Reimbursement claim denied after cancelled flight through Dubai (Feb)

find_a_deal

Hi. I'm hoping to get some guidance on what we should be doing after our claim for reimbursement was denied, following a cancelled outbound flight at the start of the Iran conflict. We had to self reroute in order to get to our destination. Below are the details, hopefully someone has some input in whether this is correct or not. thanks in advance.

We had booked through TUI, who used Gold Medal to book - this included flights (Glasgow->Dubai->Melbourne with Emirates, a hotel, internal flights and flight to Singapore with other airlines, then Singapore->Dubai->Glasgow to return with Emirates).
We were meant to fly on Sat 28th Feb, however due to the Iran situation that started that day, our outbound flights were cancelled at lunch time. We went to TUI to see what our options were and sat with them for a while as they tried and failed to get through to Gold Medal, during this time we found alternative flights that could have got us to Melbourne a day later than planned, however we saw availability of all those flights disappear. After over an hour, TUI said we could go home and they'd let us know if they manage to get through. At home we saw some availability for alternative flights that would get us there 2 days later than scheduled (the Wednesday). Eventually TUI emailed to say they had been unable to get through to Gold Medal. At this point there were only two seats left for the '2 day' option, so we booked that ourselves since arriving any later would mean we would start missing the event we were going to Australia for, we informed TUI that we had done this.

While in Australia, after using the first internal flight, TUI contacted us as Gold Medal had highlighted that the flight had been used and thought it was an issue as they were not aware we had managed to get to Australia and TUI seem to have not realised either - so if they didn't know that, would suggest that they had still failed to find any alternative options for us.

Our return home thankfully went without issue.

We submitted a reimbursement claim for the cost of self re-routing, since despite attempts to have TUI find options (and they couldn't get in touch with Gold Medal) they had failed to find us alternative flights within a reasonable timeframe and we had to book with urgency to ensure we could go to the event we had tickets for in Melbourne (under UK261).
TUI insist that they are not responsible and forwarded our claim to Gold Medal, however Gold Medal have said they will not honour the claim on the basis that they can only see 4 attempts at TUI to contact them, so don't think we gave them enough of a chance to handle the situation (which they state would have been a flight refund or we could pay more for an alternative flight), they also state that UK261 does not apply in this case. They also said that they submitted a refund claim to Emirates in May and that should be coming to us at the end of July (we have been clear that we are not requesting a refund, we are requesting reimbursement).

Where do we stand with this, does UK261 apply in this scenario, or are Gold Medal just trying to avoid paying out?

eskbanker

UK261 grants you rights against the airline, rather than any agencies involved, so any such claim would need to be settled by Emirates, but they'd have needed to have had the opportunity to reroute you - it sounds unlikely that Emirates would have been contacted on your behalf during this process, and chances are that they'd have been inundated on that day anyway.

Having said that, it sounds like you bought a package, so, rather than claiming under UK261, you'll probably have more success using the Package Travel Regulations - based on your confirmation documentation, etc, is TUI the package organiser here, or is it Gold Medal?

find_a_deal

I'm not sure, the ATOL certificate has "Travel Choice" list as the Certificate Issuer, which as far as I can tell is a TUI brand name, however the ATOL number is 2916, which seems to resolve to Gold Medal.

peteuk

I'm no expert however they should have rebooked you onto an alternative flight, most EK flights go via the middle east, so their partner airlines should have been sort.

As you wouldn't wait and booked your own flight, then you should be able to request a refund.

Due to the fact that this was out of the airlines hands, there is no compensation rights.

However your contract was with TUI, you booked a package (two types of travel service - flights and accommodation) and so you should be asking TUI rather than the airline or third party. TUI should have found you an alternative, however at such short notice and with the Iran conflict escalating the prices, I am sure were sky rocketing.