TUI Cancellation Fee

Rhondda_Rebel

In October 2023 I booked a Marella cruise for March 2025.  I paid £300 deposit at the time of booking.  Sadly due to change of personal circumstances I cancelled the holiday this week. TUI agent informed me that an administration/termination fee of £600 would be deducted from my refund.  TUI T & C state that loss of deposit will be incurred and I have argued with TUI that as I paid a £300 deposit at time of booking this is all I should loose.  However they say that I paid a further deposit in December 2023 and I will loose £300 per person.

I have done a little research today and understand a travel companies cancellation/administration fee should be "reasonable and justifiable".  Given that I have cancelled over a year before I was due to travel am I right in thinking that a fee of £600 is certainly not reasonable or justifiable ?

I had not taken out travel insurance as I was advised it could only be obtained 1 year prior to travelling.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Pollycat

The full deposit is £300 pp.
It sounds like you paid a low deposit of £150 pp and the remainder of the deposit was due in December 2023.

TUI are keeping the full deposit upon cancellation as per their T&Cs.

Browntoa

As above , it's correct 

la531983

Ah the "low deposit" scheme. Amazing how many people dont read the terms.

TELLIT01

'Low Deposit' schemes aren't always what they seem.  Some companies have a genuine low deposit option where there is nothing more due until final payment.  Others, like TUI, use it to encourage people to book but still require the full deposit to be paid even if the holiday is cancelled before the remainder of the deposit is due to be paid.

NoodleDoodleMan

As above - the TUI low deposit scheme is an attractive "carrot" to persuade punters to make a booking whenever they are looking at a specific holiday in a store or online.

The key aspect, which many (perhaps most ?) customers didn't realise at the time of booking is that it is only a partial advance payment of the appropriate full deposit and the full deposit will be the required amount when due.

Last time I made a TUI reservation in our local store (since closed) this was clearly explained to me upfront  - I suspect the company was experiencing numerous complaints on this issue and had instructed all branch staff to fully clarify.