[alexthekid]

Hi.

I am posting this in a couple of forums as want to get some advice.
We recently booked flights with vueling flying from Barcelona to Athens ,
the original dates where, 19may 1930 and return 26 may 2355. We then
booked flights to fly from athens to rhodes and back, leaving between 4 and 6 hours between flights. Then at the beggining of this week, with less
than 14 days notice, we were informed that our flight has been rescheduled to the follwing day at both ends. 24 hours forward. Meaning that we would no longer be able to make our connecting flights.

In the first instance we emailed them as we didn't have the money to be
calling them. We checked how much it would be to change the flights which came to 260€. This is money that we can not really afford as we are already on a tight budget for this trip.

After not hearing back from our email that night, before going to bed, we
sent one more. Still no reply by the next afternoon, so sent one more
email before getting credit in my phone and calling them. The phone
assistant we got the first time said that she could not speak English and
would not transfer me to someone who spoke english but instead that I had to call back and hope that I got someone who spoke english. The next person I got through to said she didnt speak english but did transfer me through to someone who did.

I was told that I could either be refunded the money or be booked on a
flight the day before instead, which was the Friday. I said that I was not
happy, because either way we were going to be loosing a lot of money as
they wouldn't be refunding our other flights as they were with a different
company and that if we took the earlier flight we would have to spend two
nights in Athens, which wasn't really an option either. I said that we
would want to be compensated, but he just repeated the same thing, refund or move the dates, to near anything I asked.

I also asked for a reason why the flight had been cancelled, to which I
was told operational procedures. I got cut off and ran out of credit.
after this I emailed again, asking them to please contact by phone or at
least give me the courtesy of a reply to my emails. Also I asked to be
given the reason the flight had been cancelled, and also said this:

In your terms and conditions section 7.2.1. it details that if your flight
has been cancelled, then depending on the distance, if vueling are unable
to get you to your destination within a maximum of 4 hours, then you are
entitled to compensation depending on the distance. Our flight has been
cancelled. Is the flight we booked for the 19th of may flying. No it is
not. This means it has been cancelled. Rescheduling may be the
terminology you use but that is not true as what has happened is that you
have cancelled our flight and put us on a flight for the following day at
either end, and also we have been provided with less than 14 days notice.

However I know upon reading into EC 261 that this doesnt seem to apply in
this case, am I right? I mean can they still somehow claim that this is
the same flight. I just cant see how that is true either way.

I then after getting no response called from the phone at work and spoke to a lady who was apolagetic at least and said that she understood that it was unfair. She said she could see all my emaisl and had no idea why they had not been replied to. I asked her for the reason the flight had been
cancelled and she just gave me the same excuse, operational procedures. I
said that those were just words and did not give a diffinative answer as to
the reason why. She said that she did not know why. I asked her to find
out, to which she said she could not.

I then asked about the procedure to changing the flight to the friday. We
had decided that by doing this at least the money would be going on a hotel and some food etc in athens as opposed to going to another airline company for something we had essentially already paid for. I was then told that there was no flight on the friday even though I had been told the previous evening I could change to this flight. I checked on the website and right enough there was no flight there. I am even sure that I seen a flight rescheduled for the friday when I had looked previously.

So I asked her what had happened to this flight. She said she didnt know,
and was unable to tell me if there had ever been a flight on that date. I
felt this was ridiculous, so asked her to find out if there had been a flight on that date. She said that she couldnt, eventually I convinced her
to go and asjk her supervisor/team leader / manager etc. She went away, wether she asked anyone or not I am unsure, but she came back to say that he did not know, nor did he know the reason the flight had been
cancelled/rescheduled. eventually after talking for a while and going round in circles I asked to speak to her team leader / manager.

I was told that he doesnt take calls, and that none do. I said this seemed
strange as I also work in a call centre and calls can always be escalated
to a team leader etc. so I asked her if her team leader was refusing to
speak to me, she kept avoiding answering the questionand just saying that
they dont take calls. I told her there must be a superior that I could
speak to about this but no. In the end I gave up and said goodbye, taking
her name of course, wether it was real or not, I am unsure (I had taken her first name at the beggining of the call)

I was also told that if i wanted to lodge a complaint i would have to do it
in writing by email, to which i laughed since that had gone so well before
with their speedy replies.

So now we have changed the other flights anyway as going on the thu was not an option, for both work and money. So we are now down 260€ and a whole lot of hassle. Our holiday is also going to be cut short as the connecting flights on the way back mean being stuck in athens airport for half a day.

Sorry i know this is a massive long rant. I am just wondering if there is
much hope of compensation and also any advice that can be given.