TUI Package Holiday

ezr0

Hello all,
I am looking for some advice please, i literally feel like i cannot move from anything with our TUI package holiday. It was paid via installments and DD.
We have a package holiday booked 8th September 2020. Obviously with everything going on even if travel restrictions are lifted we feel anxious about travelling. I cant even get travel insurance.
I called to ask what my options are and well, i couldnt understand a word the guy was saying:

1. Cancel the holiday which will cost me £400
2. Amend holiday till next year and pay a £100 ammendment fee

I fail to see how any of this is my fault and why i should be incurring charges for this? I know £100 may not seem like much to most people but having to pay that just feels crazy.

Any advice is welcomed thank you!

giraffe69

It's not crazy! If they cancel the trip you should get your money back (albeit some have had to fight for this) or be able to rebook for no charge. If it goes ahead and you feel disinclined to travel then you will have to bear the loss. At this point if you think you don't want to go in September then £100 is cheap for the change IMO. Alternatively you can play chicken and hope they cancel but my guess is holidays will mostly be back on by then.

Ganga

I agree with the above but will add why did you not purchase travel insurance when you booked the holiday? if anything had happened to you and you were unable to travel you would have lost a lot of money.

NoodleDoodleMan

The conditions you highlighted in bold are TUI's standard cancellation / amendment charges.

You'll lose more (up to 100%) if you don't cancel and the holiday goes ahead as scheduled. You need to give a minimum of 70 days notice to cancel in best case scenario, then a sliding penalty scale takes effect.

https://www.tui.co.uk/destinations/faq/how-much-will-it-cost-to-cancel-my-holiday?catId=265&subcatId=267&docId=860

In the final analysis, as alluded to above, it's a personal judgement call - if your wife is adamant about not going then you have to choose between the lesser of these two financial loss scenarios.

Pollycat

ezr0 said:

Hello all,
I am looking for some advice please, i literally feel like i cannot move from anything with our TUI package holiday. It was paid via installments and DD.
We have a package holiday booked 8th September 2020. Obviously with everything going on even if travel restrictions are lifted we feel anxious about travelling. I cant even get travel insurance.
I called to ask what my options are and well, i couldnt understand a word the guy was saying:

1. Cancel the holiday which will cost me £400
2. Amend holiday till next year and pay a £100 ammendment fee

I fail to see how any of this is my fault and why i should be incurring charges for this? I know £100 may not seem like much to most people but having to pay that just feels crazy.

Any advice is welcomed thank you!

But it's not TUI's fault either.

If you cancel now - before your final balance is due - you will your deposit i.e. £200 per person. That's in TUI's T&Cs.

The amendment fee is in TUI's T&Cs.

You either pay it or walk away and lose your deposit or pay your final balance and hope that things are no better than they are now and TUI cancels your holiday in which case you will be due a full refund.

I've just walked away from my August Jet2 holiday and lost £120 (£60 pp deposit).

Jet2 wanted £40 per person amendment fee and I didn't think it was worth amending to save a total of £40.

fifikav

I was in the same position, due to fly 3rd Sept. Paid in full mainly by direct debit. We decided to cancel. We don’t want to go anymore. So we cancelled, as was before  70 days of departure, we lost our deposit of £400 ( £200 per person). I cancelled online as I had booked onl8ne and it took the £400 off the refund confirmation instantly. I needed to make other plans if we were not going away, and we have decided to take a break in September, in the UK.
Monies will be paid back to us, via the cards we have used and the big chunk by  direct debit will be paid in the next few weeks I hope. Tui explained that as the direct debit mandate is cancelled, they take longer processing these refunds. ..waiting game I guess, but don’t regret cancelling and losing the deposit. 1 less thing to worry about 🤷‍♀️. It’s your choice ....

ezr0

Thank you for all the posts, in reflection, my original post was when i was quite angry at everything going on, having calmed down and listened to most of your suggestions it seems fair. We decided to book another holiday for June instead, it was worth the £100 rebooking i suppose. In hindsight it worked out better, we ended up with a longer holiday and a better hotel.

Thanks everyone. 

NoodleDoodleMan

Do you mean June 2021 ?

TELLIT01

Irrespective if the current situation, the OP should have taken out travel insurance at the time of booking.  Not doing so is a risky option as many things could happen which mean being unable to travel with no compensation from the carrier / tour operator.

NoodleDoodleMan

"We decided to book another holiday for June instead, it was worth the £100 rebooking i suppose. In hindsight it worked out better, we ended up with a longer holiday and a better hotel."

This month ?

If the FO advice is still against all but essential travel then your holiday insurance will be null and void.