Honeymoon issues due to Covid 19

curly from cork

Honeymoon booked with Trailfinders last December. Due to go to USA and Mexico the end of July. We have paid a deposit of €1800. The balance is due mid May. I spoke to Trailfinders yesterday and our options are far from what we had hoped for.
Option 1. Pay the remaining amount ( €5000) on the due date. If close to the time the company cancel the holidays we will get a full refund, if the holiday is not cancelled we will have to travel. For obvious reasons apart from an underlying health condition we do not want to travel this year.
Option 2. Amend the booking and move to a date next year, if we do this there is a penalty of €1000. The €800 left after this amendment will go towards the new booking, prices are not guaranteed at the 2020 price
TBH we thought that a big company like Trailfinders would be offering to move our honeymoon to next year with no penalty. We were very shocked at the €1000 charge. On the whole we haven't lost too much with re scheduling etc, photographer, band, hotel etc all excellent. However €1000 a very big swallow .. Can anyone offer any advice or had anyone dealt with an issue similar to this. Thank you

Shelli2

curly from cork wrote: »

Honeymoon booked with Trailfinders last December. Due to go to USA and Mexico the end of July. We have paid a deposit of €1800. The balance is due mid May. I spoke to Trailfinders yesterday and our options are far from what we had hoped for.
Option 1. Pay the remaining amount ( €5000) on the due date. If close to the time the company cancel the holidays we will get a full refund, if the holiday is not cancelled we will have to travel. For obvious reasons apart from an underlying health condition we do not want to travel this year.
Option 2. Amend the booking and move to a date next year, if we do this there is a penalty of €1000. The €800 left after this amendment will go towards the new booking, prices are not guaranteed at the 2020 price
TBH we thought that a big company like Trailfinders would be offering to move our honeymoon to next year with no penalty. We were very shocked at the €1000 charge. On the whole we haven't lost too much with re scheduling etc, photographer, band, hotel etc all excellent. However €1000 a very big swallow .. Can anyone offer any advice or had anyone dealt with an issue similar to this. Thank you

Had you taken out travel insurance? Would that cover any of it?

Mark1916

curly from cork wrote: »

Honeymoon booked with Trailfinders last December. Due to go to USA and Mexico the end of July. We have paid a deposit of €1800. The balance is due mid May. I spoke to Trailfinders yesterday and our options are far from what we had hoped for.
Option 1. Pay the remaining amount ( €5000) on the due date. If close to the time the company cancel the holidays we will get a full refund, if the holiday is not cancelled we will have to travel. For obvious reasons apart from an underlying health condition we do not want to travel this year.
Option 2. Amend the booking and move to a date next year, if we do this there is a penalty of €1000. The €800 left after this amendment will go towards the new booking, prices are not guaranteed at the 2020 price
TBH we thought that a big company like Trailfinders would be offering to move our honeymoon to next year with no penalty. We were very shocked at the €1000 charge. On the whole we haven't lost too much with re scheduling etc, photographer, band, hotel etc all excellent. However €1000 a very big swallow .. Can anyone offer any advice or had anyone dealt with an issue similar to this. Thank you

We were due to fly on our Honeymoon in December of this year to Africa but we've postponed the wedding until next year, we contacted Trailfinders and they had no problem moving the dates, apart from some of the internal flights that were prepaid in advance (we did get taxes back). Might be worth asking them what the penalty is made up of as they wouldn't have control over refunds from airlines for internal flights and unlike the international flights these are usually paid in advance.

curly from cork

Shelli2 wrote: »

Had you taken out travel insurance? Would that cover any of it?

Yes we have insurance which we bought from Trailfinders however they are saying that our trip isn't covered for this pandemic

ontheditch2

Same boat and due to travel in June, US and Mexico as well.
They gave us 3 options:
1.) Pay the rest of the money and if they cancel it, we get everything back.
2.) Move it to a later date (but never mentioned a moving fee).
3.) Cancel the booking and receive half of the deposit (€570) back in vouchers.

We were hesitant about option 1 because if the flights to America were open but flight to Mexico was not, we would just have to take shorter trip and claim lost money back from travel insurance.
Option 2 doesn't suit us as we don't know how long things will be shut down and felt we are just prolonging the headache of waiting till the next time.
We eventually went with option 3, just felt it was best for us at the moment. Sick to lose half the deposit but could be a lot worse.

Not a nice situation to be in but hopefully ye get it sorted satisfactorily

curly from cork

ontheditch2 wrote: »

Same boat and due to travel in June, US and Mexico as well.
They gave us 3 options:
1.) Pay the rest of the money and if they cancel it, we get everything back.
2.) Move it to a later date (but never mentioned a moving fee).
3.) Cancel the booking and receive half of the deposit (€570) back in vouchers.

We were hesitant about option 1 because if the flights to America were open but flight to Mexico was not, we would just have to take shorter trip and claim lost money back from travel insurance.
Option 2 doesn't suit us as we don't know how long things will be shut down and felt we are just prolonging the headache of waiting till the next time.
We eventually went with option 3, just felt it was best for us at the moment. Sick to lose half the deposit but could be a lot worse.

Not a nice situation to be in but hopefully ye get it sorted satisfactorily

thanks , will follow up on the voucher option. Sounds like a good plan

Ago1960

ontheditch2 wrote: »

Same boat and due to travel in June, US and Mexico as well.
They gave us 3 options:
1.) Pay the rest of the money and if they cancel it, we get everything back.
2.) Move it to a later date (but never mentioned a moving fee).
3.) Cancel the booking and receive half of the deposit (€570) back in vouchers.

We were hesitant about option 1 because if the flights to America were open but flight to Mexico was not, we would just have to take shorter trip and claim lost money back from travel insurance.
Option 2 doesn't suit us as we don't know how long things will be shut down and felt we are just prolonging the headache of waiting till the next time.
We eventually went with option 3, just felt it was best for us at the moment. Sick to lose half the deposit but could be a lot worse.

Not a nice situation to be in but hopefully ye get it sorted satisfactorily

We had a trip to Canada planned for 28th March. It was paid up. Around a week before departure we were contacted by Trailfinders and given 3 options. A) Full refund. Reschedule. C) Vouchers. We went with option A) and the full refund arrived quickly.

silver2020

As the flights are still scheduled, there's nothing trailfinders can do. Currently the flights are probably still scheduled and the hotels you are staying in are / will be open then too.

Why should they take a hit? - Just because they are big? Big means a lot of staff, big also means they are taking a huge hit as their business is decimated.

Conditions and penalties for changing flights are changing on an ongoing basis. Aer Lingus just announced late last week that changes can now be made without penalty on all flights up to end of Sept. So its probably a wait and see approach and try and get a stay on the final payment until there is more certainty.

But i would ask for a breakdown of the fees so that you can see what fees may change

Fant11

Guys, if you have a package holiday booked with Trailfinders (ie a flight plus accom), please be very careful with what they are trying to advise you.

I have come accross multiple issues here and in the UK where Trailfinders are not abiding by consumer law and trying to obstruct consumer rights by not refunding fully for package holidays affected by Covid.

Please quote them this govt link, reminding them of their duties;

https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/71954/65b80dd6c15f40c4b5df337671048f24.pdf#page=1

Remember, your contract is with trailfinders, not with the airlines or hotels. The above states you are due a FULL refund within 14 days if you have a holiday booked with trailfinders before May 29th (this will likely be updated in coming days to include June/July onwards).

In the above cases re your honeymoon payments, please do not listen to any of details they are giving to you, they are full of cr** to be honest. The contract can not be performed as stated when it was drawn up pre-covid and, as such, enables you as the consumer to cancel it as a full refund.

Emmersonn

Fant11 wrote: »

Guys, if you have a package holiday booked with Trailfinders (ie a flight plus accom), please be very careful with what they are trying to advise you.

I have come accross multiple issues here and in the UK where Trailfinders are not abiding by consumer law and trying to obstruct consumer rights by not refunding fully for package holidays affected by Covid.

Please quote them this govt link, reminding them of their duties;

https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/71954/65b80dd6c15f40c4b5df337671048f24.pdf#page=1

Remember, your contract is with trailfinders, not with the airlines or hotels. The above states you are due a FULL refund within 14 days if you have a holiday booked with trailfinders before May 29th (this will likely be updated in coming days to include June/July onwards).

In the above cases re your honeymoon payments, please do not listen to any of details they are giving to you, they are full of cr** to be honest. The contract can not be performed as stated when it was drawn up pre-covid and, as such, enables you as the consumer to cancel it as a full refund.

Our holiday booked through Trailfinders was cancelled due to the Corona Virus. We received a full refund within 10 days without any problems whatever,

curly from cork

Our problem is the remainder of the holiday payment is due next week ( €5,000) if we don’t pay this Trailfinders say we have broken our contact. I fear any government directive extending to our date in late July will come too late for us as we will be in breach by the time any directive arrives.

drunkmonkey

Did they actually say that or are you assuming that's going to be their response.
It's a tricky one, even if you can fly in December do you really want to, Coco bongo won't be the same with facemasks.

curly from cork

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Did they actually say that or are you assuming that's going to be their response.
It's a tricky one, even if you can fly in December do you really want to, Coco bongo won't be the same with facemasks.

Yes, that’s what they said. They gave the following options originally

Option 1. Pay the remaining amount ( €5000) on the due date. If close to the time the company cancel the holidays we will get a full refund, if the holiday is not cancelled we will have to travel. For obvious reasons apart from an underlying health condition we do not want to travel this year.
Option 2. Amend the booking and move to a date next year, if we do this there is a penalty of €1000. The €800 left after this amendment will go towards the new booking, prices are not guaranteed at the 2020 price

Then later added
Option 3. Vouchers worth €800 valid for 12 months.

Fant11

curly from cork wrote: »

Our problem is the remainder of the holiday payment is due next week ( €5,000) if we don’t pay this Trailfinders say we have broken our contact. I fear any government directive extending to our date in late July will come too late for us as we will be in breach by the time any directive arrives.

From there own t & c’s (which don’t count for much), they state “Deposits or pre payments are not refundable unless we are unable to confirm your original booking request”. https://www.trailfinders.com/packagebookingconditions

I’m thinking they can’t exactly confirm every part of your contract here so you are due a full refund on deposit? Currently, they can’t fulfill your contract as described so you would be due refund. Try ringing the CPCC tomorrow for advice.

Fant11

Emmersonn wrote: »

Our holiday booked through Trailfinders was cancelled due to the Corona Virus. We received a full refund within 10 days without any problems whatever,

Wow, that was quick, what was the total figure do you mind me asking?

Few links below to people being screwed over by Trailfinders who were breaking the law in this current situation:

https://amp.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus/ni-couple-left-counting-cost-after-coronavirus-outbreak-cuts-short-their-dream-holiday-39149954.html

https://amp.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-northern-ireland-woman-stranded-on-luxury-trip-pays-4500-for-flight-home-39082634.html


They refuse to give consumers breakdown of where your fees have gone which is frustrating.

They also state publicly that they don’t pay their suppliers (hoteliers) until there client has passed through the door and travelled. So, if they still have consumers cash due to their escrow accounting policy, why do they privately say they are chasing suppliers for refunds and that is where the delay is coming from?

Emmersonn

Fant11 wrote: »

Wow, that was quick, what was the total figure do you mind me asking?

Few links below to people being screwed over by Trailfinders who were breaking the law in this current situation:

https://amp.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus/ni-couple-left-counting-cost-after-coronavirus-outbreak-cuts-short-their-dream-holiday-39149954.html

https://amp.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-northern-ireland-woman-stranded-on-luxury-trip-pays-4500-for-flight-home-39082634.html


They refuse to give consumers breakdown of where your fees have gone which is frustrating.

They also state publicly that they don’t pay their suppliers (hoteliers) until there client has passed through the door and travelled. So, if they still have consumers cash due to their escrow accounting policy, why do they privately say they are chasing suppliers for refunds and that is where the delay is coming from?

The total figure was €10,333.00. It was a 13 day holiday in Canada and included Toronto to Vancouver by Rail on The Canadian/Via Rail with 4 days both in Vancouver and Toronto.

Emmersonn

Bit of good news
https://www.independent.ie/life/travel/travel-news/state-to-guarantee-refunds-for-package-holidays-in-form-of-credit-notes-39192572.html