Aibu to be annoyed about flight change?

[AhJaysusHowaya]

DH and I have a holiday booked with tui next month which requires a connecting flight via Dubai.
On the original booking we would fly home from Sri Lanka to Dubai on a Friday morning at 9am, and would spend 2 hours in Dubai airport waiting for our connecting flight.
We had an email to say the flights home had changed and it would now be 2am to Dubai and a 9 hour wait for connection. So technically we lose a night as we would have to leave the hotel late Thursday night for departure to the airport.

Just wondering if anyone has had similar, and if there’s anything we can do about it or do we just have to accept it?
TIA

Sounds very frustrating and seems significant to you as you lose a night’s stay.
Holiday companies terns and conditions often differentiate between major and minor changes when offering compensation.
I seem to recall a change of less than 12 hours being described as minor by some companies. I don’t know the loss of a night’s stay is covered separately.
I think you need to check TUI’s own terms and conditions, or maybe contact them to see if there are any other flights which might be a better fit for you.

I think they will say less than 12 hours is minor but you really should get compensation because you have paid for a hotel room that you won’t really get to sleep in. I’m assuming flights have been consolidated. Shame it’s not a direct flight home. Could they offer this instead?

Since this has happened more than two weeks in advance, you aren't covered by EU261 in terms of compensation.

If there are other flights that would work better, you can try to request that they change you to them and/or cancel and get a refund. I believe that Tui uses 12 hours as their "major change" - so they may not agree (plus you are unlikely to find something at a similar price at this point, so cancelling is probably not what you want), but could be worth a try.

What else does the email say?

I've had this happen to me a lot and normally the email says 'we have rebooked you on ABC flight but contact us on XYZ if this is not suitable/you are unable to proceed with the rescheduled flight'.

Generally I would search online first to see if there's an alternative flight I'd rather be on, then call and ask them to move me. The quicker the better, before everyone else on your original flight does the same.