right to complain?

jobless

Hey,

Just looking for opinions on this... booked flights at the start of the year to thailand through ebookers, so put in the date to go and date to return etc.
printed off copy of ticket and forgot about it until we went.
On coming home we expected to get in on a sunday(the return date i entered when booking). On e-ticket it said Flight left bangkok at 8.30 on a sunday night and returned to London at 7.30am.. now here's the issue... we assumed this meant 7.30 sunday morning but it was actually Monday morning... On the ticket it did say overnight flight but as we naively thought with time differences etc we would still arrive in london on a sunday.

Now i accept that it was a big boo boo on our part but my problem is that no where on the ticket did it say we were getting in on a Monday or even the date of that Monday.... it simply said overnight flight and as i said we assumed this was just down to time differences. we ended up missing a connecting flight, external to the ticket we had.

does anyone think i have a complaint here?... i honestly expected that when you enter a date to return that you return home 'on that date' not leave your destination on that date. what do you think?

Oryx

You leave your destination at that date and time. Flight departure times are always given as local time. This slip up is entirely down to you, unfortunately. It is up to you to check and double check your booking of external connecting flights.

Its making my head hurt to try and work it out but the only way you could fly back in time is if you crossed the date line. Isnt it?

kirving

Although I agree that it should be crystal clear on the ticket, you just made the assumption that it was the sunday, without workling it out.

The return date is almost always the date you begin your return journey. If you were flying to Dublin from London, and your flight left at 23.45 on a sunday, you would technically arrive on a monday morning, but when booking the flight, you would select sunday as your return date.

It is unfortunate though, as I'm sure its an easy enough mistake to make.

Random

i think the only thing you can really do in this case is to contact ebookers and provide your story to them as constructive feedback.

i don't really feel you have a case to blame anyone here though.

ScouseMouse

Give them a ring and explain. Do not attack them as it will only get their backs up. I believe it's your error- easily done, but you need their help.

Be polite and see if they can do anything. The airline themselves may not allow the change or may do it for a fee.

It's worth a try.

3DataModem

jobless wrote: »

i honestly expected that when you enter a date to return that you return home 'on that date' not leave your destination on that date. what do you think?

Nope. Would always assume it's the date of departure, which is for most people the important part, as it's the day you need to get to the airport.

Your mistake I'm afraid.

jobless

thanks for the feedback guys... i know i'm to blame but am frustrated that it wasnt made clear on the ticket... an expensive lesson learned

vibe666

you don't have a case at all i'm afraid. if you read the T&C's you'll see sections specifically covering connecting flights that exclude the airline from any liability for any flights not booked through them as part of a package.

aside from anything it's (iirc) a 16+ hour flight. how on earth did you not cop that it would be monday morning before you got back?

if you'd booked the flights with the same airline from dublin then you're covered for anything like that, but chances are you did exactly what i did when i went to thailand and saw the cost of flights from dublin and from london and paid 50 quid for a ryanair flight instead of hundreds more to fly with the same airline to get an official connecting flight even tho you'd probably end up on the same plane.

you pay through the nose for guarantees like that, so if you don't pay you don't get. it sucks but you don't have a leg to stand on, the airline will have made sure of that many years ago in their contracts, you're far from the first person this has happened to, you can bet on that.