Tui Not Honouring Thomas Cook Price

johnwainwright84

Hi all,

Apologies for starting a new thread but I struggled to find anything in the forums which matched my query and I didn't think it was relevant for the main Thomas Cook thread as it's not about a refund.

Anyway, to the point.... I had a booking with Thomas Cook, but it was a TUI holiday, following the collapse of Thomas Cook i received an e-mail about 6 weeks after to say that TUI had taken over my holiday and I got a new invoice and reference.

However, there was a price discrepancy as when I booked with Thomas Cook I got a discount as I was a good customer, so the price of the booking was around £4100 but I got £500 discount and it came out around £3600 (rough figures). The price on the TUI invoice is £4100, so I e-mailled them asking them to match the TC price as thats the contract I entered into, otherwise I would not have booked at the full price - after about 6 to 7 weeks of waiting this is the response I got....

Good day John Wainwright,
Thank you for contacting TUI.
We have received your query, we do apologise about the delayed response.
Please note that it would be a bit of a challenge to apply the discounts that were previously applied on your Thomas cook booking as this was booked using direct ABTA number.
We do apologise about the inconvenience that we might have caused.
Should you need anything else please be in touch.

Yours sincerely
Customer Support Team
TUI UK & I

Where do I go from here? What are my rights?

bradders1983

Probably nowhere except them offering you a full refund.

johnwainwright84

A full refund even though I paid with Thomas Cook? I'm guessing i'd need to go down the protectclaims route? Just sounds a bit messy thats all... ideally i'd like to keep the booking as I want to go on the holiday but seems harsh i'd have to pay the extra £500.

leylandsunaddict

The Thomas Cook store gave you the discount, not TUI. Why should the tour operator have to absorb large discounts given by another company, in a effort to undercut them in the first place? It's a pity TC did so much discounting. Had they not tried to undercut other agents and tour ops they might still be in business. That practice led to their near first demise, and will no doubt have contributed greatly to their eventual end.

I doubt TUI are obligated to refund you because they've not changed the actual price of your holiday. The now non existent agent did that when they deeply discounted it.

I don't think protect claims would work either because your actual holiday was unaffected by the TC demise. The company that's providing it is still very much in business.

Pollycat

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

The Thomas Cook store gave you the discount, not TUI. Why should the tour operator have to absorb large discounts given by another company, in a effort to undercut them in the first place? It's a pity TC did so much discounting. Had they not tried to undercut other agents and tour ops they might still be in business. That practice led to their near first demise, and will no doubt have contributed greatly to their eventual end.

I doubt TUI are obligated to refund you because they've not changed the actual price of your holiday. The now non existent agent did that when they deeply discounted it.

I don't think protect claims would work either because your actual holiday was unaffected by the TC demise. The company that's providing it is still very much in business.

+1 to this post ^^^^ from leylandsunaddict.

Placitasgirl

I agree, TC offered you a "good customer" discount as you were a customer of theirs. You don't have that same relationship with TUI, so I see no reason why they would (or should) offer the discount.

It's a bit like going into Supermarket #1 to do your grocery shopping and expecting them to give you points on your Supermarket #2 loyalty card.

jimbo6977

Five hundred quid off a 4 grand holiday represents literally all of TC's commission. No matter how good a customer you are, this is ridiculous discounting. In theory TUI could "pay" you the same "commission" (ie offer it to you as a discount) and it would represent a reduction in margin rather than a true loss, but they certainly don't have to.

leylandsunaddict

It would be more than all their commission. Agents margins are very thin, especially when you've got one vertically integrated agent selling the product of a rival vertically integrated company. Even the indi agents can't compete because TC used to sell at below their net price. They'd have been taking a hit on it, as they did with many bookings they did, undercutting 3rd party agents net price.

cubegame

jimbo6977 wrote: »

Five hundred quid off a 4 grand holiday represents literally all of TC's commission. No matter how good a customer you are, this is ridiculous discounting. In theory TUI could "pay" you the same "commission" (ie offer it to you as a discount) and it would represent a reduction in margin rather than a true loss, but they certainly don't have to.

The last actions of a dying business trying desperately to bring cash in......robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Alan_Bowen

Interestingly ABTA told other operators that sold through Thomas Cook that they had no choice but to honour discounts offered by TC. It might be worth contacting ABTA and seeing if they can put pressure on TUI at this time.

Frankly I think it is wrong that any operator, most of whom didn't get paid the money the customer paid in the first place, should have to honour any discounts but TC were offering discounts to virtually everyone to try and get them to pay in full rather than just the deposit that was actually payable at the time of booking

It seems that for 3 or 4 years TC had been living on other people's money, either customers or the tour operators who were entitled to it and without this plan, they would have gone bust much sooner.

johnwainwright84

Thanks all for your responses and I appreciate what a lot of people were saying, however I had also heard like Alan that discounts were to be honoured and from other people who i've spoken too that a lot of other people had discounts honoured when they moved over I just wonder if because mine was so high that they have balked at it.

I'll maybe speak to ABTA and see what they say.