XL - Gone Bust

RentDayBlues

Cant believe that XL have gone bust, flew with them a number of times to Santorini and found them excellent. Its awful that so many Irish people are going to be affected by this, I would be devastated if it was me.

Bluetonic

80,000 affected in the UK.

RentDayBlues wrote: »

I would be devastated if it was me.

It's an airline travel company thats gone bust, the worse situation is you lose your holiday, the probable situation is you get your money back with no holiday. Lets be honest and put some perspective on things, the death of a friend or relative would be devastating not the loss of a holiday :rolleyes:

4,000 Irish people affected by XL Leisure collapse

Thousands of Irish people have had their holidays cancelled following the collapse of XL Leisure Ireland.

The tour operator closed because of financial difficulties due to rising fuel prices and the economic downturn.

The collapse leaves 1,000 Irish holidaymakers stranded abroad, and a further 3,000 who were set to travel with XL in the coming weeks without a holiday.

Two flights were due to leave Dublin today for the Greek Islands, but their departures are now cancelled.

Spokesman for the Commission for Aviation Regulation Cathal Guiomard says the commission attempting to secure aircraft to bring stranded holidaymakers home from tomorrow onwards.

RxQueen

Funk! going to be a busy day in work.

BuffyBot

Not a surprise, tbh.

They've been struggling for a while - I'm kind of surprised it's taken this long.

lisbon_lions

Wow, I flew with them only 8 weeks ago to Santorini. Probably means Julie the rep is out of a job.Lovely person. Shame. For the people that are already there flights will be arranged back i'm sure, still puts a bit of a dampener on your hols tbh.

abouttobebanned

I booked a holiday with them last week and got my booking in the post this morning...

WTF happens now?

jonny68

Indeed i flew with them before and found them to be decent enough, funnily enough i was only looking at their website there a while back and contemplating booking something else with them:eek:shocking another tour operator has gone bust, this recession is getting pretty bad.

Bluetonic

abouttobebanned wrote: »

I booked a holiday with them last week and got my booking in the post this morning...

WTF happens now?

What did they say when you contacted them?

shiibata

Ye, heard yesterday morning they were going to come out with the bad news, thought it might have been rumour though as their site seemed to be still taking holidays but it was true after all. Thought they were great too, flew with them from knock to bulgaria twice last year

abouttobebanned

Bluetonic wrote: »

What did they say when you contacted them?

First off I was hung up on a few times....then I was assured that because it was a package holiday I would definitely get my money back.

The holiday was booked on a monday, and it showed up on CC the NEXT DAY...that's a bit fishy.

I'm on hold with ATOL at the moment

Bazzy

ATOL will honour a refund once you paid with your credit card your covered anyway

abouttobebanned

shiibata wrote: »

Ye, heard yesterday morning they were going to come out with the bad news, thought it might have been rumour though as their site seemed to be still taking holidays but it was true after all. Thought they were great too, flew with them from knock to bulgaria twice last year

You knew yesterday morning but none of the staff did? Aye...

RxQueen

abouttobebanned wrote: »

First off I was hung up on a few times....then I was assured that because it was a package holiday I would definitely get my money back.

The holiday was booked on a monday, and it showed up on CC the NEXT DAY...that's a bit fishy.

I'm on hold with ATOL at the moment

Go onto xl.com , you'll have to apply for a refund from the commission , the details are on that, basically any holiday that they have they arent standing by it , so the only thing you can do is try and get your refund back.

Qwerty?

I just picked up my In laws at 5:00 yesterday evening flying back from Faro, and they were commmenting what a great airline XL they were. Talk about close...:eek:

Qwerty?

...

jim_bob

not really surprised , tried searching for holidays on there site before and it was a joke, never seem to have any flights

shrapnel222

"it is estimated that more than 10,000 people are not ATOL protected because they booked separate flights and accommodation or flights only."

Aquos76

Here is the claim form for customers who feel they may be entitled to a refund. For customers who booked direct with xl.com you need to make sure that your booking was handled by

Excel Leisure Group (Ireland)
Trading as Excel Holidays
124A The Capel Building Marys Abbey
Off Capel Street
Dublin 7

They are bonded by the Commission for Aviation Regulation, and are classed as an Irish tour operator.

http://aviationreg.ie/_fileupload/Image/Claim%20Form%20XL%20Leisure%20Group%20_Ireland_%20Limited%2012%2009%2008.pdf

shiibata

abouttobebanned wrote: »

You knew yesterday morning but none of the staff did? Aye...

heres the exact quote off another site i was on yesterday

Sponsors of a London premiership club is going belly up tomorrow. If anyone has booked a flight or holiday with them, hope you did it on your credit card!

boxplayer1973

Went to santorini last month, was grand, pretty tough on all the staff who were very good. They did have a very cold aircraft and were trying to flog loads of booze and blankets!

Pythia

Just flew back with them on Sunday. Our flight was delayed by 6 hours but the staff were actually very nice. Phew, glad I didn't book for a week later!

DubLegs

shiibata wrote: »

heres the exact quote off another site i was on yesterday

Sponsors of a London premiership club is going belly up tomorrow. If anyone has booked a flight or holiday with them, hope you did it on your credit card!

Where's your link?
I know for a fact that it did not go into administration until 1.00am on friday morning. And the staff 100% knew nothing!

shiibata

DubLegs wrote: »

Where's your link?
I know for a fact that it did not go into administration until 1.00am on friday morning. And the staff 100% knew nothing!

www.ybig.ie/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3599 happy now!!

killbillvol2

DubLegs wrote: »

Where's your link?
I know for a fact that it did not go into administration until 1.00am on friday morning. And the staff 100% knew nothing!

The staff must be too hard working to read message boards then. I saw a mention of it somewhere else (can't remember where) but it meant nothing to me at the time as I've never used them and didn't realise what a big operator they were.

clickerfingers

i read on another forum that people were suggesting that aer lingus might be another group that could go bust..... very worried at this suggestion as have flights totally 2000 euro booked with them for january, already paid in full and with a laser card, rather than a laser card..... what do you all think?

do you think this is a major over reaction??

BuffyBot

Yes. No need to post this multiple times either, thanks

shiibata

clickerfingers wrote: »

i read on another forum that people were suggesting that aer lingus might be another group that could go bust..... very worried at this suggestion as have flights totally 2000 euro booked with them for january, already paid in full and with a laser card, rather than a laser card..... what do you all think?

do you think this is a major over reaction??

Also have flights booked with aer lingus for next june and have flights with sky europe next july too, feel safe enough about them but suppose people would have said the same about XL this time last week though..

shiibata

shiibata wrote: »

Also have flights booked with aer lingus for next june and have flights with sky europe next july too, feel safe enough about them but suppose people would have said the same about XL this time last week though..

Maybe i should be worried about sky europe, looking at the following;
http://www.paddypower.com/bet?action=go_type&category=SPECIALS&ev_class_id=45&ev_type_id=10368&promo=nov_Nextairlinetogobust&crea=lnk

kerash

My mother is out in santorini at the moment, due back on Tuesday.
Luckily she booked through a travel agent so they assure that she'll get home!:p
The reps have left after being thrown out of the accommodation apparently - so holiday makers are pretty much in the dark over there - as are the apartment owners, who claim they havent been paid for 5mths by XL.
Keeping an eye on aviationreg.ie, but no updates on flights out of santorini yet.
The travel agent did say it could be as late as monday before the flights confirmed so fingers crossed!

DubLegs

Hey Kersah

Hope your mam gets back ok. I was on lucky to get on the Skiathos flight on friday that the commission set up for us, so i hope it works out for her too.

kerash

DubLegs wrote: »

Hey Kersah

Hope your mam gets back ok. I was on lucky to get on the Skiathos flight on friday that the commission set up for us, so i hope it works out for her too.

Ah thanks DubLegs!
Glad to hear you got back ok.
yep will know tomor how things go, hopefully no delays as apparently the airport is quite small and no aircon!

CiaraTV3

abouttobebanned wrote: »

I booked a holiday with them last week and got my booking in the post this morning...

WTF happens now?

Hi there,

Just wondering what was the outcome of this? Did you get your money back, how long did it take? Just doing a bit of research for a programme.

Thanks

mikedragon32

Zombie thread. There is a forum for media/surveys etc here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1088