March 24 TUI flight only booking cancelled without notification and left stranded at airport

av1d2

I'm hoping someone out there can help.advise us if/how we can take the following matter further.
My wife and I booked flight only tickets from Tenerife to Manchester departing 24th March, we did not reserve seats so were told to check in 48 hours prior to departure which we did. We received emails from TUI advising their holiday makers of cancellations and their rights regarding re-booking or refund. I assume they had staff at their hotels also to advise them of their flights etc. *No notification for flight only passengers. I tried to phone and email the website with no response. We check-in and on 24th made our way to the airport only to find TUI had cancelled all flights. *There were no TUI staff to assist at the airport. We went to Spanish information desk who told us only BA flying to Gatwick UK. We were also given contact information for the British Embassy. We made our way back to our apartment and contacted the Embassy who quickly emailed back that TUIs last flight out was 21st March ! *Which meant TUI had let us check in on 22nd March.  The Embassy advised that all flights were cancelled except for British Airways into Gatwick. (there were some WIZZAIR flights which were taking 10 hours plus to fly to UK I think they were picking up passengers from other airports)
We booked a flight with British Airways for 26th March into Gatwick at a much greater cost.
*We were totally abandoned by TUI, 
We logged our complaint/compensation and supplied all paperwork to TUI as soon as we got back. TUI have paid our flights total £254 but say they are unable to assist us further. We had medical insurance and some travel insurance these circumstances however not covered.
I am angry that TUI have not made any comments or explanation to the circumstances we complained of plus we are out of pocket by over £1000 . Surely they must have a duty of care to their passengers?
(*signify our complaint.)

Life__Goes__On

av1d2 said:

I'm hoping someone out there can help.advise us if/how we can take the following matter further.
My wife and I booked flight only tickets from Tenerife to Manchester departing 24th March, we did not reserve seats so were told to check in 48 hours prior to departure which we did. We received emails from TUI advising their holiday makers of cancellations and their rights regarding re-booking or refund. I assume they had staff at their hotels also to advise them of their flights etc. *No notification for flight only passengers. I tried to phone and email the website with no response. We check-in and on 24th made our way to the airport only to find TUI had cancelled all flights. *There were no TUI staff to assist at the airport. We went to Spanish information desk who told us only BA flying to Gatwick UK. We were also given contact information for the British Embassy. We made our way back to our apartment and contacted the Embassy who quickly emailed back that TUIs last flight out was 21st March ! *Which meant TUI had let us check in on 22nd March.  The Embassy advised that all flights were cancelled except for British Airways into Gatwick. (there were some WIZZAIR flights which were taking 10 hours plus to fly to UK I think they were picking up passengers from other airports)
We booked a flight with British Airways for 26th March into Gatwick at a much greater cost.
*We were totally abandoned by TUI, 
We logged our complaint/compensation and supplied all paperwork to TUI as soon as we got back. TUI have paid our flights total £254 but say they are unable to assist us further. We had medical insurance and some travel insurance these circumstances however not covered.
I am angry that TUI have not made any comments or explanation to the circumstances we complained of plus we are out of pocket by over £1000 . Surely they must have a duty of care to their passengers?
(*signify our complaint.)

You shouldn't have claimed compensation  from TUI but expenses  they should have kept the money for the part of the return flight that they cancelled,  but paid for the new BA flight and hotel and food until you got home.
If you claimed a refund of the cancelled flight, that is when TUI duty ends  as you can't claim both.
It might be a battle if you have the fare refunded.
The TUI flights, what method of payment did you use?

Thrugelmir

av1d2 said:

Surely they must have a duty of care to their passengers?

Did the fact that Spain was well into lockdown pass you totally by? Passengers have a responsibility to themselves. 

av1d2

To answer both replies.
1) The wording on my emails/correspondence is complaints and out of pocket expenses. The emails that came through only mentioned refund of flights.
2) Yes Tenerife was in lock down but people were flying home to Manchester. Perhaps you can tell me why they checked us in when they were not flying.

av1d2

Sorry Thrugelmir, in answer to your question regarding payment of TUI flights, we didnt take our credit cards with us so paid by Direct Debit. We had to ask our son if he could pay our BA flights with his credit card.

k3lvc

How exactly did you 'check-in' on 22nd ? Via their app/website and received online boarding passes ?

Life__Goes__On

av1d2 said:

To answer both replies.
1) The wording on my emails/correspondence is complaints and out of pocket expenses. The emails that came through only mentioned refund of flights.

TUI needs to refund you cost of BA flights and the nights in the hotel & any food and drink.

Thrugelmir

av1d2 said:

2) Yes Tenerife was in lock down but people were flying home to Manchester. Perhaps you can tell me why they checked us in when they were not flying.

Why didn't you follow the recommended advice to leave Tenerife at an earlier date. Before Spain closed it's borders. 

Life__Goes__On

Thrugelmir said:

av1d2 said:

2) Yes Tenerife was in lock down but people were flying home to Manchester. Perhaps you can tell me why they checked us in when they were not flying.

Why didn't you follow the recommended advice to leave Tenerife at an earlier date. Before Spain closed it's borders. 

So pay a lot extra to fly home although original flight was still scheduled to leave, maybe the OP didn't have a crystal ball.
If OP had taken an earlier flight and the TUI one had gone, then no doubt some smart @ss would have said "why didn't you wait"
Hindsight is oh so easy.

Thrugelmir

Life__Goes__On said:

Thrugelmir said:

av1d2 said:

2) Yes Tenerife was in lock down but people were flying home to Manchester. Perhaps you can tell me why they checked us in when they were not flying.

Why didn't you follow the recommended advice to leave Tenerife at an earlier date. Before Spain closed it's borders. 

So pay a lot extra to fly home although original flight was still scheduled to leave, maybe the OP didn't have a crystal ball.
If OP had taken an earlier flight and the TUI one had gone, then no doubt some smart @ss would have said "why didn't you wait"
Hindsight is oh so easy.

No hindsight required. Airlines were rescheduling flights the week before to get passengers home. Difficult to miss what was going on. 

Life__Goes__On

Thrugelmir said:

No hindsight required. Airlines were rescheduling flights the week before to get passengers home. Difficult to miss what was going on. 

Yes they were, but this could have gone on for another week,  it's only after the fact we know that wasn't the case.
But if you could point me to certain posts that stated the cut off date before it happened, great, otherwise it just looks like hindsight.