TUI Holiday - Additional £600 to go OR £600 to cancel...!!!

NickyGUK

We booked a package holiday with TUI in January 2019. Traveling to Greece in late July 2020.  We paid the full balance of £4,786.60 on Credit Card. In April 2020, two months before we were due to fly. We decided due to COVID, we would move the holiday  to July 2021. TUI said this was fine and would cost £300. On looking at the new flight information, we saw it would be £300 each, just to move the booking 12 months down the line.  This must be a mistake on their part, was our thinking. We called TUI who said correct, £300 each to move the booking forward by 12 months. On asking why this was, reply.....Hotel & Flight costs go up and down. They said we could cancel but would be £300 each to cancel. So to continue on our holiday we paid for in full will be an additional £600 or to cancel will be £600. Ether way we loose out. We asked can we escalate this as all we want is to go on holiday for the agreed amount we paid. Was told no, there is no escalation process. 

Can anyone help us with this, who can we complain to?
Can we ask the credit card company to get us a full refund? 
How can TUI just decide to charge us an extra £600 for moving the holiday 12 months down the road?

bradders1983

Because fare prices and accommodation prices change. The same reason I had to pay Easyjet an extra £20pp to move some flights for the same reason you had to.

Your credit card wouldnt be in the slightest bit interested in this, sorry to say.

SaverRate

NickyGUK said:

We booked a package holiday with TUI in January 2019. Traveling to Greece in late July 2020.  We paid the full balance of £4,786.60 on Credit Card. In April 2020, two months before we were due to fly. We decided due to COVID, we would move the holiday  to July 2021. TUI said this was fine and would cost £300. On looking at the new flight information, we saw it would be £300 each, just to move the booking 12 months down the line.  This must be a mistake on their part, was our thinking. We called TUI who said correct, £300 each to move the booking forward by 12 months. On asking why this was, reply.....Hotel & Flight costs go up and down. They said we could cancel but would be £300 each to cancel. So to continue on our holiday we paid for in full will be an additional £600 or to cancel will be £600. Ether way we loose out. We asked can we escalate this as all we want is to go on holiday for the agreed amount we paid. Was told no, there is no escalation process. 

Can anyone help us with this, who can we complain to?
Can we ask the credit card company to get us a full refund? 
How can TUI just decide to charge us an extra £600 for moving the holiday 12 months down the road?

You moved the holiday so that was your choice so TUI can charge you whatever they want to move it. If TUI had cancelled the holiday you could have got a full refund. I suggest you look at the MoneySavingExpert's page for moving and cancelling holidays due to COVID as its very extensive

bradders1983

Yes in hindsight you should have just waited for them to cancel it, July holidays were cancelled in late June from memory.

sheramber

They are not charging you for moving the holiday.
They are charging you the new cost of the holiday next year. That is standard.
They cannot provide you with a holiday at the same price as the hotel  charges and flight costs will be more next year.
As the date of your holiday has passed I assume you did not go. If travel to Greece was allowed then that would be disinclination to travel and allowing you to move your holiday to next year was more than TUI  needed to do.
 

bradders1983

sheramber said:

They are not charging you for moving the holiday.
They are charging you the new cost of the holiday next year. That is standard.
They cannot provide you with a holiday at the same price as the hotel  charges and flight costs will be more next year.
As the date of your holiday has passed I assume you did not go. If travel to Greece was allowed then that would be disinclination to travel and allowing you to move your holiday to next year was more than TUI  needed to do.
 

Surely it would have been cancelled in July?

[Deleted User]

Yep sadly there isn’t anything you can do about requested transfer charges.  But am confused because if you didn’t agree to anything at the time in April and now the holiday has been and gone, you won’t just have lost £600.  Did you actually agree to transfer in April - not clear if you did or not.  

NickyGUK

Yes we did transfer in April.

bradders1983

You were happy to pay the extra £600 in April, you could have easily said no. So why the "buyers remorse" 5 months down the line?

NickyGUK

Was not happy at all at the time. But as we had just both been put on furlough. We were just happy we could move it. Our thinking was, save this fight for another day. 

NickyGUK

bradders1983 said:

Yes in hindsight you should have just waited for them to cancel it, July holidays were cancelled in late June from memory.

Yeah we should have wait, hndsight is a great thing.