Foreign holiday refunds

Drumcote

With the Corona Virus creating havoc with holiday - amongst other more important things...

My partner paid €2,000 to a local holiday travel firm (T.U.I.Holiday) as part payment for a Spanish holiday this June, we paid for our travel insurance also.
In view of what is happening internationally with the virus we now wish to cancel.
We looked for a full refund of the €2,000. However T.U.I. are giving us options.
Good of them!

Option 1. Cancel the holiday and be charged €1,000 fee/fine i.e. only €1,000 returned to us - Seriously!
Option 2 . Transfer the full 2k to a T.U.I. holiday next year (2021)

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Can they do this - I mean enforce option 1???

podge018

Don't cancel. That holiday won't be happening, they will have to inform you of this and offer you a refund or credit.

Steven81

From the TUI website

5) How much will it cost to cancel my holiday?
How much it costs to cancel your package holiday, or to remove passengers from the booking, varies depending on how much time there is before you're due to travel.
Our cancellation charges cover the cost of processing your cancellation and to compensate us for the risk that we may not be able to resell your travel arrangements.
Here are our cancellation charges:

70 or more days before travel: loss of deposit
69-63 days before travel: 30%
62-49 days before travel: 50%
48-29 days before travel: 70%
28-15 days before travel: 90%
14-0 days before travel: 100%

Sheep Shagger

Normal refund rules like the above are overruled by the below:

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/baaa9d-guidance-on-the-right-of-travellers-to-terminate-package-travel-cont/

Drumcote

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

Normal refund rules like the above are overruled by the below:

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/baaa9d-guidance-on-the-right-of-travellers-to-terminate-package-travel-cont/

A bit long winded.. we have as of today between 60 and 70 days before flying. Can I cancel in the next week and legally insist in getting ALL of our money back?
With all due respect Govt. DIrectives surpass travel firms T & C s
Thanks fir the advice thus far burnt would like closure on this ASAP.

Sheep Shagger

Drumcote wrote: »

A bit long winded.. we have as of today between 60 and 70 days before flying. Can I cancel in the next week and legally insist in getting ALL of our money back?
With all due respect Govt. DIrectives surpass travel firms T & C s
Thanks fir the advice thus far burnt would like closure on this ASAP.

No point in cancelling as you'll lose everything and there's no point. Ride it out and you'll get a refund - they may try and make you take the credit note but they will eventually have to refund you.

We have the same situation with Budget Travel, still due to pay the balance of holiday but they have not yet approached us for the money. In the meantime no point cancelling as we'll lose the deposit.

We are due to depart at the end of June.

Drumcote

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

No point in cancelling as you'll lose everything and there's no point. Ride it out and you'll get a refund - they may try and make you take the credit note but they will eventually have to refund you.

We have the same situation with Budget Travel, still due to pay the balance of holiday but they have not yet approached us for the money. In the meantime no point cancelling as we'll lose the deposit.

We are due to depart at the end of June.

Thanks for your help. We are being told to pay the balance by our travel agent by May 6th otherwise all will be lost. The pressure being ramped up on us. I think it's a phone call to Citizens Advice in the morning.if they are still open.
Appreciate your help. The saga rumbles on.

Mortelaro

Drumcote wrote: »

Thanks for your help. We are being told to pay the balance by our travel agent by May 6th otherwise all will be lost. The pressure being ramped up on us. I think it's a phone call to Citizens Advice in the morning.if they are still open.
Appreciate your help. The saga rumbles on.

Pay the balance by credit card
You then have the option of a charge back via the card to get your money back

Dont give them any opportunity to use a contract to basically steal your money
They wont be paying your flights or accommodation with any of it

Mortelaro

Just to add,its very important to pay that balance
When the holiday is cancelled, then initiate a refund insisting on a refund by cash into your card not a voucher
You are entitled to a money refund

If you need it quicker at that point you can do the charge back to the card
The charge back is your ultimate guarantee that you'll get the money back so theres zero risk in paying the balance

ChippyRun

Mortelaro wrote: »

Just to add,its very important to pay that balance
When the holiday is cancelled, then initiate a refund insisting on a refund by cash into your card not a voucher
You are entitled to a money refund

If you need it quicker at that point you can do the charge back to the card
The charge back is your ultimate guarantee that you'll get the money back so theres zero risk in paying the balance

There is also the risk that the travel company may go bust after you have paid in full. I’m in same situation with Love Holidays.ie. They want the balance paid now for holiday in June which I pretty sure will not happen now.

Sheep Shagger

ChippyRun wrote: »

There is also the risk that the travel company may go bust after you have paid in full. I’m in same situation with Love Holidays.ie. They want the balance paid now for holiday in June which I pretty sure will not happen now.

Our balance was due yesterday (10 weeks from departure), weve heard nothing so am waiting for Budget Travel to contact as tbey say they would at the time of booking to collect the balance. I've been trying to contact them before this but no luck.

If they insist we pay, we will, but only to honour the contract but it will be by credit card so we have chargeback protection.

Hope your citizens advice is better than ours, in a different situation a few years back they were hopeless.

Keep an eye on their websites. They are inundated with queries. Ours was booked with Holiday Republic for next month. It was cancelled and we can expect a refund in the coming weeks. We didn’t have to do anything.

ChippyRun

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

Our balance was due yesterday (10 weeks from departure), weve heard nothing so am waiting for Budget Travel to contact as tbey say they would at the time of booking to collect the balance. I've been trying to contact them before this but no luck.

If they insist we pay, we will, but only to honour the contract but it will be by credit card so we have chargeback protection.



Hope your citizens advice is better than ours, in a different situation a few years back they were hopeless.

We have not been able to contact our tour operator by phone or email and so we put a security stop on our credit card which meant they could not take the balance. We then had email to say they were unable to take payment and credit control would contact us to discuss however we have not heard anything and they have tried to take payment a few times since. Not sure if this amounts to a cancellation on our part but it is the only way to get any contact with them

Sheep Shagger

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Keep an eye on their websites. They are inundated with queries. Ours was booked with Holiday Republic for next month. It was cancelled and we can expect a refund in the coming weeks. We didn’t have to do anything.

What destination do you mind me asking?

un5byh7sqpd2x0

ChippyRun wrote: »

There is also the risk that the travel company may go bust after you have paid in full.

You’ll still get your money back in that case, it’s why IATA protection exists.

By not paying any balance outstanding, it is in effect a cancellation on your part and the T&Cs kick in meaning you may not get any money back at all.

By paying the balance due, when they cancel you’ll get a full refund.

Sheep Shagger

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

What destination do you mind me asking?

Spain.

They put notifications up early in the crisis saying that any payments due by 30th April would not be taken.

Mortelaro

ChippyRun wrote: »

There is also the risk that the travel company may go bust after you have paid in full. I’m in same situation with Love Holidays.ie. They want the balance paid now for holiday in June which I pretty sure will not happen now.

Yeah you need to pay it
Love holidays.ie will be by law bonded which means you get your money back if they go bust
As I said pay by credit card if you can
You have the option of getting your money back quicker then should you need to

If you dont pay the balance, you lose your deposit,even if it is cancelled
Dont gift them that

Lex Luthor

https://dbei.gov.ie/en/Publications/COVID-19-Guidance-on-the-right-of-travellers-to-terminate-package-travel-contracts.html#

Sheep Shagger

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Spain.

They put notifications up early in the crisis saying that any payments due by 30th April would not be taken.

Thanks, fingers crossed Budget Travel do the same (nothing on their website and they have not touched their facebook page since 18/3).

Sheep Shagger

Lex Luthor wrote: »

https://dbei.gov.ie/en/Publications/COVID-19-Guidance-on-the-right-of-travellers-to-terminate-package-travel-contracts.html#

Only applies to holidays up to 29 May, it was written back in March so hopefully it gets updated and covers June departures.