Paid £60 deposit for hol, should i pay rest?

eskbanker

Butts said:

bradztheman said:

Butts said:

If you pay in full and are unable to Travel due to Government Restrictions at either end or the trip is cancelled then you should be entitled to a full refund from On the Beach.

If you want to bail find out what your deposit is and pay that amount up and cancel - you will not get it back.

If you feel lucky don't pay a penny more and wait and see what action (if any) they take.

I wonder if they will actually offer a cash refund or a voucher to use in the future though..

You would be entitled to a cash refund if you pay the balance and it is kyboshed as a result of Government restrictions or cancelled flights or accommodation.

Beyond cancellations, the Package Travel Regulations as enacted only enable refund rights if there is significant impact from restrictions at the destination rather than at this end, although the CMA opinion is that this principle should effectively be extended to both ends, but this hasn't been tested and in its current form is unlikely to influence a player like On The Beach without court action IMHO....

bradztheman

eskbanker said:

Butts said:

bradztheman said:

Butts said:

If you pay in full and are unable to Travel due to Government Restrictions at either end or the trip is cancelled then you should be entitled to a full refund from On the Beach.

If you want to bail find out what your deposit is and pay that amount up and cancel - you will not get it back.

If you feel lucky don't pay a penny more and wait and see what action (if any) they take.

I wonder if they will actually offer a cash refund or a voucher to use in the future though..

You would be entitled to a cash refund if you pay the balance and it is kyboshed as a result of Government restrictions or cancelled flights or accommodation.

Beyond cancellations, the Package Travel Regulations as enacted only enable refund rights if there is significant impact from restrictions at the destination rather than at this end, although the CMA opinion is that this principle should effectively be extended to both ends, but this hasn't been tested and in its current form is unlikely to influence a player like On The Beach without court action IMHO....

So what your saying is im unlikely to get a refund if we're still locked down?

bagand96

bradztheman said:

eskbanker said:

Butts said:

bradztheman said:

Butts said:

If you pay in full and are unable to Travel due to Government Restrictions at either end or the trip is cancelled then you should be entitled to a full refund from On the Beach.

If you want to bail find out what your deposit is and pay that amount up and cancel - you will not get it back.

If you feel lucky don't pay a penny more and wait and see what action (if any) they take.

I wonder if they will actually offer a cash refund or a voucher to use in the future though..

You would be entitled to a cash refund if you pay the balance and it is kyboshed as a result of Government restrictions or cancelled flights or accommodation.

Beyond cancellations, the Package Travel Regulations as enacted only enable refund rights if there is significant impact from restrictions at the destination rather than at this end, although the CMA opinion is that this principle should effectively be extended to both ends, but this hasn't been tested and in its current form is unlikely to influence a player like On The Beach without court action IMHO....

So what your saying is im unlikely to get a refund if we're still locked down?

The "right" to a refund under the Package Travel Regulations is based on an interpretation of the regulations.

The Regulations don't actually say that if the Government advise against travel then you have a right to a refund.  The decent package companies (TUI, Jet2, BA Holidays, easyjet Holidays and plenty more) have let people cancel for a refund.

But some others haven't. ABTA came out and said they expect their members to refund in that situation. OnTheBeach subsequently left ABTA which gives you an indication of their interpretation. 

eskbanker

bradztheman said:

eskbanker said:

Butts said:

bradztheman said:

Butts said:

If you pay in full and are unable to Travel due to Government Restrictions at either end or the trip is cancelled then you should be entitled to a full refund from On the Beach.

If you want to bail find out what your deposit is and pay that amount up and cancel - you will not get it back.

If you feel lucky don't pay a penny more and wait and see what action (if any) they take.

I wonder if they will actually offer a cash refund or a voucher to use in the future though..

You would be entitled to a cash refund if you pay the balance and it is kyboshed as a result of Government restrictions or cancelled flights or accommodation.

Beyond cancellations, the Package Travel Regulations as enacted only enable refund rights if there is significant impact from restrictions at the destination rather than at this end, although the CMA opinion is that this principle should effectively be extended to both ends, but this hasn't been tested and in its current form is unlikely to influence a player like On The Beach without court action IMHO....

So what your saying is im unlikely to get a refund if we're still locked down?

I'm saying that there isn't a clear-cut legal right to a refund where you don't fulfil your booking solely because of UK lockdowns, so, although other companies (as above) may choose to refund in such circumstances, it would be unwise to act as if OTB are compelled to do so, when evidence suggests that they're taking a harder stance than many of their competitors.

eskbanker

bagand96 said:
The "right" to a refund under the Package Travel Regulations is based on an interpretation of the regulations.

The Regulations don't actually say that if the Government advise against travel then you have a right to a refund.  The decent package companies (TUI, Jet2, BA Holidays, easyjet Holidays and plenty more) have let people cancel for a refund.

But some others haven't. ABTA came out and said they expect their members to refund in that situation. OnTheBeach subsequently left ABTA which gives you an indication of their interpretation. 

I think there are two different scenarios being conflated here.

The ABTA guidance to its members last year related to refunding where there was FCO advice against travelling to certain destinations, so that does interact with the PTR provisions about "unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances occurring at the place of destination or its immediate vicinity".

I believe that the situation now being discussed is different, in that OP and others are concerned about UK-specific lockdown laws impacting on ability to travel, rather than anything to do with what's happening at the destination as such, and therefore the PTRs don't really come into play.

To me that's an important distinction, but happy to be corrected if anyone has anything definitive that overrides this perspective!

bagand96

eskbanker said:

bagand96 said:
The "right" to a refund under the Package Travel Regulations is based on an interpretation of the regulations.

The Regulations don't actually say that if the Government advise against travel then you have a right to a refund.  The decent package companies (TUI, Jet2, BA Holidays, easyjet Holidays and plenty more) have let people cancel for a refund.

But some others haven't. ABTA came out and said they expect their members to refund in that situation. OnTheBeach subsequently left ABTA which gives you an indication of their interpretation. 

I think there are two different scenarios being conflated here.

The ABTA guidance to its members last year related to refunding where there was FCO advice against travelling to certain destinations, so that does interact with the PTR provisions about "unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances occurring at the place of destination or its immediate vicinity".

I believe that the situation now being discussed is different, in that OP and others are concerned about UK-specific lockdown laws impacting on ability to travel, rather than anything to do with what's happening at the destination as such, and therefore the PTRs don't really come into play.

To me that's an important distinction, but happy to be corrected if anyone has anything definitive that overrides this perspective!

You're correct. Technically the FCO Travel Advice on whether to travel to a destination, or indeed abroad at all, is different from the domestic UK Covid restrictions. 

Currently the two are coincident in that the GOV FCO website says you must not travel abroad. I believe there was a situation last year where the two guidelines didn't neccesarily match. 

What doesn't really change is the way companies are dealing with it. You have one set of companies who are doing the right thing (generally the traditional tour operators)* and one set who are being more difficult (generally OTA's who assemble packages from separate elements)*

*there will of course be exceptions in both categories 

bradztheman

Hmm.. it would be interesting to see if onthebeach have actually refunded anyone 

bradztheman

What's everyone's advice then? Pay it and hope i get a refund, or just dont pay it and hope indont get chased for £370....??

Pollycat

bradztheman said:

What's everyone's advice then? Pay it and hope i get a refund, or just dont pay it and hope indont get chased for £370....??

Hard choice and I can't offer any advice.

We had a holiday booked with TUI for June 2020. We were pretty sure it wouldn't go ahead so when the time came to pay the balance, we did in the knowledge that if the holiday didn't go ahead, we'd get a refund or a money incentive to rebook. That was the advice on MSE.

When our holiday was cancelled, we just deferred the holiday for a full 12 month.

We had a holiday booked with Jet2 for August 2020.

We'd paid the deposit of £60.00 per person and knew that if we cancelled that's all we'd lose.

So that's what we did, knowing that they would not come after us for more money.

These companies like OntheBeach, LoveHolidays etc work differently - and that's why I wouldn't book with them.

sheramber

bradztheman said:

What's everyone's advice then? Pay it and hope i get a refund, or just dont pay it and hope indont get chased for £370....??

if £370 is the balance of the deposit due then they will pursue you for it.
If you pay £370 and no more then you will be deemed to have cancelled and no repayment will be due.

if you pay the full amount of the holiday  £918  and it is cancelled you should get a refund or a voucher but with OTB no one can guarantee that.