TUI - Holiday cancelled / lost deposit

Poptician

My student nurse daughter booked a week in Tenerife using an NHS email address she has to obtain a small discount off the price and paid a £400 deposit.  This email account is not monitored as she doesn’t start as a qualified nurse until October 23.  She’s worked for nothing for the last three years as a student in Covid wards, with the elderly and with the critically ill - all part of the training - whilst racking up student debt for the privilege.  She did bank shifts on the side and saved up for a break to celebrate finishing her degree and clocking up the required 2300 hours on the job training including several 12 hour night shifts.  

She went to pay the final balance and to her horror saw that TUI had cancelled it as she had not paid the final balance by their contractual deadline.  Upset she re-booked the same deal so they have lost nothing but a bit of interest.  She then acknowledged to TUI it was her own fault for not making a note and pleaded with them to give her the deposit back.  They said no - as per the T&Cs.  Wouldn’t even escalate it to a manager for a second opinion when asked.  She had three responses from the different people from their main contact address.  

When she booked it they had her address and mobile number but didn’t try any to warn her what was about to happen although they did send emails to the NHS address.  She also had the TUI app which did not give her any indication of what was about to happen.  

It was a mistake and she was hoping to appeal to their better nature.

Do we have any right of appeal?

HampshireH

If she booked the holiday and gave an email address it is fair for TUI to contact her on it regarding payment.

I've never had a holiday company do anything but email me when booking a holiday.

Most of the first paragraph isn't relevant to her booking the holiday and not monitoring her emails and I don't think it's relevant to any appeal.

She can of course try but she failed to make payment in breach of the terms of the agreement. I doubt they will flex on it

They have various terms and conditions. Has she checked the one she signed up to to ensure they are the same as the reps she spoke to are referring to?

Wonka_2

Poptician said:

It was a mistake and she was hoping to appeal to their better nature.

Do we have any right of appeal?

Unless things have changed in the past months TUI are not renowned for their 'better nature' - in fact quite the opposite.

Given your appeal seems to be emotional rather than contract based my experience is it's unlikely you'll get much success - but good luck

Westin

How late was she paying the balance? You don’t mention.

Poptician

Westin said:

How late was she paying the balance? You don’t mention.

This happened in July.  The holiday is in September.  She had the balance saved and ready.  It was an error on her part and she did breach their contract.  It looks like she’s learnt a tough life lesson.  She’s a skint student and worked hard to raise the money to pay for a holiday.  She’s already conceded defeat. I’m just interested in any new angles I can try on her behalf. 

If anyone’s had any success in similar circumstances I’d be interested to know.

TELLIT01

It's highly unlikely that TUI will change their mind, so I would put it down to experience and move on.  TUI are simply sticking to the contractual terms so are doing nothing wrong.  Whatever the reason, it was your daughter who broke the contract.

twopenny

It's a case that she should have made an alert or checked the email she booked through.

Sadly getting discounts comes with risk and not checking is the price you pay.
For future reference if you book through a shop they used to follow a holiday they hoped to sell and phone with any drop in price. Don't know if they still do that but worth finding out - again a risk that the one you want will be gone.
I had no luck when the sold me an airport hotel that had no transport to it and that was a real person I knew.

What reason can she give them for not seeing the email? Is there a good one?
It was the means she gave to contact her?
Unfortunately deserving, hardworking and poor isn't a defence otherwise we'd all be better off 

She'll never do it again and hopefully she'll feel much better after a good holiday.

NoodleDoodleMan

"This email account is not monitored as she doesn’t start as a qualified nurse until October 23."

There lies the problem.

Nebulous2

It's quite a decent offer from TUI, I've taken advantage of it twice. You need to book with an NHS email address, to evidence that you do work for the NHS, and are entitled to the discount. 

I've never tried, as I check my NHS email address more or less every day, but my recollection is that there is an option to book through the NHS email, and then ask them to change contact details to your private email address after it has been booked. That would prevent information going to an unmonitored email. 

NoodleDoodleMan

Would a TUI store not honour the offer if the person had bona fide NHS ID ?

Nebulous2

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Would a TUI store not honour the offer if the person had bona fide NHS ID ?

I've never tried, but I wouldn't expect them to. The offer has to be booked through a specific link, and is an online offer. 

It's my understanding that holiday companies often have different pricing offers online compared with what they offer in store.