[ctpulley]

The following is a letter I have sent to monarch about a complaint. To date no reply has been received.
References:
Flight ZB 933
Booking reference B5P76J

Dear sirs,
I arrived back from Tenerife on Saturday 18th September.
I am totally disgusted and disappointed about the delay and the way, myself together with my wife, were treated.
The rep at our complex phoned your company to find out if any delays were in effect for our return flight on the 17th, we were informed that everything was OK.
On arrival at Tenerife South, we noticed that the boards showed that there was a “delay”.
We booked in and when I noticed that the luggage tags said Gatwick, I informed the desk clerk “that we were going to Birmingham and not Gatwick”, he said that things had changed and we were having to go to Gatwick and also the estimated new boarding time was 23.45 which was on our boarding pass for flight ZB 285.
He then gave us your letter.
It gave no reasons relevant to us.
Our contractual agreement with you and Mastercard was, for you to fly us back to Birminghan at 20:15.
This was all to no avail, and no reasons were forthcoming. Just complete disregard for the customer.
We left Tenerife at 02.52 on the 18th….This was even LATER than we should have ARRIVED back at Birmingham, and yet we were heading towards Gatwick.
We were given a derisory 6 Euros for food and drink. (The only food available was a sandwich for 5.40 Euros…so no chance of a drink).
We landed at Gatwick at 06.40 and were promised coaches to transfer us to Birmingham.
First of all we were given the wrong directions to the coach point.
When we did get to the departure point…no coach was available because YOUR STAFF can’t count and can’t read how many people were going to Birmingham.
We stood in the road for some time, waiting.
We would still be stood there now, but for me going to your desk at Gatwick and asking why no coach had turned up.
The desk staff had not been informed about us.
Luckily, one person had the common sense to get involved to sort things out.
Her name was…NATALIE. (She was the sun in the whole darkness of your debacle).
At first she was told to tell us to get to the train station and get on a train.
No details were given to her, how we were supposed to do this with all our luggage etc.
Finally, she managed to arrange a coach to transfer us to Birmingham.
She handed out £10 vouchers for food and a drink.
The coach arrived at 10.55.
We arrived back at Birmingham at 14.15
Times again…
Should have left at 20.15.…….actually left at 02.52
Should have arrived at 00.30.……..actually arrived at 14.15
NEARLY 14 hours LATE
This is on top of all the waiting and not knowing what was happening.
We had been up since 7 am on the Friday morning and tiredness and frustration were evident with everybody.
We were just your parcels to be transported and nothing else.
A man who had arranged text messages from you was dumbfounded, because we were able to tell him more and sooner than his text messages told him.
The timing was abominable…if I had booked “red eye” flights, they would have been cheaper and I would have accepted this.
I don’t often complain, but couldn’t see why a suggestion of mine couldn’t be considered…..
A plane landed at Tenerife at roughly the time the ZB 932 would have landed.
Why didn’t you arrange for this to take the Birmingham passengers back to Birmingham and then let those who were travelling to Gatwick (anyway) catch the later flight?
…No transfers etc. and better customer relations.
As time went on at Tenerife, I tried to pay to use the VIP lounge, but was told it was closing at midnight.
In fact the airport facilities were closing at midnight too. We had to wait almost another 3 hours to get drinks etc.
The toilet facilities were disgusting at this time of night too.

P.S.
I am put off flying with you again because since it happened, I have found out that it transpired you knew about this problem several hours earlier because the plane involved had had a “heavy landing”.
Why couldn’t you have hired another aircraft? As a previous flight company did this for us a few years ago.

[jimworcs]

You have a claim under EU regulation 261/2004 and you should write and demand compensation under this provision. Your flight was cancelled. Your rights are outlined here..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulat...g_or_refunding

It is not easy for an airline to rustle up another aircraft at short notice, nor is it straightforward to "swap one plane for another". However, there is no excuse for the sheer incompetence and lack of communication shown here. You can pursue your rights through the small claims court, if Monarch don't play ball. It is easy, can be done online and is relatively cheap.

The link is here:

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

Good luck.

[MarckCargo]

I travel with Monarch flight ZB568 Manchester to Tenerife, I emailed to confirm i would be traveling on a300 and I have booked the exit rows 9 and 31, I wonder if anyone could tell me what these lines and space for legs, etc.