Rights regarding change of package holiday/flights

dtsn

Our extended family (10 people) had booked to go to Walt Disney World with TUI in the October half term this included a special dinning credit offer and a gift card.

TUI has just emailed us and they have cancelled the flight and moved the entire holiday 4 days earlier. Since my sister is a school teacher this means we can’t go on these dates.

We contacted TUI and after some persuasion they are willing to book us on some BA flights leaving the same day.

The problem is that now they moved our holiday without our consent they have lost the reservation at the hotel we wanted. They are also saying they won’t be able to get the dining credit or gift card back again which has a £3000 value.

What are our rights for this? The EU flight regs say they have to offer us an alternative which they have eventually done. The Abta rules say they should offer us the equivalent holiday.

What are our rights regarding the dining voucher and gift card? The equivalent holiday would include this £3000 voucher but they are saying they can’t do it.

any help would be greatly appreciated. My sister told her daughter (7) on Christmas Day and now she thinks she’s going.

Westin

Are you sure no one gave approval to TUI to make the change from the TUI to BA flights?  It seems really strange that TUI would go ahead and buy seats on a schedule airline without lead passenger approval.

I am not sure why a flight/carrier change on the same dates would mean the hotel element was lost. Assume this was an onsite WDW hotel. Can you explain more?

bagand96

The offers/incentives may have only been available for a complete TUI package due to the arrangements TUI have with WDW.  Now they've booked you on BA flights it may be not be an actual TUI package, but a dynamically packaged holiday arranged by a different part of TUI.  (I appreciate that to you it's not much different - it's still a holiday booked with TUI!)

I agree with @Westin that it's strange that they'd go ahead and amend the booking without lead passenger approval?  You say "after some persuasion" they agreed to book you on BA, so was this done during the phonecall - or did the phone agent at least think this is what you wanted so had the authorisation to amend the booking?

eskbanker

I'd suggest challenging them on their obligations under Regulation 11 of the Package Travel Regulations 2018, including the fact that they can't just unilaterally apply a significant change, so if the original flights were cancelled then they needed to inform you of this and propose changes for your consideration, rather than presenting a fait accompli.

Article 7 of this regulation also compels them to reduce the price if their changes result in a package of lower quality or cost, so if you no longer have £3,000 worth of credit then they should reduce the headline price of the booking by the same amount.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/634/regulation/11/made

bagand96

eskbanker said:

I'd suggest challenging them on their obligations under Regulation 11 of the Package Travel Regulations 2018, including the fact that they can't just unilaterally apply a significant change, so if the original flights were cancelled then they needed to inform you of this and propose changes for your consideration, rather than presenting a fait accompli.

We don't know the full details of the email but I'd expect the date change was TUI's proposed alternative. It operates similar to when airlines change flights, they'll send an email out saying "we've made a change to your booking" with details of the change, often done automatically by the IT.  However if you get in touch with them there will be alternative options, and even cancellation for a full refund which TUI would have done in this case if asked.  In fact in the situation the OP describes TUI could just cancel the holiday for a refund with no compensation - allowed under their T&C's and the PTR's.

It seems that TUI have at least engaged with the OP/their party by looking into alternatives and agreeing to maintain the holiday dates with BA flights (although acknowledging there's the question over authorisation of the changes) so I think they've met their obligations there.

eskbanker said:

Article 7 of this regulation also compels them to reduce the price if their changes result in a package of lower quality or cost, so if you no longer have £3,000 worth of credit then they should reduce the headline price of the booking by the same amount.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/634/regulation/11/made

 This is good advice and worth exploring when discussing with TUI.

eskbanker

bagand96 said:

eskbanker said:

I'd suggest challenging them on their obligations under Regulation 11 of the Package Travel Regulations 2018, including the fact that they can't just unilaterally apply a significant change, so if the original flights were cancelled then they needed to inform you of this and propose changes for your consideration, rather than presenting a fait accompli.

We don't know the full details of the email but I'd expect the date change was TUI's proposed alternative. It operates similar to when airlines change flights, they'll send an email out saying "we've made a change to your booking" with details of the change, often done automatically by the IT.  However if you get in touch with them there will be alternative options, and even cancellation for a full refund which TUI would have done in this case if asked.  In fact in the situation the OP describes TUI could just cancel the holiday for a refund with no compensation - allowed under their T&C's and the PTR's.

It seems that TUI have at least engaged with the OP/their party by looking into alternatives and agreeing to maintain the holiday dates with BA flights (although acknowledging there's the question over authorisation of the changes) so I think they've met their obligations there.

As you say, we don't have sight of everything but OP certainly suggested that TUI did change the holiday rather than simply proposing an alternative as required by the PTRs:

dtsn said:

The problem is that now they moved our holiday without our consent they have lost the reservation at the hotel we wanted. They are also saying they won’t be able to get the dining credit or gift card back again which has a £3000 value.

bagand96

eskbanker said:

As you say, we don't have sight of everything but OP certainly suggested that TUI did change the holiday rather than simply proposing an alternative as required by the PTRs:

dtsn said:

The problem is that now they moved our holiday without our consent they have lost the reservation at the hotel we wanted. They are also saying they won’t be able to get the dining credit or gift card back again which has a £3000 value.

It would be interesting to know if the loss of the incentives occurred when the original trip was moved by four days, or when the holiday was moved onto BA flights on the original dates. I suspect the latter.

I think the original move by four days was TUIs original proposed alternative, but after being in contact TUI have come up with another alternative on the original dates - but without the incentives - and the OP suggests this booking move wasn't authorised? (But there was some persuasion?) 

dtsn

Westin said:

Are you sure no one gave approval to TUI to make the change from the TUI to BA flights?  It seems really strange that TUI would go ahead and buy seats on a schedule airline without lead passenger approval.

I am not sure why a flight/carrier change on the same dates would mean the hotel element was lost. Assume this was an onsite WDW hotel. Can you explain more?

Sorry, @Westin  @bagand96 @eskbanker thanks for replying and my delay. I thought I got email notifications but I didn't

To clarify the situation. TUI has amended and moved our holiday without consent to the only available flight they have on the 17th of October, instead of the 20th. I don't believe this was a suggestion because the new flights/package deal can be seen in both the TUI app and the My Disney Experience app.

When challenged they offered us BA flights for the same day but had some problems regarding the offer for these dates.

As an update, they now say they can give us our holiday back but are unwilling to pay the extra £500 per person it would cost them.

They have now giving us 3 choices:
- Keep the 17th holiday as the 'like for like'
- Cancel and get a full refund
- Pay an extra £500 per person to get our original holiday back but via BA.

eskbanker

I think it'll come down to the interpretation of regulation 11, but personally I believe that they should honour their obligations under articles 2 and 3:

(2) The organiser must not unilaterally change the terms of a package travel contract before the start of the package, other than the price in accordance with regulation 10, unless—

(a) the contract allows the organiser to make such changes;

(b) the change is insignificant; and

(c) the organiser informs the traveller of the change in a clear, comprehensible and prominent manner on a durable medium.

(3) Paragraphs (4) to (11) apply where, before the start of the package, the organiser—

(a) is constrained by circumstances beyond the control of the organiser to alter significantly any of the main characteristics of the travel services specified in paragraphs 1 to 10 of Schedule 1;

(b) cannot fulfil the special requirements specified in paragraph 1 of Schedule 5; or

(c) proposes to increase the price of the package by more than 8% in accordance with regulation 10(4).

I'd argue that they're not constrained by circumstances beyond their control to make a significant change, as they know they can replace one set of flights with another in order to preserve the booked dates - the fact that the replacement flights are more expensive is an issue for the package organiser rather than the traveller.  Since they're (arguably) not forced to make a significant change (using a different airline doesn't count), I don't see the subsequent paragraphs (4 to 11) coming into play and so would contend that they don't have the right to cancel the booking and should instead concentrate on making it work at no extra cost to OP....

dtsn

eskbanker said:

I think it'll come down to the interpretation of regulation 11, but personally I believe that they should honour their obligations under articles 2 and 3:

(2) The organiser must not unilaterally change the terms of a package travel contract before the start of the package, other than the price in accordance with regulation 10, unless—

(a) the contract allows the organiser to make such changes;

(b) the change is insignificant; and

(c) the organiser informs the traveller of the change in a clear, comprehensible and prominent manner on a durable medium.

(3) Paragraphs (4) to (11) apply where, before the start of the package, the organiser—

(a) is constrained by circumstances beyond the control of the organiser to alter significantly any of the main characteristics of the travel services specified in paragraphs 1 to 10 of Schedule 1;

(b) cannot fulfil the special requirements specified in paragraph 1 of Schedule 5; or

(c) proposes to increase the price of the package by more than 8% in accordance with regulation 10(4).

I'd argue that they're not constrained by circumstances beyond their control to make a significant change, as they know they can replace one set of flights with another in order to preserve the booked dates - the fact that the replacement flights are more expensive is an issue for the package organiser rather than the traveller.  Since they're (arguably) not forced to make a significant change (using a different airline doesn't count), I don't see the subsequent paragraphs (4 to 11) coming into play and so would contend that they don't have the right to cancel the booking and should instead concentrate on making it work at no extra cost to OP....

Thanks!

I've just given them a ring and also seeking clarification under the cancellation of the flight and what their rights are for that. I believe they should also offer us rerouting on an alternative airline if what they have offered us is unacceptable. They have gone off to think about it...

They have basically said they haven't amended the holiday, they have canceled the holiday, which is there right. They then booked us onto a new holiday. I tried to argue that it's the same thing, but apparently not.

eskbanker

dtsn said:

I've just given them a ring and also seeking clarification under the cancellation of the flight and what their rights are for that. I believe they should also offer us rerouting on an alternative airline if what they have offered us is unacceptable. They have gone off to think about it...

They have basically said they haven't amended the holiday, they have canceled the holiday, which is there right. They then booked us onto a new holiday. I tried to argue that it's the same thing, but apparently not.

As above, I don't believe they have the right to cancel if they can simply substitute an alternative flight on the same day.

Personally I'd steer clear of the flight regulations and would concentrate on the package holiday ones instead, as I believe they'll protect your overall interests better here....