Sh!t.. holiday cancellation

[Inthefirepit]

We booked a TUI package holiday, we paid a large deposit and since had a baby (baby was added), baby is now 7mo and has severe allergies, dr doesn’t want us to go before seeing allergy team and dermatologist (dc can’t wear suncream due to severe allergies) referrals have been made but won’t be seen before holiday.

Baby has been in and out of hospital, blue lighted, I’m talking turned blue in my arms reactions.

TUI has said we can’t get refund on the large deposit because the flights were outsourced due to them not being able to provide them, they’ve said their policy with third party flights cannot be refunded 😔

We always buy our travel insurance in the weeks before going, so don’t have travel insurance 😢 is there anything we can do? Or just put it down to us being stupid for not getting insurance when we booked it last year.

When you book a holiday you need to cover it before you go. Anything could’ve happened last year for the holiday to be cancelled.

Now I doubt you’ll get insurance based on your child’s reaction.

Could you sell the holiday?

Sorry I’m not sure there’s much you can do if you don’t have insurance.

Did you book it on your credit card?

I’d check the terms and conditions you signed up for with Tui, but without insurance you may be stuck, could they move the holiday to a later date or give you vouchers as a gesture of good will?

Check you definitely don’t have travel insurance with your bank? I have a multi trip policy with my current account which I think would cover this, but obviously you’d need to have it in place before you discovered dc allergies.

Insurance is to cover any reason why you might not be able to go, not just for anything that happens on the holiday.

I understand the you need it before you go, which is why we always get it before we go, we just always get it in the lead up (a few weeks before), we booked it last year so had 13 months before we went, this was before the baby was born so we had no idea baby was going to be so ill unfortunately 😞

We thought as it was a package holiday everything would be under TUI, when I checked their T&Cs it said they could defer the holiday with an admin fee, we thought fine, but, because they’ve outsourced the flights to a third party company the holiday itself can be changed but not the flights, so we have to pay admin fee for a new holiday and to cancel the flights on top if we deferred to another date 😔

You buy travel insurance at the same time as the holiday. Sorry you found out this way, but I hope your LO is OK!

Your travel insurance strategy is crazy, you probably pay the same but miss out on lots of the perks. Lesson learned for the future.

I think best you can hope for now is to aim for their goodwill moving the booking to a later date.

Can you not change the date for a LONG way into the future so your baby will have seen allergy specialists by the time the holiday (beta) comes around? Penalties for date changes are often smaller.

I'm sorry to hear your little one is so poorly. Were you aware that it was a third party airline when you booked (when I booked with TUI, it gave me the options of different airlines / different times etc) or did they change your flights?

I think the problem is, over the last 2 years, holidays could be cancelled by travellers for whatever reason they wanted and it has caught some people out now companies have returned to normal terms and conditions.

Always buy travel insurance at the time of booking as it protects you from the get go.

@Chewbecca theyve said we can move the holiday if we pay £250 admin fee AND the flights for the original holiday because they outsourced them 😔

Surely it’s not your problem if they outsourced their flights? The need to stick to their own T&Cs?

You buy insurance when you buy the holiday because it covers you for the whole period before you go.

Out don't understand the outsourced flights but. Does that just mean it's not a TUI flight? Or is it not a chartered airline, so they've bought seats on scheduled easyJet flight or whatever?

I would have still thought that's a package?

Could you ask to move the TUI bit (hotel, transfers etc) by few months and then buy your flights separately?
That way you'll only lose the cost of the flights.
And then buy insurance straight away. But you will now need to declare the allergies as pre-existing condition. It costs exactly the same as buying it just before you go but you're covered for something like this happening in the months before the holiday

The Tui T&Cs do have small print about third party flights - I have learnt this the hard way. We tried to change a holiday as we weren't happy with the accommodation we had booked (many negative reviews since booking) but were at the mercy of the third party flights so had to settle just for changing accommodation instead. Sorry you are in this situation too.

But I think when you book, you have the options of going with "third parties" (easyJet / BA) etc., for different times that might suit you better than the TUI flight. My question is, did the OP book knowing she was booking with a third party (so T&C would apply cos you booked that way) and it is clear when you book or did they change it after the booking?

Interesting about the third party flights, I had no idea. I've was on a few Thompson flights for Tui holidays.

Sorry you found out the hard way about insurance but yes, it should be booked before your flights. Annual insurance is actually really cheap. I have the most expensive policy with Insure and Go because i used it to cover an expensive safari holiday a few years ago. It was £26.50 at the time and is now £35 but it's money well spent.

@Bokky yes, exactly that. It’s terrible, I didn’t even know they’d booked us third party flights, they made me phone them to book the holiday (their site kept glitching). It’s such a shitter, especially with the baby being so unwell.

For all asking; third party flights means they’ve booked us on a different companies scheduled flight because TUI don’t fly that date/time

I was born in Africa in the 70s way before high factor sun cream was readily available.
A 7 month old baby? Long sleeve and leg UV protection suit. A hat. Shade. A nap/ lunch/ indoor time from 11.30-3.30.
FWIW Iwe took DS abroad at 11 months and due to the measures above sun cream was not needed.

But it would have been clear on their confirmation email at the very least. If you didn't like it, you should have raised it at the time.

Looks like you are bound by the t&c because that's what you agreed to at the time.

As someone said up post, looks like you will have to swap the accommodation to another day and take the hit on the flights.

Or throw yourself on their mercy and ask for a goodwill gesture?

In future, always read the t&c and get travel insurance the minute you pay any money.

@Bickles I think the suncream is only one of the issues OP has. That's not the only reason she is cancelling

@Bickles the allergies isn’t just a dermatology issue, I did mention it was allergies not just a sun screen allergy

My babies never saw sun, even on sunny holidays. SPF 50 clothing and hat. I never put sunscreen on them until they were older.

Where are you going?

@chiffchaffchiff Thomson was the old name for TUI.