On The Beach - Help!

Adam_GS

Good morning everyone, new to the forum so apologies if this has been asked previously or been done to death! Anyway here is our travel dilemma, if anyone can advise that would be amazing.

We have a holiday booked (booked last year prior to the COVID outbreak) to Portugal with On The Beach and are due to depart on 27th July. At the time of booking my wife was pregnant with a due date at the beginning of June, thus giving us plenty of time to sort out a passport for our newborn who arrived safely 3 weeks ago. Due to the current pandemic the Registry Office is currently not taking any bookings to register our sons birth which is preventing us applying for a passport. The passport office is not currently accepting applications for passports unless it’s for compassionate reasons or urgent business reasons. 

On The Beach is currently showing that our holiday will still take place however it’s looking virtually impossible that we will be able to travel.
 

The holiday is for my father in law’s 60th and we are due to travel with my wife’s parents and sister’s family (6 adults and 4 Children in total). We do not want to cancel but simply defer to a new date So the passport situation can be sorted but ‘On The Beach’ frustratingly do not appear to offer this service and there is no option of contacting to them to explain our situation other than via the comments section in our booking which to date have not been responded to.

I must add that 4 out of the 6 adults are key workers (2x Police Officers, a teacher and Supermarket employee in charge of payroll) and we want nothing more to go on holiday but at this time are extremely anxious that we will not be able to travel and in the process will lose all our hard earned money we have spent on it!

What can we do? We are at our wits’ end with it.

Many Thanks
Adam

DCFC79

Not needed to mention about the key workers.
Have you tried contacting them on twitter ?

charlie757575

I'm having a similar issue.  Due to go to Fuerte Ventura in August to meet family and friends, but they've all deferred their holidays until next year as they own villa's and just needed to change flights which they've done easily.  However On The Beach have suggested changing the flights myself with RyanAir, who won't change them because On The Beach booked them with a different email address.  On The Beach won't give me that email address and RyanAir can't due to GDPR.  I'm completely stuck.  I'm thinking that I booked as a package holiday, they should handle the amendments?  I might send a little twitter as per the contributor above....

Adam_GS

DCFC79 said:

Not needed to mention about the key workers.
Have you tried contacting them on twitter ?

I mentioned it to reiterate that we are very much in need of a holiday after a busy and hectic 100 days since the lockdown and don’t want to just cancel but defer to a new date.

Yes, made contact via twitter but no response.

Adam_GS

Adam_GS said:

DCFC79 said:

Not needed to mention about the key workers.
Have you tried contacting them on twitter ?

I mentioned it to reiterate that we are very much in need of a holiday after a busy and hectic 100 days since the lockdown and don’t want to just cancel but defer to a new date.

Yes, made contact via twitter but no response.

I appreciate this is unprecedented times for all concerned however I will never be booking a holiday with On The Beach again. When you compare how they are conducting themselves compared to Hayes Travel I will not be rushing back to use them again.

susansword

hi, I’m having the same problem with on the beach. I called the hotel, who told me they are closed but OTB web site says my holiday is going ahead!!! Can’t get a response from them. It’s making me ill with worry as we have paid out a lot of money. I feel totally stuck as what to do. It’s starting to make me ill. Any suggestions would be appreciated 

Adam_GS

The other thing to add is surely On The Beach should be cancelling our holiday anyway at this time as the FCO is advising against ‘all but essential travel’ to Portugal. 

[Deleted User]

Adam_GS said:

The other thing to add is surely On The Beach should be cancelling our holiday anyway at this time as the FCO is advising against ‘all but essential travel’ to Portugal. 

Unfortunately all you can do is wait and see.   Every chance the holiday will be cancelled but nobody (not just On the Beach) will commit to something until nearer the time as 4 weeks is a long time in Covid world.   They are all hard to get hold of as well due to sheer pressure of volume of people.    I know it is frustrating and I've been same myself, but nothing you can do except wait until you hear from them.  You may have a choice then that you won't have now.

The second problem is the passport for your baby.   Congratualtions by the way.   You were always going to be cutting it fine with this one to be honest.  If baby had been late for example.   HMPO will never commit to how long it will take to produce a passport because it depends on lots of different things.   So get a paper passport application from a post office, if you can, and send it all off, with a covering letter and keep your fingers crossed.  Do that asap.   

Good luck, hope it works out but the main thing is the safe delivery and arrival of your little baby.   

Edited to add:  Oops just seen you haven't been able to register your baby yet?   I am sure They were taking appointments last month online?  So get online and make an appointment.  But no you can't apply for passport without a birth certificate.   Apologies didn't read that bit.

Adam_GS

Tedber said:

Adam_GS said:

The other thing to add is surely On The Beach should be cancelling our holiday anyway at this time as the FCO is advising against ‘all but essential travel’ to Portugal. 

Unfortunately all you can do is wait and see.   Every chance the holiday will be cancelled but nobody (not just On the Beach) will commit to something until nearer the time as 4 weeks is a long time in Covid world.   They are all hard to get hold of as well due to sheer pressure of volume of people.    I know it is frustrating and I've been same myself, but nothing you can do except wait until you hear from them.  You may have a choice then that you won't have now.

The second problem is the passport for your baby.   Congratualtions by the way.   You were always going to be cutting it fine with this one to be honest.  If baby had been late for example.   HMPO will never commit to how long it will take to produce a passport because it depends on lots of different things.   So get a paper passport application from a post office, if you can, and send it all off, with a covering letter and keep your fingers crossed.  Do that asap.   

Good luck, hope it works out but the main thing is the safe delivery and arrival of your little baby.   

Edited to add:  Oops just seen you haven't been able to register your baby yet?   I am sure They were taking appointments last month online?  So get online and make an appointment.  But no you can't apply for passport without a birth certificate.   Apologies didn't read that bit.

Hi Tedbar thank you for the reply and your kind words.

Baby was never going to be late as was a planned C section due to my wife being type 1 diabetic so we always knew we would have 6 weeks + to sort out a passport which in normal circumstances would have been more than enough time and we would have in any case paid for the fast track service to be on the safe side. 

Re the registry office I have just checked the website for our local ones and they are taking bookings from Monday so will get straight on the case!

Adam_GS

Adam_GS said:

Tedber said:

Adam_GS said:

The other thing to add is surely On The Beach should be cancelling our holiday anyway at this time as the FCO is advising against ‘all but essential travel’ to Portugal. 

Unfortunately all you can do is wait and see.   Every chance the holiday will be cancelled but nobody (not just On the Beach) will commit to something until nearer the time as 4 weeks is a long time in Covid world.   They are all hard to get hold of as well due to sheer pressure of volume of people.    I know it is frustrating and I've been same myself, but nothing you can do except wait until you hear from them.  You may have a choice then that you won't have now.

The second problem is the passport for your baby.   Congratualtions by the way.   You were always going to be cutting it fine with this one to be honest.  If baby had been late for example.   HMPO will never commit to how long it will take to produce a passport because it depends on lots of different things.   So get a paper passport application from a post office, if you can, and send it all off, with a covering letter and keep your fingers crossed.  Do that asap.   

Good luck, hope it works out but the main thing is the safe delivery and arrival of your little baby.   

Edited to add:  Oops just seen you haven't been able to register your baby yet?   I am sure They were taking appointments last month online?  So get online and make an appointment.  But no you can't apply for passport without a birth certificate.   Apologies didn't read that bit.

Hi Tedbar thank you for the reply and your kind words.

Baby was never going to be late as was a planned C section due to my wife being type 1 diabetic so we always knew we would have 6 weeks + to sort out a passport which in normal circumstances would have been more than enough time and we would have in any case paid for the fast track service to be on the safe side. 

Re the registry office I have just checked the website for our local ones and they are taking bookings from Monday so will get straight on the case!

Apologies Tedber not Tedbar! Typo!

bagand96

Whilst the issue with registering your new arrival (congratulations!) and getting a passport is not your fault, it's not OnTheBeach's fault either.  It's up to the passenger to ensure they have the right to travel and all documentation to do so.  (Not saying I don't sympathise with your predicament)

Setting aside the nightmare of getting in touch with OTB for a moment....  It's worth considering what OTB sell and how they work.  They aren't a traditional tour operator who manage the whole package.  They take flights (usually with low cost airlines) and pair them up with accommodation bookings to form the "package".  You may be able to move your booking, but it will very much depend on the airline's T&Cs and that of the accommodation booking.  Changing flight only bookings can be very expensive.  The airline will charge a change fee, plus any difference in the original fare to the new one.  Same for the accommodation - these have varying terms but again may be subject to fees.  On top of this, OTB will add their own admin fees to cover their work.  So it can be a bit complicated and costly.

Who's the flight with and do you have access to your booking? Some airlines are offering more flexible change policies right now.  You might be able to change your flights directly with the airline.  Or at least speak to them and see what the situation and cost would be to move your booking.

Finally, if it turns out you can't move your booking, and can't travel due to the paperwork issues, see if you are covered on travel insurance.  not sure if you would be, but worth asking.