Thomas Cook Holiday Refund

AndyTr

Hi all !

I'm hoping somebody may be able to help me shed some light on what I've just been told by a 3rd party travel agent regarding a holiday I have booked with Thomas Cook ...

Back in November, I booked a 10 night trip to Egypt for this May as a surprise for my girlfriend. Unfortunately, it came up in conversation last week that she would not go to Egypt under any circumstances. She still doesn't know I have it booked!

I've already made a part payment up front of £760, of which the flights make up £600 of that.

I've spoken to 118travel.co.uk who advise that in order to change the holiday, I'm unable to get any refund whatsoever, although there's an £80 admin fee (which I accept is ok in this instance) if I want to use the £760 I've paid towards flights with Thomas Cook for any other country I want to book.

The only other place I'll now consider is Greece, but £760 is massively over the top for flights to Greece. They've quoted me just shy of £2,000 to book a 10 day trip to Zante which they're selling on their website for £1,340 if flying with EasyJet. Basically, it'd only cost me £100 more to cancel and lose all £760, then book a complete new holiday again !

I feel I'm being ripped off blind here. I can't think of anything else I've bought in the past whereby I've paid months up front, cancelled and been told I'd lose everything. This doesn't seem right.

Does anybody know what my rights are to a refund for cancelling a holiday that's still 4.5 months away?

Many thanks in advance !

Evilm

I think the answer is they are doing more for you that they have to. Certainly my parents had hell a few years ago when they booked my tickets in the wrong last name - they wanted £600 to buy new tickets and wouldn't refund anything. It was cheaper to change my last name than rebook the tickets!

Caz3121

Much will depend on whether this is a true package holiday - eg you have 1 price for all the components or whether it is a virtual package - price for flights and price for accommodation (which your post implies that it is as you have the cost of the flights)
for true packages the change fees are here http://thomascook.zendesk.com/entries/20158078-thomas-cook-amendment-charges
for flight+accommodation it is likely that the flights have been paid for and will be non-refundable/changeable so that is automatically £600 gone...do you know which airline you were going to fly with?

unholyangel

Sounds like its the agents own T&C's and not Thomas Cooks.

Usually on charter flights (which this most likely is), a deposit is payable up until 12 weeks before departure and this would be the amount you lose if you cancel. After 12 weeks, the full amount would be payable and the cancellation charge would depend on your departure date vs cancellation date. But you're outside of that 12 week window.

On scheduled flights, normally the cheaper fares are completely non changeable and non refundable. The only thing you may be entitled to a refund on is the taxes paid.

The problem booking with travel agents and not the tour operator direct is that often, you will always be charged the brochure price. Which is usually always more expensive that internet booking or booking over the phone.

There are exceptions to this and usually when this happens, the TO (or airline) has made an agreement with the TA in order to allow them to sell cheaper but the cancellation/alteration charges are much steeper.

If you dont mind me asking, is there a specific reason your partner doesnt want to go to egypt? A lot of people are put off due to the press about civil unrest etc. But in Egypt (along with other places like Mexico etc) you are usually located in a complex and are not under any danger from this. If you were, the UK embassy would take appropriate steps to keep you safe.


If is unlikely to cover you (since effectively it is a change of mind) but do you have travel insurance? Have you checked the terms and conditions of it? Have you also checked prices for 2 weeks? (to explain, 10 day holidays are not really common for Zante as most charter companies will only fly out once a week - and scheduled flights are extremely expensive). Also try checking a few weeks either side. You'd be amazed how much cheaper holidays can be even with a day difference in the dates.