Holidaymaker fuming as firm refuses to cancel his next trip

BY MAYA CHAVVAKULA
toby@slpmedia.co.uk

A holidaymaker is fuming after his travel agent refused to cancel a future trip even after his claims that they mishandled his two previous outings.

Roger Conetta, 77, of Old Kent Road, booked three all-inclusive packages to Spain with SuperEscapes – but claims he missed flights back from both because of its errors.

The agency failed to arrange his transport back to the airport from the first, earlier this year in Majorca, despite several reminders.

Roger ended up hiring a taxi privately which cost him nearly £100.

Mr Conetta said: “I don’t think I have ever been so disgusted by the way the company, as big as it is, has treated me. “I have already sent in a complaint to them and sadly they did nothing about it apart from offending me with their response. I was very upset.

The hotel staff were very friendly and did their best to help but there was only so much they could do. I missed my flight and had to take a later one.”

SuperEscapes promised to investigate the issue and ensure that it would not be repeated. But on his next trip to Spain to the same set of friends, Conetta said his transfer to the airport crashed when the driver tried to go under bridge that was too low. Roger claimed he had to wait for nearly two hours for the replacement to arrive – so he missed the flight again.

He said: “That was the last straw. “I don’t want to deal with them ever again.”

He decided to cancel the third holiday he had booked in advance with them – only to be told he would not get any of his deposit back. SuperEscapes said they were just the conduit between the client and the service providers and cannot make any guarantees on the supplier’s behalf.

Steve Pall, customer care executive at SuperEscapes, said: “We work with different suppliers for our package holidays and when something goes wrong, the suppliers are responsible for the compensation.

“In Mr Conetta’s case we initiated an investigation into the issue and we are waiting for a reply from our suppliers. Unfortunately, we cannot return the deposit for his forthcoming holiday as it is booked with a different set of suppliers.

“If the resolution with the suppliers is not to Mr Conetta’s satisfaction then we may step in and take responsibility for the extra costs that he incurred.”

SuperEscapes offered to pay him £10 as compensation. They insist that the complaints are being dealt with seriously and Conetta must not cancel his holiday over “just two minor incidents”.