Linusbear

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this issue for me. I recently booked a flight to Cuba from Toronto, May 7th. (Breezes Costa Verde) The travel agent called me on Monday to tell me that I've been bumped to a flight leaving two days later. I'm going there for a friend's wedding so there are several others going as well. I'm the only one that got bumped....and I'm travelling alone as it is. I'm probably going to cancel since I don't really like the idea of spending two days in Cuba completely alone. Has this ever happened to any of you on trips to Cuba or anywhere else for that matter? I can't get any information from the travel agent or Signature Vacations....very unhelpful.

Canuck_at_Canada_eh

Hola Linusbear:
I don't know how common this bumping practice is but for sure I wouldn't just accept it. I would immediately write and contact Signature Vacations and your travel agent and tell them that this is totally unacceptable to you.
Politely explain that you are part of a wedding party in Cuba and that others in the wedding party are on the May 7th flight and have not been bumped.
Explain that you simply cannot be bumped and if necessary, give Signature the names of the other on that flight that are in the wedding. Because you will know the names of others on the flight, this should confirm to Signature that you indeed are part of the larger group.

Good luck and I hope things work out to your satisfaction.

On another note entirely, I regularly travel to Havana by myself and even alone I have always had a great time with many things to see and do.
Steve

Linusbear

Thanks Steve. I was polite when I spoke to both the travel agent and Signature vacations and that really didn't get me far. They just kept saying, "your options are to cancel the trip, or to leave on the 9th". They didn't even care that I was with a wedding and that I was travelling singly as a girl. Gawd! Thank you for your advice, I'll have to try calling them again. Wish me luck!

Nita.

wow

Linusbear: Time to start acting like a bear!!I find this usually gets some action from Head Office @ Signature: Write a letter to the Toronto Star "Have Your Say" section in the Sunday Star. Set out the facts the way you did here. Borrow Steve's terminology..."totally acceptable" is a good one that makes the point. Also mention the name of the Travel Agent. When you write your letter, fax or email each party a copy b/f you send it to the Toronto Star. You can probably email the Star.
Don't take "no" for an answer on this one. And, if Signature tells you that "it's in the fine print", so what? This is clearly not acceptable & if consumers accept it from Signature what's to stop others form doing this? They overbooked the flight! Why should you have to change your flight by 2 days to accomodate them? At the very least, they shd expand your options. For instance, they cld offer you the option of booking another trip anywhere that they fly w/in the next year (for comparable value). Good luck & I will watch for your letter in this Sunday's Toronto Sunday Star!

meta

Here in NY, you can call one of the TV stations and they can investigate. Assuming this is a Canadian company, I'm sure they wouldn't be pleased having their reputation tarnished on national TV. Check out your local TV stations and see if they can help.

Linusbear

Thank you Wow and Meta! Eeeeps, I'm not much of a bear but I think I'll send an email to the Toronto Star. I emailed Signature Vacations and they didn't even have the courtesy to respond. It wasn't a nasty email...I simply gave them my story and explained that I thought it was disappointing that they wouldn't give me an explanation when I called and didn't offer and kind of compensation for my troubles. It's too bad that they take clients for granted. Oh well, off I go!

Thanks again....hopefully my voice speaks volumes....or at least a slight whisper.

Two_Cats

Hi Steve, how are ya? Sorry, I have not much to add here but I had to smile at Meta's post - Canajuns aren't known to go to tv stations with a complaint like this....we are however, known, for our strongly worded letters!

Linusbear - I have to admit though..something is not right there - especially since you are part of a group booking (I'm assuming you are), it's totally wrong for the airline to just bump you because you are a single! It's May for heaven's sake, it's not like a really busy time of the travel season that they so desparately need to book a couple into 2 seats rather than leave one seat empty (because there are no other single seats required!).
We used Signature for our wedding in Feb in Playa del Carmen - didn't have any problems like this - mind you what bugged me about the group booking (to get that big woo 'group' discount) was to find out that they give you and all your guests all of 5 days to make their bookings..I thought it was a lot to send out invites, then turn around and say 'by the way' if you're in, you have only the next 5 days to book!

Carolred

I've never heard of this with Signature. However, on our trip back from PV last week (a Signature flight) the staff in Mexico had no record of us paying for pre-booked seats. My husband has claustrophobia and it was a real issue for him to be in a centre seat, plus we were in the back rather than the front which loads and unloads more quickly.

We once travelled with Air Transat to Portugal and they deleted our departure flight and told us we could leave two days earlier or one week later, take it or leave it. Our return flight was unchanged. We had to scramble to move meetings, and had to take two extra vacation days.

Linusbear

Hi Two_cats and Carolred. Thanks for your comments and stories. :c) In the end I didn't send an email to the Toronto Sun....I couldn't find the area on the website to do this. In any case, I'm still going...ALONE! Two_cats, it wasn't a group booking. It's one big wedding but we all booked with different agents. So, the people that bumped me wouldn't have known that I was with a group. It turns out that the rest of my group were bumped from Friday to Saturday. I think what happened was that the Friday flight was cancelled altogether and the agents were left with the option of moving passengers around based on the tours that they had available. Since my tour company doesn't do Saturday departures I got the shaft and have to leave Sunday. It's too bad that it worked out this way but I'm still going. It's not the end of the world. :c)

mmmauri

Helloooo- did any of you forget that you are dealing Cuba here?

curiousx

and your point....?