rep who[if she is nice] will tell you the departure time,then i check every day to make sure there are no changes.I agree that the price that you first see is not what you pay, but cheap fares brought about the demise of Agean, and other carriers. I just look for a good price and one that I can afford to get me back to paradise.

[Caltonian]

We've booked flight only with TC this year, I had absolutely NO idea that you had to call to confirm your return flight

Thanks for posting about this!

[madmackem]

Hi there everyone

We are also flying with TC this year and just wondered if any of you can reassure us about them now being ticketless. The reason we are asking is that we booked our flights and then printed our tickets off , TC then changed our flight times ( not complaining, better times) but we found we could not print our new tickets, after umpteen attempts to get through to TC, there systems were being updated, I was told that we only need to take a copy of our itinery with us. Is this right? It just seems strange not having tickets even if they are only printed on A4.
Hope someone can advise.

Many thanks Mad's OH

[kirky]

madmacken im flying with tommy cook in august £300 each 17 nights its ticketless flight just take your itinery it state this on there website last year i flew out with monarch just gave them my passport ,i know flights are more expensive due to aegean going bust but with the good exchange rate it makes up for it

[dragon]

i know flights are more expensive due to aegean going bust but with the good exchange rate it makes up for it

The problem is that the exchange rate is not going to stay at this rate but it looks as if the prices of flight are probably going to increase further

[mazz]

Hi there everyone

We are also flying with TC this year and just wondered if any of you can reassure us about them now being ticketless. The reason we are asking is that we booked our flights and then printed our tickets off , TC then changed our flight times ( not complaining, better times) but we found we could not print our new tickets, after umpteen attempts to get through to TC, there systems were being updated, I was told that we only need to take a copy of our itinery with us. Is this right? It just seems strange not having tickets even if they are only printed on A4.
Hope someone can advise.

Many thanks Mad's OH

I flew with TC last week (flight only). Yes they have stopped issuing tickets, you just take a copy of the itinerary they should have emailed/sent to you which you just hand over at check in with your passports.

I really don't know about all these admin cutbacks! I had a problem coming from home from Dalaman as my name wasn't on the passenger list and the flight (they claimed) was full. Got sorted eventually with the help of the TC rep who was lurking around check-in as someone hadn't turned up for the flight and I could therefore have their seat....but we had to wait until everyone else had checked in before I knew if I'd be able to fly or not even though I'd given them my flight booking receipt and the TC office had confirmed I should be on the passenger list....

The strange thing was that when we got on the aircraft the aisle seat on our row was empty, as were two seats in the row behind.

The only good thing that came out of that stressful incident at Dalaman was we had the best seats on the plane, row 1 seats A & B we would ordinarily have had to pay more for the extra leg room!!

I really should be careful what I joke about, I'm always joking about something happening to prevent me from flying home so I can stay in Icmeler longer!

Mazz

[Katiehutchinson_1991]

unfortunately being from Aberdeen i have to fly from Scotland mostly having to travel down to Glasgow and sometimes Edinburgh
so the choice of flights for us Scots is severly limited
In January i was in Ankara and had booked a return flight from Antalya back to Glasgow
The plane ended up being initially 8 hours delayed which TC informed me about via voice mail on my phone
So if the plane is delayed then it their responsbility to inform you if you have given the necessary contact information while booking
xxx

[madmackem]

Hi Kirky and Maz

Thanks for your reply we feel a lot better now, I had spoken to a friend earlier today who is in the holiday i
industry and she said that TC went ticketless in May of this year. Roll on next Friday

Mackems OH

[Lee]

I take it "Reconfirming your flight time on the inbound journey is the customers responsibility" only applies to flight only tickets,, I can't find it mentioned on my e tickets and I'm on a package holiday with TC.

Lee

[BOBUK]

Flying to Dalaman on 7th June.Been trying for days to book seats on TC flight but get as far as online login details then nothing! Emailed them and used their online chat but no response.Given up now.

[Eatock08]

Hi there everyone

We are also flying with TC this year and just wondered if any of you can reassure us about them now being ticketless. The reason we are asking is that we booked our flights and then printed our tickets off , TC then changed our flight times ( not complaining, better times) but we found we could not print our new tickets, after umpteen attempts to get through to TC, there systems were being updated, I was told that we only need to take a copy of our itinery with us. Is this right? It just seems strange not having tickets even if they are only printed on A4.
Hope someone can advise.

Many thanks Mad's OH

Last year I flew tith them received tickets and then they changed the flight times. They just said to print off the itinery and use the tickets we have. No problems with doing this so you should be ok.