Travel Agent/Sandals DOESN'T want my money?!

RichH1

Hello Forumites,
Apologies, this may be a tad long-winded...
I've been planning a "surprise" holiday in Jan '23 to Sandals resort in the Bahamas to celebrate a parents' 80th birthday.

Am using an agent (Travel Counsellors), and their/Sandals' blurb says that BA flights between certain dates (which my flight falls between) need to be paid for in full 100 days prior to travel, to "facilitate Ticketing Requirements".
That date was 7th October.

I've been pushing the agent to take my full payment, so that I can try and reserve seats on all the BA flights (for me and three others), however, I've now received the following:
"We appreciate that you are eager to pre book your flight seats which involves you paying for your flights in full and having your flight tickets issued early.  We do have to advise that as a company we have made the difficult decision not to issue tickets any earlier than we need to. However, if against our recommendation you still wish to have your tickets issued then I need you to confirm back to me in writing that you agree with the following:

 

If there is a unavoidable or extraordinary circumstance that prevents you from travelling you agree that Unique Caribbean Holidays Ltd ( ATOL 11174) will not refund your flight tickets in full. 

If you need to move the date of your holiday or destination you agree to pay any difference in airfares and taxes as well as ticket re-issue fees imposed by the airline.

You agree that Unique Caribbean Holidays Ltd (ATOL 11174) will not pay for any seating requests that you have paid directly to the airline.

We will only offer you a full refund on your ticketed flight if British Airways cancel the flight and offer Unique Caribbean Holidays Ltd ( ATOL 11174) a full refund.

Please reply to this email to confirm that you are aware of the rules regarding your tickets being issued early, as soon as we have this we will action your request."

Main question is why would paying for the flights/the full outstanding balance, as per the timeline provided by Sandals, mean that they would want to "get out of" refunding anything, should something (Heaven forbid) happen which means I, or any of the party, couldn't make the trip?  Surely there's some basic consumer protection "rights" here that can't be waived?

Second question is, having had a trawl through various discussions, BA's website, and taking note of the details provided in the Sandals blurb about booking BA seats: ("Specific seats can only be pre-booked once tickets are issued 42 to 14 days before departure for a fee payable directly to the airline"), I'm a bit confused as to whether I can reserve any seats once the balance is paid/I have the BA booking reference?
BA's info suggests that reservations are possible, but given the 42 day restriction noted by Sandals, are they or not?

Thanks for making it this far, and I appreciate any thoughts /suggestions you might be able to provide.
I should note, I will have travel insurance that should cover most "common" eventualities, so perhaps the Sandals request is moot?

Cheers,

Rich.

bagand96

They're trying to cover themselves because I'm guessing once they pay for the flights they will not be refundable from BA so Sandals/Unique Caribbean Holidays don't want to be in a position where they might lose out.  

The bit I might want clarifying is:

RichH1 said:

If there is a unavoidable or extraordinary circumstance that prevents you from travelling you agree that Unique Caribbean Holidays Ltd ( ATOL 11174) will not refund your flight tickets in full. 

Given you're booking a package holiday you are protected by the Package Travel Regulations 2018 which depending on the extraordinary circumstance may give you a right to a refund.  If it's a personal extraordinary circumstance such as a medical issue then you'd not be entitled to a refund and insurance should cover.  However if it's something like the Covid pandemic, or a natural disaster then under the PTR's a package holiday would be entitled to a full refund (like millions of holidays in the pandemic).  I'm not sure they're asking you to give up your rights under the PTR's, I don't think they can, might just be the way it's worded.

To be honest I'd wonder if it's worth it for the sake of seat allocations?  You can try a dummy booking on BA and this will show you the seat map so you can see how many seats are currently reserved.  When are they suggesting they will want payment and issue flight tickets?

RichH1

Hi @bagand96
Thanks for the info.  They haven't said when they want the money yet...which is kind of bizarre, given they state they want it 100 days in advance as it's a BA flight?!

I don't (yet) know what the BA flight/airplane code would be, so I'm not sure if I'd be able to do a dummy booking?

Cheers,

Rich.

bagand96

What are you travel dates and where are you flying to? That should be enough to search on the BA website. 

RichH1

@bagand96
Just tried a BA booking, and their isn't an option to select seats yet 🤷‍♂️

bagand96

RichH1 said:

@bagand96
Just tried a BA booking, and their isn't an option to select seats yet 🤷‍♂️

If you've found your flight you just need to follow the booking process through.  You need to enter passenger details (just use dummy details).  After you've entered the pax details the next stage is "Choose your seats" which will let you view the seat maps and which seats are already reserved.