TUI Holiday Despair... Please advise how to proceed.

SaxonRix

This might be a long one, but just trying to explain all details. Please bear with it.

The Holiday

• Had a holiday booked for 29th April 2020. We booked it in May 2019 just after our wedding.
• The holiday was supposed to be our belated honeymoon & our first ever family holiday.
• Because of the special occasion we went 'all out', getting upgrades etc.
• We were lucky because Autumn would have been 1 at the time, and she had a 'free child place' for the holiday. We WOULD NOT have been able to afford this holiday if it wasn't for that.
• The holiday cost just over £3400. Again, we'd never normally spend that much, but it was a special occasion.

THE VIRUS

Then, Covid-19 hit. The initial info from Tui (though we have never been contacted them by them on a one-to-one basis), was as follows on the 20th March:

For those of you due to travel after 16 April 2020, your holiday is currently going ahead as planned. However, from 17 March 2020, we are offering free amends to those travelling before 30 June to any holiday on sale. You can do this by simply logging on to Manage my Booking online or on the TUI or First Choice app.

It was obvious that travel wasn't going to be resuming as normal again on the 16th April 2020, which has clearly proven true.

On the 6th of April we took a look at the holiday options that we could amend to for next year, but there was a couple of issues with this:

1. We couldn't find the original holiday we booked, or if we did find it, it was for a different time of year & much more expensive without changing any settings.
2. THEN we also realised that we'd have to change the age of autumn from 1, to 2, which meant her place was no longer free and increased prices ever further!

CONTACTING TUI 01

Because of this, on the same day (6th April), we called TUI to see if we could get a refund instead of changing our holiday. I explained the situation, that it was a special holiday & was only really possible due to Autumn having a free child place. The operator said we can't get a refund and can only move our holiday.

Since that was our only option we reluctantly, we moved our holiday to not only a different date but also a different place as we could no longer afford the cost of the original holiday since autumn would be 2 by the time we would travel. At this point we didn't have our hearts set on any of those holidays, but moved it since it was the only thing we could do to avoid losing the money.

Also, although I asked, they couldn't offer any additional discount or help regarding the issue of the free child place, either....

TUI CHANGED THE RULES

Cut to a few weeks later from the phone call and TUI updated their information saying the following:

We understand that you may not be ready to book again just yet, so the refund credit gives you the flexibility to book your travel in future. Plus, if your original booking was for a package holiday, you’ll get a separate booking incentive up to 20%.
f you’re unable to accept a refund credit and you have already received your refund credit code, please use our refund request form to apply for a cash refund. Please be aware that we are unable to process your refund request if you haven’t yet received your refund credit code.

GREAT! We thought, we can call them up, explain the situation that we originally wanted a refund etc and they'll understand since the original situation was ridiculous anyway.

CONTACTING TUI 02

So we got to calling them.

And calling. And calling. And calling.

Calling.

Calling.

Calling.
After WEEKS of trying we FINALLY got through on Thursday 4th June 2020.
Phew! This will all be over soon.... Right?

Again, we explained the whole situation to the support agent who then put us on hold to ask someone higher up about it. A couple minutes later the support agent came back....

NOPE. We can't get a full refund, as there will be a £600 charge to cancel the holiday that we reluctantly changed our booking to because we couldn't get a refund in the first place!?!

So although we initially wanted a full refund but was not allowed one, we reluctantly went ahead with the only option TUI offered us. THEN they changed the rules so people can either get a full refund 'credit' plus an extra 20%, OR if they don't want the refund credit, they can get a FULL REFUND back to their bank...

BUT OF COURSE WE CAN'T BENEFIT FROM THAT AND LOSE £600 IN THE PROCESS.

How can we proceed with this to try and get that additional £600 back?

Life__Goes__On

I don't see any way out of it unless TUI backtracks.
You holiday wasn't cancelled when you contacted them, they were offering free amends for your date.
The choice was agree to it,  or wait and see what happens,  you chose the former.

You might think it is totally unfair, but  TUI agrees to it, your only redress would be IMHO court action.

SaxonRix

Life__Goes__On said:

I don't see any way out of it unless TUI backtracks.
You holiday wasn't cancelled when you contacted them, they were offering free amends for your date.
The choice was agree to it,  or wait and see what happens,  you chose the former.

You might think it is totally unfair, but  TUI agrees to it, your only redress would be IMHO court action.

My point is, it was presented as a choice. They never said, you can change you holiday, or just wait till it cancels and then get a refund. Even when I called them to ask for a refund they never told me this, hence why I ended up feeling forced to go the amended holiday rout.

Hasbeen

Sister in law was in same boat. Well booked a cruise. LOL For departure 29th May.

Knew not to cancel and waited for TUI to cancel cruise £4500.

There was plenty information available about what would happen if customer cancelled without waiting.

Received credit voucher and has now went down TUIs agreed refund route.

Email received full refund within 4 weeks.

Life__Goes__On

Did you ask? as if you did then that might be grounds on getting a full refund, if you were lied too.
There is sometimes a difference between what something thinks is "fair"  but what is "legal"
Legally they don't have to give you every option,  but also legally they can't lie to trying to make you take an offer.

I know it's not what you want to hear, but I can only offer advice based on what I think would be the legal outcome,  not the fair one.

[Deleted User]

Awww I feel it so much for you but you seem to be one of the cases that jumped too quickly..sadly.  As you have agreed to go to somewhere else at a different time, I think this is what you are committed to.  Any previous contracts would be voided.   You can keep on at them or as previous says take them to court.   The main problem with all this is it is such an unprecedented situation.   TUI  probably wouldn't have known they could offer anything else at the time either?   

Where have you booked for?   You don't know yet if you will have the holiday of a lifetime wherever it is?   Other than that you could be a test case in court?    I know which I would prefer but really ...up to you.   

smallblueplanet

You've set it all out very clearly, why not put it in writing and send a copy to TUI 'customer service complaints'? 
Edit:
Or why not try Resolver which is done in association with MSE? 
https://www.resolver.co.uk/companies/tui-holidays-complaints
I had success using them on a smaller complaint with a villa company.

SevenOfNine

There's nothing to resolve here.  I was in your situation, trip for 19 April, TUI cancellations only up to 16th.  Also told "trip going ahead as planned", equally as sure as you that it wouldn't!

Yes, the OFFER of free 'amend' was made (more than once), the choice to take it was up to the traveller. Many did & seem quite happy, I did not though, as you've said, it was clear that what I'd booked really wasn't going to happen. Waiting for actual TUI cancellation was ALWAYS an option. 

I'm afraid TUI didn't mislead you any more than they did me, you jumped before your trip was even cancelled (they finally did that on 8 April), so you subsequntly missed out on the Refund Credit note + 20% incentive as well.  Those that had already accepted the free 'amend' were quite miffed, not having got the 20%.  As far as I know they've just had to suck it up!

I rang about 3 days after trip date, full refund processed, the option you had all along, lawfully had. I get that you felt somewhat trapped, an offer of amending a trip you no longer wanted to go on anyway because of Codiv-19, but without this meant as an insult, you were a bit naive. You knew yout trip was 99.99% going to be cancelled & blundered in to their marketing ploy, if you hadn't accepted thir first 'amend' offer, I think it's likely you'd have accepted their second (RCN+20%).

With the benefit of hindsight you now want what you could have held on for all along, a full refund.  We've all learnt some lessons from this experience (including myself), this is yours I'm afraid. You can try to persuade TUI to budge & good luck. But if not, I hope you eventually enjoy the holidsy you've switched to.

Pollycat

OP

I understand where you're coming from and I'd probably be feeling be aggrieved in your circumstances.

How does the price of your original holiday look with the 20% booking incentive? If you can find it.

Is it affordable? Maybe without the upgrades you originally included.

It was the destination you originally chose so you must have wanted to go there.

Perhaps TUI might - as a goodwill gesture - look more favourably on a request to change the new holiday you've booked to something similar to what you originally booked with the 20% booking incentive added on and agree to waive the £600 they want for amendment.

I only had a booking for a basic Greece holiday and the prices for 2021 were a fair bit more expensive but with the 20%, we amended and didn't have to pay any extra.

If you do go this route, I'd approach it on the basis that you are asking TUI to do you a favour.

And make your letter concise, to the point and unemotional.

pattycake

SevenOfNine said:

There's nothing to resolve here.  I was in your situation, trip for 19 April, TUI cancellations only up to 16th.  Also told "trip going ahead as planned", equally as sure as you that it wouldn't!

Yes, the OFFER of free 'amend' was made (more than once), the choice to take it was up to the traveller. Many did & seem quite happy, I did not though, as you've said, it was clear that what I'd booked really wasn't going to happen. Waiting for actual TUI cancellation was ALWAYS an option. 

I'm afraid TUI didn't mislead you any more than they did me, you jumped before your trip was even cancelled (they finally did that on 8 April), so you subsequntly missed out on the Refund Credit note + 20% incentive as well.  Those that had already accepted the free 'amend' were quite miffed, not having got the 20%.  As far as I know they've just had to suck it up!

I rang about 3 days after trip date, full refund processed, the option you had all along, lawfully had. I get that you felt somewhat trapped, an offer of amending a trip you no longer wanted to go on anyway because of Codiv-19, but without this meant as an insult, you were a bit naive. You knew yout trip was 99.99% going to be cancelled & blundered in to their marketing ploy, if you hadn't accepted thir first 'amend' offer, I think it's likely you'd have accepted their second (RCN+20%).

With the benefit of hindsight you now want what you could have held on for all along, a full refund.  We've all learnt some lessons from this experience (including myself), this is yours I'm afraid. You can try to persuade TUI to budge & good luck. But if not, I hope you eventually enjoy the holidsy you've switched to.

I was in a similar position.  Holiday due to depart 18th April.  It was obviously going to be cancelled so I did nothing.  Eventually I got my credit and booking incentive but ultimately decided I wanted a refund.  When Tui made it possible to claim online, I filled in the form and my refund was back on my credit card in about 10 days.

OP, you were too hasty.  If you had waited until the holiday was cancelled you could have had a refund.  

FrancisDunn

Be careful, TUI only offered me 10% yesterday 20/06/2020 for my cruise for 31/07/2020, which they have now cancelled. Was expecting this and had planned on booking for next year with the incentive, but it won't cover the price for the same trip. So now i will want my cash back and look elsewhere in future. If they were really worried about going bust maybe they would have offered me my deposit back on 07/05/2020 when i had to pay the remainder of my holiday even though we all knew it wouldn't happen.