Unbeleivable greed by 4 companies concerned

I recently had to cancel a holiday that was booked with Cosmos through Co-oP travel because of a very serious illness. This holiday was cancelled at very short notice and as a consequence I lost all monies paid, and that included all supplements and taxes.
Because I was going to be away for 3 weeks I sent my books etc by post to the hotel. as that was cheaper than paying for excess baggage weight. This parcel was received by the hotel, and I emailed them asking them to send it back to me. They replied that it would cost me 15 euros for them to do so. I replied that in view that they had received payment for my cancelled 3 week stay the least they could do was to send it back at their expense. This they have refused to do, but did offer to hold onto it until I next booked at the hotel, In that email they also stated that COSMOS could not help in getting the parcel back to me.

WHY HAS THE HOLIDAY INDUSTRY BECOME SO VERY VERY GREEDY??????
THIS HOLIDAY COST ME NEARLY £750-00 AND AMONGST THOSE LISTED BELOW NOT ONE COULD DO THE DECENT THING AND ARRANGE FOR THE RETURN OF THIS PARCEL FOR A MISERLY 15 EUROS.
I am fortunately insured and will I hope get my money back. but for a miserly 15 euros I would have expected for the sake of customer relations some one along the line to have done some thing about getting my parcel back to me.
THE 4 COMPANIES INVOLED ARE Co-oP TRAVEL
COSMOS HOLIDAYS
MONARCH AIRWAYS
HOTEL ALCAZAR Monte Gordo Portugal
I DID NOT CHOOSE TO BE TAKEN ILL AT SHORT NOTICE, HAD I DONE SO MY CHOICE OF ILLNESS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN LIFE THREATENING. H W Atkins
IF ANY PERSON FROM COSMOS DOES READ THIS THEN I HOPE THEY ACT UPON IT. THEY ALREADY HAVE ALL MY DETAILS ON THE INVOICE FOR NEARLY £750-00 SENT TO ME.
UNFORTUNATELY I HAVE HAD TO LEAVE A 1 STAR RATING.
EVEN THAT IS FAR TOO HIGH FOR THIS LEVEL OF GREED

show the extras at the start!

decided to change my flight back from malaga....£44.00..all looks cheap until you add on seats and luggage!!! always good service...but!!!!

2 holidays this year, both excellent

We holidayed twice with the Cosmos group this year (once with Monarch and once with Cosmos) and both times the holiday was excellent, much better than the price would suggest. We intend to use them again.

Dismal.

An airline from hell.
Rude staff on the ground and inconsiderate jobsworths in the air.
Gatwick? A very suitable place for the airline from hell to fly from.
Cramped "cattle class" seating.
Yes, you get what you pay for, but never ever again. I'd sooner swim than cross their grubby palms with my silver again.

Marcellus Howes found this review useful

The Nile but not as we know it

My wife and I went on the Nile in March 2011 after booking through Cosmos.
We were the first group back into Egypt after the troubles. The holiday was great and as there were no tourists around sight seeing was easy without crowds.
The only negative I would say was lack of quality entertainment in the evenings. Perhaps not really Cosmos's fault but then they sell the holiday.

Well done Monarch

We fly to Malaga 8 times a year we allways have very good crew and the pre orderd meal is a good as BA .THe planes are clean and on time

Fureteventura - April 2011

Booked via Sunshine Holidays - no problems at all with ticketing/flights/hotel etc etc. Only saw rep for about 10 mins on 2nd day of arrival but had emergency info - really nice not to be hasselled into buying trips etc. Would recommend Cosmos again. Liked the neat rucksack supplied by Sunshine Holidays.

Marginally better than Ryanair

I use budget airlines and this one is fairly inexpensive and while they have good onboard staff - i have to rate them as poor in terms of overall standards. Why - because they outsource their ground services at Gatwick airport to the worst company i have encountered for customer service - called Swissport.
If i give Monarch one tip. Get your own ground staff and improve your customer facing image.
Swissport were surely, disninterested and rude to a number of travellers.
We booked in advance and reserved seats as a family of 4 (Monarch charged us to pre book our seats). We got to the airport 2 hrs in advance (well within recommenced time) but they cue was large. By the time we checked in - the Swissport ground staff reallocated our seats. They broke up our family. My wife is a very nervous flyer and they split us up and we had my nervous wife with a 3 year old and my separated with a 5 year old. All this despite having reserved the seats.
We tried to complain but they point blank refused to accept it and were rude and aggressive.
I will never use Monarch again - not for their customer service standards (which were very good on board) - but because they outsource to that shambles.

Had to take them to court and won

We won a Monarch Airlines competition. The prize won was a voucher for two return flights to the Canary Islands. Monarch flew us out but cancelled our return flights and said they could not get us back to the UK for a week. But that is not the bad bit. They said because we had got the flights for free Monarch was not going to pay any expenses or accomodation charges even though they had cancelled the flight. We took them to county court and won because Monarch did not make us aware of the competition prize full terms and conditions they wanted to apply. Monarch should have made us aware of ALL the prize conditons both at competition entry and when receiving the winners prize voucher. The court case number was 0QT63850 in Dartford County Court. Monarch Airlines should not have ignored our letters to Customer Services. The local Monarch rep should have been given more power to deal with the problem in the resort including looking after us.. Monarch state on their web site "Customer care and service lie at the heart of the Group’s business approach" .. They must be joking.. Very poor show.. Shame on you Monarch Airlines Ltd

great holiday

just had a great villa holiday with cosmos.
everything went well, and to plan. stayed in very nice accomodation. the reps are very friendly and helpful. what more could you ask for?

Will use Cosmos again

Great prices and good flight times (shame about the naff charter airlines) but apart from the one greeting meeting - you're left well alone to enjoy your holiday - will use them again!