Given below is the itinerary we received.
Leaving on 18'th May, 2008
- Kansas to Houston Continental Airways
- Houston to Dubai on Emirates
- Dubai to Colombo on Sir Lankan Airlines
Return 17'th May, 2008
- Colombo to Dubai on Sri Lankan Airlines
- Dubai to Houston on Emirates
- Houston to Kansas on Continental Airways
Even though we found another ticket for $100 less (each) and we could save $200, I decided to go ahead and book this flight instead, because we like the level of service provided by Sri Lankan Airlines and Emirates, rather than US carriers.
25'th January, 2008
We bought 2 tickets for 18'th May, from Top Holidays, NY and paid in full. After about 2-3days we received my paper tickets by mail.
1'st April, 2008
Received an e-mail from Top Holidays confirming all the flights and new flight numbers.
18'th May, 2008
08:00AM - We arrived at Kansas City International Airport (MCI) at 8AM after a 2hour ($60 each) shuttle ride. Our flight was scheduled to leave MCI at 11.15AM to Houston International Airport. Went to the check-in counter and we were informed that our tickets have been canceled by the travel agent. Then they connected me to an Emirates agent and they informed me that Top Holidays has canceled my tickets on 1'st of April. They also told me that they have requested all the travel agents to update flight numbers/information on 1'st of April because of some scheduled changes, and most probably Top Holidays has made an error while doing this. Instead of updating the details they have canceled my whole reservation.
We requested them to re-book us but were told that it's out of their hands, Since Top Holidays canceled our reservation they have refunded the money to Top Holidays and I no longer have any reservations in their system.
10.15AM - Sent an e-mail asking them to contact me.
01.00PM - Called more than 10 times but still no answer.
03.20PM - Sent another e-mail with the full description of the problem.
- Top Holidays knew that such a problem exist, but they neglected to take care of it before hand. They would rather let their customers be stranded in air ports across USA and after try to fix the problem later.
- A friend of mine flew to Sri Lanka the day before (17'th May) on the same route same air line without any problems. Only conclusion that I can arrive from that is that her travel agent worked proactively to prevent the problem.
Prasanna told me that he would call me at 7AM tomorrow with a new booking.
19'th May, 2008
09.45 AM - Still no call from Top Holidays, so sent them an e-mail asking about the status.
10.15 AM - Received an itinerary from Top Holidays and not only was this for 20th May (2days after the earlier scheduled date) the route they have scheduled was a nightmare
- Kansas (MCI) to New York(JFK) on Midwest Airline
- New York (La Guardia) to Dubai on Emirates
- Dubai to Colombo on Emirates
Please note that first leg is to JFK and second leg starts from La Guardia. Even though the Travel Agent is based in New York City (and all this confusion is their fault) they didn't arrange any mode of transportation for us from JFK to La Guardia. We were asked to arrange our own mode of transportation to get to La Guardia. This practically defeated the whole purpose of us spending extra $200 for this ticket, when we could have gotten another tickets for less from another travel agent.
02.15 PM - Just when we thought that everything was going according to the plan, they contact us and inform that Midwest Airline doesn't accept e-tickets and they would have to FedEx us paper tickets.
05.30 PM - Package was FedExed and we received the tracking number. There was nothing to do but hope that the package will arrive on time for tomorrow's flight.
20'th May, 2008
09.00 AM - Received the tickets
01.20 PM - Checked in the 4 baggeges and boarded the flight from MCI to La Guardia.
05.00 PM - Arrived at La Guardia. Collected our baggaes, since Airline doesn't forward baggaes between airport, where there's no connecting flights. (Had to spend another unnecessary $6 to get two baggage carts)
05.30 PM - Collected the four baggages (50lbs each, so that's 200lbs total to carry across the city) Also please note that this is additional to the two 15lbs carry on luggages and the Laptop bag. Took a Taxi to JFK from La Guardia.
06.00 PM - Arrived at JFK and spent another unnecessary $6 to get two baggage carts and went to the checking counter and checked in the baggages. I'm happy to say at least the rest of the journey went smoothly up to Colombo, and also the return journey.
Now the second part of the adventure
24'th June, 2008
Wrote a complaint about their irresponsible behavior to Ajith asking for a partial refund for our trouble and e-mailed him. I also specifically asked him to reply to my mail on or before 26'th June and inform me that status.
Let me just summarize the tangible loss we had to suffer due to their mistake.
- 2 day Hotel bill
- 6 meals per person (a total of 12 meals)
- Telephone call expenses (Since we don't own a mobile)
- For baggage carts at La Guardia and JFK
- Most of all two days of paid vacation days
As for intangible loss/trouble,
- trouble we went through trying to find their mobile numbers
- searching for a place to stay for the night
- travelling from La Guardia to JFK carrying a total of 230lbs baggages
- All the excitement of going to Sri Lanka after a long time was ruined
27'th June, 2008
Still no reply from Top Holidays, so I decided to call them. It was such a tedious and time wasting process. Just to stop you readers from wasting your time I'll put those details in a list below.
Given below times are in Eastern Standard Time (Since the Travel agent is located in NY, you can associate their working hours with these times)
27'th June 10:00AM - Talked to Prasanna and he told me that Ajith would get back to me.
30'th June 02:50PM - Talked to Chamila and leave a msg for Ajith
30'th June 04:30PM - Talked to Chamila and leave a msg for Ajith
01'st July - 5 calls to the office number during working hours, but no one answers
01'st July 12:20PM - Called Ajith's Mobile. (He knows it's me who is calling since he has both my home and office numbers)
01'st July 02:45PM - Talked to Prasanna and he told me that he would ask Ajith to get back to me
01'st July 04:50PM - Called Office. No answer.
02'nd July 10:00AM - Talked to Chamila and asked Prasanna to get back to me
02'nd July 11:45AM - No word from Prasanna. Talked to Chamila again
02'nd July 12:25AM - Still No word from Prasanna. Talked to Chamila again
02'nd July 01:50AM - Prasanna has called me during lunch hour (12.50 Central) and left a voice mail informing that Ajith would get back to me tomorrow morning
03'rd July 11:15AM - No word from Ajith. Call the office and talk to Chamila. She told me that Ajith is in another call and he would get back to me with in 1/2hrs time.
03'rd July 12:15PM - Called and talked to chamila since Ajith didn't get back to me. Ask him to call me within next 15 minutes or drop me an e-mail after that (since I would be out of the office)
03'rd July 01:20PM - Ajith has called since he knows for sure that I won't be at the office, and left me a voice mail.
07'th July 09:40AM - Talked to Chamila and asked Ajith to get back to me
07'th July 01:15PM - Called the office and Ajith answered the phone. He told me that he's in another call and he would call me before 4.30PM
07'th July 04:45PM - Called the office, no answer. Called Ajith's mobile still no answer
08'th July 10:10AM - Called office no answer
08'th July 10:30AM - Called office no answer
08'th July 11:45AM - Ajith called
7'th of July, 2008
I contacted Ben Popken at Consumerist.com regarding legal actions that I could take against Top Holidays.
8'th of July, 2008
Finally Ajith contacted me at 11.45 AM (Two weeks after my initial e-mail to him) and offered me only $200 to cover part of my expenses. He said he's not willing to cover rest of the expenses or provide any compensation for me for the trouble I had to go through because of their mistake, and further told me that he is giving the $200 just as a courtesy from Top Holidays. He also mentioned that they don't take responsibility for the tickets after they issues them, and they can't help me with rest of the expenses or the two paid vacation days I lost. He promised me that he will mail the check for $200 first thing tomorrow (9'th July)
13'th July, 2008
Still I didn't receive the check or any communication from Top Holidays. Ben at Consumerist.com has posted my problem in the blog and nearly 6000 people have read it with first couple of hours. (around 8800 views up to now) From its comments I noticed that some readers of the blog have contacted Top Holidays trying to figure out how they were operating and I suspect Ajith got to know about the blog entry on consumerist.
07.30 PM - Surprisingly things started to speed up after this and out of the blue I received an e-mail from Ajith saying that he mailed the check today (5 days after the promised date)
After all this trouble Top Holidays still owes me money for my expenses, two paid vacation days and my trouble. But been a lousy organization they refuse to take responsibility for their actions and I doubt that I will receive the compensation I deserve.
I wanted to document the nightmare that was created for me by Top Holidays and warn you about this so called travel agency. Just stop for a moment and think, are you willing to go through this trouble and looses hundred of dollars? I would suggest that you do business with a reliable and reputed travel agent and have a peace of mind in your travel arrangements.
P.S. : You are free to leave comments if you wish
The comments we received through e-mail are also added to the post.
