Thailand package holiday

williamsl5

Hoping for some help please
Husband and I booked a 2 stop holiday to Thailand before COVID. Paid deposit with balance due last month.
As Thailand had not opened their borders we contacted our travel agent who said to push the balance due date out to the end of this month to see if things were a little clearer.
Current situation is that Thailand are still not open to tourists and further to that I checked Thai Airways who have extended their suspension of all flights until end of November. So currently as it stands our flight is cancelled.
Our agent is saying to not pay the balance but instead we can either move the holiday to another date or alternatively cancel and they will keep the deposit for us to use whenever we like for another holiday. We don't really want either of these options due to the uncertainty, however we are being advised that the deposit is non refundable and we don't want to lose £800 either.
Our view was could we insist that we pay the balance, as there is no way the holiday can go ahead, not just because flights are cancelled but also even if we could enter the country, we would have to quarantine for 2 weeks and then have our 2 week holiday? So in our view the agent can't provide us with the holiday we booked so would have to cancel it. We would then be covered for a full refund. 
We're cautious of doing this in case we are missing something and we end up losing all the money, so just looking for advice please.

Butts

What's on the bottom right hand of your ATOL Certificate - assuming it's a package holiday.

williamsl5

Thanks for your reply. The ATOL certificate says it is a package 

Butts

Is it Package Single or Multi Contract ?
When are you supposed to be travelling and who did you book through ?

williamsl5

It just says package sale. We booked with Jasmine Holidays and due to fly out on 12th November

Butts

Well it appears that your flights have been cancelled, effectively terminating the package so you should be entitled to a full refund of your deposit.
Did you pay the deposit by Debit or Credit Card ?

williamsl5

Thank you, that was my point to the agent but they said they don't refund deposits. So my only logic was to pay the balance and then they would cancel it anyway and therefore I would get all my money back. Only issue is waiting for the refund as I know that can take a while.
The deposit was paid on a credit card so I could go down that route but I tried  eofre when I was waiting for Ryanair to refund me for another holiday and never heard back from them  despite chasing.

Butts

So as I understand it they are withholding your deposit on a cancelled package holiday ?
If that is the case a chargeback would be the order of the day.
When were your flights actually cancelled ?

williamsl5

that's how I understand it - although they haven't actually told us officially the flight has been cancelled - it was because we were looking on Thai Airways website we found it. 
They have a statement on their website on 21st September advising that they have suspended all flights until end of November (our flight is supposed to be 12th November) and if you try to book a new flight for November, nothing shows as available

AlisonAlsop

You should ask for a full refund of your deposit.

LilyBrown26

I  think they will not refund your Deposit