To ask for a refund as holiday has changed substantially?

[Loveabathtub]

Not really a AIBU, more can anyone help me with where we might stand legally?

We booked a tailor made holiday through a company called Dial A Flight on 23.09.2023. It was to be a holiday of a lifetime that straddled the exact dates of February half term, my birthday and Valentines day. It cost a considerable sum of money. It took weeks to plan and book and involved choosing direct flights to Mauritius where we would stay for 4 nights before flying onto Johannesburg from where we would travel directly onto our safari lodge. There we would spend a further four nights before flying on a direct overnight flight home.

However, yesterday we received a phone call to say that the flight between Mauritius and Johannesburg had been cancelled which meant that we would now only spend 3 nights in Mauritius and would then have to spend one night in Johannesburg before flying onto safari.

This is bitterly disappointing. We would never have booked or paid out so much money to travel all the way to Mauritius for just three nights. Neither would we have ever booked to stay one night in Johannesburg. I certainly do not relish packing and unpacking three times over the course of a week for me and my children. The holiday company are suggesting we change dates but this does not work with school holidays. They say we cannot get a refund just for the Mauritius hotel. Neither could we fly directly straight to Johannesburg from UK without considerable extra costs. We feel that this holiday has now turned into something we would never dream of booking.

We paid Dial a Flight for a specific holiday that we have in writing as being as being four nights in a specific Mauritius followed by four nights at a in a specific safari lodge in South Africa, it is now turning into something completely different. To add to this Dial a Flight are expecting us to shoulder all extra costs and losses.

We would like a full refund to be able to reconsider and rebook at another date. Dial a Flight say this is not possible as they have found an alternative flight that will be less than seven hours delay on the original. However due to the knock on effect on the connecting transfers this new flight results in more than a 24 hour delay in getting to safari.

Our contract is with Dial a Flight. We booked the whole thing as a package. We were only informed of this yesterday, three weeks before travel is about to take place. Can anyone help advise us of our rights?

You need to fully read the terms and conditions/wording of the contract to know exactly what you're entitled to. It doesn't come to opinions or the morals of the situation, it's contractual.

Nope. Not going to sod off. Look up the carbon before you misrepresent the facts to justify our selfish and reckless behaviour. Don’t look up is not a rational response to an emergency situation.

There is plenty to see and do there. Apartheid museum, gold reef city, soweto, westcliff hotel, maboneng district (arty area), botanical gardens, rosebank, the fort, cradle of humankind, orlando towers etc. There are so many things to do.

The economy in Mauritius depends on tourism though. (Amongst other industries including textiles and manufacturing ) . If the tourism side just stopped, it would affect them very negatively. Most families living there will have some income due to tourism.

Why wouldn't you? It's a beautiful place!

i agree - one night if it’s 14 nights, no biggy but when it’s only 4 nights it’s a lot. The equivalent for 14 days would be 3.5 days. I’d have thought if it was booked by 1 agent as one holiday they have to give option for refund. Where’s Martin Lewis when you need him? I wouldn’t necessarily believe what the company say- it’s not in their interest to refund and companies make their own rules and try to say it’s covered by law when it really isn’t.

You can’t eat money

If it’s destroyed by extreme weather and too dangerous then I imagine that might put tourists off a bit.

It’s annoying and frustrating but I think to say you are happy to fly for 4 nights in Mauritius but not 3 is a bit silly. The resorts are the same & that would have been a big change. Just accept one night in Johannasberg will break up the travel, find a nice restaurant to eat at Its not like you need to fully unpack just have washbags and clean underwear accessibly packed.

OK fair enough, there’s probably some middle ground here.

Some posters are I think being naive with the “just use the stay as a chance see the city” line, it’s probably the easiest place in the world to get on the wrong side of the tracks but if you stay with hotel recommended transport etc most people are ok…

op i’d ask about getting an earlier flight to Mauritius even if it means taking a day or two out of school. Then you’d get a bit longer there which you originally wanted.

@Loveabathtub - there are direct flights available all that week between Mauritius and Johannesburg with both Air Mauritius and South African Airways.

I imagine they've cocked up the booking somehow and either the hotel doesn't have the right number of rooms available for the 4 nights or the requested class of travel on the plane is no longer available at the price they've costed the holiday at or they don't want to swap you to a different airline for one of the flight legs as it will cost them more.

If the airline they've booked you on has cancelled the flight, I'd suggest a better solution is to book you onto a different airline, not bugger about with your holiday. Of course that might cost them more and affect their profitability. Check your contract to see if your contract is for you to be moved about between various destinations, or if it specifies a particular airline.

I'm quite suspicious about what they're saying.

I don’t think the reputation of JoBerg is the point - I wouldn’t want an enforced stay somewhere I hadn’t planned either.

Exactly.

You've had 25% of your beach holiday turned into a city stop over. No I wouldn't want to be paying for that.

And yes, I'd call that a significant change.

- there are direct flights available all that week between Mauritius and Johannesburg with both Air Mauritius and South African Airways.

This

The blase Oh it's only 1 night ........

doesn't really cut it when they are going only away for 8 nights in the first place.

The change is significant .

As do Safair, but only Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday so they fly this route. And they are less than half the price of the other airlines.

I'm also suspicious. It's a fairly new route, perhaps they quoted OP using this airlines pricings, to now discover they don't fly the day OP needs.

I really don't understand this place sometimes. This is absolutely a significant change. OP I honestly think most of the people insisting that it's not are jealous and just screwing with you a bit. You're entitled to the holiday you had in mind. End of

Don’t you have children @Mirrorinthebathroom123 ? Have you looked up the carbon footprint of having kids lately. Anyway you’re not adding to the thread so stop derailing.

OP - could you ask to cancel the SA/safari part and stay the full time in Mauritius? I know it’s not what you planned but there is plenty to do with wildlife based activities and diving if that takes your fancy.

I know, people on here always seem to want to make you feel you care too much and they would be soooo blase.

oh it's not much of a change
it's only one night
overly dramatic
What do you expect
they can't change it
8 days is too short anyway

As if planning, looking forward to and paying hard earned cash count for nothing.

Maybe take your paperwork and go to citizens advice? For those saying it’s drama over nothing- it’s not the holiday they planned and it’s very short notice for things to change plus they’re expected to cover the costs, that in itself would get my back up as I’m guessing it’s not a cheap holiday to start with. Def get some form of advice

I did a night in Jo-burg before my safari (agree 4 nights on safari is a while)
I had a great time. I did the hop on hop off bus that had extra side tours. We got a tour of Soweto and I went to the Apartheid museum.
i was a solo female of 32 and was absolutely fine. I would much rather do that than an extra night in Mauritius
However it’s not what you booked so so I can see it’s annoying

Please be super wary of any 'sanctuary' that has endless supply of cubs and allows contact with humans. These animal may well be sold on to the hunting industry when they get too big and very unlikely to be released to the wild if they have had lots of contact with humans.

You’ve misunderstood. Dial a flight have worked hard to rectify a problem that has been caused by an airline. You would have had the same issue if you’d booked independently and would not have the service of the travel agent to rectify the problem as well as they can. You’re lucky they’ve managed to save it as much as possible. It will be in their terms that if flights are cancelled they will help to rebook.

How do you know they worked hard. A flight was cancelled, they booked another flight and a hotel - that’s literally 2 clicks.

If OP had booked independently she would have had the choice of how the problem was resolved.

That’s why I don’t use travel agents.