I spent 4hrs this afternoon trying to persuadeSovereign that it should sort out its mistake, not my mistake, for the benefit of a customer.
On April 26 a customer booked a holiday to Bali for eight nights from August 20. The flight was a morning flight with Singapore Airlines upgraded to Raffles class. The confirmation showed the details for flight and accommodation, total cost £4,538.
Over a week ago Ichased Sovereign for tickets and again at the end of last week. I received a phone call from Sovereign this lunchtime to say it had no agreement with Singapore Airlines for Raffles class on the morning flight from Heathrow and would the customer accept a Malaysian flight, which included a stopover in Kuala Lumpur on the return or an evening Singapore Airlines flight which included a stopover in Singapore both ways, which would reduce the Bali holiday from eight to five nights?
Sovereign had the gall to say that the alternative offered was reasonable and came within its terms and conditions. Is a 37.5% reduction in holiday time from eight to five nights reasonable?
In truth this was a Sovereign cock-up and it waited until three days before travel to exertmaximum pressure on the customer to accept an alternative. What a disgraceful way to treat acustomer. It was left to me to speak to all the people I could speak to in Sovereign, including its legal department. Even though it says in its brochure that the Singapore Airlines flight is a morning flight andRaffles class upgrade is available, it somehow does not accept either legal or moral responsibility.
On the other hand Iam a small agent who cares about his customer enough to spend 4hrs for no reward, and in fact, I lost bookings whereas Sovereign made the mistake, hid the mistake, would not do the decent thing and book the seats at full price so the customer did not suffer. I offer them an amended slogan – ‘Take a rest from Sovereign’.
Bernard Johnson, Ashby Travel, Lutterworth
n Editor’s note:We would welcome a response fromSovereign