A dad who is going on a ‘holiday of a lifetime’ to Florida with his family feels let down by his package holiday provider after he claims they tried to charge him £511 extra because of a rescheduled flight.
Les Corrigan, 51, and his family are due to fly from Manchester Airport to Orlando at the end of July for 15 nights. The trip, which cost about £1,700 for flights and accommodation, was booked in September with package holiday provider loveholidays.
Les, who spent more than £3,000 on attraction tickets and excursions for his family, was told in May that his return connecting flight from Atlanta to Manchester had been cancelled and would need to be rescheduled. The flight was later changed to one which would see the family have a 27 hours layover in Atlanta.
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He said it has been a ‘nightmare’ trying to speak to representatives at loveholidays, which is owned by private equity firm Livingbridge, to change their flights or to get accommodation for the layover.
“This is supposed to be a time where we’re looking forward to our once in a lifetime holiday but at the moment it’s just been stressful,” Les, who works for a train operator, told the M.E.N.
“They only seem to let you message them through the app and then it’s days before anyone gets back to me. I’ve tried ringing and ringing but I just feel like I’m passed on from one person to the other.
“I keep trying to sort it out and speak to someone but I feel like I’m getting nowhere. We feel in limbo because we don’t know what’s going on.”
Les, who will be travelling with his wife and their two children - aged 10 and 13 - said when he spoke to a representative, the company offered them accommodation for the night at £511.
The Salford dad added: “When I finally spoke to someone, I got a message to say that it would be £511 for the extra night but when I looked on the internet, I could find the exact same hotel for the same night at £120. I don’t see why I have to pay more when the flight got changed through no fault of my own.”
Les, of Clifton, has said he now wants to cancel the package altogether and book flights and accommodation himself.
On the loveholidays website, the company says that ‘in the unlikely event’ of a significant change, customers will have the option to accept the proposed changes, reject the change and take an alternative if offered, or reject the change and terminate the booking with a full refund.
“It’s our first proper holiday since Covid so we’ve been saving up for this for a while,” Les said. “We’re all excited and looking forward to it but all we’re feeling is stress at the moment. It’s been an absolute nightmare.
“I just want to cancel it, get my money back and book everything myself. This is the first and the last time we will be using loveholidays.”
Loveholidays confirmed with the M.E.N on Wednesday (July 20) that a full refund has now been issued. The holiday supplier said that that the reason for the delay in securing the refund was due to the authorisation process.
A spokesperson for loveholidays said: “We were sorry to hear of Mr Corrigan’s experience and have secured a full refund from both the flight and hotel provider on his behalf.”
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