XL collapse

[BagOfCrisps 24]

First of how many I wonder?

 

Thought I'd put it in SnowTalk

 

Quote:

XL Leisure, Britain’s third biggest package tour operator, plunged into administration this morning, grounding all of its flights and leaving 85,000 passengers stranded overseas.

 

Customers who booked through a travel agent will be able to claim a refund. However, travellers who made bookings through the company’s website, via xl call centres, will not qualify.

 

XL’s fleet of 21 aircraft were grounded at 1.00am this morning, meaning holidaymakers in more than 50 destinations around the world were unable to return home or fly out from the UK.

[Mike Pow 52]

3rd biggest. Never heard of them.

[klingon 10]

85000 people right now have heard of them.

[thursday 1]

skinflints. Deserve what they get.

 

Never heard of them, who are they anyway?

[NoFakie 45]

I know there is lots of doom mongering on the Net, but people said a lot of airlines would go bankrupt if oil hit $100. They've been proved right. I think its over thirty airlines now this year.

 

Just as well XL didn't collapse during the school holidays.

[TheOrange 0]

Cheap flights thursday.

[Fattwins 0]

nice comment Thursday! not everyone is in your econmic bracket. glad that you would say something so tasteless, but heck that is you.

 

Quote:

A skinflint is a person considered so miserly that he would even "skin a flint"

 

The world according to Thursday is this, if you dont make money you shouldnt be allowed to do anything. NICE

[grungy-gonads 54]

Yes, you naughty, naughty boy, thursday. I hope you are suitably ashamed.

 

It says that people on package holidays abroad who booked through the XL groupps UK businesses will be flown home at no extra cost by the CAA once it has made the arrangements --- wonder how long that will be.

 

Cancellation of 200,000 advance holiday bookings. This is affecting a lot of people.

[griller 9]

Just read that it might be 30 airlines before the end of the year

 

Quote:

Up to 30 more airlines will go bankrupt before Christmas, the chief executive of British Airways warned yesterday, as the biggest rescue of stranded passengers in travel industry history began.

 

Willie Walsh said the scenes of chaos in which 85,000 passengers have been stranded at locations around the world after the collapse of XL, Britain's third largest holiday company, would become a familiar sight as the travel industry struggled with soaring fuel costs and the effects of a global economic downturn.

 

"We are in the worst trading environment the industry has ever seen", said Mr Walsh. "We have already seen 30 or so airlines go bust this year and it would be fair to expect a similar number of casualties worldwide over the next three to four months."

[Tubby Beaver 209]

I hate XL, we flew with them to the French Alps, a flight that should've been little over an hour took almost a day after our flight from Manchester was cancelled and we had to get bused down to Gatwick, resulting in me travelling almost the full length of Britain, from Dundee to London to catch a flight that would only take an hour. On the way home we managed to get on the plane on time, but XL were to throw another spanner in the works by keeping us on the ground for 3 hours!! They had given out or received (I can't remember exactly) 1 boarding pass more than there were passengers on the plane and we had to sit in the plane, on the tarmac while we were repeatedly counted by the air hostesses and even the Pilot.

 

Cowboys, good riddance!!

shame for the stranded passengers tho

[BagOfCrisps 24]

Was that initial thing totally their fault TB? (Sounds like it but sometimes these things have more complex stories).

 

From all accounts though they did not sound like a quality operation.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

Regardless of whatever airlines it is they (85,000 people) paid for a service which they didnt get. That sucks and cant help but feel bad for them. They shouldnt be the ones who get screwed....

[HelperElfMissy 42]

I'm with you CB!

 

People pay for package holidays all the time - much of the time it is the one advertised in the paper or on the wall of the travel agent and "seems like an awesome deal so why not?"...and they book it. Most punters are not likely to examine the financial records and trading history of a particular tourism wholesaler prior to purchase, and it will only be after a poor expereince with that firm, or hearing of another persons poor experience that will make them think twice.

 

Glad the CAA is bringing them home. But here's where I need to ask some questions...

**Who pays for the CAA bailout?

**Did the travellers/or some of the travellers have travel insurance?

**Were they covered for this eventuality by the travel insurance?

**Does the travel insurance cover the losses of those whose holiday had not yet commenced?

**What has been done about accomodating and feeding the stranded travellers?

 

I got stuck in Bali on my very first international holiday. Travelling with Papa and 3 kids (the youngest just 6m old) we got caught when Sempati Air collapsed in Sept 1997. I am sure we had travel insurance coz I was paranoid about illness with the family (eldest is severe asthmatic). It was a discount holiday fare advertised in the newspaper that attracted us and had us get passports for the first time. We heard about the collapse when we called home, but we were still collected by transfer and taken to the airport - checked in, given boarding passes and waited for about 4 hours. Eventually someone gathered all the Perth passengers up and told them that flight would be in 2 days and please get back on the bus. We all did - had no idea where we were going. We were put up in a 5 star hotel in Nusa Dua (bit better than where we HAD been!) and given meal vouchers for breakfast, lunch and dinner to be used in the resturant. The negatives were I was concerned I would run out of nappies, baby food and ventolin (but I didn't coz I always over pack!) and the uncertainty of what would happen next, the positives were an extra few days holiday at someone elses expense. We were eventually flown home on a Merpati domestic plane, and despite being on an international route they allowed smoking - the boy almost died from an asthma attack! The flight had periods of electrical black out and occassionally dropped altitude, food was inedible. Landing was the worst I have experienced - but we got home safely.

 

We never had to do anything about the travel insurance, but I often wonder about that.... If it happened now I probably would just try to rebook on another airline and pay the fares - but I am older, wiser and have more disposable income nowadays.

[journey_man 0]

It looks like XL belonged to the CAA's ATOL scheme, which is a kind of insurance for the travelling public against travel company failures.

 

I seem to remember someone telling me once not to book anything through a non ATOL company.

 

MB most of your questions are answered here:

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=27

 

The travel insurance thing is a minefield because most policies say they will not pay if there is another insurance that could pay instead, so it is quite possible that you would have to take the ATOL offering even though it might be an inconvenience. Imagine 85,000 people all calling their insurers at once.

[HelperElfMissy 42]

Thanks for that JM...makes for interesting reading.

 

Poor folks that booked directly through XL Airways and Medlife! How'd ya be enjoying a vacation that you struggled to find the cash for, and then being told that what you paid for was gone - and to find your own way home. Harsh.

[Greenroome 0]

Originally Posted By: Mamabear

We were eventually flown home on a Merpati domestic plane, and despite being on an international route they allowed smoking - the boy almost died from an asthma attack! The flight had periods of electrical black out and occassionally dropped altitude, food was inedible. Landing was the worst I have experienced - but we got home safely.

I know this is off-topic but I really want people to be aware of Indonesia's deplorable aviation standards. With the exception of its institutions, I absolutely love Indonesia. It's people are fantastic, its waves are insane (I once got three tubes on one wave), and its natural beauty is breathtaking (especially Sumatra).

However their lack of proper transport regulation means they shouldn't be flying planes. I know they're not a rich country, and I can excuse their maritime and road transport standards (coz I can swim but they're not poor enough to excuse what happened in Yogykarta last year.

22 people died when Garuda Flight 200 came in to land at 410kmh, twice the normal landing speed, and skidded into a big ditch at the end of the runway run-off and burst into flames. The run-off area was a quarter of the recommended length, and the emergency vehicles were unable to reach the burning plan in sufficient time.

The investigation revealed that the wing flaps were not extended for landing, and pilots revealed that the reverse thrust of one engine had not been working prior to take-off. The pilot ignored 15 automated warnings from the plane and a number of requests from his co-pilot to go around and approach again.

As for the 410kmh landing speed, "a Garuda Pilots' Association official has speculated that the pilot could have been trying to save fuel due to a new fuel conservation bonus scheme recently introduced by Garuda Airlines" (Wikipedia).

This kind of stuff is not uncommon in Indonesia (or in other parts of S.E.A.). A laidback approach to coco-hut construction on the beach is one thing, but if you're gonna fly planes, you gotta do it right. I turned down the cheapest option for Perth - Tokyo (Garuda) earlier this year. We can all do our bit by boycotting dodgy carriers whenever possible.

[SKI 15]

Thanks for sharing Greenroome. I have never actually been to Indonesia but would like to.

[HelperElfMissy 42]

Oh...I would NEVER fly on an Indo airline again. At the time I was a complete beginner to flights/flying/international tourism - and just took what the travel agent said as gospel.....well worth doing the checks and paying a little bit more.

[thursday 1]

those were the days before online booking and you're at the mercy of the travel agent. I hate travel agents. Thank goodness we don't have to use them anymore.

[HoTRoD 2]

Me too. Agents in general.

They don't really have anything of their own do they?

[journey_man 0]

If you stumble on a good one, they're brilliant. Only about 1 in a 1000 are any good though.

[Amos in Utsunomia 0]

Not a good percentage that!

[big-will 7]

He's being kind as well!

[journey_man 0]