Death of lead passenger pre-departure - options

k3lvc

Don't know whether better here or in insurance so bear with me

Passengers A & B due to fly on 4th October with High St agent
Overall package price £3,500k discounted in store to £3,150
Insurance via Post Office Classic with £1,000 max cancellation payout and £200 excess :eek:

Lead passenger died suddenly and passenger B unwilling to travel alone in circumstances

Potential loss of significant chunk of money - best offers seem to be

1) 30% of total cost of holiday refunded (but strangely less the £350 'discount' given leading to actual refund of c.22%

2) £800 from insurance company assuming acceptance of claim - no full death certificate yet due to coroner involvement but not linked to any pre-existing conditions

Travel agent has said that without insurance they would have deferred holiday to a future date/revised travellers FOC but it seems lead passenger gave them a copy of annual policy when booking was made :mad:

Any suggestions on other options - will I get away with claiming both 1 & 2 above (unlikely I know) or are there any suggestions on retrieving more than the £750-£800 on offer ?

I need to make a decision within 24hrs for the 30% offer otherwise it drops to 10% :eek:

Voyager2002

If you claim on insurance you would be expected to "mitigate your losses", that is, take whatever refund the TA offers with insurance basing their payout on your less net of that refund. So the payout from insurance would be less than that 800 pounds.

I do not understand how TA could be less generous than they would have been had there not been any insurance (particularly it is a standard booking condition to have insurance). If you can confirm that (either get it in writing or record the TA telling you that) then it could be the basis for a complaint. In any case, since the insurance cover is for much less than the value that you stand to lose you could argue that you are not properly covered for what has happened and so should be treated no less generously than someone who was completely uninsured.

k3lvc

Thanks - I'm just an executor and have been drafted in to try an maximise any return from a monumental !!!!-up by the deceased.

Agent is adamant that FOC change is only available for those with no insurance - I played the 'don't know whether there was insurance in place' card at which point she produced a copy of the policy that deceased had given her :mad:

If I go to complaint stage can I stop the clock on the refund moving from 30% to 10% at T-21 days ?

Agent is TUI

k3lvc

Update on the above

Holiday cancelled at T-29 for 30% refund but their calculation of 30% of £3136 is £701.40 rather than my calculator that shows £940.80

TUI store refuse to deal with it any more claiming they're only doing what the systems tell them. TUI HO/Central refuse to deal saying it's a store transaction and email to complaints receives zero response.

Any suggestions before I resort to social media/escalation ?

Would CC company get involved given this is a dispute rather than goods damaged/not received ?

Caz3121

It looks like they have used 30% of the total holiday price and then removed the £350 discount
(£3500 * 30%) = £1050...less £350 = £700

k3lvc

Caz3121 wrote: »

It looks like they have used 30% of the total holiday price and then removed the £350 discount
(£3500 * 30%) = £1050...less £350 = £700

Which is what my maths tell me but why ? The final invoice price of the holiday was £3136 and the cancellation terms are based on final invoice price.

Definite case of 'computer says no' :mad::mad: