Tui won’t allow us to alter/change/amend/postpone our flights. Advice on my rights please

FrankFalcon

Hi all

I am looking for advice on what to do next in a complicated situation. So, we are a family who have booked flights to go to Florida at the end of July. We booked the flights and paid by Credit card about 4 weeks ago. Our intention was to take the flights with Tui and book a villa ourselves on AirBnB. 

For clarification our travelling party is as follows: Names changed for privacy reasons. 

1. Father (Joe Bloggs) aged 55
2. Mother (Mrs Bloggs) aged 50
3. Fathers son from 1st Marriage (Surname is Bloggs) aged 26
4. Mothers Daughter from 1st marriage (Surname is obviously different from Mum because mum is married to Joe Bloggs) Aged 27 
5. Mother’s Son from 1st marriage (as above, surname -same as his sister- is different from his mum because she married Joe Bloggs). Age 25

6. Daughters Boyfriend. Totally different surname. Aged 26

So…We don’t want to take the trip now because father has recently been diagnosed with a Rhuematalogical  medical condition that causes severe pain in the joints. The treatment for this was only set in place by a consultant 3 weeks ago… but… whilst the treatment is being designed husband suffers severe painful attacks that can only be resolved by a steroid injection at hospital every 3 weeks. Therefore, husband is very anxious and simply doesn’t want to go because it is certain that he will have an attack whilst we are in Florida.  Also, sitting in a plane seat for so long will be painful.  So, we asked Tui what our options are but they offered nothing. We can’t alter, change, amend the flights whatsoever. That’s going to be over £5K down the drain because mother won’t travel without father and the children (even though they are all over 21) don’t want to go if mum and dad are not going. Everything I have said about the medical stuff is 100% true and I think we will have no problem getting a doctors note for Father. But…what about Mother and kids? They are not ill? They can still travel but none of the party don’t want to travel without Father. 

Any advice please?

p00hsticks

That sounds like an issue for your travel insurance rather than the airline, although (assuming you have it in place) some of the members of the party who are not closely related / not ill themselves may find that they are not covered for this situation. 

Hoenir

The situation isn't complicated. If you chose a non refundable / transferrable flight option then there's little you can do. Presumably your father's condition didn't suddenly materialise 3 weeks ago. Yet the flights were only booked one week prior to the diagnosis. 

la531983

You would need to make a travel insurance claim then, TUI have done nothing wrong. How many people this covers would depend on the policy.

10.1 of their Conditions of Carriage do state flight only bookings are non refundable:

https://www.tui.co.uk/destinations/info/flight-conditions-of-carriage

HampshireH

Also totally understand mum and dad not wanting to go. But there isn't really any reason why the rest can't go. Ultimately choosing to lose 5k rather the mum and dads portion.

As above it seems unusual such a life altering diagnosis wouldnt have been apparent 1 week prior when booking. 

Definitely and insurance issues BUT if they didn't disclose the issue when taking it out then may also not be covered. Depending on the policy of course.

Ayr_Rage

@FrankFalcon you need to look carefully at the Ts and Cs of both Tui and your insurer.

I expect any travel insurance will exclude Joe Bloggs' claim as his type of condition will have probably been undergoing investigation for some time prior to diagnosis and a treatment plan being put in place UNLESS that was declared and the condition covered.

Even if they were covered it will not cover cancellation for all travellers.

Voyager2002

I think you should enjoy the holiday...

Father can pay extra for a comfortable seat. Florida is not really all that far away: the flight is just long enough to watch a feature film and eat a couple of meals. And since the injection to control the pain lasts for three weeks, he can have one just before leaving and will be OK for the holiday.

DullGreyGuy

This is what your travel insurance is for, assuming the doctor agrees that he cannot fly/travel and it either wasnt pre-existing or was pre-existing and was correctly declared then it won't be an issue on the group policy. 

As someone with arthritis what's the treatment plan being "designed"? Thankfully mine is just in upper limbs so far and so not as badly impacted by sitting for a long period but short term and long term treatments (prescription pain killers and intra-joint steroid injections) are both highly effective after a few weeks.

What is "Fathers" view? Maybe he thinks "Mother" should go with the kids and he'd be happy to have a different type of holiday without them 

Mands

Voyager2002 said:

I think you should enjoy the holiday...

Father can pay extra for a comfortable seat. Florida is not really all that far away: the flight is just long enough to watch a feature film and eat a couple of meals. And since the injection to control the pain lasts for three weeks, he can have one just before leaving and will be OK for the holiday.

... but only if you already have valid insurance in place. 

FrankFalcon

Thank you all for your comments.  I take on board everything you have all said.  I am not saying Tui have done anything wrong etc.  The dates here are just unfortunate.

Father had ongoing medical problems since Christmas THAT WERE NOT DIAGNOSED BY THE SPECIALIST UNTIL 1st May 2024 as inflammatory arthritis.  This is a very painful problem.  On 1st May the doctors letter states that there will be a plan of treatment going forward.

Mother booked and paid for flights on 1st Feb by Credit Card.

On 1st Feb we didn't know what the diagnosis to the severe pains was so there was no way we could have declared it to the insurer.

We have insurance in place that is tied to a bank account.

DullGreyGuy...You got it spot on...The injections are required every 3 weeks and are those intra-joint steroid injections...But, as you will know, you can't just top up like a tablet etc.  I have to wait at least 3 weeks whether the pain is level 1 or level 10.  It wouldn't be much fun on holiday with said pains with no way of getting another injection until we arrived home.  These injections are not available over the counter.

FrankFalcon

Just discovered that I have another insurance policy that goes direct debit from my bank but crucially the dates here are very imprtant.
Flights booked: 1st Feb
Medical Diagnosis: 1st May
Insurance Policy runs out on: 6th June
Insurance Policy auto renews on 7th June
Today is 10th June
So, if I was to try and claim on this particular insurance, would I claim on the one that has now expired 4 days ago? Can you claim on an expired policy 4 days ago?
Do I try to claim on this new policy, that I obviously haven't declared the condition because this auto renewed itself.