Umrah & Hajj Operators Beware

Innocent members of the public who have been let down by Umrah / Hajj travel operators at the last minute in the UK or whilst in Saudi Arabia can take some comfort from a Brentford County Court judgement – given on 12/8/2015 after a trial conducted by Dr Mirza Ahmad of St Philips Chambers – in which Mr Changez Khan successfully secured compensation against 7 Continents Travel Ltd, based in London.

Mr Khan booked his Umrah pilgrim tour, with his family, for late December 2014 / early January 2015 and the package included named 5/4 star hotels, visa services, local transport and excursion tours of Mecca and Medina. Couple of days before travelling out, the agreed hotels were changed by the Operator and additional money was extracted from Mr Khan to secure another hotel in Mecca.

When Mr Khan and his family arrived in Saudi Arabia, the pilgrim experience was further tarnished when the transport was not what had been promised and the rooms only had 4 single beds, instead of the agreed 4 double beds.

All of this caused great inconvenience and stress to the family and Mr Khan had to fork out more money for the local transport, sleep on the floor of his hotels for the duration of his pilgrimage and the hotel in Mecca did not have the agreed premium view of the Holy Mosque.

The Judge found 7 Continents Travels Ltd had breached Mr Khan’s contract and the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992. Mr Khan’s principled stand against this company was, therefore, duly vindicated with compensation for losses incurred, damages and legal costs.

Further information on Dr Mirza Ahmad’s practice can be found here.