To ask if any of you have any ideas what we can do (holiday related)

[HolidayArmadillo]

We are due to go on holiday tomorrow, SIL and BIL (C & L) are due to join us on Monday as is BIL's DB and daughter (M) . Us and C/L booked through Thomas Cook instore to go back to a hotel we enjoyed last year, M booked at a later date with an online agent for accommodation and directly with fly thomas cook for his flight. On Monday this week we were informed the hotel was not ready and we were being moved to an alternative. M's agent has said they will not change his hotel but would be prepared to refund the cost of the accommodation. We spoke to Thomas cook instore and they found a package at the new hotel which would only cost 200 pounds more, even though it is on the exact same flight he has to cancel his flight through fly thomas cook to rebook the package through Thomas Cook instore.

Fly thomas cook are refusing to refund the cost of the flight even though he wants to book the exact same seats on the exact same plane with the same bloody company but through an instore agent so he can join us on our family holiday!

Any ideas on what we can do as this is putting such a dampener on things, his daughter is only 5 and she was so looking forward to going away with her cousins and also for M, since he split with his DW he wanted a bit of support taking his DD abroad for the first time and he will be stuck in a hotel on his own :-(

Can he not book the accommodation separately (direct or via an online booking agent) at the new hotel?

Surely he can then use the original flights, get a refund on his original accommodation? Would need to organise transfers but...

can you not just contact the new hotel directly and book there?

To book the new accommodation directly he'd need to pay an additional £700 whereas rebooking the whole thing as a package with Thomas Cook instor will only be an additional £200.

is the hotel exclusive to thomas cook? if not you can easily just book a room at the hotel through any of the hotel websites like trivago, expedia, travel republic etc its easy to do we quite often just book hotel anf flights seperately if thats whats worrying you.

Wow! £700 in addition to the refund he'll get from the original booking??

I'd contact thos cook and ask again, explaining the issue.

If they won't budge, I'd go with the £200 - can you all chip in??

Tell us which hotel and the dates - bet we can get it for less than the +£700 (maybe).

The +£200 is if we book the flights and hotel together instore as a package with TC, we already have the flights (with fly thomas cook - the same company!!) but whole lot must be booked as one to get it for the price that is only £200.00 more than what he paid for original holiday (accomm plus flights). To book just the hotel (even with the accommodation being refunded) it will cost him an extra £700.00 on top of the original price he was paying at the beginning. Am I making sense? My head is spinning!

Oh and the new hotel is the royal holiday palace in Lara beach turkey from 19/5/14 for 7 nights one adult and one child.

No ideas?

As i understand it this is the risk of booking seperately not that it stops DH and I. Was it significantly cheaper fir him to do so?

Presumably he booked the flights on a cheaper non changeable non refundable fare, hence the hassle?

All i can recommend is checking his travel insurance in case there's some clause which covers this, though I've always found them to be strict when there's nothing actually preventing travel.

I have thomas cook at £1,360 here inc flights and hotel only here at £1,609

romm only £1,300 here

Very significantly cheaper, carol tha looks like the deal they have offered him incl flights which is currently £200 extra he will need to find. It's just so infuriating because he is on the Thomas Cook flight, they have his money, but to get the first package flight and hotel must be booked together, he wants to stay on the same flight with the same company!