Paramount Cruises
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Left to find our own way home from Spain!!
I hope anyone reading this sees a fair and balanced review. We booked the MSC Cruise and Spanish F1 Grand Prix package, sailing out of Barcelona with return flights from Manchester with EasyJet. The booking process was smooth and easy with one hiccup...my credit card details were inadvertently saved by the booking agent, and then it was charged with a second deposit on someone else's holiday!! Once identified, quickly refunded. The whole trip....flights out, cruise, excursions, 2 days at the F1, Barcelona hotel all good. The issue came on the Monday morning when we were due to fly back to the UK. Our flight was cancelled by EasyJet and we received an email around 2am but only became aware when our Paramount Rep contacted up about 6.45am as we'd not seen email. The ability to change our flight was through a link on the email from EasyJet but the two flights out of Barcelona that day were both full. The easiest option would have been to have another day/night in Barcelona and then fly out on the Tuesday. This, however, was not an option as I had very important work commitments on Tuesday morning so really needed to fly back to the UK on Monday. The Rep came to meet us in the hotel lobby and alternative flight options were explored. A flight out of Alicante that evening was identified and had seats. Before committing to changing our flight it was OK'd with the Rep that we could take that flight and that she would sort out our transfers. She then left as we "were sorted" , going to help a colleague at another hotel, and said she's be in touch with our transfer details. Approximately 30 mins later she called to say that the transfer company they use could not accommodate such a journey (400 miles) at short notice.......and that we "Needed to arrange our own transfer!!!" As a practical guy I ended up renting a car and driving the 400 miles, after we'd explored the options of trains. A complaint was lodged with Paramount and to be honest, I have been extremely disappointed by their lack of accountability. They are taking the stance that I chose to drive to the connecting airport and their responsibility was to provide the original transfer to Barcelona, which they would have fulfilled. Even when faced with the fact that they forced me into that action, when they told me to make my own arrangements, after we'd checked and only booked those flights because they stated they'd transfer us, still met with a poor response. In summary, this company appears to do most things well when they go to plan, but in our case let us down badly when unexpected events happened and I believe the rep (who holds a senior title) was excessively stressed, out of her depth and made an extremely poor choice in terms of her support (or lack of) to us. In hindsight, many things could have been done differently, but one thing is for sure, Paramount receive no recommendations or future business from us.