Be careful with Smartwings!
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Arlington, VA
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Be careful with Smartwings!
Myself and a group of friends are/were supposed to be travelling from Dublin to Prague on 31/03/05 until 04/04/05.
They had all made a group booking with Smartwings.cz but since I was late deciding to go I made my own booking with them which strangely turned out to be almost twice as cheap as the price my friends were each paying.
Anyway everything was fine until last friday when my friend who was organising the trip called me to say Smartwings had been in touch and that their group booking had been cancelled...
Something along the lines of:
"we are sorry to inform you that due to market demand in the air traffic we are forced to make an optimalization of our timetable.
Thanks to this the flights to Zurich and Copenhagen have to be cancelled as well as summer flights to Dublin.
We strongly recommend you to consult our timetable. We are sorry for any inconvenience"
Furthermore they WILL NOT give a refund.
Whilst I'm supposed to be on the same flights, I have not yet received any information through any medium from Smartwings to say my booking has been cancelled so as it stands i'm going to PRG on my own... and I will have a few rooms to myself once I get there because our accomodation has also already been booked.
I've checked my insurance incase my booking should be cancelled but the ticket price falls just short of the excess for cancellation
My friend has tried to contact them but she said so far response from customer services had been quite rude and abrupt, so they are not a happy bunch!
Has anyone here had the same experience with Smartwings? Any ideas on trying to get a refund? I'm not particularly looking forward to going there on my own and leaving 15 friends behind!
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Addendum:
Thanks to czech friend of mine: she called them up for me in czech and after I gave them my CC no. they have agreed to refund me for the flight within 14 days and they confirmed they had dropped all flights to/from Dublin, Zurich etc
I would advise anyone who has not yet received a cancellation notice get in touch with airline right away as they will provide you with a refund (as required under EU legislation)
They had all made a group booking with Smartwings.cz but since I was late deciding to go I made my own booking with them which strangely turned out to be almost twice as cheap as the price my friends were each paying.
Anyway everything was fine until last friday when my friend who was organising the trip called me to say Smartwings had been in touch and that their group booking had been cancelled...
Something along the lines of:
"we are sorry to inform you that due to market demand in the air traffic we are forced to make an optimalization of our timetable.
Thanks to this the flights to Zurich and Copenhagen have to be cancelled as well as summer flights to Dublin.
We strongly recommend you to consult our timetable. We are sorry for any inconvenience"
Furthermore they WILL NOT give a refund.
Whilst I'm supposed to be on the same flights, I have not yet received any information through any medium from Smartwings to say my booking has been cancelled so as it stands i'm going to PRG on my own... and I will have a few rooms to myself once I get there because our accomodation has also already been booked.
I've checked my insurance incase my booking should be cancelled but the ticket price falls just short of the excess for cancellation
My friend has tried to contact them but she said so far response from customer services had been quite rude and abrupt, so they are not a happy bunch!
Has anyone here had the same experience with Smartwings? Any ideas on trying to get a refund? I'm not particularly looking forward to going there on my own and leaving 15 friends behind!
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Addendum:
Thanks to czech friend of mine: she called them up for me in czech and after I gave them my CC no. they have agreed to refund me for the flight within 14 days and they confirmed they had dropped all flights to/from Dublin, Zurich etc
I would advise anyone who has not yet received a cancellation notice get in touch with airline right away as they will provide you with a refund (as required under EU legislation)
Last edited by Chicharrero; 31st Jan 2005 at 15:17.
