Next step in the complaint cycle?
Sister-in-law, her husband, daughter and friend were due to travel to Canada from LGW with Globespan in September, having booked at the beginning of this year, and paid a 10% deposit. S-I-L suffers from a form of cancer that is incurable, but with a bout of chemo and a stem cell transplant can be very slow in advancing. At the time of booking there was no immediate likelihood of treatment being required that would clash with the holiday, but earlier in the summer her consultant decided that the stem cell transplant would be necessary earlier than he had expected, and should take place in July. With the expected recovery period being about 3 months this meant that the Canadian trip would need to be postponed.
So far so good. However a check of Globespan's schedule revealed that the LGW flight series ended at the end of September, and so the plan was to reschedule onto a 2010 flight when they became available - for a fee flights can be changed onto any currently on sale, which was fine. S-I-L spoke to Globespan about this when the departure minus 10 weeks point came, at which the balance needed to be paid. The Call Centre operative was very understanding, and explained that the 2010 flights would be on sale by August, and so they could pay the balance now, and then once the 2010 flights were available, and more than 7 days prior to the original departure, make the change required.
Unfortunately for some reason Globespan have even now not put the 2010 Canada flights on sale (I wonder if they ever will), and so the required change could not be made. S-I-L had expected to lose the deposit, but considers it unfair that Globespan took the balance under what were effectively false pretences (although she accepts that the call centre agent probably made the rebooking suggestion in good faith).
A letter to Globespan outlining this issue, and requesting a refund of the balance that was paid has (eventually, after 6 weeks) had the response 'sorry - tough luck - read the T&Cs'.
Question now is where to go next? Reply to them giving them 14 days to give a satisfactory response, then the small claims court? Get Tom Dalrymple's phone number (El Grifo? - read your thread on your GSM woes)?
Suggestions gratefully received.