HELP with FCO Advice

marcia_

Josie1996 said:

CKhalvashi said:

We agree on this part Pollycat (I would still have gone to Georgia in 2021 if I'd booked it to be out of the UK for 11 days after, not going after being outside of the UK for 14 days and returning after 2 days in another country, due to the red list that plan failed miserably).

It's very possible however that under Section 12, part 7A of the PTD  with an incident occurring in the immediate vicinity of the travel so serious that the government is advising against all non-essential travel that there would be a right to a full refund in any event. This has scored refunds on the forum before (in the context of Covid for purely leisure travel), however as far as I'm aware has not been tested in court.

Thanks, my argument is is that they cannot provide the holiday that I booked and paid for and therefore I should be able to gain a full refund as the holiday has changed so significantly that I am covered.  Berating me for not taking out travel insurance at the time is unhelpful.  The simple fact is that the company are unable to provide me with the holiday that I booked?  Encouraging people to go to a country that your own government has advised travel against makes the original holiday untenable.  

 But they have claimed the holiday is going ahead so it is the holiday you booked? 

 I doubt they made any claims in their literature there would be no economic difficulties during your stay! 

CKhalvashi

Josie1996 said:

CKhalvashi said:

We agree on this part Pollycat (I would still have gone to Georgia in 2021 if I'd booked it to be out of the UK for 11 days after, not going after being outside of the UK for 14 days and returning after 2 days in another country, due to the red list that plan failed miserably).

It's very possible however that under Section 12, part 7A of the PTD  with an incident occurring in the immediate vicinity of the travel so serious that the government is advising against all non-essential travel that there would be a right to a full refund in any event. This has scored refunds on the forum before (in the context of Covid for purely leisure travel), however as far as I'm aware has not been tested in court.

Thanks, my argument is is that they cannot provide the holiday that I booked and paid for and therefore I should be able to gain a full refund as the holiday has changed so significantly that I am covered.  Berating me for not taking out travel insurance at the time is unhelpful.  The simple fact is that the company are unable to provide me with the holiday that I booked?  Encouraging people to go to a country that your own government has advised travel against makes the original holiday untenable.  

You can put this argument forward to them, but as mentioned above, I don't believe this has been tested in court.

Josie1996

marcia_ said:

 But they have claimed the holiday is going ahead so it is the holiday you booked? 

 I doubt they made any claims in their literature there would be no economic difficulties during your stay! 

Hi Marie,
Yes, they have claimed that it is the same holiday but if I can't move outside of my hotel unless I am traveling to the airport then it is not the same holiday.  Yes, the flights are going and the hotels are open but I will not be able to travel freely in the country when we arrive.  When does all but essential travel become okay for a holiday?  I hear what you are saying but ultimately they cannot provide me with the holiday that I booked!  It is like booking an abseiling holiday and they want to send you on a cycling holiday - they cannot provide me with the holiday promised

Sandtree

onashoestring said:

This is when your insurance would cover you if you had purchased it . 

Travel insurance is actually generally poor at covering holidays where the FCDO advice changes between booking and travel; haven't done any analysis since Covid but it may have resulted in some getting better 

Pollycat

I haven't seen any posters 'berating' you for not taking out insurance.
They have merely pointed out that you would be a a very different situation if you had taken out insurance at the time of booking.

I've looked at the Luxtripper website.
Have you booked a tour or just a flight & hotel package?
If you've booked a tour and there is an island wide curfew, doesn't that mean that you wouldn't be able to visit the places they have in their itinerary?
That would strengthen your point that they cannot provide the holiday you booked and paid for.

It would be different if you have booked flights/accommodation and planned to travel independently once you arrived in Sri Lanka and I can see how they could say they are providing the holiday you booked.

CKhalvashi

Sandtree said:

onashoestring said:

This is when your insurance would cover you if you had purchased it . 

Travel insurance is actually generally poor at covering holidays where the FCDO advice changes between booking and travel; haven't done any analysis since Covid but it may have resulted in some getting better 

Just to point out that my policy (an HSBC Premier one underwritten by Aviva) is quite good in these circumstances, has its clear limitations, although this wouldn't be outside the scope of coverage.

Others (as we've discussed extensively over the last few years) are a lot more restrictive, so it depends largely on the insurer and cheapest isn't always best.

MATTR5

Its the Tour Operators responsibility but not all comply with the rules since COVID
Luxtripper don't seem to be ABTA members so no help there
There are ATOL - See if you have an ATOL certificate
You're also covered by something called Package Travel Regulations - if it was sold to you as a package flights and hotels all for one price 
This article will help a bit - https://travelweekly.co.uk/articles/382642/consensus-on-following-fco-advice-breaking-down
I'd maybe also see if Citizens advice can help
You could also find the flight gets cancelled - it seems odd they are still running 

Josie1996

Pollycat said:

I haven't seen any posters 'berating' you for not taking out insurance.
They have merely pointed out that you would be a a very different situation if you had taken out insurance at the time of booking.

I've looked at the Luxtripper website.
Have you booked a tour or just a flight & hotel package?
If you've booked a tour and there is an island wide curfew, doesn't that mean that you wouldn't be able to visit the places they have in their itinerary?
That would strengthen your point that they cannot provide the holiday you booked and paid for.

It would be different if you have booked flights/accommodation and planned to travel independently once you arrived in Sri Lanka and I can see how they could say they are providing the holiday you booked.

Berating was possibly the wrong terminology - I’m stressed 😩. It’s a package that we have booked and so that is my argument that although they are saying it is all fine, it will be totally different.  The Sri Lankan government have said all tourists can move freely, but where do we stand if we go and it’s not anything as described.  I also feel very sad for the people of Sri Lanka and I don’t want to be a burden on their country

NoodleDoodleMan

May I ask - what was the FCO advice on travel to Sir Lanka on the day you made the reservations ?

Pollycat

TUI have cancelled all holidays to Sri Lanka up and including 31/5/2022.
I too feel sad for the Sri Lanka people.
We had quite a few fab holidays there between 1996 and 2004.
Lovely people, great food and wonderful culture.