TUI refusing to pay our travel costs from LGW to Manchester

Bazzjazz

We were due to fly back from Kenya with Etihad via Abu Dhabi on 6th March, this was a package holiday with TUI. Obviously those flights were cancelled. Tui managed to get us an alternative flight which got us to LGW on 11th March. All good. However, they told us to make our own way back to Manchester and reclaim the cost, but they've now refused to pay up and have referred us to our Insurers and Etihad. I've looked at our insurance policy and can't see how they will cover the additional costs, and I can't see that Etihad would be interested as we booked via TUI.

Any advice on how to get our additional travel costs back?

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6659573/tui-refusing-to-pay-our-travel-costs-from-lgw-to-manchester

Assuming here that Manchester was both your original departure point and where you were meant to be flown back to, then it's definitely up to TUI to reimburse your expenses as your package provider, rather than the airline or your insurer - refer them to their obligations under regulation 15 of the Package Travel Regulations:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/634/regulation/15

If you paid any part of the booking by credit card then you might be able to make a section 75 claim via your card provider, or ultimately recover from TUI via small claims but hopefully it doesn't get that far - going to ABTA's arbitration process is another potential route.

Bazzjazz

Thank you that's very helpful. I'll raise a complaint quoting the regulations then refer that onto ABTA if they still deny responsibility.

Bazzjazz

It worked!!! After two refusals, I sent another response quoting the legislation you suggested and saying we would complain to ABTA and they came back saying they would organise a bank transfer!! Thank you eskbanker!

NoodleDoodleMan

Well done - TUI just "trying it on" apparently.

As if they weren't aware of the regulations !!!

TELLIT01

TUI will try to grind customers down in the hope they will just go away. Friends of ours travelled abroad with 2 other couples. Each couple had arranged their package holidays independent of each other, but same flights and same hotel. There was a long delay in the return flight. All 3 couples claimed. One was paid out almost immediately but not the other 2. After chasing TUI several times they were both made offers which were lower than that paid to the first couple and also different to each other. More persistence required to get TUI to make the correct payments.