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Any advice on taking holiday company to small claims for refund?

Hi there - am hoping for some opinions and advice on my long-standing battle for a holiday refund.

The holiday of a lifetime booked and paid for January 2020 with the company Tropical Sky - this was a package holiday as they booked flights and various hotels.
Holiday cost in excess of £20K (decided to go on a really amazing holiday with teens before exam years etc)
Holiday cancelled in March 2020 due to UK travel ban with Covid 19.
Tropical Sky refused a refund - stated in their terms that this would count as a force majeure and no refunds would be available.
Travel insurance refused to pay out as in their small print they had various clauses around FCO travel exclusions etc.
Asked for a refund on many occasions, constantly refused and told the only option was a window of rebooking - or vouchers.  Forced to rebook for dates that werent good and travel company even suggested I took my daughter out of school when she was in her final GCSE year.  Told we had no other options.  Eventually rebooked with one option to rebook costing us £600 per person more expensive - so we're forced into very inconvenient dates - April this year, however, Seychelles have had very tight restrictions on UK for months now and to be honest we just really need the money back.
Here we are almost a year later with the rebooked holiday but no sign of travel and I have since looked further into our legal rights and been advised that with the Package Travel Act 2018 covers customers for a refund within 14 days.
Have gone back to Tropical Sky who are now saying that because we accepted an alternative date that we have no rights for a refund.
My argument is, and the open letter to travel sector by Competitions & Markets Authority seems to support this, is that we have been misled into rebooking when we should have had the option for a refund explained to us way back.... statutory rights etc.
The company seem as though they won't budge.
I've sent a legal letter - ignored.
I'm looking into a section 75 - but concerned about the company still trying to claw back the monies based on other experiences I've read here.
So finally looking at small claims court...

Id value any opinions or advice on how our case might stack up - everything ideally looks in our favour and I have everything in writing from the company in emails but if I'm being unrealistic to think wed get a refund despite this, then it would be helpful to know or hear of anyone else's similar experiences.

Thanks for reading this far.
Much appreciated


Comments

  • tacpot12
    tacpot12 Posts: 9,017 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I think your case is going to be problematic. You accepted an alternative. If this wasn't what you wanted, you should have stuck out for a refund, although everyone will appreciate the reasons why you accepted the alternative. The events were certainly beyond anyone's control, and your insurance should have covered this, but many policies did not. A complaint to the Insurance Ombudsman might have resolved this to some degree. 

    What have Tropical Sky said about your new dates, given that you can't travel on those date? If they are offering to move the holiday to new dates, I doubt any court claim would succeed. Your best option might to ask them what they would be prepared to refund. If you got £5K back that might be better than nothing. If you have home insurance, you might find that you have legal expenses cover, and with it a Legal Helpline you can call for legal advice, and they might even represent you in court. 
    The comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.
  • bagand96
    bagand96 Posts: 6,382 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 11 January 2021 at 6:46PM
    There's no question that you were entitled to a refund when your first holiday was cancelled.  However I agree with the above and worry that you accepting the alternative and rebooking, may complicate the case somewhat. 

    Granted, this alternative was taken following incorrect information from Tropical Sky, but you did accept it.  Your case now hangs on you proving Tropical Sky refused a refund, and then made mis-representations that coerced you into making the rebooking.  In theory a judge may rule in your favour, but my first question would be do you have proof (ideally written) that Tropical Sky refused you a refund, against your rights under the PTR's 2018, and then said your only option was a refund?

    It may be easier to wait and see if the April 2021 holiday has to be cancelled.  Then get the refund at that point.  Obviously the risk in that is that things improve a lot and the holiday can go ahead.  


  • Westin
    Westin Posts: 6,211 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I would agree with the other contributors.

    Presume you were due to travel mid to late March when travel restrictions started to come into play and they cancelled the trip rather than you. If however Tropical Sky did not cancel and you initiated the cancellation the process for recovery may at the time have been different - as an insurance claim.

    You certainly would have been entitled to a refund on the original booking if they cancelled your holiday, but you now have a new booking, with new terms. Like others have said this might cloud claims now.

    Thinking back to March, are you sure that they didn’t offer a Refund Credit Note in lieu of a refund? During the early months of the pandemic, airlines and tour operators did not have access or resource to process cash refunds. Instead a scheme issuing a sort of bonded IOU was created called Refund Credit Notes.  These could be used to rebook a future holiday or a refund on the funds at a future date.  If issued with a RCN the terms should have been made clear together with a future redemption period.

    The Seychelles was actually removed from the green/safe corridor list last Thursday (along with Mauritius and Botswana) and given the current situation you may actually find that even your new trip will not be possible.  If this happens you should have the option to start again and ask for a refund.
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,128 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    You waived your rights to a refund when you accepted the date change.
    I don't understand why you have not already gone down the S75 claim route after so long? Yes, if successful it could potentially be reversed, but you have absolutely nothing to lose by trying, and it will cost you nothing.
    Small claims process will require you to spend money to initiate it, will be long-drawn out with the current court backlogs, and with no guarantee of success. And if you do win, there is no way of knowing if they will pay up. If not, you then have to spend more money enforcing judgment, which will be problematic. TA's don't generally have any physical assets, just a rented office, some furniture and a computer or two. Certainly not £20K's worth.
    Or they may just decide to go into liquidation to avoid payment.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
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