Tui over booked our flight (and lied) and we had to pay extra money

HarryAndTori

Hello!

Has anyone had any experience with this situation?

Tui told us our flight was cancelled and initially gave us an option of flying from a different airport. We explained why we couldn't. They then gave the option of travelling a week later (it was out honeymoon and we had AL booked so not an option!) or flying with a different airline from the same airport.
We of course picked the different airline and flight times were very similar.

We ended up paying an additional £158 for the flight, plus money to get seats near each other on the very last minute flight, totaling £227.17.
We had already reserved and paid for seats there and back with Tui and paid to upgrade one of our suitcase weight allowances.
As an "incentive" Tui paid 10% of our holiday total towards the new flight. They refuse to acknowledge that "incentive" implies we agreed to change our flights and benefitted from this. We didn't! 

Our original flight was absolutely not cancelled. We saw the same flight times and flight number on the departures boards on the way there and back. 

Tui have offered us a £150 voucher. This doesn't cover what we paid for the other flight and we don't intend to travel with Tui again so would be useless! 

Any advise on how we escalate this and what our rights are?

Overall we've paid £360 for the more expensive flights, the seat reservations with the new airline (we could sit near each other on the way back but not together), the amount we paid to Tui for seat reservations and the amount we paid for our baggage allowance increase. 

I'm pretty furious with Tui for their lack of care regarding any of this and that they think this is acceptable after we've booked a package holiday with them.

Thank you!

eskbanker

Just to be clear, this was a package booked with TUI, and everything was arranged through the holiday company rather than the airline, i.e. you didn't pay extras for seating and baggage directly to the airline?  Even if both are branded TUI, that doesn't mean that they have the same responsibilities.

Was overbooking actually mentioned, or is that supposition?  It may be that one type of aircraft had to be substituted by a smaller one, for example - what were the flights involved, i.e. flight numbers and dates?

On the face of it, you haven't been treated well though, so you probably will have a case against them, but it'll be important to get the details right - you mention "the seat reservations with the new airline (we could sit near each other on the way back but not together) [and] the amount we paid to Tui for seat reservations" but they wouldn't be obliged to refund both?

saajan_12

What was discussed prior to the flight? If they were offering a different airline at a similar time, then what did they say about paying for it? With a normal flight booking, I would have thought the airline is responsible for a reasonable rerouting, ie you get to go on the airline at no cost to you in this case. I'm not sure how this changes regarding the seats and if it changes when you booked as a package. 

Westin

The flight still listed on the airport departure screen can’t be taken as gospel that the flight actually operated.

If you post the flight number/route/date, someone with a subscription to one of the flight checking websites might be able to tell you if the flight operated or not.

bagand96

eskbanker said:

Was overbooking actually mentioned, or is that supposition?  It may be that one type of aircraft had to be substituted by a smaller one, for example - what were the flights involved, i.e. flight numbers and dates?

I agree it's far more likely that some sort of aircraft swap occurred rather than an overbooking.

This needs to be looked at in the context of the Package Travel Arrangements Regulations, TUI T&C's and potentially EC261 regulations (although I'm uncertain exactly how they interact with the PTRs)

When you say TUI offered a different airport, and a different date, did they also offer a refund? From Terms and Conditions (tui.co.uk)

If We Change Your Holiday

We aim to give you what we promise but, as we plan our holidays a long time in advance, sometimes things can change. We can make a change at any time but will let you know before your holiday if there’s time.

Flight times given are for guidance only – your actual times will be shown on your e-ticket. Check that carefully when you receive it. Aircraft type can change and some facilities such as entertainment or advertised seat pitch may not be available. If we can’t provide a seat option, we’ll refund the price you paid for that option.

Occasionally, we may have to make a major change to your holiday such as a change of destination, a downgrade of your accommodation by one full star rating, a change in flight time by more than 12 hours or a change of UK departure airport. A change in flight time that we need to make within 24 hours before you are due to fly is not a major change unless the time changes by more than 24 hours.

If we tell you about a major change after you book your holiday, you can accept the new arrangements offered by us; or accept a replacement holiday from us of the same or similar standard and price at the date of the change (we’ll always refund the difference in price if the replacement holiday is a lower price at the date of the change), if we are able to offer you one; or cancel your holiday with us and receive a full refund.

So they offered a change of airport, a replacement holiday (week later), at that point did they offer a refund?  At what point did the alternative airline come into it?  I'm wondering if having offered the alternative airport/date which weren't acceptable, the next step would have been cancellation for a full refund..... but to save your honeymoon did someone at TUI come up with booking the other airline?

They wouldn't normally do this if it's not an airline they have an agreement with, and by their T&Cs they wouldn't have to.  Perhaps knowing it was honeymoon they tried to help out, and offered you 10% of the cost of your holiday as a contribution toward the replacement flights?  

If it was a flight only booking then under EC261 you'd be entitled to the alternative flight at no cost to you and would be able to claim the refund of your costs.  I'm not sure exactly how this interfaces with the PTRs though when on a  package booking.  Especially as it seems you've come to an arrangement with TUI already (10%).  You could try putting in an EC261 claim to TUI Airways, not sure it'd be succesful though.

HarryAndTori

eskbanker said:

Just to be clear, this was a package booked with TUI, and everything was arranged through the holiday company rather than the airline, i.e. you didn't pay extras for seating and baggage directly to the airline?  Even if both are branded TUI, that doesn't mean that they have the same responsibilities.

Was overbooking actually mentioned, or is that supposition?  It may be that one type of aircraft had to be substituted by a smaller one, for example - what were the flights involved, i.e. flight numbers and dates?

On the face of it, you haven't been treated well though, so you probably will have a case against them, but it'll be important to get the details right - you mention "the seat reservations with the new airline (we could sit near each other on the way back but not together) [and] the amount we paid to Tui for seat reservations" but they wouldn't be obliged to refund both?

Hi,

To answer questions!
The phone call briefly mentioned over booking, then when we complained about this suddenly said said flight was cancelled and not going at all. We have also subscribed to a flight tracking thing that shows that our original flight definitely left and returned. 
Phone calls since have acknowledged it was over booked, but won't acknowledge that we were lied to when they claimed the flight was no longer going. 

We were never offered a complete cancellation. The complaints woman was surprised by this (not that we'd have agreed to this anyway.) 
The flight from the same airport on the same day was very much the final solution that they were avoiding giving us. We obviously are relieved it was an option, but very annoyed we've paid over £200 extra (additional flight cost + new seat reservation cost) 

They did at this point mention the 10% incentive so we knew it was very likely we'd end up paying more. Although honestly, the day we had returned from our wedding, 3 days prior to our once in a lifetime honeymoon, it didn't feel like any sort of choice. 

It was a complete package holiday with Tui. Flights, hotel and transfers booked via their website. 

Tui have come back to us offering a £200 voucher. A voucher is completely useless! It doesn't put the cash back in our account and it forces us to spend more money with Tui!
I think I'd drop it if they simply offered us a cash refund. A voucher is infuriating.

I hope this answers all questions. 
Thanks, everyone

eskbanker

It does all sound messy but the bottom line is that a package provider is obliged under the Package Travel Regulations to offer passengers the choice of a refund (even if that wasn't actually what you wanted) if forced to make a significant change or if the price increases by more than 8%:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/634/regulation/11

I'm not sure that they were legally obliged to offer replacement flights at no extra cost if your flight booking was effectively cancelled by the airline (have you seen any evidence of this?), but I think they'd struggle to argue that flying on the same route on the same dates was an upgrade worthy of additional cost, so would have expected them to absorb any such cost.

If you definitely had a confirmed booking with the airline then you may be able to claim compensation under the denied boarding provisions of the UK261 regulations:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/261/article/4

saajan_12

Does this mean booking as a package isn't necessarily better than booking the components separately, + buying insurance? If the OP had booked the flights directly, they would have been entitled to a reasonable rerouting if thats what they chose. The rerouting would be the other airline on the same day, at the first airline's cost if the first airline only had a flight a week later. Plus potentially the UK261 compensation depending on the cause. 

I know there's other benefits of packages, but its perhaps not the slam dunk, and more like swings and roundabouts. 

eskbanker

saajan_12 said:

Does this mean booking as a package isn't necessarily better than booking the components separately, + buying insurance? If the OP had booked the flights directly, they would have been entitled to a reasonable rerouting if thats what they chose. The rerouting would be the other airline on the same day, at the first airline's cost if the first airline only had a flight a week later. Plus potentially the UK261 compensation depending on the cause. 

I know there's other benefits of packages, but its perhaps not the slam dunk, and more like swings and roundabouts. 

The rights available for packages covered by the PTRs are over and above those granted under the UK261 flight regulations, so, as above, if OP definitely had a confirmed booking with the airline and was denied boarding on a flight which went ahead, then they should have UK261 rights as well as the potential to pursue the package organiser.  However, the involvement of the intermediary, and the associated inconsistent messaging, does have the potential to cause confusion and make it harder to establish the facts....