The only reason I am even telling this sorry tale is to let people know that Lastminute.com should come with a health warning! It is a long narrative if you can be bothered to read it. But they are a despicable company and should no longer be allowed to conduct their illegal business practices. Covid is no excuse for their total lack of customer service and outright lies to their customers!
Lastminute Customer Service is not fit for purpose and I hope I persuade anyone who reads this not to go near them!
In October I booked a return trip from Chania to Manchester UK for 8th December through Lastminute.com.
This trip consisted of 3 flights each way, using two different Airlines – Chania to Athens, Athens to Amsterdam and finally Amsterdam to Manchester UK. Because of the Covid Pandemic I expected changes or cancellations to my schedule and with this in mind I purchased Lastminute’s T & C Premium Service Package. I didn’t realise then.. that I was paying extra for absolutely NO service!
On 23rd November I received 2 emails from Skyexpress – which was the first segment of my journey from Chania to Athens. They informed me that my flight had been cancelled so I expected to hear the same from Lastminute. A few days later and after several phone calls, including forwarding my “Cancelled Segment” email from Skyexpress, Lastminute finally sent me confirmation of the cancellation on 26th November. They offered me the only alternative flight I could take in order to meet my 2 ongoing flights with KLM, which was with Aegean Airlines, because Skyexpress didn’t have another flight option that fitted in with the rest of my schedule.
I clicked the “Accept New Flight” link in Lastminute’s email but it took me to an ‘error page’. I tried several times but could get no further. So I emailed lastminute customer care again and asked them to take it as confirmation that I accept the alternative flight and received an email back saying my acceptance had been forwarded to the relevant team. I asked them to send me confirmation of the revised schedule and I did this in as many ways as you can imagine – both by telephone and emails. I have documented evidence of over 20 phone calls and 20 emails sent to customercare@lastminute.com – all with regard to this cancelled Skyexpress flight! Every one of my phonecalls was a complete waste of my time and money. I repeatedly asked for the revised schedule but was instead sent the old one showing the cancelled Skyexpress flight. Lastminute kept insisting that they had no information from Skyepress to say it was cancelled and that as far as they were concerned – the flight was still operating and confirmed as per the schedule. Having sent me their notification of the cancelled flight over a week prior to this and offering me the alternative flight – what outrageous lies!
I argued (with continued calls and emails) how was I to make my trip to Manchester on 8th if I couldn’t get to Athens? In My Lastminute Account the old schedule was still showing and that is when I decided to call Aegean, who informed me that I had not been booked onto the alternative flight. So it was obvious that lastminute were refusing to do anything about it. Three days before I was due to leave I decided I would book myself onto that Aegean flight so that I could still board my 2 ongoing KLM flights. As a precaution, I decided to call KLM and check out a few things with them first. I was told that if I didn’t take the Skyexpress flight as shown on their ‘My Trip’ schedule – I would not be able to take the KLM flights! They told me that my travel agency (Lastminute.com) was the only one able to make alterations to that schedule. I then asked KLM to check their systems while I waited and they confirmed that the Skyexpress flight had indeed been cancelled some time ago. I tried to reason with KLM that if I could book myself onto the Aegean flight I should still be able to continue my journey with them? But they wouldn’t budge and I am horrified to realize just how much control Lastminute have.
I sent more emails telling Lastminute everything I had learned and pleaded with them to take the cancelled flight off my schedule. I told them that I would book my own flight with Aegean, thereby saving them extra cost. But they did nothing, only sending me more of the same old automatically generated rubbish responses… all the while insisting that the Skyexpress flight was confirmed. All they had to do was remove the cancelled flight from the schedule and I would have been able to leave on the 8th as originally booked with them. To rub salt in the wounds, lastminute were sending me outrageous emails including another confirmation of the old schedule, right up until the night before I was due to travel. I even received their downright lies yet again in emails sent to me the next day when I should have actually been travelling to my destination!
What is unbelievable about this despicable company is that they knew that my flight had been cancelled yet they were prepared to let me turn up at the airport the next morning for a cancelled flight, also knowing that I wouldn’t be able to board the 2 KLM flights either!
Lastminute.com had over 2 weeks to sort what was a very simple problem. Book me onto the alternative flight with Aegean as was offered to me by them on 26th November. Instead I had no alternative but to book all 3 flights for my journey from Chania to Manchester for the 9th (the next day) – or risk not being able to go at all. I paid a further total of 484 pounds for the flights and I am appalled by these unnecessary costs incurred by their total lack of customer service and disgusting illegal business practices. It beggars belief!
When KLM cancelled my 2 returning flights I was worried sick that Lastminute would do the same as they did with my outbound journey and in fact that is exactly what they did! When I emailed customer care they told me that as far as they were concerned the KLM flights were still confirmed. It had been stated all over the national news that KLM had cancelled their flights! Strangely.. when I checked ‘My Lastminute’ account there was no schedule showing for my return, there were no flights at all! As the first 2 flights were with KLM, I was finally able to contact them directly and they re-booked me for all three return flights.
If you hung on in there and read the whole story, thanks! Please spread the word..