JMC and Cosmos have criticised Airtours for taking emergency contact details from customers and using the data to sell timeshare holidays.
The operators said they will investigate the claim that telephone numbers given on an Airtours International flight to Florida were passed to staff working for the Airtours Vacation Ownership division. Holidaymakers were then contacted and offered $100 to attend a timeshare sales pitch. The claim was made in a letter to Travel Weekly from an operator who asked to remain unnamed.
“This is a morally dubious sales tactic and raises serious issues about Airtours’ commercial integrity,” he said.
Cosmos sales and marketing director Paul Riches said the practice was unacceptable.
He said: “There are some promotional methods which are fine but this isn’t one of them.”
JMC sales director Dennis Wormwell added: “What is appalling is that we take seats on an Airtours flight in good faith and do not expect our customers to be subjected to sales pitches by Airtours.”
An Airtours spokeswoman confirmed emergency details may be passed to other divisions of the company but stressed that customers who tick a box at the bottom of the form will not be contacted.