Can I get a refund for a cancelled holiday from the Travel Company or my Insurance?

tonyl1954

I booked for a touring holiday to Italy via Fleetway Travel back in October. Paid in full. Due to travel 19/4/20 with Easyjet. I have an ATOL certificate & travel insurance
Informed yesterday by Fleetway that as the FCO advise against all but essential travel, the holiday is cancelled & that I need to claim via my insurance. If Fleetway have my money why are they not obliged to return it? Their policy states if they change or cancel then one of the options would be to "having a full refund of all monies paid"
I'm wondering if its different because the FCO have now advised against travel.
If I go through my insurers I will loose £75 excess per traveller. If thats the case do I claim at least that back from Fleetway?
HELP!!!

fcorry2008

I am facing a similar situation although my travel date is not until May so the airline hasn't yet cancelled, but my excess would be £95 or around £450 loss for 5 of us.  My holiday is also a separate booking for the flight, hotel and transfer, it seems like they book it direct with each company so I don't even know if that constitutes a package or not and if one of the main elements get cancelled, like the flight, how does that affect the cancellation of the hotel etc.  

I feel that a lot of smaller online travel agents will probably just tell you to claim from your insurance and not offer any alternative but I don't know if this right and if they are trying to fob you off down the insurance route, to avoid compensation they are obligated to pay?  Maybe they try it and see if you push back and it's the usual tug of war with this types of things.

 It does seems wrong they sell you the holiday, they cancel it and then don't offer to reimburse you or re-book your holiday to a later date.  In my situation I would personally settle for travelling next year, I'd be quite happy with a credit note or best of all money back, it seems some of the bigger companies are doing this from reading this forum, others not so much.

So yes it would be good to get a better answer, reading through the MSE advice page, it still seems a bit vague in relation to the obligations of the travel agent / tour operator, it just says try them as your first point of call as they should offer a refund. 

paulself

I have just received a similar mail from Fleetway cancelling my holiday on 23rd April and they also suggest that I now claim on my insurance.
The foreign office advice I believe only lasts til the 17th April. So Fleetway have obviously taken the decision to cancel and yet are sitting with all my monies.
How can this be right?

Pinz

Just had Jet2 Holidays cancel our holiday in April but refusing to give a refund and forcing a rebook - has to be rebooked before end of June and taken before 31-03-21!! How can they legally do this?