Tui Package holiday, lost day to delay, advice please?

SMDTS

we had a 3.5 hour delay on our flight to ibiza then a further couple of hours delay at the airport in ibiza as the flight arrived so late the baggage handlers werent available, then the transfer coach was delayed as they had lost a families luggage and we all had to wait on them submitting a claim. instead of arriving while the hotel was still serving dinner and getting to enjoy the evenings entertainment instead we arrived at 01:45 and there was nowhere to eat and the bar was closed and we started travelling at 07:45 the day before so we went to bed and missed breakfast the next morning.

I have filled in the claim form on the tui portal but I have some questions I didn't find an answer to and the tui call centre has long hold times, I am thinking about just going in to a tui shop but I would like to go in with as many facts as possible.

1. Can tui weasel out of paying out? we had pretty much zero updates during the delay, but once we boarded the pilot said the delay was swissair baggage handlers were short staffed so the luggage stayed on the aircraft from its previous flight for a couple of hours delaying our baggage getting loaded, then the baggage loading machine blew a hydraulic hose, then the delay meant we had to wait for an atc slot. can they say swissairs staffing and plant maintenance issues were out of their control or does it become their problem as swissair is their contractor and they should have used someone competent?

2. I havent seen anything about getting a refund for the evening of the holiday we missed and the inclusive food and drink we never received on the portal form, only flight delay compensation. since it was a package holiday and a tui flight and tui hotel how do I go about getting a refund for the first evening we missed out on?

3. We had a burger king at Newcastle airport, I believe we can claim that back but the receipt printer was broken and the teenagers attempting to run the eatery were no help whatsoever in trying to get a proof of purchase. Can I use a bank statement to prove we bought food at the airport? I used google pay contactless through my phone.

Not the end of the world, but it left a sour taste on my families first holiday in 3 years and probably our only for a couple of years.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Westin

1. Depends on the reason for the delay and if you arrived in IBZ more than 3hrs late (not departure from NCL).  The Swissport and tech issues ‘may’ count but ATC delays won’t.  So if for example the baggage and tech issues amounted to 2hr delay and ATC 1h15m delay, the airline could indeed possibly avoid payment of compensation under EU261/UK261 legislation.
2. You can’t. Move on.
3. Duty of care (claiming for a reasonable meal/refreshments during a delay) only kicks in after I think 2hrs.  At that point you could only get £2-£4 for refreshments for a short delay. If you were boarded and some of the delay was not really known at the time it is a difficult one to call.  You can certainly make an application for expenses if you feel they are deserved and use your bank statement as proof of purchase support.  They may reject if this was seen as your airport purchase anyway and deemed excessive.  Might be just time to enjoy your holiday and move on.

SMDTS

The holiday is over. It was pretty crap in most respects compared to our previous 4 stays at the same resort, the trip wasnt worth the money, so I will definitely be pushing this as aggressively as I can. 

elsien

Assertively rather than aggressively is likely to be more effective for goodwill gestures. Can’t see them being obliged to give  you anything for the first evening though. Missing out is different to having unforeseen expenses. Your title is a little misleading - you lost an evening not a day. 

SMDTS

I will be polite and fair, but I wont be taking no for an answer. They counted that evening as one of the 10 days we paid for, so why should it not count as a day for a refund?

JGB1955

SMDTS said:

I will be polite and fair, but I wont be taking no for an answer. They counted that evening as one of the 10 days we paid for, so why should it not count as a day for a refund?

Did you have a bed to sleep on for 10 nights?  I think you may be disappointed with your claim - but wish you well....

SMDTS

We were due to arrive 19:30 on the 24th, we arrived 01:45 on the 25th
We paid for an evening of food and drink and entertainment that we never received. I am going to make a persistant nuisance of myself until I get something out of them for it. If anyone has anything helpful to offer thats fine. 
A lot of apologists here for a multi million pound company taking money then not delivering what the money was taken for, I hope you get to see what its like on the other side next time you travel. 

eskbanker

SMDTS said:

We were due to arrive 19:30 on the 24th, we arrived 01:45 on the 25th
We paid for an evening of food and drink and entertainment that we never received. I am going to make a persistant nuisance of myself until I get something out of them for it. If anyone has anything helpful to offer thats fine. 
A lot of apologists here for a multi million pound company taking money then not delivering what the money was taken for, I hope you get to see what its like on the other side next time you travel. 

I don't see anyone apologising for the company as such, just offering a reality check to advise what the legal and contractual situation is likely to be.

Are TUI (airline) required to compensate you for >3 hours delay? Yes, if it was their fault (based on EU/UK261 regulations).

Are TUI (tour operator) required to refund you for your delayed arrival at resort? No, despite the tour operator, airline and hotel operator all being companies within the same group.

Will TUI (tour operator) offer a goodwill gesture if you ask in the right way? Possibly....

SMDTS

They will not discuss this in any way over the phone, they insist you email, i emailled a week ago, but still no response or read receipt. 
I need to go into the tui shop to change my leftover money back so time to discuss it loudly enough for others booking to overhear, but not loudly enough to get kicked out.
I fail to see why this is considered acceptable when in any other consumer situation when you dont get what you paid for you get your money back if the company is still solvent, and the more I think how much of a shafting that holiday was the less likely I am to back down. 

eskbanker

SMDTS said:

They will not discuss this in any way over the phone, they insist you email, i emailled a week ago, but still no response or read receipt. 
I need to go into the tui shop to change my leftover money back so time to discuss it loudly enough for others booking to overhear, but not loudly enough to get kicked out.
I fail to see why this is considered acceptable when in any other consumer situation when you dont get what you paid for you get your money back if the company is still solvent, and the more I think how much of a shafting that holiday was the less likely I am to back down. 

It's not really a question of what you 'consider acceptable' - it's understandable that you're miffed if you lost a bit of your holiday, but the issue is whether the tour operator is legally or contractually obliged to offer any sort of refund for you missing a few hours due to airline/airport/transfer delays, and unless there's any law, regulation or contract that you can highlight then this seems extremely unlikely.

In my experience, most holidays are sold on the basis of the number of nights included, rather than the number of days (or their duration), and the Package Travel Regulations certainly consider price adjustments to be potentially applicable if "where accommodation is included, the number of nights included" is changed in advance.

As above, if you ask politely then they may be willing to offer a modest goodwill gesture, but don't be surprised if wading in all guns blazing doesn't have the desired effect!

SMDTS

Think I am going to hand this to a solicitor. 3 months before the holiday they changed the flight time to an earlier time. The ticket displayed the earlier time, the departure board in the airport and check in and boarding gates were all operating on the earlier time, but for the puproses of compensation they are referring to the original time from a year ago which doesn't qualify as it was supposed to leave later in the day.
They make it impossible to appeal and try to deny responsibility at every point. had a good conversation with a couple at the local tui who were about to book and are now looking at alternatives as they already had doubts about tui and speaking to someone first hand confirmed their doubts, so hopefully saved someone else from this hassle and cost tui a bit of custom.
I started off very polite but was completely stonewalled. The staff in the tui store insinuated that I should be claiming direct from the airport, which is utter bs.

Any recommendations on a claims solicitor?