Titan Travel
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Captivating Crete and Aegean Cruise
Our original booked holiday (Greek Island Medley) was cancelled by Titan after sending the final confirmation to us confirming our holiday was going ahead. They rang us up a few days later to say the holiday had been cancelled, just 3 weeks before the holiday departure date as a hotel was overbooked. Even their booking conditions state that ‘we will not cancel after the balance due date, except for Unavoidable and Extraordinary Circumstances’ - overbooking a hotel does not meet any definition of unavoidable nor extraordinary. They rebooked us on this (more expensive) trip instead (as it has near similar dates and as we work we couldn't change our time off at such late notice). However Titan now charged us an additional late payment fee of £551.56 (for increased flight costs even after confirming by phone this would not be charged as they had flights available from their original allocation) for moving us to another trip (the one reviewed here). They felt £500 goodwill gesture was a good compensation payment, less than their late booking surcharge on the replacement holiday, clearly leaving us out of pocket (plus the base cost of the holiday was higher). In context at the same time they were advertising giving new customers higher discounts than this when they are trying to fill gaps on holidays (including different dates for the cancelled tour), but won’t suitably compensate existing customers. Shore Excursions and Pre-Information: We then had no end of problems with the cruise booking and shore excursions – all Titan published information (including on the booking confirmation) told us to book with Celestyal direct, the provided information never allowed this and Celestyal themselves confirmed on multiple occasions that Titan has to make the bookings as this was a group booking, that the Titan provided information was incorrect. This added more stress and us having ourselves to get Titan and Celestyal to resolve this. None of the information that Celestyal provided to Titan around our booking has ever been passed on to us, we still are awaiting the confirmation of shore excursions booking/invoice, Celestyal notified Titan that a tour was cancelled which was never passed on and important pre-cruise information was not forwarded by Titan. All of this was sent by Celestyal to Titan to pass on. Currently we do not have the refund for those cancelled shore excursions with Celestyal saying they are awaiting information from Titan, we are hundreds of pounds out of pocket as a result. There is no functioning agreement between MS Celestyal and Titan around Shore Excursions with both saying the other are responsible On Tour: Titan failed to advise the rep we were now on their tour and it was pure luck we saw the rep in the departure lounge before we left Gatwick so she knew to wait for us on arrival in Crete, else we would have been left behind at the airport in Crete. I totally agree with some over comments on this site regarding the mobility of people on tours is often not suitable for the tour – which slows everyone else down and results in parts of the itinerary being missed. This tour is not suitable for anyone with mobility issues, we had two people fall on our trip requiring medical intervention that we witnessed, and the end result was not just the tour ruined for those individuals but we missed out on seeing things as a result. Titan make no reference when booking that many Saga clients will be on the tour, and there is nothing in the Titan documentation or booking conditions that states we have to accept that some on the tour may have poor mobility and the holiday may be impacted as a result. Crete Hotel: The hotel was advertised as 4 star and was 2 star (there are other complaints re this hotel on this site saying the same) The room was basic, the beds hard with a very thin mattress and the bathroom so small you couldn’t even open the door fully. To get to the shower you had to negotiate the high sided bath which was a health and safety hazard. Titan are misadvertising/selling this hotel. Complaint: This has been all logged as a formal complaint with Titan and will be followed through the ATOL ADR process if necessary.