What would you do in this situation?? vacation related..(LONG)
Original post by dajc23
Ok so my brother and his gf (18 & 19yrs old respectively) decided to book a trip to Ireland in August as my brother's graduation/last trip before college vacation. They used a travel agent that my family has been using for years. Last week my mom receives an email stating the remaining balance needed to be paid by the end of the week. my mom goes over it and realizes that this new invoice is almost $700 MORE than what was originally quoted. So she immediately starts questioning the TA. After much research and emails etc., it turns out the 'TA fees' were not included in the contract that my mom originally received. My mom flips saying that its not her fault, they agreed upon that first amount. Blah blah they go back and forth and ended up needing to pay it. My brother and his gf split it.
Fast forward to monday the TA contacts my mother again saying that the tour guide they were going to be staying with in Ireland now says that they are NOT able to go on the trip b/c they are not 'of age'. They need to be 21 otherwise accompanied by an adult. Now it's like WW3 and all hell broke loose. My brother, gf, and mom are LIVIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD. The tour company said its the TA's fault, she should have known or at least inquired about the age restriction. So since monday they've all been fighting over it. The TA said she will do everything to get their money back (my mom said that she better get back every penny or there will be hell to pay) She was able to get back the money for the land (hotel, tours etc.) but NOT the airfare which was almost $2k!!!!!! The airline refuses. My mom has things in writing from the tour co and the airline fighting them on this.
Now what does one do in this situation? Do you file a complaint and bring this to court, trying to get back $2k (which to anyone now a days is A LOTTTT of money) or do you say f*ck it and never bother with these people again?
ETA- that this trip was completely paid for by my brother and his gf. They've saved up for almost a year!
ChristineAaron08
Posted:
Member since
Re: What would you do in this situation?? vacation related..(LONG)
Fight like hell for the $$ back. If this TA has received a lot of business from your family in the past, she should figure it out.
Cutechef729
Posted:
Member since
Re: What would you do in this situation?? vacation related..(LONG)
Wow I feel so bad for all of them! Is it possible that they just go to Ireland and do their own thing? There are so many tourbooks/resources online that I'm sure they could find stuff to do. (We actually visited Dublin on our hm so feel free to FM me if you have questions.) I am asking because there's really no drinking age in Europe so I don't see why they wouldn't be able to do most of the things you can do in Ireland. I'm sure they could go to Jameson/Guiness and if there is an age restriction I think it would only be that they wouldn't be able to have the drink that comes with the tour. At least if they went to Ireland even without the tour the airfare wouldn't go to waste and they'd get to enjoy the trip. Good luck!
ETA: Were the hotels booked in their name or your mom's?
