Sunshine.co.uk trip to Spain cancelled due to FCO advice, help please!

ed1980

Hello

I really need some help, me and my family were due to fly to Spain on 16th August, we paid £900 deposit last year with the balance of £2000 due 1st august. the FCO advice changed just before we had to pay the balance so I cancelled, sunshine cancelled all charges but the £900 as Ryanair were still flying and we were not able to cancel the flights and get that refunded.

Luckily I bought travel insurance before the cover situation really took off so my insurance covers the following:

Section T, subsection 1.C:

1. We will pay you for your proportion only of any unused travel, accommo­dation and other pre-paid charges that you cannot claim back from any other source if you cannot travel and have to cancel your trip as a result of:

c) The Travel Advice Unit of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) or other regulatory authority in a country to/from which you are travelling advising against all travel or all but essential travel to the country or spe­cific area you are travelling to providing the advice came into force after you purchased this insurance or booked the trip (whichever is the later) and was within 28 days of your departure date; or

I've tried to claim only insurance but they are refusing to pay out with the following response:

We understand your frustration, however as this was a package holiday it will fall under the following regulations:

Package holidays and cruise packages

If you are booked on a package holiday or cruise package, where you have paid for flights and accommodation or cruise (potentially including other elements such as car hire), then your holiday is protected under the Package Travel Regulations (PTRs).

Under the PTRs, if any element of your package holiday or cruise package is cancelled or significantly changed, then you have the right to request a full refund of any payments made towards your holiday. Your travel company may offer you voucher to be redeemed against a future booking; however you are entitled to request a full cash refund if you do not wish to accept vouchers. Alternatively, you can speak to your travel agent to try and organise alternative travel, though this may be difficult in the current circumstances.

 If you are due to leave for a package holiday imminently to a destination where the Foreign Office has advised against travel, then under the Package Travel Regulations you have the right to request the cancellation of your booking and choose an alternative package or receive a full refund of any payments you have made to date.

If your booking is ATOL protected, please be aware that the company named on your ATOL certificate, under the “Who is protecting your trip?” section of your ATOL certificate, is responsible for your booking, including any refunds or amendments. Please speak to your travel agent or package provider for further assistance as ATOL is only able to offer assistance if your travel company ceases trading.

Your tour operator should be providing you with either a full refund or offer to rebook at a later date/voucher.

We regret we cannot be of assistance to you in this instance.

Sunshine.co.uk are a part of onthebeach and after a bit of investigation it seems they refused to cancel any holidays due to the FCO advice.

Any ideas? Should I keep hammering on with the insurance claim or just accept defeat

Ed

bagand96

I think you're going to have a battle as Sunshine.co.uk and your insurance provider bounce you between each other as they both try to avoid paying.  Firstly, did Sunshine actually cancel your holiday, or did you cancel your holiday?  

Package Travel Regulations
These do not go quite as far as saying customers get a refund if FCO travel advice changes.  What they do say is customers should be able to cancel for a full refund if "unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances" occur which "significantly affect the performance of the package"

It's open to debate whether that phrase incorporates FCO advice.  Many consumer bodies think so. Obviously your insurer thinks so, as it gets them out of paying!  Also, ABTA has come out and said they think agents should refund people in your situation.  This is handy as Sunshine (OTB) are members of ABTA so that might help you.  The problem is that Ryanair won't refund, Sunshine want you to take that loss, because they won't want to.  However, they sold you a package, so you're back to the Package regs.

I would do the following:
- Complain to Sunshine stating you want a refund as per the PTR 2018, also reminding them that ABTA, who they are a member of, think agents should refund.
- If Sunshine don't play nicely, get in touch with ABTA.  More advice from ABTA here: https://www.abta.com/news/coronavirus-outbreak
- Complain to your Travel Insurance provider.  State the agent are refusing to refund the £900, so you wish to claim from them as per your policy.  You can provide proof of Sunshine's refusal to pay.
- If the Travel Insurance still refuse, complain to the ombudsman

Probably best you try and resolve with Sunshine/ABTA before going back to the insurance, just so you can prove you've made reasonable efforts.  That said I see no reason why you can't do both in parallel - as both are likely to take a long time.

ess0two

You should have paid remainder, and let the the tour operator cancel.

superbigal

ess0two said:

You should have paid remainder, and let the the tour operator cancel.

The tour operator would not have cancelled.  Why do you think this ?   Only Tui and Jet2 appear to actually be actively cancelling following FCO advice.  DIY agents where the flight is still going will 100% find accomodation  that is open and meets their obligation.

ed1980

I cancelled the holiday because sunshine refused to cancel any package trips to Spain even though FCO advice warned against travel, paying out another 2k and being in the same situation seemed like a crazy thing to do.

bagand96 thanks very much for the help, I'll get a written complaint off to sunshine (I've tried their message system but it goes nowhere) and also asked insurance how to complain and contact details of who they are regulated by.

This is the last time I ever book a holiday in advance!!

bagand96

ed1980 said:

I cancelled the holiday because sunshine refused to cancel any package trips to Spain even though FCO advice warned against travel, paying out another 2k and being in the same situation seemed like a crazy thing to do.

bagand96 thanks very much for the help, I'll get a written complaint off to sunshine (I've tried their message system but it goes nowhere) and also asked insurance how to complain and contact details of who they are regulated by.

This is the last time I ever book a holiday in advance!!

They will undoubtedly say "you cancelled, so it's as per our T&Cs".   Whether you can use the PTR and ABTA to persuade them otherwise I don't know, but good luck.  I think it will take someone to force a test case by taking one of these agents to court using the PTRs and FCO advice.  

Book a holiday in advance by all means, but be careful who you book with and what you're booking.  The proper package holiday Tour Operators (Jet2Holidays and TUI being the biggest) have behaved far better than the "package arranger" websites like OTB.

ess0two

superbigal said:

ess0two said:

You should have paid remainder, and let the the tour operator cancel.

The tour operator would not have cancelled.  Why do you think this ?   Only Tui and Jet2 appear to actually be actively cancelling following FCO advice.  DIY agents where the flight is still going will 100% find accomodation  that is open and meets their obligation.

There should be some form of ATOL protection with sunshine.

Alan_Bowen

ATOL protection only comes into play if the company ceases trading and OTB haven't. Although others have commented that only TUI and Jet2 appear to be playing by the rules, in reality, the vast majority of operators have cancelled when FCO advice changed and it really is only two large on line agents who have refused to do so. ABTA has made its position clear but they cannot force a company to do something if it refuses, they can throw them out of the association but I expect they would resign before that happened.
The lesson to learn is to find out which airline is flying as part of your package, the real problem I think in every case is Ryanair who refuse refunds if they still fly, and as an airline, the law lets them off the hook