Dalaman/Thomas Cook

[DonM]

Last Saturday (26 April) my daughter flew from Dalaman to gatwick with thomas cook. She is a diabetic, insulin dependant.

She went through the first security check and her hand luggage was given a thorough search and her insulin was check. As she was repacking her bag they hassled her to hurry up and moved her things on to another table and continued to hassle her to get a move on.

It took one hour to check in and her hand baggage was checked and her hold baggage was a couple of kilos overweight and she was charged £16.

She was going through the second security check and noticed her insulin was missing. They tried to stop her going back to the first check but in the end the supervisor let her back. Back at the first check she explained what had happened and they did not want to know. The supervisor was called and Sue explained again and asked what happened to belongs that were left or lost. They claimed there was nowhere to keep lost property and they said she should take better care of her belongings.

She next tried to obtain help from the Thomas Cook rep who stated it was an airport problem and nothing to do with thomas cook. Sue asked her to help as an interpreter and she replied she did not speak Turkish.

Sue explained that she was OK to fly to Gatwick but if the aircraft had a serious delay or diverted she could have a major problem. The rep was not interested and still maintained it was an airport problem. Fortunately Sue is a very seasoned traveller and did not panic. She has the reps details and will contact Thomas Cook with all the details.

We came through the airport yesterday and was hassled at both security checkpoints. We had a great flight with monarch.

Rant over.

DonM

[Jacqui Harvey]

That's really bad Don, but sadly not surprising T.C. are only interested in selling stuff to us on the flights, they don't seem to care about anything else.  I remember last year huge queues at Dalaman for the Scottish Flights and all The T.C. Reps did was come up and down the queue and ask if anyone wanted to pay £12.00 each to get to a priority check-in.  In the end when no one too them up on it. They opened the check in for free.
I hope your daughter is over the experience now.  i am sure she was very worried at the time.
i think you should go and put it on T.C's Facebook page, they hate bad publicity and your daughter may get an apology there.  It's Thomas Cook U.K.
Have a good Summer in the U.K.

[bewva]

Trying to sell extras in the queues for Scotland... .  They'd be lucky.   

[Lotty]

How horribly, frightening and frustrating for your daughter! It's just like a panic nightmare when everyone you turn to just couldn't care less! Simply outrageous in my opinion. We've all experienced the 'cattle' treatment with no respect or manners but FGS this could have been life threatening. You can see how people lose faith in human beings. Unbelievable. Thank goodness your daughter remained calm, not everyone would. There are so many wonderful people in the world, how come we never seem to find them in airports!

[Ray1951]

This is disgraceful and should be taken up with Thomas Cook in the UK so that they are aware of the situation.  Having been a rep., a situation like this would have been treated as a priority and everything done to locate the missing medication and a report filed and a copy given to the guest.  This would then be forwarded to the main office in resort and a copy faxed to the UK.  Failure to see this through would have resulted in a serious reprimand and possibly the sack.  It looks as though customer service IS a thing of the past.  From what you say, it looks as though the staff at Dalaman are being very heavy handed.  They have always been hot on the 'over weight' thing and love any opportunity to charge people.