Has ANYONE had a refund for their TUI cancelled holiday?

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

I was due to be on the plane right now and despite them saying on their phone line messages, that they were proactively contacting people who were due to fly imminently, we've had no phone call.
And if you call their line you get put on hold for well over an hour and no answer.

I should have just returned from Jamaica yesterday. Had a call from them on the 25th March and an email to confirm refund should be within 4 weeks but not holding my breath. This holiday cost a small fortune ( 12k ) and I have another holiday booked on the 5th August ( Greece ). I tried to pay 300 pound off this holiday just after Christmas ( Balance was 5800 ) and Tui took the full amount, which was a massive shock but knowing it had to be paid by May I left it. Now I am massively concerned that they have over 18k of my money and the chances of a holiday this year are slim to none. We will not be in a position next year to go away as much as my children will be 11 and 15 so doing exams, etc. A friend of mine who was due to travel on the same holiday as us but 5 days earlier ( No kids ) were told they would have their refund 3 Fridays ago, then 2 Fridays ago and now they are still waiting. Not sure how this is going to play out but I suspect Tui are either A) Hoping everyone claims from their insurance company or credit card company or B) putting off the refunds hoping the government changes the policy to allow them to only offer vouchers. If they do this ( Which is illegal ) then there are only going to be problems further down the line with Tui effectively having to give free holidays as they don't have the money now and wont have it then, this will in turn mean that holiday prices are only going to go through the roof to allow Tui to keep trading, which will mean all the vouchers people receive, they will have to top up as the same holiday will probably be close to double what they have paid for the same holiday this year.

@Haddog33

I think you are right. I priced up the same holiday I should have taken for the same time next year as I am pragmatic and I do want to support the travel industry but it was 25% more expensive even after their £50 a person discount. We might not even have jobs by then and so I couldn't justify paying the extra.

My 28 days are up next Tuesday. I will start hounding them then.

I think that is all we can do. The price is 25% more now and will keep heading up as they get more and more desperate I think. I hope I am wrong but I can't see any other way. Apparently the phones have been turned off now so not sure what is happening. What I do find strange is I haven't heard of a single refund issued as of yet? The 1st cancelations were on the 14th March I think ( Certainly to Jamaica ) which was 32 days ago, surely we would have heard of people starting to get refunds now. When they called me on the 25th he said it will be 28 days after the refund is issued so I asked when are you issuing the refund and he said I have no idea??? I then asked am I going to get my money back this year and his response was " well I hope so". That is not very promising at all.

I have just priced up the same for next year and even a year in advance it is 1900 more expensive now. Even my Greece holiday to book now is nearly 800 more expensive???

TUI rang me and I have an email confirming my refund and it says within 4 weeks but nothing yet. It’s coming close to 4 weeks so wondering what to do next

Our holiday was £2.5k this year and is a £2.25 now. I could be tempted to book the low deposit for this as it's the only hotel I want to visit, but I've lost confidence in booking even for Easter next year as noone knows what next Autumn/Winter will bring in terms of the virus.

We are booked to go in June with Tui, on the 17th which is the day they have said they plan on resume flighing. We have tried to amend it to the exact same holiday the same week next year, because dh is on furlough now and we wont really have any spending money.
They wanted an extra 2k! We already paid 2.5k. Now I'm praying travel advice changes so we can get a refund, although reading this thread even that doesnt fill me with much hope

Has anyone seen the latest on the TUI website? Looks like credit notes rather than cash refunds....
but underneath it says if you have already been offered a refund you will get it (eventually).
What an utter shambles!

That is an absolute joke. It is another delaying tactic by this once creditable company. You can not apply for a cash refund until you have received you refund credit? How are they getting away with that? I have already been offered a full refund but I still have another holiday in August, which will probably be cancelled too. I can only see me getting back credit notes for 2 holidays. I can not believe they are getting away with that.

Bunch of absolute wankers, I would never use them again. I hope they go bust.

Reading into it, apparently you can still ask for cash but if you haven't already been told that you will receive a cash refund you have to wait to receive your refund credit and then call them to ask for cash.
A huge faff and probably nigh on impossible seeing as they seem to have given up on answering their phones.

We are due to go on August with First Choice. Not expecting to hear anything yet but they are still taking my direct debit payments and still sending me marketing emails trying to get me to book elsewhere.

I cancelled my holiday on 4th March. I accepted I'd lose my deposit. I had an email to say I'd have my refund by 15th March. I still haven't had anything. They aren't answering phones, emails or Twitter. They are holding on to £3000 of my hard earned money

Tui are now only offering vouchers will post link

www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/travel/tui-changes-refund-policy-cancelled-18109876?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wales_main

It's an absolute disgrace. They are using the fact that the virus is a much bigger problem and much more important as a cover for not doing the right things and giving people their money back. I know the staff are wfh etc but the shops could open with one or two staff to handle some of the work : even if it was for a few hours each day. Easy to isolate in a shop if there were only a few people in.
The company was given a bail out by the German government not that long ago and I bet their CEO earns a fortune too.
We want our money back. It's not hard.

I've heard rumours they may go bust.

Facebook has reams of unhappy costumers on there and their reputation is in shreds.
I will never book with them again.
We did get through to first choice and she said ' here's the number for Tui' the one that has taken some people two or more hours to get through to! Disgraceful behaviour!
We have saved up for ages for one week away and I could do with that money now same as hundreds of other people!
We save taken it up with the credit card people but they are also short staffed.

I agree that their customer service has been appalling.

But according to their twitter they are still offering cash refunds

here.

I just hope this will extend to August. I am now in the awful position of trying to home school 2 children and do extra shifts to make the payments for a holiday I probably wont get to go on. Its been a bit of a nightmare TBH. When I booked it last summer I had a plan worked out of the extra shifts I needed to do in the year and it was workable, butnot now.

12 months is ridiculous.
And, as far as I was aware, not legal!

Just an update and a bit of positive news. My friends that were travelling just before us have now received a refund of the £250 deposit they paid. Now there is some confusion as to why its the £250 deposit that has only been refunded. For some reason my friends paid the deposit on their bank card and the remaining balance on their credit card so we are hoping they have refunded the lot but it just takes a bit longer to show up on a credit card? Anyway something is happening and hopefully this will give you all a bit of hope for getting your money back. I will update during the week as things develop but I was due to fly 4 days after them so I am hoping by the end of the week I have my money back. I paid for the whole holiday on the same card so hopefully this will be easier when it comes to refunds.

The travel agencies are campaigning to have a temporary change to the regulations so that they can provide a credit note instead of a refund. The credit note would have a set validity that you could use it for, and if you have not used it by the end of the validity, you would get a refund at that point.
TUI are members of the campaigning group -
savefuturetravel.co.uk/more-information

Until this is approved or rejected, they are not going to issue refunds. Part of the problem is that airlines and hotels are not refunding them, so they just don't have the money to give. The credit note would give them more time to get this, and I assume they would hope that many people would use it for rebooking.

The credit note is not the same as a travel voucher - if you take a travel voucher you will not get any refund if the company goes under.

@Haddog33 fingers crossed! When were you due to travel? 27th March for us.
Unfortunately we paid on my DH's credit card and for some reason he doesn't want to check his account regularly (I would be checking all the time!!) and has refused to start a section 75 claim. I shall badger him to look today.

Hi, My friends were due to travel on the 27th March and we were due to travel the following Tuesday ( 31st March ) all going to Jamaica. I think he had started his claim with his credit card as he was told a couple of dates for refund and they have come and gone. I think the best thing would be to start the claim once you get to the 28 days ( As your date was the same as my friends, I think he told me this morning that 28 days from departure is sometime this week ) and if you get a refund in the mean time you can just let the credit card company know. I paid for mine on my Debit card so I take out travel insurance separately as I don't like using credit cards.

My friend had the email confirming cancellation on the 16th March and I received mine on the 25th March. (9 days later ) and he was supposed to fly 4 days before me so I am hoping that in either 4 days or 9 days I will get my money back, if that makes sense.

Hmm nothing back yet. I had my email confirmation on 24th March so maybe I have a few more days to wait.

I think you will be about the same as me. He had the confirmation email on the 16th, I got mine on the 25th.

But a credit note is taking the mickey if they ridiculously raise the prices on future dates.
Ive not booked with TUI, I’ve got flights booked with BA for the end of June to go out to Turkey for the first two weeks of July. If I change the flight dates they’ll charge me fees. lol f they cancel the flight I’ll be offered a voucher, but travel booked on the voucher has to be completed within 12 months of the original outward journey - so I can’t just rebook for the first two weeks of July next year. I can’t go earlier because 3 of our group will be at uni, term won’t have ended. Sigh.