Cancellation before COVID.

Becky1989_2

Hi, I would really appreciate some help. I’ve been going backwards and forwards with a travel company regarding a refund and am considering next steps.

I booked a packaged holiday, ATOL protected, in July 2019 for May 2020 to the Maldives, & paid a £200 deposit on my credit card. I contacted the company in November 2019 to cancel and rebook to another date due to personal reasons, and they stated they would take a large percentage of the deposit. I queried this and they stated they would refund £110 only and to contact them to let them know what I wanted to do. We decided to go ahead with the holiday but unfortunately I never contacted them back to confirm this. But I also never received any confirmation of the cancellation, and continued to receive payment reminders. The balance was due on the 28 February 2020 and I last received the payment reminder on the 27th February.

However, at this point because the covid pandemic was gaining momentum, we were reluctant to pay the balance, as we weren’t sure what was happening with travel. I contacted the agent again to discuss options for referring the holiday to 2021 but nothing was confirmed. As the original holiday couldn’t have gone ahead as we were in lockdown, and the holiday wasn’t officially cancelled as I have no cancellation notice and continued to get payment requests, I believe we should have been offered the deposit back but the company are now only offering a credit for £110 and it must be used for a holiday in 2023, booked in 2023. They never contacted me at any point regarding the return of my deposit or to confirm the cancellation. 

I’m unsure where I stand now, and who is right. Can I claim through my credit card company? Or are the company legally in the right and I have no claim?

Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me.

eskbanker

What do the Ts & Cs say about the cancellation policy, in terms of what you were entitled to if you did cancel after only paying the deposit?  In many cases you'd actually be obliged to pay more than the deposit if cancelling, especially if the scheduled trip was only a couple of months away....

However, in terms of the status of the booking, if the ball was definitely in your court to decide and you didn't nominate one way or the other, then it would seem that it wasn't cancelled by you, but by them (later on), in which case they would be obliged to refund you what you'd paid.

In terms of a section 75 claim from your card company, you mention an agent, which can affect eligibility - was the agent assembling the holiday from its components or just reselling someone else's package?

Becky1989_2

Thank you for the reply eskbanker. The travel company and allocated sales consultant assembled the holiday and gave a quote which I accepted.

My thinking was, because I never actually received any confirmation of the cancellation or replied when they asked me what I wanted to do, then it wasn’t officially cancelled, thus I should be entitled to a full refund (even though I contacted them to cancel in the first instance). Would it matter that we never paid the remaining balance in February before the first UK lockdown? Would the the covid refund rules apply, or could they argue that the pandemic wasn’t officially declared in February 2020? 

I’ve never claimed a section 75 before, so was worried if I did, and the company is in the right they could then start a claim against me if the credit card company did provide me a refund? 

Many thanks

MorningcoffeeIV

No, because a s75 refund is paid by the lender.

eskbanker

Becky1989_2 said:

Would it matter that we never paid the remaining balance in February before the first UK lockdown? Would the the covid refund rules apply, or could they argue that the pandemic wasn’t officially declared in February 2020? 

Again you'd need to check the Ts & Cs but in general failure to make scheduled stage payments may have consequences such as triggering cancellation, but if you were in dialogue with them after the missed payment I'd have expected them to raise the subject?

There isn't really any significance to February 2020 as such - the first UK lockdown was announced on 23 March and even then it wasn't as if all travel arrangements were instantaneously cancelled for the following months.  At some point, probably April, it became clear that package providers (bound by the Package Travel Regulations) would be obliged to cancel package holidays and offer refunds, but there was some form of semi-official refundable credit note scheme put in place too, and it does sound like there is potentially an argument that you'd voided the contract by failing to keep up with payments, so the situation isn't really particularly clear for your booking IMHO.

Westin

Becky1989_2 said:

Thank you for the reply eskbanker. The travel company and allocated sales consultant assembled the holiday and gave a quote which I accepted.

My thinking was, because I never actually received any confirmation of the cancellation or replied when they asked me what I wanted to do, then it wasn’t officially cancelled, thus I should be entitled to a full refund (even though I contacted them to cancel in the first instance). Would it matter that we never paid the remaining balance in February before the first UK lockdown? Would the the covid refund rules apply, or could they argue that the pandemic wasn’t officially declared in February 2020? 

I’ve never claimed a section 75 before, so was worried if I did, and the company is in the right they could then start a claim against me if the credit card company did provide me a refund? 

Many thanks

I think very possibly. The T&C's of the unnamed travel firm will likely layout and detail what happens if the holiday balance is not paid by a certain point. I think you will find it to be a loss of deposit.