Advice on holiday cancellation and section 75

huskie69

My wife and I booked a honeymoon in Thailand last year.  It was booked with Emirates Holidays through an intermediate agent.

A deposit on £350 was paid (on credit card) in September 2019 with the remaining balance payable by 01st March 2020.

We monitored the spread of Covid19 in the far east closely and by mid-February, we made the decision to cancel the booking.
Our travel agent issued a refund of £148.  I (maybe incorrectly) assumed the remainder would be paid if the full holiday was cancelled by Emirates as a result of the Covid19 pandemic.

Our flight was due to leave tomorrow (3rd June) but Emirates are no longer operating from Manchester so the entire package is effectively cancelled not just for ourselves but for anyone else.

I got in touch with the agent today to enquire about the other £202 and it turns out that it was paid to Emirates as a deposit.

They contacted Emirates on my behalf and this is what Emirates responded with:

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All Holidays up until the 17th March 2020 were bound into normal Terms and Conditions until the FCO advice was changed.

As the clients requested this holiday to be cancelled on the 18th Feb 2020 normal terms and conditions applied so would still be loss of deposit of £202.00

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I interpret this to as follows:

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If the client had taken a gamble, paid the remaining amount by 1st March, and waited until the FCO changed their advice, they'd have been entitled to a refund in full.
However, because the client played it safe and cancelled before the FCO advice was changed, they're not entitled to a refund on their deposit, depsite us not even operating the original flights.  Screw them.

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The travel agent has advised that I could attempt to claim via my credit card company but Emirates will kick up a fuss as we cancelled before their published accepted date. 

I relaise £202 is not a huge amount of money in the grand scheme of things, but given the circumstances and the fact the flights and holiday are not taking place at all now, I do think I should be credited the remainder.

My question is, what's likely to happen if I go down the section 75 route with my credit card company, am I just wasting my time?

Life__Goes__On

It's been debated a bit on here
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6149072/lost-deposits-for-a-holiday-that-ends-up-being-cancelled/p1
No one certain on what will happen one way or another, with lost deposits for trips that end up being cancelled.

A S75 will I feel fail as you  would have to show a breach, and not sure you could, under CCA1974

You case would be based on the CRA 2015  saying keeping the deposit is "unfair" so would have to go though the  court system.
You could go down the route getting them to supply the information proving their loss,  they would need that if it went to court.
If you don't want the hassle of court action, you could try and bluff them by going though the process and end up sending then a "Letter before action/claim" ,  but if they still refuse  just drop it.

bagand96

You cancelled the contract in mid-February, and therefore were subject to the T&C's at the time.

Just because Emirates have subsequently cancelled the flights, and therefore could not fulfill the contract is unfortunately not really relevant as you had already withdrawn from the contract.  I don't think a Section 75 would be successful on that basis.  Your agent, or Emirates, would appeal it and state that you cancelled and the £202 loss of deposit was as per the terms.  No harm in trying though, it doesn't cost you anything.

There are some people that believe you should be able to reclaim your deposit.  I believe their argument is that in contract law a company is only entitled to keep a small deposit to cover their losses.  And that if they couldn't provide the holiday anyway then they incurred no loss by your cancellation so should return your deposit.  I'm no expert on that though, and it may involve taking them to court so would be out of my depth giving you advice.  Maybe @Life__Goes__On will drop by this thread...

EDIT: Looks like we cross posted.... my crystal ball is working well today!

Life__Goes__On

bagand96 said:

EDIT: Looks like we cross posted.... my crystal ball is working well today!

And as if by magic, the shopkeeper appeared  (I'm showing my age)

I completely agree with your post, a S75 is worth a shot,  but expect it to fail.
I would like to see an Ombudsman's ruling on this, but I expect it's out of their remit to uphold the complaint. But they can go into full detail, so would be interested to see any comment.