Help??

haly

Hi Everyone
I wondered if someone could advise me. My husband went last friday and booked us a holiday as a surprise unfortunately little did he know that I have already booked a holiday on exactly same date for his Christmas present! Mine can't be changed as we are going with lots of other people. He was told his was non refundable at the time of booking but on Monday I contacted the travel agent to see if I could even change date and was told that no changes could be made. I begged her to try and help and she agreed to contact the company they use for the booking but they have come back and said definitely no changes are allowed.

Anyone have any ideas how I can take this forward and try to get them to agree to a date change? I am sick at the thought of just losing all this money and the holiday!
many thanks

jpsartre

If the T&C say no change are allowed and the operator won't make an exception to their rules there's nothing you can do. Keep your fingers crossed for a change to the booking (e.g. a flight cancellation), that might allow for cancellation.

heatherw_01

Not much you can do unless they change it unfortunately. That is a very unlucky situation to be in

agrinnall

Can you change names on either holiday so that somebody else could go on one of them, paying you part of the cost so that they'd get a cheap holiday and you'd get at least some money back?

Alan_Bowen

Haly

If the booking is for a package holiday then you do have the right to change the names on the booking, although some operators do not allow all names to be changed which is what you want to do.

It can also depend on how far ahead the booking is for, if it is for Christmas 2018 you may well be too late, if it is for next summer, if you can find anyone who wants the same holiday perhaps offer to sell it for the final balance thus giving them the deposits as a discount? If you have paid in full, then either it is departing in the near future or involves scheduled flights that may not allow any name changes at all. If you give us some more information, we may be able to offer further advice

haly

Hi Many thanks for all your help. Its is for a long weekend (3 nights) departs 18 April to Wroclaw. My husband booked for himself, me and out teenage daughter. I though that perhaps they would be sympathetic to the situation especially since i booked for a longer holiday departing on same date to Turkey and there are 3 families going on that trip.
feel so bad for my husband who was trying to do a nice thing and book us a surprise trip but obviously he didn't know I had done same - shows we both think the same way I suppose.

Alan_Bowen

I suspect the flight is with Ryanair or Wizz so almost certain to be a package if the accommodation was booked at the same time. You I presume have paid in full for the flights but hopefully not the accommodation?

Both airlines allow name changes, Wizz is 45 Euros as opposed to £150 and if you have the booking details, you may be able to do it online. The sooner you change the names, the less expensive it will be as you would also have to pay the difference in fares and that will get greater, the longer you leave it. Of course, the real issue is whether you can find anyone else who wants to go? Neither airline offers refunds, so if you cannot find anyone the most you can get back is £14 per person tax (its £13 now but I think increases on April 1st and your probably have been charged the higher rate

haly

no it was apparently all part of a "special" deal with flights and hotel and all paid in full. I said to them I would pay for my own flights if they would even change the hotel but they have refused to change anything at all.

Alan_Bowen

It is time to remind them that Regulation 9 of the 2018 Package Travel Regulations which allows any traveller to transfer the booking to another suitable person with as little as 7 days notice. Remind them that they will be breaking the law to refuse and that you will tell the rest of us which wonderful company you booked with that is attempting to deny you your rights... you do of course still have to find someone who wants to travel there at that time!

haly

so after many phonecalls and emails between myself and travel agent I have not been allowed to change dates. I did ring the hotel myself on Tuesday (SCANDIC WROCLAW) and the lady in reservations told me i could change to another date but would have to email the request in. Then I received an email from the Reservation Manager who informed me that my reservation could not be changed to another date!! they have refused to budge even though the first person said I could change dates but she has denied that the first person told me it could be changed. The travel agent have told me they can do no more as the booking agent they used and said definitely no change in date allowed so they have basically closed the case. I can change flights but to be honest its cheaper to book new flights than pay the change fees. I just wish the hotel would let me change the date
any ideas how to move forward or should i just admit defeat?

Pollycat

Admit defeat.