When we came to the Netherlands, we decided we wanted to see as much of Europe as possible, culminating in a Mediterranean cruise.
Well, the kids are out of school for the 2-week May vacation (actually the last week of April and first week of May), and cruise prices were way cheaper than in the summer, so we decided to go now!
Getting to the cruise ship was a bit of an adventure. Back in January we arranged with my parents that they would come with us. I was pretty nervous about doing a cruise with 5 kids, but my parents said they would come too. Unfortunately, they had to cancel to help out with some health concerns of a family member. So, just us for the cruise!
In January we also bought our flights. We had a very narrow flying window. The kids had to be in school on Friday (you get in pretty big trouble with the government in the Netherlands if you check your kids out of school), but we had to be on the cruise on Sunday. We found a nice Transavia flight on Saturday out of Eindhoven. Noon departure, direct flight to Athens, really cheap.
However, 17 days before the flight, they cancelled it. Apparently they had a problem with some of their planes and had to cancel a lot of flights, but it was still frustrating to us.
EU regulation says they have to give the consumer the choice of a refund or a rebooking on an equivalent flight. I chatted with an agent. They offered me a flight a week later, with a big smiley face at the end of the message (I couldn’t tell if it was sarcastic). That flight clearly wouldn’t work. I explained that we needed to be there on Saturday, so they offered me a flight the following Wednesday with another smiley face (again, sarcastic?).
I again declined, and suggested they rebook me on a KLM flight that was available (Transavia is owned by KLM). They said they couldn’t, but they told me to book it myself and then send in the receipt and they would reimburse me the difference. I did. They declined the reimbursement.
Huge back and forth with them. Rejected over and over. I explained that I bought the tickets per their instructions and EU regulation. Still declined. I told them I would take legal action (the KLM flights were about 3 times the cost of the Transavia flight, and this felt like a HUGE bait and switch). Still declined. So, I filed a complaint with the EU and started to look for a lawyer.
I know it wouldn’t be worth the legal expense, but I was really upset at the bait and switch (I didn’t know about the airplane problems at the time). They sold me a low-cost ticket, cancelled it, and then told me to buy a high-cost ticket. They promised a refund of the difference and then denied the refund (putting me on the hook for about 3,000 euros). I got pretty upset and was determined to do something about it.
Anyway, apparently a lot of people complained to the EU. Before I found a lawyer, I got an email telling me that they would give me the refund (4 days after they had told me they wouldn’t give me the refund and I had given up hope).
So, we got the KLM flight. However, it wasn’t the convenient Saturday flight. Rather it was Friday night at 9:15pm from Amsterdam (a two hour drive). Some of the kids had school until 3:15 on Friday, and I had a meeting with masters degree students about their research notes (part of the thesis at Tilburg) until 4:30. Conclusion: logistics conundrum!
Our whole trip lasted 10 days: Saturday and Sunday in Greece. Sunday onto the cruise ship. Monday in Santorini, Tuesday in Kusadasi, Turkiye, Wednesday at sea, and then Thursday docking in Haifa, Israel. We then stayed in Israel Thursday through Monday, flying back to Brussels and then a train ride home on Monday.
Linda booked an airport taxi, but it cancelled on us Friday morning. Luckily a friend from church said he could drive us. He drove Linda and the kids. I took the train. We arrived with time to spare. Flight to Athens. Landed at 1:15am, ride to the apartment and finally bed at 2:00am. Luckily, most people slept a lot on the plane, plus there was a 1 hour time zone change (so it only felt like 1am when we went to bed), and we could sleep in Saturday morning. Also, the owner of the apartment we rented came to pick us up at the airport, so we didn’t have to deal with taxis.
Dutch Bentleys 