Budget Flights Help Needed

Kimbo1957

I have booked flights to Thailand for 2024 with a UK based Budget Flight Company for 4 people.
The flights are due to be paid for next week.
Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances 2 of the people booked for can not now go.
Does anyone know where I stand on cancelling 2 of the flights or changing the names of these 2 passengers
From my terms and conditions which were received after the booking was made it would appear that if I cancelled or changed names for the flights I would still be liable for paying for the  original passengers in full or nearly the full cost of the 2 flights to change names.
I have submitted to them the reasons in writing but this may take 8 to 14 days for them to reply which would take me over the date that the payment for the flights should be made.
As the flights have not yet been paid for does anyone know where I would stand in not making payment???
I am stressing terribly over this and would be grateful if anyone could help.

Ayr_Rage

The Ts and Cs will apply especially as you booked through a bucket shop, they usually sell non refundable tickets with small margins.

I hope you took the MSE advice to purchase travel insurance as soon as you booked, so is the reason for the two who cannot travel covered by that?

Disinclination to travel for personal reasons won't be covered.

If you do not pay the invoice they are quite entitled to take recovery action.

Kimbo1957

It is for personal reasons that they are now unable to travel.

MattMattMattUK

Kimbo1957 said:

It is for personal reasons that they are now unable to travel.

Personal reason as in "I do not want to go", or personal reasons as in "They are unfit to travel"? The former is disinclination to travel and so not covered by anything, the latter would be covered by their travel insurance. 

Kimbo1957

Due to a relationship that has now ended in the last week after the flights had been booked. I know, therefore, Insurance and medical do not apply
I wish to go ahead with the other 2 flights and can arrange for one new person to travel dependant on possible name change.
However, I stand to loose over £2,000 for the 2 passengers that are unable to Travel plus cancellation fees plus a stupid high fee nearly as much as the ticket cost for the name change.

eskbanker

Kimbo1957 said:

a UK based Budget Flight Company

Which one?

Kimbo1957

Travel Up
I will end up having to take out a loan for anything more than the cost of my 2 flights. As I said I am totally stressing as I never thought this would happen.

eskbanker

Would the two non-travellers have paid you if they'd stuck to the original plan, or were you going to be paying for them all along?  If the former, then why aren't they accepting financial liability for the fact that there's no refund for their change of plans?

Kimbo1957

The two non travellers do have the money available for the flight costs and were due to pay the money over to me before I pay for the holiday next week.
This is definately not going to happen now as it has been confirmed that they will not now be travelling and will not be paying for the flights.
As we had no joint Bank account and the flights were booked by myself this leaves me in dire straights.
It's all just a mess.

eskbanker

Kimbo1957 said:

The two non travellers do have the money available for the flight costs and were due to pay the money over to me before I pay for the holiday next week.
This is definately not going to happen now as it has been confirmed that they will not now be travelling and will not be paying for the flights.
As we had no joint Bank account and the flights were booked by myself this leaves me in dire straights.
It's all just a mess.

Fair enough, but, however unfortunate, your issues with not being in a position to reclaim the costs from the non-travellers aren't anything to do with Travel Up if you're the nominated lead passenger, so your dealings with Travel Up are only affected by the Ts & Cs you signed up to, rather than any financial difficulties you may face as a result of being left in the lurch by some of the rest of the party.

tightauldgit

Kimbo1957 said:

The two non travellers do have the money available for the flight costs and were due to pay the money over to me before I pay for the holiday next week.
This is definately not going to happen now as it has been confirmed that they will not now be travelling and will not be paying for the flights.
As we had no joint Bank account and the flights were booked by myself this leaves me in dire straights.
It's all just a mess.

Um the two non-travellers should be paying for what they booked surely? 

As for the booking - very unlikely you'll get anything. Most flights are non-refundable unless you've booked an expensive flexible fare. Changing passenger will be down to the T&Cs of the booking but seems like  you've looked at that and it's quite expensive too? 

If you don't make payment you will be in breach of contract and they'd be within their rights to pursue payment through court. If you can evidence you had an agreement for the other parties to pay for their tickets you MAY be able to pursue them in turn for your losses.