Help! Possibly losing all our holiday money

kaizoku

Ok, so we've gone and done all the wrong things to book our first Europe holiday and we might end up losing just over £700.
I'm hoping someone here might minimise the loss.

We decided to spend our child's 5th Birthday in Europe. On Sunday we decided to go to Paris and flight tickets was the first one we booked. For 3ppl it came to just over £250. Then we looked at hotels and booked that as well, which came to just over £450.

For both, we booked the cheapest option, i.e. not the "free cancellation" option (which had a price difference of £150 for hotel).

And we paid by debit card, not credit card.

We then decided to apply for the Schengen Visa in the French embassy, but there are no dates available for submitting the application until the middle of our chosen holiday period. Which means we won't be able to go on our chosen dates.

I am in touch with the websites whom I booked through (not sure if I'm allowed to give names, so I won't right now).

We have travel insurance from one of our banks, but we have been told that not being able to get a Visa is not covered under their policies.

so, what are my options?

Browntoa

None unless you are allowed to modify the booking , which may carry a fee

You should have got the visa first

bradders1983

Hmm. Where are you based? In the UK but none of you UK/EU passport holders?

kaizoku

Thank you for the quick reply.

Browntoa wrote: »

None unless you are allowed to modify the booking , which may carry a fee

You should have got the visa first

The visa application process said we needed the address and confirmation of booking a hotel, so we decided to do that first. I only got the paper form and filled that in. I knew there was a process of booking an appointment for the relevant embassy, but didn't think there would be such a long waiting period

@bradders1983
We are based in UK. Myself and my child have British passport, but my wife doesn't. It was for her that we were applying for a visa

Caz3121

kaizoku wrote: »

I am in touch with the websites whom I booked through (not sure if I'm allowed to give names, so I won't right now).

unless you have refundable bookings I would expect there only to be a refund of APD (and if you booked through a third party, their fee may wipe that out) not getting a visa in time does not change the fare rules of the flight or hotel so I would not expect any special treatment.
best you can hope for is likely being able to pay to change dates although this may be expensive (if possible)

in the case of the hotel, I would have suggested booking the refundable rate then, when visa received, cancel the booking and book the cheaper non-refundable rate.

ToxicWomble

You could still take the child away and leave the wife at home

koalakoala

What passport does your wife hold?

steve1500

Apologies if I have missed the obvious, have you tried applying online for a visa?


https://france-visas.gouv.fr/en_US/web/france-visas/ma-demande-en-ligne


This is the official French site. God knows how many sites were listed above this & will obviously ask for a small fortune

kaizoku

ToxicWomble wrote: »

You could still take the child away and leave the wife at home

That's not even an option for us. This is a first time family holiday outside UK and we want to spend it together.

phatbear

kaizoku wrote: »

we want to spend it together.

well, annoyingly for you, you will be spending it together but it will be in this country.

cubegame

There is another loophole you can use if you can find another Schengen country with available appointments.

Basically, you should make an appointment with the other country and make cancellable bookings for a hotel to back up the application.

You would then make a visa application saying that the other country is to be your main destination in the Schegan zone even though your first port of entry is France.

I know of several colleagues who have used this trick.