Last Minute.com canecelation fees

MrGuitarTeacher.com

Hi to all here.
Booked a holiday with lastminute.com in July for late October in Greece. Greece then went up in flames poor things.  We are not well travelled and asked to cancel. With no advice or warning they took from my account a total of £1170 saying that it was the flight fees and my holiday was cancelled. In their terms and conditions it states that they can take up to 100% of the flight costs. I paid extra for holiday cancelation insurance but was told that that was only for the hotels not the flights.
Of course I read the T's & C's but did not realise that 'up to' meant 'all' and more than 90 days notice meant nothing. I thought my insurance covers me in case of illness or binding factors meant that I could not go.
I also feel very strongly that if those seats were resold, that that should mean a refund but to date I am receiving no replies to my regularly sent enquiries that have all reference details on.

How can anyone book a holiday next year. in the knowledge that you will lose 50% of the total holiday price if for any reason you cancel, without a crystal ball.

Caveat emptor! Once bitten twice shy. Book the day before methinks.

Do I have any rights to compensation or am I just stupid and stuffed? Thanks Last Minute .com for making me feel the later. Good job.

elsien

Holiday insurance won’t cover you because this is effectively a change of mind unless there was government advice not to travel.
Flights booked through third-parties do tend to be non-refundable - those booked directly often are as well.
Because you did book via loveholidays and any contact has to be through them,  you can’t approach the airline directly so you will be bound by your booking terms and conditions I think.

eskbanker

MrGuitarTeacher.com said:

Booked a holiday with lastminute.com in July for late October in Greece. Greece then went up in flames poor things.  We are not well travelled and asked to cancel. 

[...]

How can anyone book a holiday next year. in the knowledge that you will lose 50% of the total holiday price if for any reason you cancel, without a crystal ball.

Caveat emptor! Once bitten twice shy. Book the day before methinks.

No need to leave it late to book, but for future reference, don't rush to cancel unilaterally in such circumstances.  You don't say exactly when you did so, although mention 90 days notice, but the best thing to do if in the same situation again is to leave your booking as is - if travel to the area isn't viable for any reason then the holiday will be cancelled by the provider with a full refund back to you, or they'll suggest alternatives.

Neither the travel company nor the insurer will reimburse you if you cancel "for any reason", the circumstances under which you do so will be tightly defined, but disinclination to travel won't result in refunds....

TELLIT01

If you could prove that the flight was full you may have a basis for trying to get money back.  However, it's unlikely that a flight from the UK to Greece in late October would be anywhere near full.

Pollycat

MrGuitarTeacher.com said:

How can anyone book a holiday next year. in the knowledge that you will lose 50% of the total holiday price if for any reason you cancel, without a crystal ball.

Easily.

Book with a company such as TUI or Jet2.
Their cancellation terms are very different.

If you had booked with Jet2 and cancelled more than 70 days before departure, you'd have only lost your deposit:
Frequently asked questions | Jet2holidays

Period before departure within which notice of cancellation is received	% of total booking price retained by Jet2holidays
70+ days	Loss of deposit
69-57 days	30%
56-43 days	50%
42-29 days	70%
28-15 days	90%
14 days or less	100%

Westin

Shame that in July you took the decision to cancel your holiday stay in October.  
Tourist returned to Rhodes, Corfu and mainland Greece fairly quickly after the initial reported fires in July.
No need to cancel, but no recourse if you did. Certainly no Comp as you ask.
The flight element and even possibly the hotel as well would have been likely non-refundable in these cobbled together ‘packages’ made by Lastminute and many of these online travel sellers.

MrGuitarTeacher.com

Thank you so much everyone above for taking the time to respond.
 
Eskbanker! "if travel to the area isn't viable for any reason then the holiday will be cancelled by the provider with a full refund back to you, or they'll suggest alternatives."
When I cancelled, the airlines were still dropping people off at the airport whilst the fire approached. I was frankly disgusted at this. People got off the plane and were evacuated to the beach side with no flights to take them out.

Pollycat. I did exactly that and went with Jet 2 to Fuertaventura. It was the best holiday I and my wife have ever had. H10 Hotels. Highly recommended. 

Tellit01.  Lastminute are just ignoring me. They have removed the booking from the app and will not reply the emails. Chatbots to a person result in stonewalling.

Westin. I would struggle with going to a recent virtual disaster area to have a good time. My wife and I have decided that we want to support the Greeks and are looking at holidays there for next year but we would not expect hospitality from people who might need time to grieve and come to terms with losses which touched most I think. My heart goes out to everyone affected by that disaster.  

Because of Lastminutes' horrible attitude and terms and conditions I will not be using them again ever and I would highly recommend the same to others. Because of Jet2's fair and reasonable terms and conditions and their brilliant holiday (they were there for everything every step of the way) I will be booking a luxury holiday twice a year with them from now on.

Best of luck with that business model Lastminute........not.

eskbanker

MrGuitarTeacher.com said:

Eskbanker! "if travel to the area isn't viable for any reason then the holiday will be cancelled by the provider with a full refund back to you, or they'll suggest alternatives."
When I cancelled, the airlines were still dropping people off at the airport whilst the fire approached. I was frankly disgusted at this. People got off the plane and were evacuated to the beach side with no flights to take them out.

Up to you if you want to get all emotive about it, but the fact remains that if such a situation applied at the time you were due to travel then you'd have been entitled to cancel for a full refund even if the provider hadn't done so, under article 12 of the Package Travel Regulations, but by prematurely cancelling months in advance you've thrown away a four figure sum.

MrGuitarTeacher.com said:

Because of Lastminutes' horrible attitude and terms and conditions I will not be using them again ever and I would highly recommend the same to others.

[...]

Best of luck with that business model Lastminute........not.

Harsh to blame Lastminute for your failure to understand the terms you were signing up to, but you'll find much the same with all cheap bucket shop intermediaries if you choose to deal with them rather than buying direct from actual holiday companies like Jet2 or Tui.

MrGuitarTeacher.com

Thanks for your reply Eskbanker.
I do find your tone a little bit critical of me and I am left with more of the feeling that a fool and their money are easily parted. I know nothing of cheap bucket shop intermediaries and look to sites like this to find these things out.
For your information I understood perfectly well the terms and conditions. It says that "up to" 100% of your flight fees "can" be charged. If litigation were possible and money not an issue a reasonable challenge would be Misleading. Actuality would 100% of flight fees "will be charged" and that should not be buried in small print.
Thanks for you input but easy on the judgment if you please  

MrGuitarTeacher.com

Thanks everyone.
I am signing off of this thread now. Thanks again for all your help.

eskbanker

MrGuitarTeacher.com said:

Thanks for your reply Eskbanker.
I do find your tone a little bit critical of me and I am left with more of the feeling that a fool and their money are easily parted. I know nothing of cheap bucket shop intermediaries and look to sites like this to find these things out.
For your information I understood perfectly well the terms and conditions. It says that "up to" 100% of your flight fees "can" be charged. If litigation were possible and money not an issue a reasonable challenge would be Misleading. Actuality would 100% of flight fees "will be charged" and that should not be buried in small print.
Thanks for you input but easy on the judgment if you please  

I understand that you don't appreciate hearing it but the evidently uncomfortable truth is that your financial loss was self-inflicted, so I was just trying to highlight (both for your future benefit and that of others who may come across this thread) how the situation could/should have been handled better - this is a money saving site after all!

Having said that, those looking to save money by using the many online travel agents need to be aware that such providers do tend to have less consumer-friendly terms to compensate for the low headline prices.

In terms of 'up to 100% of your flight fees can be charged', you're perhaps not recognising that some flight tickets will be more refundable (by the airline) than others, so, even though they've charged you the full fare, that doesn't mean this would be the case for all flights, and hence the "up to 100%" qualification.

You did originally ask the question "Do I have any rights to compensation or am I just stupid and stuffed?" but I certainly didn't use words like that in giving the honest answer, unwelcome though that answer clearly is!