We have taken Jet2 to court over refusing refund of holiday deposit - and won

stoem

I'll try to keep this as short as possible but wanted to post this to make others aware of the proceedings in our case.
The key points are

• In January 2020 we booked an October 2020 holiday to Greece with Jet2 and paid a deposit
• During the summer, the hotel started to make significant changes due to Covid 19, incl. closing the indoor pool, buffet, spa and gym
• We cancelled our holiday at the end of July 2020 before the full balance was due as we no longer felt that the services at the hotel matched the services we booked. No fault of the hotel, they tried their best I am sure, but not our fault either
• I approached Jet2 about the situation and the reasons for the cancellation, they refused to refund the deposit because 'deposits are not refundable as per the Terms and Condition'
• I approached Jet2 again after the cancellation and exhausted that channel
• I approached the credit card company (Amex) who could only go by Jet2's Terms and Conditions so I exhausted that channel as well
• I then approached my household legal insurance who assessed the case and a solicitor concluded a probable success rate of over 51%
• A solicitor (paid for by my household legal insurance) is now taking the matter up with Jet2
  

I will update this post once I know more about the exact legal argument they are making. I initially figured I would stand a good chance under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 which stipulates that ‘every contract to supply a service is to be treated as including as a term of the contract anything that is said or written to the consumer’.
However I believe the legal adviser may have found a clause in the travel provider regulations (or something to that effect) which they think has a good chance of success.

In summary, if you booked your holiday before Covid 19 officially became a pandemic and you decided not to travel because your holiday was changed significantly due to Covid restrictions and you didn't get your deposit back then you may well have a chance to challenging that position. 
I'm personally prepared to take this further as I believe a judge would accept that the holiday we booked was no longer matching was Jet2 proposed to deliver, therefore they cannot hide behind their T&Cs. 

... to be continued

PS: take up legal insurance when you take out your home insurance, best £20 you'll ever spend

eskbanker

The relevant legal case will be based on Regulation 12 of the Package Travel Regulations 2018, and will rely on being able to argue that the changes were significant enough to trigger cancellation rights:

(7) Notwithstanding paragraphs (2) to (6), in the event of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances occurring at the place of destination or its immediate vicinity and which significantly affect—

(a) the performance of the package, or

(b) the carriage of passengers to the destination,

the traveller may terminate the package travel contract before the start of the package without paying any termination fee.

(8) Where the package travel contract is terminated under paragraph (7), the traveller is entitled to a full refund of any payments made for the package but is not entitled to additional compensation.

Alan_Bowen

I suspect that Jet2 will settle on the proviso that you sign a confidentiality clause because there is a danger that they might lose in a county court where the standard of judges leaves something to be desired at times. Having said that Jet2 use a wildly expensive firm of solicitors in London who if they are instructed may well take the view they want to defend and defeat the case to stop others trying to argue the same point.
There is an argument for saying that changes to hotel facilities were inevitable due to the pandemic and the closure of an indoor pool is hardly a significant change, for example. Good luck, and let us know the outcome if you are able!

Browntoa

You voluntarily cancelled the holiday, the terms and conditions are quite clear what happens if you cancel and you agreed to them on booking.

I would have argued about the substantial changes ( if they were substantial) and asked what Jet2 were going to do about it . You didn't give them a chance to respond or change , just cancelled

Browntoa

I see you have had issues before when you didn't give yourself enough time to get through security and the queues and got denied boarding as the gate had closed . That didn't seem to be your fault either.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5385108/our-compensation-experience-with-easyjet#latest

Michael_Bear

@Browntoa regarding your 2nd post, is that relevant and easy jet accepted liability in that event from 2015. I dont think that comment added any value.

@stoem good luck! As @Browntoa well stated in their first comment my only concern is you didn't give Jet2 chance to rectify, or did you give them opportunity first before cancelling?

Pollycat

Michael_Bear said:

@Browntoa regarding your 2nd post, is that relevant and easy jet accepted liability in that event from 2015. I dont think that comment added any value.

It was interesting that the OP said they'd update with information regarding any payout in that earlier thread - but didn't.

I hope they do update this thread.

It's always good to hear how things worked out.

Michael_Bear

@Pollycat good point. I always like when people come back and tie up a thread.

What I'm not the biggest fan of is people finding non relevant posts from a poster to 'beat' them with. I understand some times theres value in looking at old posts by poster but feel it doesn't always benefit.

stoem

Browntoa said:

I see you have had issues before when you didn't give yourself enough time to get through security and the queues and got denied boarding as the gate had closed . That didn't seem to be your fault either.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5385108/our-compensation-experience-with-easyjet#latest

Correct, Easyjet paid us compensation in that case but it took a year. 

It's interesting how you assume that since I've been badly treated once before it must have been my fault then and my fault now. Well, you could dig deeper and find that I also fought Stansted Parking and Stansted Airport and guess what, I won that one too. In other words I was right, they were wrong. It does take effort though.
Maybe you just give up too soon?

stoem

Update. We've exhausted our communications with Jet2 via our legal counsel. 
Our main point was that Jet2 was in breach of contract under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018.
Some samples
"As the holiday was purchased from Jet2holidays as a package, the aforementioned

Regulations will apply. In particular, this states that you, as the organiser, must not

unilaterally change the terms of the contract before the start of the package, unless

they are insignificant changes, which have been communicated to our client. In

addition, if as the organiser, you had no choice but to significantly alter the main

characteristics of the package, or cannot fulfil any special requirements of our client,

which you had previously accepted, then you were under a duty to inform our client

without undue delay, providing our client with the option to terminate the contract

without paying any termination fee."
...
"As such, we would reiterate our client’s entitlement to the refund paid totalling £300,

in accordance with Regulation 11 of The Package Travel and Linked Travel

Arrangements 2018, as well as his entitlement under the common law rules in relation

to anticipatory breach of contract."

In essence, Jet2 claim that the changes at the hotel were due to exceptional circumstances. Instead they expected us to pay full price for a hotel which had its spa, gym, pool and buffet services closed.
Jet2 then claimed it could have not been known at the time that these closures would still be in place, thereby ignoring our evidence which we submitted (a brochure from the hotel) that stated that these facilities would be closed for the entire season. Jet2 claimed that only in hindsight were we proven right, however we submitted this evidence to them in July before we cancelled and after we (rather than Jet2) found out about the changes to the services at the hotel. Don't get me wrong, we were gutted. We stayed there the year before and were looking to repeat the experience. With half the facilities closed that was not possible. 

I've given Jet2 a final ultimatum and will proceed with the small claims process soon should they maintain their position.
I'll update this thread once done. 

fred246

Is the claim for £300? I once did a claim for a similar amount. Different reason. I sent a letter before action and then used moneyclaimonline. I got a funny letter back from an 'account manager'. Every other word was 'legally'. Legally speaking, you legally haven't legally got a chance with your legal claim, legally. However we offer you £50. I ignored the letter. She phoned me the day before they had to file a response. We agreed to meet in court. A cheque for £300 plus court fee arrived the next day. I am not sure big companies want to pay the cost of someone to go to court for that amount.