To think going away would not be a sensible move?

[notgoingabroad]

I booked tickets to the other side of the world at Christmas. Also bought tickets for a short flight out there, a trip etc.

One lost job and - I just don't think it can be done, financially.

AIBU to be gutted we've lost so much money

Would your policy really pay out for a gap in employment?
I would have phoned them when I lost my job. Not when I'd got a new one.

What a very odd thread. Don't really know what the op wanted to hear.

sorry for the lost holiday, OP. But no-one has died so dry up the tears and learn some lessons.

these include:

• holidays are composed of the following non-avoidable costs; transport to and from destination, accommodation while there, living costs while there, fun while there, and TRAVEL INSURANCE. The last is to be bought when you make the booking.
• no-one supervises holiday bookings. You are an adult and can do it yourself.
• that said, some booking sites do offer you/remind you about travel insurance.

travel insurance may not have paid out - but as you don't have any it definitely won't. Leaving your home country without travel insurance risks colossal costs and is a silly and selfish thing to do.

so lessons learned, wipe up, move on.

If you haven't arranged travel insurance (you seem to have dodged answering that), have you even arranged a visa for your trip?!

You sound very disorganised OP and yet bizarrely disinterested in finding a solution because you'd have to make a few calls.

If you do cancel, be sure to ask for a refund of the taxes paid. IME the airlines or travel agents will not refund them unless you actually ask, and on an international flight, tax represents a considerable chunk of the price of the ticket. You will get several hundred pounds back, but only if you ask for it.

That must be where I went wrong last time.

have you even arranged a visa for your trip?!
Very good point.

No, but that would be because I'm not going :)

OP, what are you doing today? Do you have a couple of hours free to sort this out?

Can you list what you've paid for so far. I can see;

Return flights to Australia, Etihad.
Hotel for the vast majority of the time away.

Both booked with Opodo?

No not the hotel, that's completely non refundable. Just flights. Four in total.

Oh, and a small trip booked while away?

Correct yes.

Four flights - London-Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi-Australia, Australia-Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi-London?

What about that trip you booked?

Hotel non-refundable - how sure are you on this? Have you checked Opodo, hotel website, Booking.com to double check this?

Yes I booked through booking.com and it's not refundable. I do have to pay for it still. I'm not flying to London. Anyway thanks.

No, but that would be because I'm not going

Glad you're now happy about it.

It can take a while to sort a visa so if you were going you might be screwed anyway.

How old are you OP? I wouldn't call a holiday to Australia a spur of the moment thing.

OK, plugging stuff into Etihad - flying April 2nd, return May 2nd, London-Sydney, via AUH.

Fare £805. Tax component £185, so 20-25% of fare price. However, some of those are standing charges, and don't change with flight price. You may therefore find that on a cheaper flight, this percentage return increases.

Change to date charge £135 per flight. Are you sure you need to cancel rather than delay?

I'm not flying to London
Is that a key detail? Are you in the UK? If so, it's really not worth picking up on this kind of stuff when posters are trying to help.

Are you in the UK?

To be fair to the op, Opodo are spectacularly crap at customer service and regularly turn up in the Observer's financial problem page. They are terrible to get money back from. Good luck!

Would the OP have to claim via Opodo, or could she go direct to the airline?

Chipped it's kind of like you just want to jump on everything I do.

The :) wasn't meant to convey happiness but to be polite and soften what could have otherwise sounded a bit abrupt.

Look, see it from my point of view a bit. I haven't been abroad before properly and booked the flights and then life went chaotic. I wasn't sacked by the way but had a horrible situation. So I've just not really been thinking of this trip. Then March came and it's like 'oh it's next month - guess I won't be able to go after all.'

The time before I didn't go because of a horrendous personal issue.

I don't know what some of you want me to say, that I'm a rubbish person and a useless excuse for a human being? But then you would say I'm self pitying. I don't think I can win with you lot can I? But anyway everything you say about me is right.

Sorry Maid I didn't fully understand.

And I have tried to call Opodo and can't get through. I'll keep trying. Sorry to have annoyed you all. I didn't come on with that intention, I really didn't. I'm just a bit useless I think but really don't keep telling me that, I do already know.

I think OP is getting a hard time on this thread, but it does seem that some obvious questions have gone unanswered -

do you have travel insurance
if so, have you checked if it covers redundancy
have you tried to send an email to Opodo via their website
have you tried to contact airline directly
could you pay the airline a fee to delay your flights eg take a holiday next year

No you're not useless. Nobody is useless. You can take control of this situation and make the best of it. Your options seem to be:

Don't go. Don't try to get refunds or cancel, just don't show up & accept you've lost £1,000.

Don't go, make an effort to go through the appropriate channels to cancel & salvage what refund you can from it, even if that's only a few hundred quid.

Go. Try to find the money to fund the rest of the trip & go, but for goodness sake get insurance & a visa.

Go for a shorter period that will cost less overall & involve less/no unpaid leave (plus insurance & visa as above)

Postpone to later in the year & save like heck so you can fund it without problem.

Think through which of those you prefer & is most feasible for you.

Thank you. I unfortunately wasn't made redundant but resigned.

I really am useless though :) as you can see. You honestly seriously don't need to tell me that.