A fair few of you probably remember mine and swimbos recent honeymoon, the one with the 36 hour outbound delay and 21 day inbound delay due to illness.....

Anyway, Thomsons are what you could say giving me the runaround big style....

When we eventually flew (3 attempts from two different airports) we was given two letters, one for our insurance company (AXA who have paid for the delay and been 1st class with the medical / repatriation cover) and one to present to Thompsons on our return regards a refund for the £350
extra I paid for premium seats , champagne & chocolates (a surprise for swimbo, it was our honeymoon) now absolutely no where does it state we will also have to send our boarding cards with it, I mean no where, not a word, not one.

Now months, letters and phone calls later they still say they cant proceed without the boarding cards.

Now then, its not that hard for them in this instance I would have thought, A) they will surely have electronic records as to where people sat but more to the point........ The plane provided (second replacement plane) did not have any premium seats on it, not a few, not a couple of rows, but none, zero, zilch so whilst I could sorta see there reasoning had it been a plane with fewer premium seats on it and some missed out some didn't but this plane did not have one premium seat on it, Thomsonfly, whats the problem here ?

watchdog?

What you mean you dont keep all your boarding cards etc all nicely folded up just in case???

I do



NOT

As already said national press or watchdog.

if the plane had no premium seats (you're assuming they know which plane was used for the flight!!!) then the fact you have proof you went on the honeymoon ( for example the accepted insurance claim etc) then they're just running through processes etc.

My tip is to always try to speak to someone. When they explain their is nothing they can do, politely understand that they are just following process, be really nice the entire time. Ask them if they can see your point of view, they'll probably agree but they have a process. Do a 'humm', then ask to speak to their manager as whilst you understand the situation, appreciate how polite and helpful they've been and the fact they can't help - its not fair to keep badgering them, heck its what your boss is paid for.

They'll usually if you've been a polite pain, they'll happily hand you off to their boss. Do exactly the same, but always write down date, time and whom your speaking too.

I did something similar when my EU rights where abused (plane delayed, didn't get free food etc). Ended up with the head of the airport coming to the departure gate and personally apologising, shaking my hand and seeing me on to the plane..... (probably to make sure i p*ssed off!)

MIKE R has it spot on - 100% the way to play, never get abusive, never get agitated - just repeat FACTS clearly and concisely.

These people often don't want to be there as much as you dont want to be ringing - it's just a case of finding middle ground, establishing they have done all they can - thanking them and asking for their boss

GOOD LUCK

If you do want to write a 'ranting' letter - use without prejudice etc - excellent show stopper in small claims court

DON'T mark letters "Without Prejudice" as the whole point is so that they can't be used in court

i had a similar experience a few years back after a holiday to mexico-i quite badly sunburned my legs,i simply went to the hotels doctor and $120 later i had the tiniest tube of cream you ever saw---on my return i thought what the heck claim for it on my travel insurance-on my first call to the insurer they said fill out the form and provide my boarding cards from the outbound flight(of course these were now in a landfill several thousand miles away)i laughed in a cynical way at her and asked her to tell her manager that he and the company were doing a truly fantastic job at voiding off surely 99.9% of claims!!