I found a holiday and proceeded to book online. I got to the final stage and entered my payment details. The package was around 6k. When I made the payment I received an error saying there was an error processing my order. What a great first experience. I decided to check my account and the funds were taken. So I waited a few moments for any confirmation emails. After 5 mins I decided to ring justholidays. The rep on the phone asked me for my name and where I was booking for, but couldn’t find any records and said the payment hadn’t been taken and I should contact my bank.

She advised me to book over the phone and pay again and contact my bank after the call to get a refund. So I spent some time giving her all the details again over the phone. The issue was the funds that had been taken from my account didn’t leave me with enough funds to pay again. So while on the phone I transferred some more funds from my savings account so I could pay for again.

I gave my card details over the phone and was told the bank had declined the payment. I was told I will have to contact my bank and she couldn’t hold the package details but will call me back in 30 mins.

I agreed and rang my bank hsbc. First about my initial transaction they told me jet2holidays has marked the payment has pending and they must release it from their side and to contact them and the reason why my new payment was declining because there’s a “limit” set on my account so I can’t spend more than 10k smh. I explained the first payment went pending and I am trying to pay for the same thing again but they said they can’t do anything about that but they can authorise a fixed amount to be paid in 30 mins to a nominated company.

So I told them yes I want to pay justholidays 6k. It took the bank almost 50 mins asking me silly questions about the payment “are you being forced to make a payment”, “why are you paying jet2 holidays”… it was the same person who I had already explained the whole situation to from the start. While on the call I had the rep at jet2 ring me. Thanks to my call waiting I managed to put the bank on hold and ask her to call me back after another 20 mins.

After getting off the phone with hsbc and then telling me I have a maximum of 30 mins to make that payment I was waiting for the jet2 rep to ring.

Luckily she called in time and had the details jotted down so she filled out the form again and took the payment and it managed to go through.

I explained to her the bank has told me jet2holidays must release my payment but she continued to tell me that they had no record of the payment and if I don’t get it in a few days to contact them again.


Now it’s been a few days and I’ve been out of pocket and I’ll have to waste even more time trying to get a payment back which was taken in error.

I could only imagine how much of a nightmare this would be for someone who’s trying to book something last minute and they don’t have the funds to pay twice.

I have booked on sites before but I’ve never experienced this outrageous situation. Wasted hours on the phone and great inconvenience. Jet2holidays needs to have an escalated process for this situation and it has taught me never to book on their website

Who will compensate me for my time, the unavailability of my funds? My inconvenience?