Coronavirus travel disruption - latest info and your rights

CKhalvashi

Rickk said:

No sorry you misunderstand me,first holiday booked and paid for 6 months  before due to go.then wife booked another one but just with a deposit and pay monthly option.so as we paid last payment we where still traveling.if we new how bad at refunding people we wouldn't have booked any with them.also we thought they was a travel agent because they were a offering both accommodation and flights together.but when asked about the flight refund they said see ryanair.

Yes, and they are deliberately fobbing you off.

Loveholidays are the company your contract are with (or in legal terms, the company responsible for the performance of your package).

Individual elements (such as Ryanair flights) are the responsibility of the carrier, but that's to Loveholidays, not you.

Loveholidays are therefore the only company here that owe you anything.

eskbanker

The_Real_Mrs_O said:

Apologies if this has already been raised previously but I have been in communication with First Choice regarding my special family trip to Dominican Republic in July 2021. I booked this in January 2020 before we had even heard of covid of the pandemic. I have asked them to consider not charging me a cancellation fee due to my financial status (fully self-employed and against the law to work in Scotland). I have told them I need the money I have saved for this trip to live on. They told me that they couldn't waive the rest of the deposit I still need to pay to walk away as it's unfair to their other customers. However, they seem to have a rule that if you booked a holiday during the pandemic (from Dec 2022) onwards that you can change your holiday for free up until Oct 2021. How is that fair? Why would you book a holiday as lockdown is imminent and during lockdown. Is there any way that Martin Lewis can approach TUI about this and how would I go about this? Going by their twitter page there are other people in the same boat finding this policy ridiculous. I would like to cancel given my financial situation but I would at a push consider moving to 2022 instead to give me a bit of breathing space. 

Once the pandemic started, numerous travel companies felt the need to offer such flexibility incentives in order to keep their businesses afloat - as you suggest, many would otherwise simply not have made bookings and the company would have no income.  No doubt many of those who booked under the original Ts & Cs may feel that they've been treated unfairly because of concessions being offered to others, but that still doesn't really give you any legal rights, so you need to work on the basis that the terms of your booking are as they were at the time you made it.

There are obviously no guarantees that a long-haul holiday will go ahead in the summer anyway, so it may be that once it gets closer to the time you might have options to obtain a refund or a postponement, but as things stand you don't really have any choice other than to continue making the scheduled payments, or accept the published cancellation terms.

Rickk

I posted a while back about having trouble getting a refund from love holidays,I've had the hotel refunded just not the flights. they said its down to ryanair,ryanair say they flew out its not there problem,emailed the caa they said its down to lh.just been back on to them and they say its not just going round in circles.i did try and move the flights but they wanted 700 extra which i hadn't got.don't know what else to try as we couldn't get insurance at the time.

Thrugelmir

Rickk said:

as we couldn't get insurance at the time.

Why not? 

Robbie162991

I booked a holiday for may 2020 which was cancelled. They gave us a credit note and we rebooked for may 2021 however have again cancelled but are saying we can’t get a refund due to accepting credit note first time round. Anyone have any info on this. 

CKhalvashi

Robbie162991 said:

I booked a holiday for may 2020 which was cancelled. They gave us a credit note and we rebooked for may 2021 however have again cancelled but are saying we can’t get a refund due to accepting credit note first time round. Anyone have any info on this. 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2018/9780111168479/contents

Section 13.3(a).

It doesn't say that this has to be in cash, however I'm not aware of this being tested in court. I would argue that the original was paid in cash and the second continued on from this, however you'll need to take a look at the contract paperwork and any terms that came with the voucher to be sure.

What was the expiry date on the voucher? This will generally be the time there is a contractual entitlement to turn this into a cash refund under ABTA rules. That you have used this should (in theory, expect the agent to make a fuss) be irrelevant, as the voucher was used for a further cancelled package and then the provisions under the above-mentioned legislation should apply.

Westin

Robbie162991 said:

I booked a holiday for may 2020 which was cancelled. They gave us a credit note and we rebooked for may 2021 however have again cancelled but are saying we can’t get a refund due to accepting credit note first time round. Anyone have any info on this. 

Which travel company? Was this a package holiday, or did you make and plan the arrangements yourself and the issue is with the flights?

CKhalvashi

Westin said:

Robbie162991 said:

I booked a holiday for may 2020 which was cancelled. They gave us a credit note and we rebooked for may 2021 however have again cancelled but are saying we can’t get a refund due to accepting credit note first time round. Anyone have any info on this. 

Which travel company? Was this a package holiday, or did you make and plan the arrangements yourself and the issue is with the flights?

Thanks Westin, didn't even think to ask this.

My post above assumes it's a package.

Robbie162991

Westin said:

Robbie162991 said:

I booked a holiday for may 2020 which was cancelled. They gave us a credit note and we rebooked for may 2021 however have again cancelled but are saying we can’t get a refund due to accepting credit note first time round. Anyone have any info on this. 

Which travel company? Was this a package holiday, or did you make and plan the arrangements yourself and the issue is with the flights?

It was a package holiday. It was booked through a local travel agent and the tour operator is US air tours. We never got the first credit note it went to the travel agent and we rebooked immediately. 

CKhalvashi

Robbie162991 said:

Westin said:

Robbie162991 said:

I booked a holiday for may 2020 which was cancelled. They gave us a credit note and we rebooked for may 2021 however have again cancelled but are saying we can’t get a refund due to accepting credit note first time round. Anyone have any info on this. 

Which travel company? Was this a package holiday, or did you make and plan the arrangements yourself and the issue is with the flights?

It was a package holiday. It was booked through a local travel agent and the tour operator is US air tours. We never got the first credit note it went to the travel agent and we rebooked immediately. 

I'd argue in this case that you have a right to a cash refund as no voucher was issued and it was subsequently an amended booking from the original.

Legislation posted above.

If not paid, standard Letter Before Action will apply, before rotating through the courts, which .understandably at the moment unfortunately may take some time.