A Warrington woman has vowed never to go on another package holiday after being forced to fight for months to get adequate compensation when her luggage was lost for six days.
Pat Mullen’s bag was lost on a JMC holiday flight to Turkey, for which she was offered £75 in compensation by the operator.
But the Citizens Advice Bureau office manager told the operator she thought the payout was inadequate. “I just couldn’t let it rest,” she said. “It didn’t seem right.”
Four months later – after contacting MPs, MEPs, the Air Transport Users’ Council, the Office of Fair Trading and others – Mullen was offered £317 from Thomas Cook as compensation under the International Warsaw Convention on airline liability.
But she is disgusted she had to pursue the matter for so long before getting her legal consumer entitlements and claims ABTA was unhelpful.
“It’s definitely put me off further package holiday travel,” Mullen said. “I’m sure there are a lot of really good operators doing a great job, but it only takes one bad experience to deter someone for life.”
A Thomas Cook spokeswoman said: “The initial payment was made in good faith as a quick option for customers who prefer not to wait for further investigations. Ms Mullen opted to pursue a full investigation.”
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