Chaotic flights - beware - Olympic holidays dependable??

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Olympic Holidays - www.olympicholidays.com
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Ouzoman's review of Olympic Holidays - www.olympicholidays.com

“Chaotic flights - beware - Olympic holidays dependable??”

★★☆☆☆

written by Ouzoman on 23/06/2013

Judging by some stories below we got off lightly coming home from Skiathos this weekend. However, our story follows a now familiar pattern:-
Flight out from Birmingham to Skiathos at 09:30 on 14 June was ticketed as Small Planet but operated by ENTER Air. Flight good and arrived on time. So far so good.
Due to return on 21 June departing Skaithos 16:15 also ticketed as Small Planet.
On Thursday 20 June picked up a note in hotel from rep to say that return flight had bee 'rescheduled' - same flight number but now departing 22.20. Please be ready to be collected from hotel at 19:05. Ready as requested.
19:20 rep arrives in her car to say 'rescheduled' flight now delayed by 2 hours. Collected from hotel at 21:20.
Checked in 21:50 and given a boarding pass showing departure time of 22:30 though aircraft from UK not expected until midnight.
A Small Planet (SP) arrives (from Manchester) at midgnight. We departed to Birmingham at 01.10 where we arrived at 03:45 (22 June).
Discovered a number of worrying facts from casual discussion with SP staff. This may or may not be completely true, but it fits, and from prevous reviews seems most likely:
First, SP had no arrangement to operate flights from Birmingham. Olympic had arranged this with another charter company (Greenjet??) who seemed unable to provide an aircraft. We were lucky that ENTER Air had ben able to step in on the 14th! The 9:30 flight from BHX on 21st did not happen because Olympic had been unable to organise a plane. Great news for passengers who had arrived at BHX for a 07:30 check in. They were then bussed to Manchester to catch the flight which subsequently arrived in Skiathos at midnight.
The Small Planet source said that our flight home was not a scheduled flight for them but referred to it as a 'rescue flight',ie as Olympic had no plane from BHX they asked SP if they could offer a plane. SP said yes, but not until later in the day.
Also said SP fed up with Olympic for issuing tickets in their name but which were never intended to be operated by them, and SP kept getting grief from the passengers for the Olympic chaos.
I am about to try and find out from Olympic who is responsible for this chaotic situation, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
I feel concern for those yet to take their 2014 Olympic holiday, although it would seem that scheduled Small Planet flights from Manchester, and actually operated by Small Planet stand a chance.
Will Olympic survive the summer?

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