Your flights been cancelled...

I took a phone call this afternoon from a friend who's family we will be holidaying in Menorca with, as we do every two years, why we do it every second year is not known but its just worked out that way in the past.

So he rang me to remind me that the payment for the flights was due next Friday and to see if I'd cancelled Amanda's ticket as she doesn't want to go with us this year, what with her being all grown up now and all, doesn't want to be seen on holiday with her parents and their friends, oh no.

And then he rang back a little bit later to tell me that the company that we have booked the flights with, and paid the deposits to, have gone into voluntary liquidation, but that being ABTA bonded the flight operator (Airtours) was taking over the bookings and that we now owed the balance to them, they will apparently claim the deposits back under the ABTA insurance scheme.

I didn't tell our friend that this had happened to us once before and that it took nearly twelve months of red tape and general "we're fucking you about and we know it" sort of letters from the agents that had been appointed to sort that one out, we lost that holiday and waited for ten months to get our money back, ABTA is an insurance company and insurance company's don't give you your money back unless you threaten them really really hard, I think I almost had to use the horses head in the bed threat to get our money that time.

So he told me of the conversation that he'd had with Airtours and he seems quite happy to run along with their story that all will be fine and we just have to pay the balance at the beginnning of June, and he asked them to confirm June because we'd been told it was May 5th, and the guy from Airtours tells my friend that its normal procedure for their agent to request the money a month in advance of it actually being needed so that they could stick it in their bank for 30 days and smile at it - the bastards.

But its all going to be OK anyway because I have a Plan B, and I secretly hope that I have to use Plan B, it goes like this...

The Airtours flight is going from Leeds/Bradford Airport (which is a mile away from our homes) direct to Mahon in Menorca, its costing us £275 each for the return flight .

Jet2.com, a budget airline, have opened a route from Leeds to Mahon, and with a reputation for ridiculously low prices I checked their web site this week, their price for the return flight is in excess of £350 for the two dates in august that we need, so they are out of the question, that one has to be Plan C.

But Jet2.com run some very cheap flights to Barcelona and with a bit of rummaging around on t'interweb I found a ferry that sails from Barcelona to Cuitadella which is the other main town on Menorca, my Plan B, which may come into effect if Amanda changes her mnd and wants to go with us after I've already cancelled her ticket, is to give her my flight ticket and for me to fly out to Barcelona a couple of days in advance of the rest of the party, bum around Barca for a couple of days and if sober enough catch the evening ferry to Cuitadella, the Barca flights and ferry will cost about £180 - it would mean that Suzanne would have to drive the hire car from Mahon airport to our apartment and then drive to Cuitadella to pick me up (or more likely tell me to get a fucking taxi), but still, it sounds like a plan to me.

So thats it, if Airtours mess us about or start to play hardball with the ABTA bond then we'll all fly to Barca and catch the ferry, hell we can even stay in Barca for a few more days at each end of the Menorca holiday and turn it in to a three week holiday, I'm starting to like this plan every time I think of it.