Merlin Annual Pass Extension

Notinthisforthemoney

Hi all, I am hoping you will help me understand if I have a valid argument/ claim against Merlin.
We bought 4 annual passes in November 2019 for Merlin attractions. The Pass gave us access to attractions for 15 months. Some attractions you had to prebook for, but theme parks did not have this requirement and you could go whenever you wanted.
Obviously Coronavirus happened and parks shut March 2020. In June 2020 we were informed that we would now need to prebook theme parks and pay £1 for the pleasure of doing so. To compensate for this Merlin gave passholders a 5 month extension (closure + prebooking) and some got an 8 month extension (if expiry would have fallen in closed season).
Many of the valid passes have now expired and the passholders all received at least a 5 month extension.  Passholder availability to attractions was severely limited during this time, even though there were no issues with availability to the parks. This issue featured on BBC Watchdog.
In November parks closed again and a further 1 month extension was added.
With lockdown 3, passholders who purchased annual pass before 30th May will not get an extension. I am still in the original validity period.
There argument is that we have had 6 months extensions already and this will cover the closure period. 
So by claiming this, it means the offer of compensation that was given to all passholders in June (extension) has now been rescinded for some passholders. 

Where do I stand legally with them offering compensation and then recinding it for some passholders?  It is well documented the difficulty people had booking to attractions and also we did incur some unexpected charges due to the pre booking system that was introduced as a result of Covid.

Many thanks in advance

Notinthisforthemoney

I should add, if I had purchased after 30th May I would get a 2 month extension for this closure (at this time).
If I had purchased on 27th May I would get a 6 month extension according to their expiry date calendar.

Aylesbury_Duck

I suppose they have to draw the line somewhere, and those just the wrong side of the line will feel hard done by and perceive that others got a better deal.  Another way of looking at it is that you had longer than those people to make use of the other attractions before coronavirus hit, so it's not as if you didn't have a benefit in that period.  As I understand it, you've had a significant extension to your original validity period.  The unexpected charges you refer to amount to how much?  Are we talking about a handful of £1 booking fees?

Personally, if I've understood the situation correctly, I don't think you have a case for compensation, unless you want to start demanding the few pounds in booking fees you incurred.

Notinthisforthemoney

I've not really had a significant extension to the validity period. 

The attractions were closed 20th March. A zoo and some gardens reopened in June but the actual summer offering did not reopen until 4th March. So also most 3 1/2 months. We then had a further closure in November. This closure is in place until 4th March as far as i can tell (2 months extension for other passholder. So that actually takes it to over 6 months that they will have been closed for, so longer than my extension. They have not said which date they will review further extensions.

If I had a monthly pass, I would have had 8 months or frozen payments. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Notinthisforthemoney said:

I've not really had a significant extension to the validity period. 

The attractions were closed 20th March. A zoo and some gardens reopened in June but the actual summer offering did not reopen until 4th March. So also most 3 1/2 months. We then had a further closure in November. This closure is in place until 4th March as far as i can tell (2 months extension for other passholder. So that actually takes it to over 6 months that they will have been closed for, so longer than my extension. They have not said which date they will review further extensions.

If I had a monthly pass, I would have had 8 months or frozen payments. 

I presume that's a typo and you mean 4th July?

So if my maths is correct, they have closed pretty much all attractions for 6 months (so far) and have granted you an extension of 6 months.  The matter at stake is that they are almost certainly going to be closed for another 1.5 months, so you want another 1.5 months extension and a refund of a few pounds in booking costs?   No harm in writing to them to ask.

Notinthisforthemoney

Yes that was a typo sorry!  
I do understand what you are saying, although I don't agree. I could have cancelled my pass in June when they introduced the pre booking system but I didn't because they offered this extension. Attached is from their website. Its clear why they gave the 5 month extension. What I want to know if it is acceptable for them to rescind that offer, when costs have been incurred.

Aylesbury_Duck

What costs have you incurred, and for what?

Notinthisforthemoney

Well I have had to prebook for any visits to Theme Parks we have made. That was not the situation when we bought the passes.
Not a significant amount of money granted, but others have been compensated for that by an extension to their pass of 1.5 months. (Which we were initially).
It's Merlin who have said in June, that the extension they gave at that time was due to the inconvenience & the requirement to prebook.  

Aylesbury_Duck

I'll confess to still being a bit confused.  What resolution do you want?  The return of the booking fees (£10?) and a 1.5 month extension?

Notinthisforthemoney

I want a 2 month extension to my pass.  Basically what people who purchased after 30th May are getting. (They bought with full knowledge of the pandemic and the introduction of the pre booking system.
I want the previous extension to not be used as a reason to not extend this time, because it was given for different reasons and many passholders have benefited from the extra time.  
In my opnion the main reason for this decision is that Merlin have too many passholders. This is now causing them serious problems because they have had to reduce their capacity quite significantly and obviously passholders reduce what they can take at the gate. You get people who literally go to the parks every single weekend (we don't).  There has been a big issue with passholders being able to visit the parks over the summer due to the very limited capacity (very small amount of slots released for annual passholders). We have hardly used ours, although that was our personal choice due to Covid. Merlin do not want me to be a passholder anymore. Probably because they realise now in January that this is going to drag on for longer than originally anticipated. I sympathise, but they were happy to oversell passes until the summer.  Even when they were introducing the pre booking system and seriously limiting numbers of annual passholders, they were having aggressive sales on annual passes.

Aylesbury_Duck

Well the first step would be to write to them to ask for that, in the light of the circumstances you describe.  If they say no, that's it, I can't see how you can force them to give you the same concession as other passholders have been given, because the circumstances are different.

Vote with your feet and don't give them your custom again.