reasonable adjustments ? flight cancelled

swingaloo

No disrespect meant here but you do have 9 months in which to prepare your daughter for the change. You say you only go to the same hotel but what would happen should the hotel close or have some sort of issue when you arrive meaning you would need to move. Equally you could have a flight booked and then find you have a 5 hour delay. Its not realistic to assume nothing will change;
It really is impossible to rely on everything being exactly the same when booking a holiday abroad and its very risky to do so knowing you cannot cope with any kind of changes. 

What would you actually like the company to do?

Keep_pedalling

I am pretty confident the holiday company has not done anything unlawful in what they have offered you. In the event they cannot meet your families needs any longer their only other option is to offer full refund. 

eskbanker

mrsshadow said:

Lastly, we could move the dates to keep the small airport and same hotel, but we’d lose the free child place and pay thousands more, which is unreasonable.

Does this imply that you'd be happy to accept a change of dates if they honoured the original price of the booking?

If so, I can see why you'd consider that reasonable, but in itself that doesn't mean the company is unreasonable to refuse - much will depend on the company you're dealing with, in that if you've booked with a full-service package provider (the likes of Tui or Jet2, for example), then they ought to have some leeway, especially to retain the free child place, and if your booking is for August then I'd have thought it should be possible to find alternative dates at a price that's no worse than you were starting with.

However, if the package has been booked through one of the online travel agents (the likes of Loveholidays, Onthebeach, etc) then they're not renowned for their flexibility, especially when their pared-back deals with suppliers have little room for manoeuvre.

Having said that, any type of organisation selling packages has to abide by the Package Travel Regulations, and obviously all are required to comply with the law....

mrsshadow

So it’s a package holiday and yes we wouldn’t consider Gatwick due to her risk of running off and getting dis regulated. We would move dates yet they say we can’t because we would lose the free place offer. And then have to pay the full week of the child’s place ontop. 

In regard to change arising we would have to cope with that at the time, yet 10 months away is time for the package company to make reasonable adjustments in line with the equality act. 

Yet they are not considering any alternative or adjustments to the normal protocol of options and this is wrong under the equality act area that covers disability. 

In regard to what we want or need, any individual that understands having a child with a challenging disability will understand that standard procedures do not cut it lawfully and this is why we have discrimination laws. 

I get the offering sounds all good but this is not reasonable for a child such as ours. 

elsien

I think you are misunderstanding the scope of the equality act in these circumstances.
They don’t have to offer you something that is not available, and the holiday you want on a different date but a similar price is not available.
And while I do understand the difficulties of having a child who gets dysregulated very easily, it’s not logical to say you would have to cope with change if it happened but you can’t cope with it with eight months planning.

Ayr_Rage

I can see nothing unlawful in the offered alternatives.

user1977

I join the chorus in saying there is nothing unreasonable about the options offered. But it seems the OP isn’t interested in the advice they’re getting here.

mrsshadow

No I am interested. thank you all 

bagand96

Is there nothing available with other operators from the smaller airport?  Where you could cancel with the existing operator and re-book? Unfortunately this can be a peril of using smaller airports, less choice and flexibility.

elsien

I’m not sure you’ve said, is it directly with a proper tour operator or is it via a third-party such as love holidays? As someone already said, that will make a difference to how far you are likely to get with them if you keep pushing.
Tell us who it is and we might be able to find alternative contact details.