Goodwill Voucher from TUI not worth the paper it's written on

Fedupofrain

I have recently returned from a holiday to Cancun, Mexico and all was well until our return journey where we found ourselves being delayed by 52+ hours.

We boarded our return flight to find that the pilot was having trouble with the aircon and we sat on the plane in extreme heat for over an hour before we were eventually let back into the departure lounge as people were beginning to suffer from heat exposure.  The pilot continued to try and get the plane to respond but to no avail – basically it had a flat battery!  We were offered overnight accommodation but had to queue for 3 hours plus, late in the evening before transport took us to our respective hotels.  We weren’t offered any food or drink vouchers and found ourselves checking in at our hotel at 1am the next day and no food was available there either.  We went to bed hungry.   Of course we had to go through immigration and baggage collection which in itself was a lengthy experience once more.  Our hotel was fine but others had some awful experiences – and they went public to expose online.  Made interesting reading!! TUI apologised online and indicated that everyone would be entitled to the flight delay compensation and would be given a voucher to the value of £200pp as a gesture of goodwill, omitting to say publicly that T&C’s would apply!! 

The next day, info from TUI was sparce but eventually we were collected and taken back to the airport and once more checked in for our flight.  At the departure gate the pilot decided to keep the passengers in the departure lounge to ensure the plane would start, to avoid a repeat of the overheating situation the day before.  As time went by it was apparent that the plane was still experiencing the same issue and he notified us that he would continue working with the plane but eventually told us that this flight was once again, not going ahead.  There was uproar with a lot of passengers as they refused to be put back in the same standard of hotel they had checked into the previous day.  Countless hours later, having been issued with a $10pp voucher for food and drink, we were bussed back to the hotels we booked for our holidays.  Yet again, we had to go through immigration and baggage reclaim. 

We were summoned to a meeting with TUI reps at 9.30am the following day only to find they had no knowledge as to whether our flight was going ahead that evening.  We had set up a Whatsapp flight delay group and discovered other reps at various hotels were equally poorly informed.  Eventually we found that transfer to the airport would take place later and a new plane would be taking us back to Manchester.  At check in we were issued with $20pp voucher for food and drink.  We did take off, but later than scheduled!!  

Of course most of us have recovered expenses and £520pp for the EU261 flight delay compensation payment.  Not the easiest things with TUI…..   And the goodwill voucher is not all it’s cracked up to be due to T&Cs.  This is issued to the lead passenger and cannot be split down to individuals in the original group.  I’ve found this out only because my daughter who was a paying passenger can’t use it for her next trip away and I must travel with her.  This is prejudicing a lot of passengers as not everyone will necessarily travel in the same group going forward.  I’ve complained but no success in reverting the offer to each individual.  

Part copy of email from TUI

“Unfortunately, we are not able to split any Good Will gestures as this is presented in the form of an exclusive code.

As per the Terms & Conditions of the voucher, the named passenger must be travelling on a future booking to redeem this code. As stated previously, this is a gesture of goodwill which is given in addition to any compensation you may have already received.”

I therefore wrote a letter to the CEO in Germany, copied to the Head of Complaints in Luton.  I sent my (proper) letter Special Delivery to Luton, only to find that it had been passed back to my local office for staff to deal with there.  Upper management just don’t care.  

I still await a response from the CEO in Germany!! 

I put a long message on the TUI Facebook Horror Stories & Complaints Awareness Group yesterday only to have it deleted by I assume TUI within 3 minutes of publication!!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

la531983

With the voucher being a goodwill gesture all they need to do here is to pay out the EU compo and cover any expenses you incurred, which it sounds like they have already done.

Ganga

The others can always use the £520 that each person was given to book their next holiday whilst you have a £200 bonus on top of the compo.