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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Thomas Cook, robbing b*stards!

82 replies

tillytoodles1 · 22/02/2019 18:45

My DH passed away after we'd booked holiday flights, so I offered it to my brother. TC want £100 admin charge per name change and another £47 as the seat prices have gone up.

OP posts:
BlythesEyes · 22/02/2019 19:00

That's disgusting...I'd claim full refund from insurance and tell your brother to book with someone else rather that give them any more money.

Haffiana · 22/02/2019 19:03

Did you agree to the terms and conditions when you booked?

wowfudge · 22/02/2019 19:10

You have told them a family member has passed away, not just asked to change the name?

newmobile · 22/02/2019 19:11

We had misspelt a name once our error but was there when agent went on computer and changed it. Got charged 50quid admin charge for 2 seconds work

RochelleGoyle · 22/02/2019 19:14

haffiana There's a time to empathise and if you can't manage it why say anything? OP is clearly distressed.

NiktheGreek · 22/02/2019 19:18

Perhaps Haffiana works for Thomas Cook.
Shitty answer anyway.

Talkingfrog · 22/02/2019 19:18

Sorry for your loss. Those charges seem unfair. I can understand an admin charge,) but given the reason I am sure it could be waives) but if they are transferring the ticket that has already been booked, why does the current price make a difference?

endofthelinefinally · 22/02/2019 19:18

I am so sorry for your loss OP. Flowers
I think the best thing you could do is ring your travel insurers and claim all your money back. All they need is a death certificate.
Don't even engage with Thomas Cook.
You have so much to deal with, you must be in shock, take the simplest route and maybe save the money for a break with your family in a few months.

PocaMiseria · 22/02/2019 19:18

Unfortunately this is standard practice across all tour operators: in our case it was a cruise: one half of the couple dropped dead nine months after the cruise had been booked (and three months before it took place), the bereaved party was charged £500 to change the name of the person accompanying them to that of their sibling.

pumpkinpie01 · 22/02/2019 19:19

That’s disgusting have they no compassion, sorry for your loss xx

PocaMiseria · 22/02/2019 19:19

PS Sorry for your loss OP Flowers

reallyanotherone · 22/02/2019 19:29

Ok it’s taken me a couple of reads to figure out what you mean.

At first i thought you were asking your brother to come in your DH’s place.

If you’ve offered the whole holiday to your brother and his family, they want £147 pp? So for a family of 4 it would be £600 more?

That is pretty shitty. I’d phone TC customer services and tell them you’re cancelling, and also tell your insurance company. They may take it up with TC as presumably a name change for them is a lot cheaper than a cancellation.

Ultimately it’s your brothers choice if he wants to pay the extra. If not, cancel and have done.

What’s the excess on your insurance, if you have insurance?

cptartapp · 22/02/2019 19:30

I'm looking to book a holiday and a friend behind the scenes says not to book anything with TC in the near future. They're in big trouble apparently.

Debfronut · 22/02/2019 19:41

Thomas Cook did this to us to when our son died. Luckily we had only paid deposits but they charged us to take him off the booking and for the car he had asked for. We were going as a large family group. It was a hard thing to cope with at the time

CloserIAm2Fine · 22/02/2019 19:46

I’m sorry for your loss and YANBU

T&Cs are fine, but a death is an exceptional circumstance and they should have a bit of compassion. You’re not changing the name out of choice!

Dungeondragon15 · 22/02/2019 19:53

I bet it costs them nowhere near that amount to change names so they are actually trying to make money out of your misfortune. That's shameless profiteering.

youaremyrain · 22/02/2019 19:58

Sorry for your loss.
Are you on Twitter? This needs publicising, they should be ashamed!

Original poster
tillytoodles1 · 22/02/2019 20:03

We told them that he had died and we hadn't bought insurance yet. It made no difference.

OP posts:
endofthelinefinally · 22/02/2019 20:04

Debfronut

I am so sorry. That is heartless.
I experienced the full range of compassion through to downright stupidity when my son died.

Flowers
AmIRightOrAMeringue · 22/02/2019 20:06

Hi OP sorry for your loss. I'd tweet them and facebook them, keep posting the same thing, this is awful publicity for them

sighrollseyes · 22/02/2019 20:09

Awww I'm sorry about this - bloody sucks!
Martin Lewis has just done an article about making sure you book insurance at the time of booking to cover cancellation reasons not just issues while you're away.

onthenaughtystepagain · 22/02/2019 20:11

It's one of the reasons to take out insirance on booking, nothing to do with empathy, amazing how many people don't do that, it doesn't cost any more.
A couple we heard of booked a cruise, paid the full amount but he died shortly before the travel date, The widow decided to take the cruise alone and the company wanted her to pay a supplement as a single passennger, the company argued that they would be losing revenue if she travelled alone!

Coulddowithanap · 22/02/2019 20:14

Absolutely agree this is why you need travel insurance from time of booking.

So sorry for your loss. You don't need the stress of this on top of everything else at this difficult time Flowers

MorskieOko · 22/02/2019 20:16

I am so sorry about your dh, but this is what travel insurance is FOR. I am shocked at the number of people who see it as optional and then get upset when they have no protection when something goes wrong.

mkmo · 22/02/2019 20:17

trust me, go to the daily mail and you will get a full refund plus compensation