Love holidays

Sophmc

We are due to go on holiday mid July to Santorini and booked through LoveHolidays. We’ve paid more than half of the holiday cost and the rest is due 2 weeks before we fly. We are obviously concerned about the current situation and haven’t as of yet been told that it is cancelled. Do we pay the rest of the booking? We are hesitant because of reading that Love Holidays are refusing to give refunds and instead are making you take a voucher for their company or a refund for cash which can’t be accessed until August. Surely by that point they may have actually went bust. We have holiday insurance through our bank so should we pay the fully amount and claim it on insurance if they refuse to pay. We also paid it on a credit card if that makes an difference. 

Thanks 😊

Aylesbury_Duck

If you don't pay the full amount, are you happy to lose what you've paid so far?

Browntoa

The new vouchers are called RCNs ,

Fully protected

Read about RCNs , half way down the page

https://www.abta.com/news/coronavirus-outbreak

Rodgekar

We had a holiday booked to the Canaries with Love Holidays, due to fly 26th March

They have offered us a refund credit voucher for the hotel part (which is 2/3rds of what we paid) and I have claimed the necessary refunds from Easyjet and Ryanair which presumably Love Holidays will pass on as a credit voucher. 

Our Insurance company, despite having travel disruption protection haven't refused on the grounds that we have been offered a voucher but are refusing to pay on the grounds that Love Holidays are legally obliged to refund in cash within 14 days.

I have tried a section 75 Credit card charge back with New Day who have written back and said they are not interested as their contract is with the "agent to the supplier" 'Love Holidays' and not the supplier therefore a break in the chain has occurred as there is no direct link between the debtor and supplier and LH and equally ourselves are unable to control the decision made at the hotel!!  I have queried this as I understand that the suppliers are refunding in cash, Love Holidays are then passing on in part as a credit refund voucher!!  So I think the Agent to the Supplier is in breach however I'm not an expert I'm just trying to get my money back so I can help the travel industry whilst also giving my kids something to look forward to later by booking another holiday. At the moment the current amount on the refund does not provide sufficient funds to book another holiday and I refuse to throw any more money Love Holidays way when there is another £700 due, plus in all honesty, I don't actually want to give LH another penny.

Things have gotten so desperate I've even tried Watchdog but their inbox was full! Story of my life!

So we have had to resort to escalation to ABTA which takes 28days and not holding out much hope. Anybody else resorted to this? Did you have any joy? 

Browntoa

It's taking the airlines some time to refund loveholidays , they will refund when they get it .

The vouchers you get are called RCNs and can be exchanged for cash as I explained in my post just above yours but read the abta article about RCNs about half way down.

https://www.abta.com/news/coronavirus-outbreak.

Currently there is no way to force them to give you cash despite what the law says

Sooler

victoriaenwood said:

Hi 
I am really unsure what to do, I booked a love holidays package deal to the algarve, set to leave on 25th May. Now Ryanair have been in touch and cancelled my flights but love holidays have not cancelled the holiday so I was offered by Ryanair to book new dates which I took for the end of July hoping flights will be back up by then.

 

Confusing thread as the OP is unanswered.

knightyboy76

Hi All,
Following with interest as I have a package holiday booked through loveholidays using ryanair for flights. I have been offered to re-book the flights without the admin penalty but am holding out as I want/need a refund. I guess officially the flights are not cancelled as they are still more than 2 weeks out (15th May)  and the status checked on the ryanair web page does not let you look that far ahead. Also, the accommodation have closed their doors for the summer and are also encouraging people to re-book rather than cancel.

A lot of the discussion seems to be centered around the package holiday regulations and the issue of RCNs vs cash refunds. But loveholidays' own Terms and Conditions are pretty clear. I made a point of saving an off-line copy of the terms and conditions when I booked the holiday. Relevant sections below.

What seems really dodgy to me is that the original holiday booking was sent to me without an offline copy of the terms of conditions from the time when I entered into the contract. It is a hyperlink to the web page, as far as I can see. They have since made a couple of amendments to the T&Cs specifically around Coronavirus and that is what you will see if you follow the link today. The final paragraph in these terms and conditions was added after I booked my holiday - this was not part of the contract that most people entered into.

I'd grab a copy now for your own records in case the wording is changed even further.

Thanks,
Rich.

10. Changes and Cancellations to your Travel Services

We and the Service Providers reserve the right to make changes to your Travel Services at any time. Most changes are minor changes and we and the Service Providers will endeavour to pass on information to you in regards to any minor changes before you depart. However, occasionally we have to notify you of a significant change that we or the Service Providers are constrained to make to the main characteristics of the booking.

We will inform you as soon as reasonably practicable if we or the Service Provider needs to make a significant change to your confirmed Travel Service, or to cancel them entirely. We will also liaise between you and the Service Provider in relation to any alternative arrangements offered by the Service Provider and/or any compensation offered. If we or any of the Service Providers are prevented from performing the Travel Service because of Unavoidable and Extraordinary Circumstances, we or the Service Providers may terminate your booking and provide you a full refund. We will not be liable to you for any additional compensation in such cases.

In relation to Package bookings only, in the unlikely event that we or your Service Providers have to make a significant change to your Package, we will tell you as soon as reasonably possible. You will then have the option to:

• accept the proposed change. If this results in a Package of lower quality or cost, you may be entitled to a price reduction in accordance with paragraph 13 below;
• reject the proposed change, terminate your Package and take an alternative one if we decide to offer this. If you decide to take an alternative Package, we will inform you of its impact on the price of your booking. If the alternative Package is of a lower quality or cost, you may be entitled to a price reduction in accordance with paragraph 13 below, or
• reject the proposed change and terminate your Package with a full refund.

We will give you a reasonable period of time to make your decision, which will usually be 7 days from notification of the proposed change. If we do not hear from you within this timeframe, we will send a reminder to you, following which we shall be entitled to terminate the Package and provide you with a refund.

If you decide to reject the proposed change and terminate your Package with a full refund, you may also be entitled to compensation in accordance with paragraph 13 below.

On rare occasions, we or the Service Providers may have to cancel your Package and we reserve the right to do so. If we or the Service Providers have to do so, we will notify you as soon as possible. We will also offer you an alternative Package if we are able to do, and inform you of its impact on the price of your booking. If the alternative Package is of a lower quality or cost, you may be entitled to a price reduction in accordance with paragraph 13 below. If we cannot offer you an alternative, or even if you just prefer, we will provide you with a full refund of any payments made for the Package.

You may be entitled to compensation as a result of our cancellation of your Package in accordance with paragraph 13 below, except where we are prevented from providing the Package because of Unavoidable and Extraordinary Circumstances and we notify you of the cancellation without undue delay before the start of your Package.

In relation to cancellations made as a result of global travel disruption arising from the Coronavirus outbreak: (i) the initial refund of package bookings will take the form of a refund credit note, which the insolvency protection attaching to your original booking will attach. This can be used to book a new holiday by a stated date (which may be extended by reference to guidance issued by ABTA and/or the CAA or the UK government or the European Union) or exchanged for a cash refund for any sum which is not used by the stated date; and (ii) the refund due in respect of other forms of bookings will be in the form of a refund credit note which may be applied against future bookings on our site by a stated date, or exchanged for a cash refund for any sum which is not used by the stated date.

ebuckner

We were supposed to be guests at a wedding in Ibiza in August however the couple have already decided to cancel due to the financial implications on a lot of the guests from the current pandemic.

I just wondered if anyone had any guidance, I am pretty sure our insurance (Holiday Extras) will say tough as it’s not a cancelation due to health etc but haven’t tried them as of yet as I know they are inundated with calls, I’m just going on previous experience with insurance claims in general.

The package was booked through Love Holidays who have said we can pay a fee to move the holiday to next year but we need to sort the flights with RyanAir ourselves and they will not help in anyway and don’t release their flights until 6 months before according to their support agent.

Is there anything we can do or is it just a case we need to suck it up and take it on the chin as a bit of bad luck? I realise there’s a lot to play out in this current crisis but I’m just guessing a lot of the tourist destinations, travel companies and airlines will need to open up in the next few months otherwise they will go bust so am assuming flights will be going ahead in August.

Cheers in advance

Browntoa

I'd let it run until the holiday is formally cancelled by loveholidays and get a refund voucher ( which can be exchanged for cash)

Ryanair should refund to loveholidays , not you

fluff34567

Hello all,

I searched for a similar case but didn't find one. 
I have a hotel only booking in Poland for a few days in May through loveholidays.  Polish borders are closed and  of course I am not able to get to Poland.   I'm waiting for loveholidays to cancel the booking based on FCO advice as they are cancelling all bookings upto 7th May.
It appears loveholidays will only issue a non abta atol  credit note or another date rebooking, maybe!   What's stopping me from getting  a full cash refund?