VIP Click on to Fred Flintstones thread for comments relating to who to complain to. Trading standards need your input before 12/12/07

I live near an international airport in Hamilton, Ontario and was pleased when Flyglobespan started flying from Hamilton to England and I was intending to definitely start flying with them. Imagine how shocked I was to discover that their prices was increased by over 200% to destinations such as Birmingham, Manchester, etc. Needless to say, I won't be travelling with them after all. (P.S. - trying to find an e-mail address for flyglobespan is like looking for a needle in a haystack).

Along with other customers from other countries who have obviously been treated the same way, we are now at the mercy of the unscrupulous "cheap flight" syndrome of Fly Globespan. We live in the Toronto area of Ontario, Canada where Globespan has recently started a new service from the subsidiary airport of Hamilton to the UK. We booked because of the price and the convenience of not having to go to Toronto Pearson International which, like Heathrow, or any other huge airport, is not as pleasant to spend time in as a smaller, more friendly local airport which is about an hour closer to home. We are both retired and travel frequently to Europe where we have relatives.

We realized there were problems shortly after booking our flight to Manchester when there were problems with the website and no amount of calling any number in either the UK or Canada (only office available is in Vancouver - 3,000 miles from here and 3 hours time difference). The phone just rang and rang. Today, our day of departure, we signed onto the website to buy extra luggage allowance and found out COMPLETELY BY CHANCE, that the flight was going to be 8 hours or more late and we would now be departing at 5a.m. tomorrow morning, with check-in at 2a.m. This is outrageous. Some poor people who did not check their flight departure and like us, received no phone call or e-mail (perhaps older people with no computers) would be dropped off at 5p.m. tonight with no idea that the flight was not leaving for another 12 hours. We feel lucky to have found out so we can cancel our plans for relatives to drop us off, and now we will call a cab for 2a.m. The worst part of all this is that when we realized the change in times of departure we called the Globespan Vancouver number, waited for 20 minutes on hold, and then reached an agent to confirm the change. When the comment was made to her that the delay was disgraceful, the agent just said curtly .."Goodbye" and hung up!! What kind of customer service is that? This industry by the way, is the only one I know of where you pay weeks or months BEFORE you receive the goods or service. They have your money and you have not had their service, so I suppose they feel that they can treat you any way they like. Hopefully, more and more people will find out that this airline needs to use some of Westjet's attitude - (a great smaller airline serving Canada and now other destinations in USA. They are totally customer-orientated - nothing is too much trouble.)

Hopefully, our flight does leave tomorrow morning, and there are no further delays or problems. We have already had 2 local newspaper headlines this summer regarding Globespan flights turning back to Hamilton because of "backfiring engines". It is not exactly the kind of publicity you want to hear.

I have just returned from New York with Delta... as my Globespam flight was canceled with no notification in advance. It was canceled for 2 days, again no offers for hotels, or alternative arrangements. They did not even have a representative, only staff from JFK. I had to purchase a separate ticket from Delta and pay a full peak price ticket to fly home the same day. I have emailed them and had no response and have sent a letter with all my documentation, no response... Insurance will not cover this as it is the airlines responsibility to reimburse one for canceled flights. What should I do???

My wife and my sister-in-law both flew flyglobespan from Kennedy airport in NY to Ireland on separate flights a week apart. My sister-in-law's flight was 19 hours late (yes, you read correctly - 19 hours late). A week later my wife's flight was 7 hours late. Friends in Ireland and staff at the Airport in Ireland have told us that seriously missed schedule times are routine for this airline and that people in Ireland think their schedules are a joke. And they actually do laugh about it. My wife and her sister chose the airline because they flew to Knock and that would save them 2 hours driving. However, it cost her sister a net of 17 hours and my wife 5 hours. Never again.