LastMinute.com review: Booking flights

On 2023-07-23. at 20:58:26, through your company LMNEXTUK Ltd My husband Mr Reid Martin booked flight number K5S6ZQD, departing from Geneva on 2023-10-04 @ 14:35:00 arrival City was Edinburgh on same day at 15:45:00. The cost of flight for two was 252.58 GBP. Mr Martin paid via a Visa debit card 475141. ID booking number [protected]. However we never received the email confirming the booked flight, even though your company removed 252.58. GBP from the Nationwide bank account.

He waited and waited. He searched all files on his email account, however, contrary to what you advised the Visa Debit Card Disputes team, even though you can quote the correct contact details and ID: there was never any sign of an email from your company to confirm the booked flight.

My attempts to contact EasyJet by telephone in order to discuss this were not successful as I had no flight number nor booking reference to offer.

On 29 09 2023 we attended the local Nationwide branch who were able to confirm that the money had been removed from the account and there was no evidence of it having been returned to the account. While at the branch a google check of the LMnext UK Ltd +[protected] GB identified several experiences of scams. At this point the bank teller contacted The Fraud Department of Nationwide.

It was noted that the LMnext is recorded on the bank statement rather than Easyjet.The sight being used was Easyjet, not LM next ( lastminute.com).

We were advised at this point the matter would be transferred and reported to Visa Debit Card Disputes. However we should wait until the purchased flight date in order to be sure we did or we did not receive a service, namely the flight back to Edinburgh. Which of course we did not received any service from your company

Upon return home that same day all emails were searched and there was no contact or reference to LMnext or Last minute.com flights.

Mr Martin again tried to make contact with LastMinute.com, customer services to establish what had happened on several occasions. But could never get a reply. There seems no means to make contact with your company because you are an online company with few staff, so we have learned. We then made contact with Visa Debit Card Disputes Team to advise them further. This is when the team contacted your Travel company.

With the reference number given on our bank statement, we had researched online with the bank and discovered several disgruntled customers were in the same position as us. Money had been withdrawn from accounts to pay for flights supposedly booked with your travel company, yet no flights were ever provided. Unable to contact you, and in desperation were left with no alternative but to re-book our flights again in September. We booked exactly the same flight directly with Easy Jet. That flight that we were on turned out to be completely full, no spare seats on the plane, as such your statement that you emailed the flight details to us cannot hold true, for if that were the case, then there would have been two spare seats, because according to your response to Visa Debit Card Disputes team, we would have booked four seats in total for the same flight, thus leaving two spare! Yet there were none.

We have looked further into the similar difficulties that other customers of LastMinute.com have experienced regarding the lack of receipt of booking confirmation, all have come to the same conclusion, these are scams, fraudulent transactions made by your company.We attended the local Nationwide branch who were able to confirm that the money had been removed from the account and there was no evidence of it having been returned to the account. While at the branch a google check of the LMnext UK Ltd +[protected] GB identified several experiences of scams. At this point the bank teller contacted The Fraud Team, who then contacted the Visa Debit Card Disputes Team.

It was noted that the LMnext is recorded on the bank statement rather than Easyjet.The sight being used was Easyjet, not LM next ( lastminute.com).

We were advised at this point the matter was reported to Visa Disputes Team however we were advised to wait until the purchased flight date in order to be sure we did or we did not receive a service, namely the flight back to Edinburgh. Which of course we did not receive, from your company

Upon return home that same day all emails were searched yet again and there was no contact or reference to LMnext or Last minute.com flights.

We have been left out of pocket. We are particularly unhappy with how your travel company operate, and am not surprised that you recorded a profit of over £36 Million. I now intend to make contact with the Financial Services Ombudsman as clearly we are not the only customers who have experienced this dreadful service from Lastminute.com. We look forward to receiving a reply from you at your earliest convenience, that is satisfactory to us and fully resolves this matter.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Reid Martin and Mrs Heather Martin