RSD Travel
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Tour to Northern Cypru
We went on the tour to Northern Cyprus on May 26, 2018. the itineary scheduled for our flight (Freebird airline) to depart from Gatwick airport at 12,25 pm. Lo and behold, !2,25 pm came and went. The schedule board showed that our flight was delayed until 3 pm, then 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm. It wasn't until 7 pm before we boarded the plane. No representative from RSD company or Freebird airline came forward to explain to us why our flight was delayed. We were just abandoned there. We heard from heresay story about the flight having technical problems whilst it was still in Turkey. Someone handed out food Vouchers of £10 to compensate for the delay. We didn't know who this person was and how he managed to find all of us at the main concourse! Our flight then flew to Manchester, dropped off some passengers and picked up more passengers. Then onward we bound for Antolia. There the crew changed shift and we took off again. Considering we had waited up to 7 hours for our flight to Manchester, you would expect that you would offered a conplimentary drink for consolation but none was forth-coming. When we finally landed at Ercon International airport, it was almost 6 am in the morning. So we missed a day and a night of our 8-day tour. The intierary informed us that there would be someone meeting us at the arrival area, but there was no one. We looked for this person, we found him outside the arrival area. So I sent him in to greet the passengers! We met our tour guide who was pleasant. He acknowledged that we had missed a day of our tour but he said nothing about compensation. The hotel Crown Plaza was nice enough but the air-conditioning system in our room was not working. We had to sleep with our balcony door open. The next day I was covered in Mosquito bites when I woke up. I called the reception three times to send someone up to see to the airconditiong unit but no-one came forth to do the job. Whilst we were at the hotel, my relatives spent hundreds of US dollars on two 'LV' handbags. Afterwards, they went online to check the product, They were faked LV handbags. The man in the shop told them they were genuin LV bags. Luckily our tour guide managed to reclain=m the full amount. The money was delivered by hand but the tour guide asked my relatives to pay for the taxi that brough this man thee. I supposed it was fair enough. They were lucky we had a tour guide who was helpful. We enjoyed the options tours but this tour was full of commercial visits. The tour guide and the salesman benfited from our purchases, We could have spent more days on sight-seeing! Then on the fourth day of our tour, our tour guide told us he had finished his work with us and reminded us to pay him and the driver tips. On the fifth day, we had a new tour guide and a new bus driver. I am wondering now if this was a strategy of the guides to extract more money from us. I think I forgot to tip the new guide anyway. Why did we have to have a new guid midway through our trip? The return flight with freebird was normal enough. But when we landed in Turkey (antalia, we were told to leave the plalne and board another one. They told us there was a technical fault on our scheduled plane. We had to go through very tight and strict security. We were body-searched, frisked and had all our bags turned inside out. We were rewarded with a free drink each. We were delayed for more than an hour. We finally arrived at Gatwick. When I got home, I went on the ?Which website, clicked on flight delays, filled the boxes with scheduled flight times and the date of travel. The Which informed me that I was entitled to be compensted for 400 euros (for each passenger ) if our flight was more than three hour delay. The which website drafted a standard letter and sent it to my email. I copied it and sent it to Freebird customer service. True enough, Freebird headquater (operated from Turkey) responded immediately. They offered a fast paymen of 250 Euros each, but if we opte for 400 euros, the process will take a long time. This is very odd. I opted for 400 Euros and I sent an email today with scanned copies of my passport, boarding pass and my account number which they asked for. I checked for authenticity and it is. I am waiting. I asked for compensation of a lost of one night hotel stay. I am not being greedy. I was so tired for day 2 of the option tours that I did not enjoy it! Freebird said it was not their remit to pay for lost hotel time. They asked me to write to RSD. We shall wait and see how this unfolds! We have booked to go to India with this company and I am dreading it!!! Sarah