TUI refunds thread

Milo55

Hi everyone we received our money back from TUI yesterday, so good news you will get your money until they can persuade the government to allow vouchers.
We were told the money is refunded  14 days after the cancellation notice however it did take quite a few phones calls and longer then 14 days to get ours.

AgentOso1

Milo55 said:

Hi everyone we received our money back from TUI yesterday, so good news you will get your money until they can persuade the government to allow vouchers.
We were told the money is refunded  14 days after the cancellation notice however it did take quite a few phones calls and longer then 14 days to get ours.

Great to hear that - thanks for sharing.

anticlaus105

Milo55 said:

Hi everyone we received our money back from TUI yesterday, so good news you will get your money until they can persuade the government to allow vouchers.
We were told the money is refunded  14 days after the cancellation notice however it did take quite a few phones calls and longer then 14 days to get ours.

Good to hear. How did they refund? Back onto a card or BACS? Also when trying to call them do you recall what number you used and the options you selected? Many are a dead end for me and cut me off.

EDIT: I notice you cancelled on the 14th. If that's the case we are due a refund tomorrow.

EDIT: Just got off the phone after 1 1/2 hours and they told me someone would be in touch to sort a refund? Am not sure what that means, I already have an email from 16th saying it's been processed. I'm not going to hold my breath and will keep the section 75 going.

GDellar

My friend and I are undecided on whether we should pay our final instalment (worth £1000 each) due on the 6th April, for our TUI holiday departing 29th June to Costa Rica. We've seen plenty of advice online for holidays that have been paid for fully, but it seems to be a grey area for TUI holidays that are part paid for. We are currently swaying towards paying it, and at least that way we qualify for claiming the holiday on insurance/ TUI cannot say we are in default. Before we commit to this decision we are doing the maths to see what amount we'd receive back of the portion we've paid already if we were to cancel now (& not pay the final instalment). Alternatively, as our departure date falls between 8th- 30th June, we can make a change free of charge. Hopefully we make the right choice. I would be interested to know whether any one else is in a similar position, and what they plan on doing. 

SevenOfNine

Milo55 said:

Hi everyone we received our money back from TUI yesterday, so good news you will get your money until they can persuade the government to allow vouchers.
We were told the money is refunded  14 days after the cancellation notice however it did take quite a few phones calls and longer then 14 days to get ours.

Excellent news, pleased for you. I was hoping NOT to have to phone, let alone "quite a few phone calls", BUT, a refund is a refund so hopefully whichever minister can make the voucher decision, I hope he's self-isolating!

Pollycat

GDellar said:

My friend and I are undecided on whether we should pay our final instalment (worth £1000 each) due on the 6th April, for our TUI holiday departing 29th June to Costa Rica. We've seen plenty of advice online for holidays that have been paid for fully, but it seems to be a grey area for TUI holidays that are part paid for. We are currently swaying towards paying it, and at least that way we qualify for claiming the holiday on insurance/ TUI cannot say we are in default. Before we commit to this decision we are doing the maths to see what amount we'd receive back of the portion we've paid already if we were to cancel now (& not pay the final instalment). Alternatively, as our departure date falls between 8th- 30th June, we can make a change free of charge. Hopefully we make the right choice. I would be interested to know whether any one else is in a similar position, and what they plan on doing. 

We have a TUI holiday booked for mid June.

We paid the balance on 19th March, before the closure of pubs & restaurants and before the lockdown.

At the time, the advice was to pay the balance and you'd get a refund if the tour operator cancelled.

If you didn't pay the balance by the due date, you'd forfeit your deposit.

Of course now there's all this talk of vouchers etc instead of refunds.

The exact same holiday for 2021 is 20% higher than we paid.

We are currently thinking about deferring and swallowing the increase as the accommodation we've booked is very small and very popular and we can see it getting booked up as more people think the same as us.

It's very popular with retired people who can probably afford to do to defer the holiday and leave the money paid to TUI (as we can) but not everyone can afford to do that.

anticlaus105

I've now had an email from TUI, dated today, saying my refund will be processed within 4 weeks. So I guess I'm supposed to just disregard the one from 16th March.

movilogo

Tui dont owe you £4000 they owe you a holiday 

They owed a holiday at a specific date - failing which they must refund customers.
If companies go bust trying to refund customers, it is their problem. They should have managed their finance better. Customers should not be trying to save the businesses from going bust.
If TUI can't fulfil their refund, then they should claim from their business insurance. I am sure they have business insurance.
Now the problem is, TUI wants to save its own backside, travel insurers want to save their backsides - everyone wants to pay back others. All were happy to take money from customers before.
This attitude will simply ensure travel insurance will not be same again when situation becomes normal after the crisis. People will remember how the industry behaved.

Aylesbury_Duck

movilogo said:

People will remember how the industry behaved.

For five minutes, then they'll be all over the web like a rash booking the cheapest deal they can get, regardless of which agency or airline it's with.  That's partly why a lot of people are in the situation they're in as a consequence of Covid-19.  It's clear from threads on here that a lot of people have no idea what they bought, from whom, or what they're covered for.  They just bought on price.  That isn't going to change.

ianskeltonphotography

SevenOfNine said:

ianskeltonphotography said:

We were due to fly to Dom Rep on Sunday 15th March...sitting in the TUI lounge at Gatwick 1.5hrs before wheels up & I get the email cancelling the holiday!! In the email it said we would get a full refund. On the Monday 16th we went into the TUI shop we booked it with, as we paid some cash, some debit card & some credit card...so wanted to check how the refund would be coming back? In store they said (& she was on the phone to somebody at TUI) that Head Office would now be taking over refunds process not the shop.
Even though my wife paid the majority of it, as I was lead passenger the refund would have to be paid to my bank account & so she took my Acc numbers & passed them on the the other person on the phone. We were told it would take approx 7 days but to leave it with them as the phones will be very busy with other people trying to get help...
Today, 2nd April, after over 2 weeks checking bank account, I called the 0800 number on the TUI website. After almost 2 hors of waiting I got through. Only to be told "I don't know why you were told that information, I'm very sorry but as you booked in shop all refunds had to be done by the shop, which are all closed until further notice! However even if you had booked online our system is now preventing us from issuing refunds by this method either"
So in a nutshell we were in a shop that could have refunded us, but were told they couldn't as HO were doing it & now HO don't seem to want to do it either.... clever delaying tactics or am I am being cynical?? A voucher for future travel is all well & good if there a TUI to travel with at that point!!!
Being self employed that refund has now taken on a whole new value

You have an email from TUI cancelling your holiday, you booked via their shop so went there & were told you they could not handle your refund & passed the instructions, along with your bank details, to head offfice for processing. You waited 14 days as it says in the T&C's, still no refund, so you rang the only avenue of communication, the 'helpline', who essentially told you they can't refund you either.

Time to apply for a cancellation refund via your travel insurance IMO.

Just as a side note, whenever I'm forced to deal with things by 'phone instead of an email paper trail, I habitually note name, date, time.  Sometimes seems a bit anal, but mostly it has added some weight when things get difficult, particularly when you're bouncing around in call centres.

Hi Thank you for you reply & advice. I have the name of the TUI agent I called yesterday & the time of the call, so hopefully that will add some evidence & weight behind our claim. I also asked him to amend the notes against our booking reference to show show I had called to raise the issue...I guess you have to hope he did actually make those notes as I guess we'll never get to see them.
We called the credit card company today as 50% of the holiday was by that form of payment. The automated system said to call back again as there were not enough call handlers to accept our call... you couldn't make it up!! So as you have suggested our next port of call will now be our travel insurance company.
I'm encouraged to read a post further down this thread that somebody got their refund today. They cancelled on 14th...TUI cancelled us on 15th so hopefully they are working through them in date order ....