urgent advice needed please...holiday problems

debtfreeatlonglast

hi, to cut a long story short i am due to fly to egypt with my friend and my young son in oct, and my friend who is irish applied to the dublin passport office for a new passport and all her documentation has gone astray, there is now no time left to obtain birth certs/ travel to ireland in person to passport office etc so she has resigned herself to not going and i have resigned myself to having to travel alone with my son. yesterday in her panic, unknown to me, she asked the travel agent if she could cancel herself off the holiday: she was told yes but that she would lose her money, and i would have to pay considerably more as i would lose the free child place which is dependant on two adults travelling, and would also have to pay a single supplement. she has now decided to be too "sick" to travel and claim off her insurance, my questions are this
1)will i need to pay any more money if her inability to travel due to sickness affects our party size??
2)will the insurance smell a rat??...she only took out insurance last week, i think they may want to see she has a valid passport to travel on despite being too "sick" to travel...does anyone know if this is the norm or if it ever happens??
3)would it be possible this late in the day to change holiday dates to allow her to get a passport, and how much will this cost??
i am trying to avoid her getting herself in trouble but also trying not to make it cost me anymore money...i honestly only agreed to go with her as a favour as she had no one else to go with and was nervous about travelling alone, there is no one to buy her holiday off her either, everyone we asked had no money/no holiday time left at work to take.. thanks in advance for any help and advice offered. x

Alan_Bowen

Oh dear, the price of trying to do a favour for a friend. I assume she booked the holiday not you, as the travel agent should have only acted on the instuctions of the person who made the booking, if you booked it go back to the agent immediately and complain. At the point when cancellation charges are 100% and there is no reasonable prospect of making an insurance claim, it would have been better to do nothing and simply be a no show at the airport as it is possible the tour operator will recalculate the price based on one adult in the rooom rather than two and that additional charge is not usually covered by insurance, no matter what the reason.

In respect of the claim on the policy, she is going to have to lie on a claim form, technically a fraudulent claim and get a doctor to lie and say she is so ill that she cannot travel. Doctors are not likely to do this for very obvious reasons and I doubt therefore she has any real prospect of making a claim.

If she lives in the UK, there was no need to apply to Ireland for a passport, they have an office in Knightsbridge in London where Irish passports are issued without any risk of loss, I will be going for my third in a few months time!

If you booked the holiday you need to look at the booking conditions to see if at this stage you can amend the date of departure( check on their website if you have none of the paperwork) , if you are leaving in a few days time and already have your tickets it may be too late, but again if you booked the holiday, and I assume you may not have done, the travel agent should have advised the possibility of amending the dates rather than cancelling. Good luck!

lynwestie

If the money has been paid and it's past the point of any return on the money the T/O /hotel has been paid in full for 2 people so dont see that they can take away the free child place.

I would also do the no show option so there was no chance of the t/o taking away that free child place although I think they would of just been talking different scenarios when she spoke to them and if you were at the point where there was a refund due they certainly would take it away. however if she is claiming from her insurance they will want to see proof normally in the form of cancellation evidence from the T/O . Now what would happen if she became too ill to travel the day before I'm not sure but she would certainly need again confirmation from the T/O and a doctors certificate saying she was unfit to travel. Insurance doesnt pay out that easily .

Very doubtfull they would allow any change at this late stage . you can make changes up to the 8/10 weeks before or when final balance due but 90% sure you cant after that point .

debtfreeatlonglast

thanks for your replys guys, the booking was actually made by me so she hasnt cancelled it, she was just trying to find out what her options were, so the holiday still stands as it is, i am just worried that if i go alone, (even with her simply not turning up rather than cancelling herself off holiday)i will be hit by an extra charge when i return home. i too think she is treading on thin ice by trying to claim on her insurance, but having said that , she does suffer from various health problems so probably could convince the doctor she is too sick to travel, but if the insurance need to see a current passport to prove that she could have/would have been able to travel had she not been "ill", she will be rumbled straight away.i... am going to try and find out what i can via the travel agents website with regards to changing dates, but alan you are so right about the price we pay trying to do a favour for a friend!!.. thanks again to you and lyn. x

Voyager2002

If your friend attempts to make a fraudulent insurance claim, the insurance company will send her a form telling her what documents are needed. If they want to see a passport they will say so at that stage.

blued

If she is a no show at the airport it will make no difference because the total cost of the holiday has already been paid. You will not be liable for any charges and because the holiday is booked in your name she can't make any changes to the booking, including cancelling herself off. When you check in I would mention that you have a friend who is not coming, this is what we did when one of our party couldnt make it.

zzzLazyDaisy

Just a thought - do you have a friend or relative who would like to go with you?

There would be a charge to change the name on the ticket, but at least you wouldn't be travelling alone, and maybe your friend could recoup some of her loss by selling the ticket cheaply.

On a different note - I have twice claimed on travel insurance due to ill-health and have never been asked to produce my passport. But that doesn't guarantee this will be the same for your friend.

jillie1974

as you are the lead name, she cannot cancel herself of the booking.

if she wants to claim from the insurance, let her....
dont cancel her from the booking as it will cost you more. once the canx charges hit 100% (usually 7days before departure) on the day of departure she can go as a 'no-show' and she can claim back her cost of the holiday.

or as others have suggested she could sell her holiday to someone else you know

lynwestie

Just a thought - do you have a friend or relative who would like to go with you?

There would be a charge to change the name on the ticket, but at least you wouldn't be travelling alone, and maybe your friend could recoup some of her loss by selling the ticket cheaply.

Good idea but I would be careful with that option if your friend intends to take the insurance claim option. she will need evidence from the T/O that there was a cancellation or no show .If somebody takes her place her insurance company will almost certainly expect that person to pay /compensate her . Also that would mean no evidence would be forthcoming from the T/O in the necessary form . Whichever way you look at it insurance claim refused or only paid in part .

debtfreeatlonglast

hi, thanks to you all for your advice and for taking the time to respond...spoke to my friend today and she is going to still try and claim on her insurance, so looks like i will be billy no mates on holiday lol, but very glad to know that i am not going to suffer financially by her being unable to go.thanks again.

zaksmum

What date in October are you going? At my local passport office you can make an appointment to go in person and collect your passport there and then.

Do you have an office within travelling distance?