Coronavirus travel disruption - latest info and your rights

stilltrying_3

malc_b said:

silvercar said:

ericthelobster said:

This is exactly the same position I'm in.  Have contacted my insurer but no reply.   I have heard of someone else with the same problem and they've apparently been told that all they can do is renew their policy in due course without corona virus cover; ie there is no way of claiming for the cancelled holiday. .
If so, this can't be right, surely?

malc_b said:

What is the legal position when you have annual insurance that was in place when the booking was made (not a package but separate hotel and flight), but that annual insurance ends before the holiday is due?

If you have insurance now, you make can make a claim on it, even if the holiday date was after the end of the policy. You should renew the insurance if you haven't cancelled the holiday before your insurance runs out.

Silvercar I think you have misread this.  I can only claim if FO says no travel, but the holiday starts after the end of the current ban.  Hence can't cancel now.  If FO extends ban then this might be after policy has renewed.  Then I could cancel but I'd not be covered if coranvirus is excluded from the renewed policy.

It seems to me that this is going to be a very common problem. The courts will eventually have to decide whether cancellation of a holiday booked when the coronavirus was unknown should be under the terms of the insurance in place at the time of booking. Your legal team might be expected to argue that you wouldn't have booked if you'd known of the disease.
There is virtually no prospect of FCO advice not to travel ending at the finish of the current 30 day period.

FunLovinCriminal

We are due to go to a ParkDean resort on 13th April.  There will be two families - 4 adults and 7 kids between us.  ParkDean are not refunding customers, even though Butlins, Centr Parcs and Haven are closing and have refunded.  Instead they are saying the accomodation is still available, yet no entertainment or facilities are on.   So you are paying to stay in a caravan (the lack of entertainment is not an issue to them).  Personally we do not want to sit in a caravan for a week in these circumstances, and have already booked things for the other school holidays, so changing the dates is not an option.  What are our rights?

Pam2222

Booked a flight hotel package to Palma (Ryan Air flights) with lastminute.com due to depart on 29/3/20. Package cancelled but they have offered a voucher to be used with them by the end of the year instead of a refund. Can I get my money back? ATOL protected, have valid travel insurance (taken out in February) and paid for holiday with a credit card.

silvercar

FunLovinCriminal said:

We are due to go to a ParkDean resort on 13th April.  There will be two families - 4 adults and 7 kids between us.  ParkDean are not refunding customers, even though Butlins, Centr Parcs and Haven are closing and have refunded.  Instead they are saying the accomodation is still available, yet no entertainment or facilities are on.   So you are paying to stay in a caravan (the lack of entertainment is not an issue to them).  Personally we do not want to sit in a caravan for a week in these circumstances, and have already booked things for the other school holidays, so changing the dates is not an option.  What are our rights?

Travel insurance claim?
Given schools are closed for the foreseeable, there may be dates you could go. I would argue that the lack of facilities and entertainment could be a breach of contract and see if they agree to that point.

JillHB

growler834 said:

We have a cruise in May booked & paid for. On 13/3 we received an email from Cunard regarding the FCO advisory that over 70's don't cruise. We were offered, amongst other things, a full refund as my husband is over 70. We contacted our TA on 14/3 & he got back to us on 16/3 asking us to put our cancellation in writing, which we did.
Since then, Cunard have suspended cruises up to mid April. 
Today, Cunard have changed their booking/cancellation conditions & are now only offering a Future Cruise Credit on cancellations. They say they will honour refunds for cancellations made before today but we can't get hold of our TA to see if he had already contacted Cunard. A future cruise credit, aside from it being no good if the company folded, is of no use to us as it can only be used on new bookings up to March 2022 and we already have 2 cruises booked up to this period.
What are our rights regarding a full refund please?

We are in a similar position (with a different cruise company) who are only offering Future Cruise Credit.  The issue we have is regarding travel insurance and changing the date of the trip - the travel insurance company have given us a short extension on our current policy, but not sufficient for a new cruise date.  This means we’d have to buy a new policy and no one is providing cover for travel disruption (corona virus). The avenue we are going to explore is making a travel insurance claim -  as you’re aware, the FCO guidelines currently advise over 70s not to take a cruise. Also, once the 12 week isolation starts for the over 70s, there’s a strong likelihood my parents who I’m travelling with will still be in isolation.  Not sure whether the claim will be agreed but it’s worth a try. Please let me know how you get on. 

roseandrog48

Hi Team , we would like your expert opinions on what we can do with our aborted trip to the USA.

In detail as follows:-

We booked a trip entitled Ol' Man River with Jules Verne in June 2019, the cost of the trip to us was £10,670, this included premium flights to Memphis via Chicago, a 2 night stay in Memphis, boarding the American Queen paddle steamer for a 7 night comprehensive trip south to New Orleans followed by a 2 night stay in New Orleans & return flight direct to London, all flights were with One World Alliance.

We travelled to Heathrow on Friday 13th March, a night in a Airport hotel & a very early flight to Chicago, upon landing there was a rumour circulating that we may not be able to complete our tour, however our luggage was already booked on to the subsequent flight to Memphis. In Memphis we were met as a small group by the local representative of Jules Verne & promptly learnt that our trip had been cancelled as the American Queen Steamboat company had been instructed by the US government to cancel all sailings, we were taken to the hotel as planned & were upon check-in given details of our return flights on Sunday 15th March.

The following morning which was supposed to include a paid for breakfast , which the hotel declined to provide, was followed by transport to the airport for our return journey, arriving home early evening Monday 16th March.

I phoned Jules Verne customer service on Tuesday 17th to find out what was there plans, were advised that they would response with no commitment.

The response arrived late Friday night 20th March, where it basically stated that they would not be refunding us at all & that we should contact our travel insurance company.

This we feel is grossly unfair, as they are clearly protected their financial position whilst exposing ours.

We appreciate that you may well be under an enormous volume of requests for advice, but would really appreciate a response with any guidance to our possible actions to take as soon as possible..

many thanks

Mr & Mrs R Collins

silvercar

I would make a formal complaint, I'm guessing Jules verne are abta bonded, so should a complaint to them fail (or they don't respond) then go to abta.
Another line would be to claim on your travel insurance.
Third approach would be to go to court on the grounds that they didn't supply what that had contracted to do.

ippon_john

Just got home after being "evacuated" by TUI from the Dominican Republic. The whole process was a disaster; the DR govt made a declaration that all airports were closed on Monday 16th March and all we got was a letter pushed under our door late in the evening to say that TUI had taken the decision to evacuate all holidaymakers. 
After several days of no information from the reps, despite daily visits to them, we were eventually told we had to leave on Thursday 19th and, after one false start and being returned to the hotel "for 24hrs" but were rounded up again 3hrs later, a 2hr delay at the local airport, being flown into Gatwick instead of Manchester via Barbados and then another 2hr delay at Gatwick because of poor organisation which eventually saw some coaches arrive before a 5hr coach drive, we finally got back to Manchester airport 36 hours later!
Apart from the meals on the plane we were provided with no refreshments and no information either regarding the virus, self-isolation or anything else.
Suspect the " extraordinary circumstances" clause will prevent us from claiming for a standard flight delay however I wonder about claiming on the grounds of the poor organisation from TUI and if there is any scope for claiming for curtailment of the holiday from our LV travel insurance ie we were only there 7 days out of 14 with most of these ruined as we had our bags packed and were ready to go  
Any help/advice gratefully accepted, many thanks in advance 
     

Artur_K

Once again Ryanair reassures how absolute disgracefull company it is. I have booked three flights with them in April, which two these have already been cacelled. In each case I received email offering two options, either to change the flight for free or to request a full refund. And obviously you guessed the second option does work on their website, claiming wrong reservation number has been entered. I have tried the process multiple times to make sure I am inserting all details correctly, but every time I am unsuccessful. I also heard more people have the same problem.
P L E A S E   I N T E R V E N E

Shelleyntrixie

Ours is 2nd of may. first holiday in 2 year and not gunna like we have scrapped bottom of the barrel for this brake to the point  where my family paid for my passport. We have had the worst 12 months ever! due to my ill health and other things that's gone off we just wanted a brake. My partner has worked all hours god has sent for us to be able to have a brake.We now have the possibility of no holiday due to work commitments and lack of availability to move our holiday dates as I work for a small community care company for the elderly, that are rightly so canceling calls to protect their families and their self. we also have no money to do anything including looking for insurance nevermind a mid week shop because we can't get essentials. I am devastated to say the least as its having a huge impact on my partners mental health and I cant fix it for her. so any advice would be truly grateful X