How does that work because if its a uk domestic transfer luggage would not have to be claimed and rechecked and we would not have needed to go through immigration.

Surely given that a longer transfer would be needed in America.

I've been to the States many times and it takes far longer to get through immigration than any UK airport, in this instance some of our group took over an hour to get through (myself 45mins).

Are you saying that nothing has been learned and JY would be happy to do a similar trip with the same transfer times ? If thats the case i'm very dissapointed because would hate to see the same happen to others.

Mick

Our guidelines for customers booking their own domestic connecting flight is to allow 3hrs if you need to collect your luggage and recheck in with another airline. We give this guideline because when you book a connecting flight separately from the onward flight there is no onus on the connecting airline to look after you if your flight is delayed and you miss your onward flight.

With regards to transit on indirect flights - we will scrutinise the transit times in Atlanta as a result of your situation of course. But I would hate you to be under the impression that we were in any way playing fast and loose with the transit times. We sought advice from experts and acted in good faith and we are very upset that your onward flight was missed.

I am so glad you all had a great holiday, despite the mess at the beginning and the parks shutdown. As you know I was on the tour that departed before yours and I really enjoyed looking at all your photos - you obviously had a lot of great experiences and after the shutdown began, it looks like you visited a lot of great places in the "revised" itinerary. There's one place you got to see that I'm very envious of - you managed to visit the slot canyon at Antelope Canyon! I was hoping we could visit there, but there wasn't time when we were at Lake Powell. Fantastic photos! My favourite places on the tour were Badlands, Yellowstone, Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon and I'm so glad you were able to visit them all.

Cheers,

Bob

I can only speak for Detroit as far as immigration and getting through customs etc is concerned as I know it can easily take 2 hours even on a good day.

Best wishes to all other members of this memorable group.

Hi Mick,

Our guidelines for customers booking their own domestic connecting flight is to allow 3hrs if you need to collect your luggage and recheck in with another airline. We give this guideline because when you book a connecting flight separately from the onward flight there is no onus on the connecting airline to look after you if your flight is delayed and you miss your onward flight.

With regards to transit on indirect flights - we will scrutinise the transit times in Atlanta as a result of your situation of course. But I would hate you to be under the impression that we were in any way playing fast and loose with the transit times. We sought advice from experts and acted in good faith and we are very upset that your onward flight was missed.

Will,

The section about 3 hours connecting time makes no reference to it been just UK, in fact it immediately follows a paragraph about making a US connection (yes its called a connection). Its actually two sections after the UK connecting flight part.

Also I've just confirmed with others on our trip that our tour manager told us that we would have the monument valley four wheel drive refunded as part compensation, this hasn't happend for those of us who paid upfront. Those who hadn't got it for free. Not sure who gave her this information but it was someone from JY so maybe you could check this.

Also while I'm on this subject this was advertised as a Manchester dedicated holiday supposedly the same as the heathrow departures yet we also lost the last day because of flight times. We were supposed to do a day tour of Vegas but had to leave for the airport at 7-45am. JY did compensate this by giving us the night tour free (which was origionally an optional). Doesn't hide the fact that on the advertised holiday we should have been able to do both and i know from previous trips they are quite different. Another day lost to us I believe.

Mick

Hope you are well

A couple of others i'm in touch with plus myself got our money back for the cancelled Snake River trip, but know of one person that hasn't got their money back for the Lake Powell cruise (I hadn't booked that one).

Mick

Cheers,

Bob

Hi Mick,

Our guidelines for customers booking their own domestic connecting flight is to allow 3hrs if you need to collect your luggage and recheck in with another airline. We give this guideline because when you book a connecting flight separately from the onward flight there is no onus on the connecting airline to look after you if your flight is delayed and you miss your onward flight.

With regards to transit on indirect flights - we will scrutinise the transit times in Atlanta as a result of your situation of course. But I would hate you to be under the impression that we were in any way playing fast and loose with the transit times. We sought advice from experts and acted in good faith and we are very upset that your onward flight was missed.

Will,

The section about 3 hours connecting time makes no reference to it been just UK, in fact it immediately follows a paragraph about making a US connection (yes its called a connection). Its actually two sections after the UK connecting flight part.

Also I've just confirmed with others on our trip that our tour manager told us that we would have the monument valley four wheel drive refunded as part compensation, this hasn't happend for those of us who paid upfront. Those who hadn't got it for free. Not sure who gave her this information but it was someone from JY so maybe you could check this.

Also while I'm on this subject this was advertised as a Manchester dedicated holiday supposedly the same as the heathrow departures yet we also lost the last day because of flight times. We were supposed to do a day tour of Vegas but had to leave for the airport at 7-45am. JY did compensate this by giving us the night tour free (which was origionally an optional). Doesn't hide the fact that on the advertised holiday we should have been able to do both and i know from previous trips they are quite different. Another day lost to us I believe.

Mick

Mick,

I will follow up for you about your Monument Valley. Forgive us if it takes a little longer at the moment, as you may have guessed the shutdown caused us a huge amount of extra unscheduled work. I will get it checked out though don't worry.

Just got the guide to flying booklet out. I agree with you, the order is a bit unusual with the bits about connecting flights being separated out. The minimum connection section is immediately followed by a sentence referring to "your domestic connection", but with it's proximity to teh US transit section I can see it is not as clear as it could be - I will talk to the people who produce the booklet with that feedback.

Hopefully, despite your setbacks, you still got to see some amazing sights though Mick? I'll talk to customer services for you about the other things above.

Oh, the irony! Just a week after returning, what should arrive on the mat but the latest edition of Discover, with its cover featuring one of the very parks we were unable to visit. As Dave, Mick and Diane have already said, good humour and an indomitable spirit got us through not to mention the efforts of the tour manager and driver. Still no sign of financial compensation for those prepaid trips which had to be cancelled but I live in hope. Fifth trip with Just You but first time I've encountered flight problems - as someone who lives in 'The North' there's a distinct possibility that I would opt for the Manchester departure in future. Could Just You at least reassure future travellers that they have carefully weighed the evidence with regards time allowed for Delta flight transfers.

Best wishes to all other members of this memorable group.

Dot, glad the group spirit and Tour Manager prevailed over the flight delays and park closures. What horrible timing with the Discover magazine as well!

I can absolutely assure you that we carefully considered the transfer time and acted in good faith on the info we were given at the time.

Hi folks, a couple of clarifications that might help you out in some small way! On the tour I was on, our Vegas by night tour was cancelled after the bus broke down. A couple of days after I got home, I got a letter from JY apologising and stating a refund would be forthcoming. About 2 weeks after that it was refunded to my credit card account. Seeing as everyone on your tour is probably owed a couple of refunds each, it might take them a bit longer to process them all? But I'd be hoping you get them soon! Also, as our Vegas night tour was cancelled, we got a longer day tour to help compensate. The morning tour usually covers two hotels, but we visited three. So perhaps your Vegas night tour was longer than usual? You got the better deal on that one, as Vegas is much better at night! I was disappointed to miss out on seeing Fremont Street and the Bellagio fountains this time around!

Cheers,

Bob

Bob,

Agree I prefer the night tour having done it on previous holidays and the light show on Freemont St is the best part.

In fact as we ended up having two nights in Vegas seven of us got a taxi up to Freemont on our spare night and had a excellent meal.

Mick

I did get a phone call the same evening from JY, at what must have been the early hours of the morning in the UK, apologising for what had happened to me, but in comparison to most others I was only inconvenienced and I think they deserve much more in recognition of the very bad start to their holiday.

The Federal shut down was beyond everyone's control. I have only the highest praise for Wendy the Tour Manager for her efforts to get the party together at the start and make sure we could enjoy the second half of the tour. However JY were very quick to issue a disclaimer.

I can't say I will not use JY again, but I will certainly avoid multi-leg international flights and would probably avoid flying from Manchester.

Dot,

Hope you are well

A couple of others i'm in touch with plus myself got our money back for the cancelled Snake River trip, but know of one person that hasn't got their money back for the Lake Powell cruise (I hadn't booked that one).

Mick

Great to hear from you, Mick. Sat.19th received letter confirming refunds due within next 7 days - hope everyone else has received similar. Will keep watching to see if there is any progress on the connection times. Love your photos, by the way - I wonder how Mike's turned out. Hope you manage to reach a decision about Christmas - I've booked for India. Dot

I know of at least one other person that as recieved this so assume all those left stuck in Atlanta & Minnesota have recieved the same.

Mick

Regards,

Steve

For the record checking my bank account I've now had £36 credited which is the Monument Valley excurrsion and is as I understand (from the tour manager) part compensation for the flight problem that impacted our holiday.

I know of at least one other person that as recieved this so assume all those left stuck in Atlanta & Minnesota have recieved the same.

Mick

Just to update i got a letter from JY this morning stating the Monument Valley refund is not for what i thought but a goodwill gesture in view of the impact of the American Governments decision to shutdown. If thats the case I'll say its a very nice gesture but I'm still dissapointed that no acknowledgement of the bigger impact on our trip due to the flight bookings.

Reading Mikes comment earlier and seeing he got an apology at the time despite been the one who caught the flight made me chuckle, since our return home JY appear to have moved direction on whether an error was made.

All I know is I booked this trip with JY which started by spending a lot of time in airports missing a significant part of the holiday which seems nobody is big enough to take responsibility for.

Yes I am angry that no apologises have been recieved by those of us impacted by this but like Mike it wont stop me using JY if a holiday suits, however I'll definately think twice if connecting flights are involved. To be fair it was my 10th holiday and the first time the company as dissapointed me.

Mick

Dot,

Hope you are well

A couple of others i'm in touch with plus myself got our money back for the cancelled Snake River trip, but know of one person that hasn't got their money back for the Lake Powell cruise (I hadn't booked that one).

Mick

Great to hear from you, Mick. Sat.19th received letter confirming refunds due within next 7 days - hope everyone else has received similar. Will keep watching to see if there is any progress on the connection times. Love your photos, by the way - I wonder how Mike's turned out. Hope you manage to reach a decision about Christmas - I've booked for India. Dot

Wow India sounds great, I've not booked anything yet was considering doing chrimmy and NY again but think I'm just going to do a short UK break and be home at NY.

That will save me some money towards more holidays next year, thats the plan anyway.

Mick

I was the only one who actually made it to Denver on the scheduled flight and only because I was in Economy Comfort just behind business class and got off the plane and into the queue quickly. By bag didn't make the same plane. Since there were far fewer seats on the Atlanta-Denver flight than were in our party, Delta obviously managed to fill a lot of seats at the last minute and weren't bothered about whether the connection times were adequate or not. I had to make my own way from the airport to the hotel, although I was reimbursed for the fare.

I did get a phone call the same evening from JY, at what must have been the early hours of the morning in the UK, apologising for what had happened to me, but in comparison to most others I was only inconvenienced and I think they deserve much more in recognition of the very bad start to their holiday.

The Federal shut down was beyond everyone's control. I have only the highest praise for Wendy the Tour Manager for her efforts to get the party together at the start and make sure we could enjoy the second half of the tour. However JY were very quick to issue a disclaimer.

I can't say I will not use JY again, but I will certainly avoid multi-leg international flights and would probably avoid flying from Manchester.

Hi, Mike - Like Mick, I can't help thinking it's odd that you should be the one to receive a direct apology when you, in fact, were the only one to follow the original travel plan ... although minus luggage! It would be nice to think that a few weeks down the line the other 25 Manchester passengers might receive some acknowledgement in writing. Hope your return to the rat race wasn't too traumatic.

All best wishes - Dot

I've just spoken with our Customer Service Manager, as I mentioned before their workload has gone up immeasurably as a result of the Shutdown. They have got your particular departure on their agenda though so please bear with them.

Thanks

Will