TCD cancel winter flights

[LindaM]

We received a letter from TCD today informing us that they were cancelling all Thursday and Friday flights to Orlando from Manchester during the winter. Saturday, Sunday and Monday flights are still running.Luckily after managing to make contact with them after around 45 mins trying to get through, we managed to change the flights to a Sunday without any extra expense. Customer Services were very helpful. However we're still waiting to see if we can change our accommodation dates as well, which will cost us the re-arrangement fee. We weren't very happy but at least we got it sorted we hope.

[dmrevis]

i find it hard to believe they can change something like that for no good reason, and then charge YOU for the changes. At the very least they should be compensating you.
You entered into a contract with them when you booked and paid, for them to fly and accomodate you on the dates agreed.

Not knocking your holiday at all, but this is the very reason i'll only ever go with quality brands like BA or Virgin.

[loobylou]

Linda, this is a big discussion on another forum at the moment, the dibb. Rumor has it that some of the planes leases are up and they are waiting for the replacement aircraft, but have borrowed my travel to cover the sat/sun flights.


DMrevis not everybody can AFFORD to fly virgin or BA, especially us being a family of 5. We do Disney on a budget and will have been twice to florida this year once with TCD and on Sun flying Monach, if we didn't use the 'cheaper' travel options we wouldn't be able to do so!

[Simon Veness]

If a tour operator cancels your flight (as in an instance like this), they are legally bound to offer you an alternative flight or a full refund. It is that simple; so, in this instance, TCD were just doing what they were obliged to do. I doubt very much whether they have taken an action like this unless absolutely necessary, so it does look like they may have a short-term leasing problem. Not very helpful for those booked, I know, but TCD are firmly committed to their Florida programme and I would think this should only be a temporary problem.

[dmrevis]

DMrevis not everybody can AFFORD to fly virgin or BA, especially us being a family of 5. We do Disney on a budget and will have been twice to florida this year once with TCD and on Sun flying Monach, if we didn't use the 'cheaper' travel options we wouldn't be able to do so!

Chill out! Thats just my opinion on the matter. Yes, i can appreciate the fact that it costs more to fly with the quality carriers. Having said that, when we used to go on family holidays we went to India, America, Turkey, Israel as a family of five and always flew with BA, AA, KLM. We were by no means a wealthy family but we sacrificed major birthday and xmas presents and as a family put that money towards great holidays.

[Simon Veness]

This isn't meant to be a debate about who chooses what type of holiday; some people are happy with the charter airlines/tour operators, others prefer the scheduled variety. It is horses for course, IMHO, and hopefully we can all agree on that!

The subject here is Travel City Direct, so hopefully we'll get some more feedback from those who have used them in the past and how others feel about this cancellation.

[loobylou]

Chill out! Thats just my opinion on the matter. Yes, i can appreciate the fact that it costs more to fly with the quality carriers. Having said that, when we used to go on family holidays we went to India, America, Turkey, Israel as a family of five and always flew with BA, AA, KLM. We were by no means a wealthy family but we sacrificed major birthday and xmas presents and as a family put that money towards great holidays.

This thread wasn't about your personal opinion it was Linda asking about TDC. Have you ever flown TDC?

[Mickey Mouse]

i find it hard to believe they can change something like that for no good reason, and then charge YOU for the changes. At the very least they should be compensating you.
You entered into a contract with them when you booked and paid, for them to fly and accomodate you on the dates agreed.

Not knocking your holiday at all, but this is the very reason i'll only ever go with quality brands like BA or Virgin.



I allways fly Virgin due to hearing some bad things about other airlines and have allways been treated well with Virgin, However there sometimes is a HUGE price difference and when i hear one or two good reports with another carrier it does tempt me, so i can uderstand why other people would decide to travel with them, but again its all just are opinons! :cheers:

[LindaM]

I did have a look at Virgin yesterday but they were too expensive. The only reason we're out of pocket with the accommodation is because we only booked a fly drive with TCD and now need to change our accommodation booking. The main problem has been the numerous long phone calls that we have had to make to try and sort this out.

Have you any more information on the planes, I was under the impression that TCD had their own planes. What type of planes do My Travel have and what are they like.

[loobylou]

i thought that they had their own planes too but according to a source on another forum who knows somebody that works for TDC they are on lease from another company. They have painted the TDC on them! They have some more planes on order but obviously they are not going to arrive on time and thats why they have had to change their winter schedule. My travel use 767's and 330 airbus I think and I think they also have seatback t.v's

Can i just say that I've flown with TCD 3 times now all in Feb and we never had any problems I'm sure they wouldn't of changed their schedule unless they had to as this has caused a lot of work and unhappy customers. I would still use them.

[dmrevis]

Aircraft and the airline business is a funny and complicated affair. Even some of the massive carriers lease many of their aircraft. And in many other cases an individual aircraft may have many owners including the airline itself. one company may own the engines, another may own the fuselage etc. very strange sometimes.

[Tiggers Friend]

As I understand it TCD initially 'bought' seats on other charters and then leased their own, initially from European and then from XL.

[LindaM]

Thanks I'll make further enquiries with TCD about the plane. I would also use them again purely for the value factor and the good customer service you get from the staff.

[mortus]

just my two 'penneth,

i have been to Florida 5 times now, all with different airlines (Britanina , Air2000 , Virgin , My Travel , TCD)

and in my opinion TCD where by far the best, the whole package was fantastic/faultless.

we booked to go out for feb this year with 7 of us staying in named villa accomodation, then a week later we added a further 6 to our party to stay in a second villa on the same estate, we requested that the villas should be as close to each other as possible.
the flight out went without a hitch i'm not sure of the model of the plane but it was an old air atlanta one that was now owned by xl that was leased to TCD. we flew economy and there was leather seating and the seat pitch was very generous ( which is good for a big fella like me ). when we got to sanford we met the rep. and they gave us some paperwork we needed then got the 2 vans then the villa keys (all of this at the airport, none of the running around orlando that we have had to do in the past) the added bonus was when we got our villa keys was that we where right next door to each other.
then straight off to the villa, the whole thing from getting off the plane to getting to our villas was about 2 1/2 hours.
we booked the free time check in for the return journey which was a god send, all in all the best tour operater by far IMO .

one final thing.....

JUST BOOKED TO GO AGAIN IN FEB 2008 :purplejum :purplejum :purplejum :purplejum

with... you guessed it, TCD

only 8 going this time and i have changed just a couple of minor things, as they couldn't get us onto the same estate as last time i have booked a flydrive and booked the villa privately , booked pool heating with the villa (whilst the weather is good in feb the pool temp is not that good) and got double baggage allowance and the free time check-in.

all in the whole package for less than £450 per person (which was cheaper than i have paid in the past for the flight ONLY )

mortus

[Simon Veness]

Sounds like you did really well, mortus. And another good trip to look forward to already...excellent work!!

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

TCD are owned by Excel Airways (XL.com)
XL are in the process of reducing their fleet down after a difficult year. hence the reduction in flights. I gather that all permanent crew members have been given redundancy notices at Gatwick, so they are reverting to contract staff.

The only two 747's in the fleet are leased from Air Atlanta and are scheduled to be returned to Air Atlanta on 15th November 2007.
In Nov/Dec 2008 XL are getting two A330's and a further two in march/April 2009.

The majority of XL's fleet are 737-800's (Globespan did use this type of aircraft this winter to fly Glasgow-Sanford!!)

They are looking to fill the gap until nov 2008 with a couple of their 767's (they have 5 but one is going back to Air atlanta in April 2008)

The two things about getting rid of their two 747's is that
a) the 767 carries less passenger
b) they will revert to a two class cabin, Economy and Premium.

Most airlines actually lease their aircraft, either a full "wet" lease (planes and crew" or just the aircraft themselves