s75,Thomas Cook and lost hotel costs

JayMax

Hi
I've trawled the forum and the net but cannot find anyone in my situation.
Myself and a friend booked a weeks holiday away.
He paid for the flights (with Thomas Cook) on his debit card.
I paid for the 2 x hotel rooms with my Tesco credit card.
Of course TC go bust and we cannot get to the hotel (abroad), we booked alternative flights which were not honoured but that's another story (Opodo)....
We tried to find alternatives to get to the hotel.
The hotel booking had a clear no refund policy, and have declined a refund when I emailed about it.

My friend has already had the TC flight money refunded from his bank via Chargeback.

However my s75 claim with my CC has been refused: "As there is no element of a Thomas Cook purchase on your credit card we cannot refund for consequential loss" was the gist of the telephone conversation.

Could anyone advise if this is worth progressing, or are they correct in their position regarding consequential loss?

Thanks

Terry_Towelling

The way you describe things, it looks like there are two distinct and unrelated contracts here. Your hotel contract has not been breached by the supplier, so you have no claim against them and, consequently, no claim against the supplier of credit.

molerat

They are correct. Your friend paid someone else to get you there. Your credit card and the hotel (would have if you had turned up) fulfilled their part of the separate contract.

Why were the alternative flights not honoured as there may be some angle there.

CakeCrusader

Doesn't your travel insurance cover this?

lisyloo

Did you have travel insurance?
Does it cover 3rd party failure?

JayMax

Thanks for the advice and the quick replies, I suspected this may be the case.
Lesson learnt about splitting your holiday booking resonsibilities with your mate.

We rebooked with Opodo, but on the Monday following the TC news the flight websites were crackers. It turns out Opodo offer tickets for sale but do not have the seats. Of course, due to TC they were massivley oversubscribed with probably hundreds of people booking the same tickets. They have refunded also.

I have my Halifax Rewards Travel Insurance to try and fall back on... assuming SAFI is covered. I'm also unsure if my friend will be covered under my policy or it's just me.

My friend did not have travel insurance bought at the time of the insolvency - thinking you buy it last minute as it's only for broken legs, lost lugagge and other potentials once you are on the plane.

Quite a few lessons learnt in the last couple of months...

born_again

JayMax wrote: »

My friend did not have travel insurance bought at the time of the insolvency - thinking you buy it last minute as it's only for broken legs, lost lugagge and other potentials once you are on the plane.

Quite a few lessons learnt in the last couple of months...

Travel Ins should be booked when booking holiday. As there is far more chance of something happening before you go than when you are away.

Ben8282

Is there really no way to get to your destination even if it means arriving a day late or something to at least get some use out of the hotel rooms?
We are out of the Summer peak now and whatever happened with Opodo would have happened a while back now so you have had lots of time to look around. A bit surprised about Opodo though as these days their system will interact directly with the airlines reservation system when you request availability and when you actually book. Any non-availability should have been instantly apparent.
An alternative destination airport perhaps not quite as close? Where are the hotel rooms booked? Which town/Country? For which dates?

JayMax

born_again wrote: »

Travel Ins should be booked when booking holiday. As there is far more chance of something happening before you go than when you are away.

Very true, and this is a lesson that has been hard learned - and certainly top of the list in future!
Hopefully this thread and my experience may be of some use to someone in the future who can learn from this experience.

Ben8282 wrote: »

Is there really no way to get to your destination even if it means arriving a day late or something to at least get some use out of the hotel rooms?
We are out of the Summer peak now and whatever happened with Opodo would have happened a while back now so you have had lots of time to look around.
An alternative destination airport perhaps not quite as close? Where are the hotel rooms booked? Which town/Country? For which dates?

Sorry, I didn't make it clear in my OP. This is all now after the event. I've been waiting for 4 weeks for the CC to get back to me.
TC went under 10 days before we were due to fly.
Some may say lucky? Some people I know with only days notice had to cancel and it was too late to find alternatives.
We tried all of the options, airports etc, even looked at driving there at one point (UK to Corfu!). The flights in the days following the TC situation were mental. We had logistical exhaustion after 2 days of trying to find alternatives.

In the end we booked a full package deal to Portugal. Time was booked off work etc. Go somewhere or stay at home were the options.

lisyloo

Broken leg is correct, but you can break your leg after booking and be unable to travel. Travel ins covers a variety of scenarios that can happen beforehand e.g. travellers illness, serious family illness, family death i.e. funeral. The risk starts at the point of booking.

JayMax

Just to close this thread off, my Halifax Rewards Travel insurance have just paid out, but only for my portion of the hotel booking - less a £50 excess.
They would not pay out for my friends hotel room cost.

Thanks to everyone who replied and gave advice.