Real-life MMD: Holiday nightmare - should we forgo £6,000 or pay £1,000 more?

scotsbob

Industrial action is something you should have been made aware of. If it escalates and train service cancelled then where would you be?

I would pay the extra to ensure you had your holiday but also lodge a case with Small Claims Court, based on failure to notify you of industrial action.

Brian_Steele

The company has not deceived you. They have simply reacted to a situation by doing what they can. The fact that you now have an ideological problem with what they have done is not their fault, whether you like it or not.

I have a similar (but cheaper) problem every time I discover I have inadvertently purchased a Nestle product, which is all too easy to do.

I applaud your conscience, but it is up to you to decide how much you are willing to spend to salve it. Perhaps you could continue with the original holiday and give a proportion of what you save on rearrangement costs to some fighting fund supporting the picketers?

pennypinchUK

Well, that's a test of your principles, and yours alone.

However, the dispute may be over by the time you travel. Or the route may be changed. Or even, the dispute may be something over you don't agree with the strikers. Or you could miss out the element that involves the striking workers, and catch up with your fellow travelers later. Or you could make a contribution to the strikers fund when you're there. Or even, and only a committed trade unionist would want to do so, join them on the picket line!

From the little information you've supplied, it's impossible to determine whether the travel company have deceived you. That might just be your interpretation.

Principles are fine. But sometimes, blind adherence to them gains you nothing yet they do nothing to promote your cause.

xbethanyx

hellienellie wrote: »

Which planet do you live on ?

i think they are being sarcastic...

xbethanyx

anyway OP, you clearly have more money than sense.

nixta

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I can see the OP's point.
It's certainly not as extreme as crossing a picket line to go to work, but I do think that by crossing even as a customer you send the wrong message to those on strike.

So, for example, if shop workers were on strike and had set up a picket line outside their shop I wouldn't cross the picket line to do my shopping - I'd leave it until another day or go elsewhere.

And if local transport were on strike but you needed to get to work, would you cross the line then?

floss2

Is it your union who are striking? Probably not.

Are you on strike now or likely to be at the time of the holiday? Unlikely, unless you are a civil servant.

Do you actually think you will get sensible answers when you are spending more than a lot of people live on for a year on a holiday? That amount of money would pay off my mortgage!

floss2

nixta wrote: »

And if local transport were on strike but you needed to get to work, would you cross the line then?

I would, yes - it wouldn't make me a scab.

Crossing a picket line outside my office does, in the eyes of some of my more unionist colleagues, but we each respect each others principles and they understand why I am no longer a member.

emjayee

I went to Canada last year, and we were told about the pickets only just before we went on the Rocky Mountaineer. We went ahead with the train journey. There was no picket line to cross - only a few people with placards as the train pulled away from the station.

bobthedambuilder

OP, I'm sure you switched off your electricity last time there was a dispute at a power station, and parked your car up last time the oil refineries were picketed - NOT!

Get over yourself - if you can afford a £12K holiday, even if it's once in a lifetime, you're not one of the downtrodden workers.