*updated* any way or reclaiming cost of pre booked flight seats when holiday cancelled?

soolin

I suspect I am wasting a post here but I thought I'd check just in case. Short story (full rant below for those interested) I booked a Tui full guided tour back in February to depart this September, a tour I have been wanting to do for a while. At the time of booking I upgraded my flight times through Tui, added extras on, again through Tui and that all shows on my final bill but booking seats on the flight was offered but via a link to the easyjet site. After paying (and it is now all paid in full) I was given instructions how to log into easyjet to book and pay for my preferred seats. This had to be done through my Tui booking number, I was specifically told NOT to log in via my own easyjet account.

Fast forward to yesterday when they phoned to say the tour was cancelled due to insufficient numbers . I was given the option of a switch to the October dates, a change of holiday (with a small percentage of any difference in increased price) or a full refund. I am currently thinking about it but am leaning towards a full refund.

My question is that they won't cover the cost of my booked seats on easyjet as I paid easyjet - and I wondered if there was anything at all I could do to try and get a refund on those- knowing already the answer is no. The seat costs were less than my insurance excess, so not worth claiming.

full rant-

In March friends phoned to book the same holiday to accompany us to be told it was fully booked.

 I have so far been given the October dates for the next tour 4 times, with there being 2 different dates 2 days apart on the emails- which is concerning me if they don't know exactly what I'm being switched to. At the time of booking the September holiday was several hundred pounds dearer than the October dates- but apparently prices have now gone up so they are co incidentally going to be exactly the same as I paid for September. 

I've been told verbally that the upgraded flight time will be honoured (that cost extra) however they wouldn't be able to absolutely confirm that until I agree to switch.

I'm just pleased that we have annual insurance. Due to a major health concern with my OH increasing our insurance costs considerably we did very briefly toy with the idea of taking out a single trip insurance on this , but opted to take the annual as it wasn't even double the amount and after treatment would should be able to look to start holidaying again in a few months. I would be exceedingly angry to have paid several hundred pounds only to have lost that as well and be faced with paying again if we decide to switch to October. 

Holidays seem to be a very unfair contract, if we had tried to cancel with just over a month to go we would have forfeited a considerable amount of money, yet the holiday companies can cancel at will as long as they refund us.

TELLIT01

Have you asked Easyjet?  I suspect you will just be bounced back and forth, but there's nothing to be lost by trying.  I don't know what the cost of booked seats is, but there may be an admin charge which would wipe out the refund!

soolin

Actually I've just had a result and thought I would come back and update. After a lot of deliberation and accepting that we can't arrange this trip ourselves and if we book for next year, or with a different company I will lose a huge discount I got through my freelance work- we decided to accept the revised dates.

Spent an hour on the phone and the agent said she could see we had booked seats, and would contact easyjet to rebook those seats for us, at no additional cost to ourselves. We couldn't get the exact seats, but we have seats we are happy with which cost the same , and with no additional payment to be made . I think Tui did well to sort that out without me having to even ask more than once.  

Emily_Joy

I don't mean to be nosey but I am curious to know the location of the holiday that apparently cannot be arranged without TUI and is served by Easyjet.

soolin

Emily_Joy said:

I don't mean to be nosey but I am curious to know the location of the holiday that apparently cannot be arranged without TUI and is served by Easyjet.

It's nothing exotic, just a guided tour of a historical nature with all the transport and guides arranged - multi centre. It would be perfectly possible to do it without Tui. I could self drive and arrange tickets and guides myself, but this was a ready made fully escorted tour that suited me exactly.. There are even other companies that do it, but at a much higher cost and I would lose my considerable discount as well. The easyjet flights are just to get us to there, I find Tui use Easyjet a lot, we go away with them in the winter to the Canaries and prefer to use the included easyjet flight option .

Our holidays have always been a mix of packages and self arranged, we go away quite a lot and choose the options that suit us best- so for a straight forward holiday we would usually just book flights, transfers and hotels ourselves, but for something like this we book a package.

TELLIT01

TUI seem to use Easyjet and Ryanair a lot.  I was surprised to discover that so I would need to check very carefully who the actual operator was before booking with TUI now.  No problem with Easyjet but wouldn't fly with Ryanair if you paid me.

soolin

TELLIT01 said:

TUI seem to use Easyjet and Ryanair a lot.  I was surprised to discover that so I would need to check very carefully who the actual operator was before booking with TUI now.  No problem with Easyjet but wouldn't fly with Ryanair if you paid me.

Same here, I do one holiday a year regularly and the only airline I can use is Ryanair, and I always hope someone else will pick up the route!