Great Holiday.........Bloody Nightmare Getting Back.....

Hi All,

Has anyone else been caught up in the volcano disruption?

Friends and i caught the one of the last flights out of Luton on the 15th April, and had 4 days of fantastic skiing and weather in Bsm/Les Arcs....unfortunately upon arriving back at Geneva on 20th at the 3pm we were informed our flight had been cancelled and rescheduled for the 27th April by EasyJet :(

The people manning the EasyJet desk were of absolutely no help ( they in fact were workers from SwissPort and not even EasyJet staff who were conspicuous by their complete absense from the aiport), all they were interested in doing was pushing passengers into paying 300SF EACH to travel via coach to Calais and then onto London.

We on the other hand could not wait until the 27th to try and get airborne again or pay such charge for a coach trip decided to hire a car from geneva to Calais.....Auto europe if they had any cars left at Geneva would have been tops at 243 euros , the next cheapest was 420 euros, we had been quoted 900 euros with Hertz.

Any way 420 euros lighter my three friends and myself headed for Calais ,after 80euros in road tolls and 820km we arrived at Calais which was bedlam with over one thousand hire cars dumped by the passenger terminal ,we proceeded into the ticket office where we were met by a cue snaking around the building waiting to buy tickets to be foot passengers on the next available ferry.

Upon reaching the ticket office we were informed that the usual 19 euro ticket was now being charged at 65 euros by P&O Ferries.

Afet crossing the Cannel and having a 65 euro snooze , we then had to hire a car to get us back to Luton to pick up our own car , at this point we had some luck and faith in human nature was restored when the chap at Avis at Dover gave us a car for £87 instead of £300......bargain ,thank you Mr Avis..........and i finally arrived home some 26 hours after leaving Bourg-St-Maurice.......and to be honest we were the victims of sheer profiteering ,but after talking to some people.......we were lucky.

Passengers on a train going through Paris to Calais had to physically stop the doors from shutting so parents could storm the shops and cafes on the platforms to steal whatever food and drink they could get their hands on as the train companies had not provided any refreshments or stocked up on food and drink so parents could feed and hydrate their children ,also some had been charged 500 euros plus for four tickets from Geneva to Paris.....with just a vague confirmation they would then be able to get to Calais the same week.

Also a chap i spoke to had to hire a car in Istanbul to Greece , then boat to France and then hire a car from the port all the way to Calais, and at each stage of his journey the cost of his pre booked travel arrangement mysteriously went up by around 300 to 400 euros when he arrived to pick up his hire cars with the excuse being that they didnt think he wanted the car as he had not answered their emails......when in fact no emails had been sent......robbing B*******!



Anyway i am back now after a great few days skiing and a crap but eventfull journey, and all i have to do now is try and get my refund for my cancelled flights and costs involved in repatriating myself and my fellow chums......no thanks to EasyJet ,SwissPort ,Hertz ,P&O and the Great British M25 & M1 traffic jams




Oh well just think not long now till next season :D :D :D

Hi JonG,
Well done for getting back home :D

It sounds like it was an epic journey :shock:

Ally

Ally. Are you officially the J2ski meet and greet service?

Jon, you were lucky to get home so quickly to be honest. It is shocking how much profiteering goes on, expecially from major multinational companies. I thought these had strict pricing structures in place, but guess I was wrong - when there is a crisis, instead of offering help, these companies abuse the opportunity and up their costs.
It is disgusting.
Many people would have found it stressful enough not being able to get home, but to then find hotels, car hire, coaches, ferries, food and drink probably, etc had rocketed in price is a downright disgrace.

For future reference, if anyone gets stuck abroad in western europe on a ski holiday, you can always call me and my 6 seater private hire vehicle. The link is in my sig below.

Jon, glad you made it back. I would be writing several strong letters to certain well known companies if I were you.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies and best wishes for getting back, I will indeed be writing long letters to all the companies which used the crisis to make obsene profits, I understand that at certain times there may be a call to increase certain priecs to cover extra staff ,repatriation of cars etc......but to charge in some cases the best part of 500% extra for other things is appalling.

It is times an things such as this that can make life changing moments ,and it has made me look into packing in the metalwork/welding game and look into starting up my own travel/taxi company etc.

The next big problem i see will be getting refunds for my/our costs , EasyJet will provide refunds as long as you fill in their online refund form which requires receipts to be scanned and imported into the form........so that either means buying a scanner ,or getting someone else to do it for me.....its also a good screw for EasyJet as some people will simply not be able to do it ,and will not want to bother , why in such times do companies make it so hard and awkward to talk to a human being........mind you i think i've just answered my question?.


Any way the fight continues ,and if i find any shortcuts to getting refunds i will post on this thread for others in the same boat.....


Jon.

jonG wrote:

Thanks for the replies and best wishes for getting back, I will indeed be writing long letters to all the companies which used the crisis to make obsene profits, I understand that at certain times there may be a call to increase certain priecs to cover extra staff ,repatriation of cars etc......but to charge in some cases the best part of 500% extra for other things is appalling.

Your MP as well, I hope. In the US, profiteering during any emergency is strictly illegal. I guess the US has them more often, and has learned the lesson. It's comforting for people to know that when a hurricane is coming, that they are not going to get stiffed at the hardware store for plywood, or at the grocery store when they stock up on food. If something good comes out of this, a law against profiteering would be a good result.

Jon, glad you made it home eventually. I think everyone knows of someone or has heard of someone that has had a nightmare.

My sister in law is still stuck in Greece (first time ever on a plane, probably her 2nd time out of Britain - and probably her last), and my boss is currently on her way back from Crete via 2 planes and then a train from Paris, for the pricely sum of £1500.

It is disgusting behaviour, human kind can be unbelievable at times.

It makes me even more grumpy than usual, I think Trencher is absolutely right we need legislation urgently to prevent these companies ripping us off in,
Jon, thats some adventure glad see your home safely and had a great time, whizz them emails off and feed back how you get on.

Ps I might as well add P&O and Hertz to my list of boycotted companies :evil:

Ian Wickham wrote:
Ps I might as well add P&O and Hertz to my list of boycotted companies :evil:

Wickers I'm surprised you are able to go on holiday or do anything with the amount companies that are probably on your list :twisted:

I don't know anyone that got stranded abroad but have at least 5 friends who haven't been able to go on holiday over the past week and you have to feel sorry for a girl in our office who couldn't go on her honeymoon at the weekend.