HOW TO GET THIS RESOLVED - TUI DOESN'T CARE

eskbanker

PCNagro said:

eskbanker said:

I don't follow TUI's line of argument at all - are they alleging that SunExpress changed your bookings from one flight to another, and that TUI were unaware of this?

Under the Package Travel Regulations, TUI, as package organiser, are responsible for the performance of the package, despite their use of subcontractors, so if there was a change of flight somewhere along the line, TUI would still be responsible for advising you of this and making alternative arrangements if necessary.

Honestly, we have just been going round in circles and nothing they say makes sense. So, I want to escalate this ASAP as they don't want to take an iota of responsibility. I will contact ABTA as suggested, is there anyone else or is it really only ABTA?

Thanks very much.

You'd need to have gone through TUI's complaints process to the point of receiving their final response, and then you can try ABTA, but beyond that your only other option is likely to be court action, unless you paid by credit card, in which case you might be able to make a section 75 claim for breach of contract.

PCNagro

eskbanker said:

PCNagro said:

eskbanker said:

I don't follow TUI's line of argument at all - are they alleging that SunExpress changed your bookings from one flight to another, and that TUI were unaware of this?

Under the Package Travel Regulations, TUI, as package organiser, are responsible for the performance of the package, despite their use of subcontractors, so if there was a change of flight somewhere along the line, TUI would still be responsible for advising you of this and making alternative arrangements if necessary.

Honestly, we have just been going round in circles and nothing they say makes sense. So, I want to escalate this ASAP as they don't want to take an iota of responsibility. I will contact ABTA as suggested, is there anyone else or is it really only ABTA?

Thanks very much.

You'd need to have gone through TUI's complaints process to the point of receiving their final response, and then you can try ABTA, but beyond that your only other option is likely to be court action, unless you paid by credit card, in which case you might be able to make a section 75 claim for breach of contract.

Thanks you very much. I sincerely hope we can get this resolved. We have been left in significant debt and none of it our doing.

la531983

Were you the only people affected by this? 

eskbanker

I'd still suggest that it could be worth spending the time to assemble a cohesive summary of the key points and sharing it on here or the travel board, so that posters can offer informed guidance about potential lines of argument in the context of exactly what TUI are alleging, as it's far from clear thus far.  You'll need to do that when escalating anyway, so rehearsing your challenge via this environment could save you time and/or money later on....

PCNagro

pinkshoes said:

As you booked the entire thing through TUI then they are entirely responsible for the entire holiday plus any amendments made by other parties that they use. 

So if SunExpress changed the flight details, it was up to TUI to inform you of that, and provide an earlier taxi to the airport to catch the earlier flight.

I'm assuming you had pre-printed boarding passes for the later flight?

I'd be sending a LBA to TUI claiming the cost of the alternative flights along with the cost of the taxi in the UK as you had to fly to a different airport. I'd make it clear you mitigated your loss by taking the cheapest flights you could find. 

I'd also contact ABTA and see if they will help. 

What is an LBA please? Thank you.

la531983

PCNagro said:

pinkshoes said:

As you booked the entire thing through TUI then they are entirely responsible for the entire holiday plus any amendments made by other parties that they use. 

So if SunExpress changed the flight details, it was up to TUI to inform you of that, and provide an earlier taxi to the airport to catch the earlier flight.

I'm assuming you had pre-printed boarding passes for the later flight?

I'd be sending a LBA to TUI claiming the cost of the alternative flights along with the cost of the taxi in the UK as you had to fly to a different airport. I'd make it clear you mitigated your loss by taking the cheapest flights you could find. 

I'd also contact ABTA and see if they will help. 

What is an LBA please? Thank you.

Letter Before Action. Basically giving them 30 days to cough up before filing court papers.

PCNagro

la531983 said:

Were you the only people affected by this? 

I am not sure to be honest, but that is a very good question. There were other people in the airport we came across who were also stranded but I didn't ask if they had booked with TUI. We were honestly so distressed and our daughter was getting restless so all we could think about was how to get home!

PCNagro

eskbanker said:

I'd still suggest that it could be worth spending the time to assemble a cohesive summary of the key points and sharing it on here or the travel board, so that posters can offer informed guidance about potential lines of argument in the context of exactly what TUI are alleging, as it's far from clear thus far.  You'll need to do that when escalating anyway, so rehearsing your challenge via this environment could save you time and/or money later on....

Thanks for this. Hopefully the following will suffice. If not, please let me know what is missing and I will try to elaborate.

Key points are:

- Booked a package holiday to Turkey for 3 via TUI. When you are booking a package holiday the website will offer you several flight options and you chose the one that is best for you. It chose the cheapest outbound flight for us which was at 9am which it always does. However, as we have a young child we decided to select a later one in the day which meant we didn't have to get up at 4am and travel to the airport so early. We had printed confirmation of this which was presented to the man at the customer services desk for the airline carrier SunExpress. You are able to make amendments up to a certain point before departure (I can't remember how long before, but we did this well before the time was up - in any case, it won't let you make a change after this time has passed). TUI also changed our coach transfers to a later one in the day as we now had a later flight). We had no problems boarding the later coach and our names were on the list for that coach.

- However, upon arrival we were told that our flight had already departed which we couldn't understand as we had confirmation to show we were on the later flight. SunExpress told us they couldn't put us on that flight even if they wanted to as it was fully booked (so perhaps they had double booked us?!). The man behind the desk was unbelievably hostile and couldn't care less that we had proof an error had been made. He just told us to go home to the UK and make a complaint. No regard whatsoever for how we would actually get there! TUI advised the same (thankfully the man at that desk was friendly, but again told us there was nothing he could do).

- We scrambled around the airport to try and find an airline who had seats available, but all were extortionate. So, we went online (had no internet access so was a nightmare trying to use airport's free wifi) and eventually found flights back to the Midlands 11 hours later. We always had the intention of making a claim so tried to keep the costs down as we didn't want to be accused of 'purposely selecting expensive flights'. After an exhausting return journey we then spent another hour trying to get a taxi to pick us up and eventually got home the following day - so all in all 19 hours to get home.

Hope this is comprehensive summary, however, as I say, please let me know if I have neglected to mention anything.

eskbanker

PCNagro said:
- Booked a package holiday to Turkey for 3 via TUI. When you are booking a package holiday the website will offer you several flight options and you chose the one that is best for you. It chose the cheapest outbound flight for us which was at 9am which it always does. However, as we have a young child we decided to select a later one in the day which meant we didn't have to get up at 4am and travel to the airport so early. We had printed confirmation of this which was presented to the man at the customer services desk for the airline carrier SunExpress. You are able to make amendments up to a certain point before departure (I can't remember how long before, but we did this well before the time was up - in any case, it won't let you make a change after this time has passed). TUI also changed our coach transfers to a later one in the day as we now had a later flight). We had no problems boarding the later coach and our names were on the list for that coach.

Does your reference to amendments mean that you originally selected the earlier flight when initially booking the holiday, but subsequently amended the booking to go on the later flight instead?  If so, did you do that via TUI's website (or call centre) or that of the airline?  What revised documentation (confirmations, tickets, etc) was issued, and by whom?

Is TUI effectively claiming that they made all the right bookings for you but blaming the airline for not honouring them?

MeteredOut

eskbanker said:

PCNagro said:
- Booked a package holiday to Turkey for 3 via TUI. When you are booking a package holiday the website will offer you several flight options and you chose the one that is best for you. It chose the cheapest outbound flight for us which was at 9am which it always does. However, as we have a young child we decided to select a later one in the day which meant we didn't have to get up at 4am and travel to the airport so early. We had printed confirmation of this which was presented to the man at the customer services desk for the airline carrier SunExpress. You are able to make amendments up to a certain point before departure (I can't remember how long before, but we did this well before the time was up - in any case, it won't let you make a change after this time has passed). TUI also changed our coach transfers to a later one in the day as we now had a later flight). We had no problems boarding the later coach and our names were on the list for that coach.

Does your reference to amendments mean that you originally selected the earlier flight when initially booking the holiday, but subsequently amended the booking to go on the later flight instead?  If so, did you do that via TUI's website (or call centre) or that of the airline?  What revised documentation (confirmations, tickets, etc) was issued, and by whom?

Is TUI effectively claiming that they made all the right bookings for you but blaming the airline for not honouring them?

This is the crux of the matter IMO. If you originally booked the earlier flight, and then later changed it to the later flight (that's how I'm interpreting the posts so far), then what documentation do you have on both you requesting the change, and the confirmation from TUI/SunExpress that the change has been made? Was the request made to TUI or SunExpress?

You said above "We had printed confirmation of this" which you presented to the SunExpress representative at the airport. What was this document and who issued it?

Was there a charge for this change and, if so, do you have a record of paying that?

The fact that TUI changed your coach transfer to the airport for one that let you get the later flight indicates they were aware of the change, but that's assuming they did that with no prompting from yourselves (eg, via the TUI rep at the airport or resort).