Alpharooms

2 x Holidays RUINED by Alpharooms! Never EVER book through with them!

Well what can be said about Alpharooms….. Fairly Cheap? Well yes. But at the same time Uncommunicable could also be said and ';you get what you pay for'.

Mainly just one thing should be said in particular DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE BOOK WITH THEM! I have never EVER dealt with a more unprofessional company…don't ruin your holiday for the sake of a few pounds off. It's honestly not worth it.

I made that mistake…twice. Neively originally booking a cheap trip to Ibiza in 2010 where Alpharooms placed us in a room with two single beds (after requesting a double). On our return I complained and received a 10% discount. So seeing an opportunity for a cheaper trip I decided to use it on a trip to New York with a transfer at Reykjavic from London.

Big Mistake.

Not only did it take more than several phone calls and emails to Alpharooms to actually establish our travelling vouchers and baggage allowance (we were told two bags for the hold and then just one, then two again..) encountering a range of 'customer sales representatives (2 out of 9 were English), the rest were foreign who could barely understand, nor speak English fluently themselves (Great idea for customer service placements). But when we finally arrived at the airport we were told curtly by the Iceland air representative that the sales person I'd spoken to at Alpharooms who'd wished me and my girlfriend 'a happy holiday together' had booked us several rows apart ON ALL OUR FLIGHTS!

He politely did his best to rectify this and booked us together on our main flight at the back of the plane to New York from Iceland - but for our 3 hour flight to Iceland from London we were sat over 3 rows away. My girlfriend was hugely distressed, especially as it was her birthday too. It was simply awful.

On our arrival in America I emailed and complained to Alpharooms. I received a curt reply saying they had ensured we were now seating with each other again on the journey back (so admitting they had booked us apart) but even more amazingly then then blamed me saying it was something they couldn't guarantee and that it wasn't their fault! Simply unbelievable

Needless to say I came back and emailed them. Its taken a further 6 emails to finally get to a senior customer sales representative. They've all rudely passed responsibility away from themselves. So I'm not seeking legal action against them.

What kind of travel company decides to book a party of two several rows apart on a flight, after you've stated you're travelling together.…. clearly not a proper one. But operates by filling planes like buses with no thoughts to the customer.

Please please please I implore you…give these guys a wide berth and go with well known booking agents such as Expedia, Thomas Cook, Trivago…anyone would be an improvement! They ended up pretty much ruining two holidays, don't make the same mistake we did!



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MY REPLY > TO ALPHAROOMS REPLY BELOW
As you'll see Alpharooms has since responded to this email in much the templated way that they contacted me when I raised these issues with them. They've done this on several review sites. So for fear of any mistruths I'll simply state my reply here

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The simple matter of the fact is Alpharooms, I DID state we were travelling together, several times. So the fact you have the audacity to blame me for not specifying this (when I did and your staff member said 'oh that sounds nice' before seeing fit to sit us several rows apart ) is sheer madness.

As I've already stated I've started legal support for this matter and I will be getting my money back. Along the way also ensuring that any other potential customers don't have to suffer in the way that I did with such a company as yours.

18 December 2012

Reply from alpharooms.com

Thank you for your correspondence in relation to your flight booking. Firstly, please accept my apologies that you have felt it necessary to contact us about problems that you encountered with your flight.

We appreciate any feedback about your experiences as this enables us to improve the quality of our services.

I want to address all the issues you have raised and have summarized the key points below.

We do not state on our front page that you will not be guaranteed seats together. However, when making the booking you did agree to the Airlines Terms and Conditions. We have previously advised you that the airlines conditions state that seats together cannot be guaranteed.
We are not responsible for seating on the aircraft, this is the responsibility of the carrier.

The representative you spoke to booked exactly what you requested. If guaranteed seats together were such an important factor in making your booking it is your responsibility to explicitly make this clear during the call. If you had done this the representative would have been able to advise you on this matter.

Had you asked for seats together during the call we would have been able to advise you on this matter. The responsibility lies with you to ensure you have made the correct booking.

Having investigated this matter I can confirm that no refund will be offered.

Once again, I would like to thank you for taking the time to write to us with your views. I hope that my remarks will give some assurance that your feedback has been taken seriously.

Thanks.