Need to cancel flights with Thomas Cook

cooky44

Hi

Apologies if this is posted to the incorrect forum but I would reallly appreciate some help if possible. My parents booked flights on March 31st 2009 with Thomas Cook to fly to Tenerife on 11/12/2009 and return on 6/1/2010. Yesterday 10/8/2009 my father was diagnosed with lung cancer and the doctor has advisd that the holiday is cancelled as the treatment will be ongoing and he would not advise travle. The apatment is through friends so that is not the issue. On the website the T&C's state that:
1)All fares are 100% non-refundable.
2)- No changes are allowed on scheduled services (including Canada) at any time.

I have not approached Thomas Cook yet as the family are still dealing with the shock of my dads illness but I wondered if there was anyway around this loophole.
They paid by Creditcard for the flights in March and did have travel insurance then but it ran out in June but it was not replaced as theywere going to wait until December to renew. This was all undertaken before the illness was diagnosed yesterday.
We can get written evidence that my dad has this disease and that he will be having Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy for thenext 6 months and that he has been advised not to travel.
I was wondering about one possiblility, it states that names can be changed on the tickets for £20 per ticket - I wondered if there is no way of getting a refund from Thomas Cook - if I could auctionthe tickets on ebay and then get the name changed ?
Any help would be gratefully recieved as I don't want my mother to have the worry of this as well as everything else.
Thanks
Sharon

payless

Sorry to hear the news

whilst they booked the tickets whilst insured, the insurable event ( diagnosed with an illness) seems to have happened whilst not insured , so can't see much joy there. The idea of annual insurance is to renew annually- or at least if playing the game ( as I sometimes do) - not renew when expires if no pending holidays- but then start up gain as soon as booked.

Credit card does not normally cover cancellation - although a few do offer travel cover- as does some bank accounts- so might be worth checking if cover was in place ( although with excess it might not recover much)

The airline may be prepared to allow them to postpone for a fee ( even if booked via TC is flight actually with them?), although with that type of illness I guess that would not be a great idea.. so guess either ask (nicely) if any joy on partial cancellation refund OR do the name swap as you suggest

Voyager2002

Good advice from #2. I would just add that Ebay do not allow most people to sell air tickets, but you could advertise in other ways (perhaps on Gumtree).

It is worth contacting both Thomas Cook and the insurance company to let them know what has happened and ask them to be helpful. I don't think you have any rights, but they may choose to do more than they are legally obliged. So a pleasant letter is in order.

Wammer

So sorry to hear your news.

I can only agree with the previous posters, as no insurance was in place then you cannot claim.

You could try appealing to Thomas Cook, but I wouldn't get your hopes up.

I see little point in contacting the insurance company as the policy has lapsed and therefore it has nothing to do with them.

Unfortunately this appears to be another case of people putting off getting insurance until nearer the date of travel then finding the are uninsured when an incident occurs.

Your only hope of getting anything back is if your parents have insurance with a bank account or credit card. I have insurance with my Capital One credit card, but still prefer to purchase an annual policy separately.

Wammer

Forgot to add that, as Voyager has said, Ebay does not allow you to list flights or holidays unless you are a travel agent.

Wammer

Would it be possible for yourself or a family member to be able to use the tickets? That seems to be your best bet, sell them to someone you know and get the names changed.

lorweld

MOVING THREADS FOR BETTER RESPONSES

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]