Options for a cancelled holiday

eDicky

TUIfly operate non-stop flights AMS-BVC on Tuesdays and Sundays. I can see May 22nd for €409 one way. Is that what you are considering?

No problem to book it on their website, but your folks will need to pass through immigration on arrival at Amsterdam, collect their luggage, go upstairs to find the TUI check in, then upstairs again to pass through security, immigration again, then proceed to the departure gate. You can never tell when any of these processes will involve queuing.

But first you need to find out if the original bookings will endure when the initial flight and hotel check-in are not taken. It seems unlikely, in which case your search for new flights is pointless.

gazzebo69

eDicky, thanks for the info, very kind of you.

That looks like the flights I was looking at, it was on their TUI.nl website which I cannot translate into English, so am guessing what each bit means.

My folks have spoken to the travel agent and they say that they will hold open the hotel booking and the return flight, not sure how reliable that will be, but they said they would.

Just mainly concerned that I dont book them a flight to Boa Vista from Amsterdam, and for some reason they cannot get on if I misread website and they end up having a expensive trip to Amsterdam and back.. I wouldnt be flavour of the month then :-) .

jpsartre

A bigger worry should be that your parents will be stranded in AMS should they miss their flight to Boa Vista. 2 hours is not a lot of time if they need to retrieve and check bags and there is no guarantee that their flight will arrive on schedule.

PasturesNew

While it's nice for people to show respects and attend a funeral, you're talking about a very short event. In most usual instances it wouldn't make them "bad" for not going. They can still show their respects by sending a nice/thoughtful card and letter and attending afterwards to lay flowers upon their return.

Those holding the funeral would probably be hurt/embarrassed to think a foreign holiday had been cancelled for them to attend.

leylandsunaddict

I wouldn't do an unprotected connection with just a 2 hour gap. By the time they've disembarked, retrieved luggage, gone through immigration and customs, rechecked in, cleared security and got to the gate...............


Whether the return flight is cancelled or kept open is down to the airline, not the travel agent.

PeacefulWaters

Fly to Amsterdam the night before and stay over.

(I'd skip the funeral unless it was a close relative)

Torry_Quine

I hope that you can get flights sorted.

I can't believe that some are saying to not go to the funeral of her brother

callum9999

While I think the whole concept of a funeral is a ridiculous waste of money, I have no idea why so many people feel they can tell these total strangers that they shouldn't go to their own brother's funeral...

As to the Amsterdam suggestion, while people here hate using online travel agents, this is an area where SkyPicker seems to become very useful as they'll guarantee connections between two separate tickets (though the one I found is an overnight connection anyway).

Not ideal, but the morning after the funeral they can fly from Manchester to Dusseldorf and spend the day there, then fly to Boa Vista first thing the next day for £314. If you play around with dates/timings/airports you can maybe find a cheaper and/or better connection too.

PeacefulWaters

Guilty of not reading who's funeral it was.

Sorry.

Travel insurance?

gazzebo69

Many thanks for your post one and all.

I`m a bit of an hypocrit when it comes to funerals, because I would always attend a funeral if it was someone I knew no matter what the circumstances were, I would feel way too guilty by not paying my last respects, however, i would never ever dream of expecting anyone to attend mine (hopefully not for a long long time yet :-)) because I would kick their !!!!!$ if they changed/ruined their plans for me...My uncle would be turning in his grave now if he knew my mum and dad were cancelling their holiday....catch 22 situation, you know you cannot do nowt about it now at all, but as well, you need to pay your last respect and celebrate their life....

Anyhow, I found a decent connection, just got to convince my folks to go for it. Going to have a look at the Dusseldorf one as well, plus Skypicker, all great great ideas. Many thanks folks, really appreciate your comments and time out to give advice :-):T