Would you carry on paying for tui holiday?

[SunshineOutdoors]

Hi, I’m interested in opinions on this, please. We booked with tui in January for a package holiday to Menorca in August. I’m fully expecting not to go, however so far we’ve only paid a small deposit (£200), another instalment is due soon. We were going to cancel and just suck up the £200, however have now found out that because the low deposit was a special offer, it will actually cost £800 to cancel.

Would you keep paying (total holiday price about £3,700) and hope that a refund will happen nearer the time? Or suck up the £800? (Not easy to do).

I don’t want to spend £800 on nothing, but it seems a big gamble to pay more money into this. Will a refund really happen if holiday is cancelled? Even if the company goes out of business?

We need to decide at least 70 days before holiday otherwise the cancellation charge will increase. What would you do, please?

I don't have any advice I'm afraid but watching with interest.
I had booked a holiday this summer with Tui for a relatives wedding. They have moved the wedding to next summer instead so the plan is to just pay the fee to change the dates to next summer, but worried if they may go out of business?

We had a TUI holiday booked for July, which we had paid in full. We decided we weren't going, even in the remote possibility of being able to. If it's 70 before days of your holiday you can cancel and lose deposit (£1000) for us. Or you can change the the dates of your holiday - there was no fee to do this, but we did have to pay slightly more due to more expensive flights. We swapped to pretty much same dates next year, and again can cancel and just lose deposit before 70 days of new holiday dates. Have read a lot about people who wait for their holiday to be cancelled byTUI/travel restrictions only being offered vouchers. Not sure what will happen if TUI go bust in either situation.

Just cancel. We’ve just done the same - we didn’t have to pay the rest of the deposit.

If you cancel report the credit card/ debit card stolen.
That way you get a new card new number and they can’t get the money of the card

Nope. Dont trust that they wont squirm out of a reimbursement. Or change their company form enabling them to not have to refund.

Do you have insurance? Surely that will cover it if booked pre lockdown etc?

Where did you find out that it will cost £800 rather than £200 to cancel? We're in the same position and have paid £200. The next part of our deposit was due 23 April but I just checked my Tui account online and it seems to have been rolled over so that they are now saying the whole remaining balance is due in May I.e. they haven't charged us the remaining £800 deposit.

I would just suck up the lost £200. Did you pay the deposit on a credit card? As you have more consumer rights if you did.

Can’t you change the date online and push it back to next year? Why lose the money?! They got a large billion pound loan, so I think they’ll be ok with regards to surviving the crisis too.

I was meant to be going to Croatia with Tui on 26th May. I cancelled early March as my DD said she was worried about going with the virus emerging everywhere (the is before things started closing down). I took a hit and lost £400 deposit. I did wonder about moving the holiday instead of cancelling but having had a holiday booked with Thomas cook in December and being affected when they went under I decided against it.

I have just paid my balance knowing there is very little chance we’re going (July).

As it stands we will be credited with a voucher 4 weeks after departure date and then once we receive that can apply for a refund. Vouchers are ATOL protected so if TUI does go bust we are protected. Also have holiday insurance (booked before the pandemic) and paid on credit card.

We can’t move our dates yet without an admin fee but once allowed to do that we’ll see what the prices are for next summer and rebook. I’m a teacher and we only go away in the peak summer holidays.

I didn’t want to lose the £800 initial deposit. Yes I may not be going on holiday this year but my holiday for next year is paid for!

If you cancel report the credit card/ debit card stolen.
That way you get a new card new number and they can’t get the money of the card

This isn't true btw. Giving them cared details to take future payment gives 'continuous payment authority' and is perfectly legal for them to take payment from the new card. You don't need to update the card number because the authority means the bank will accept the payment request.

I'd pay the balance. If the holiday's cancelled you'll receive a full refund from TUI. If you don't pay anything further, you'll lose the deposit.

Look at Twitter and Facebook and also at the experiences of Thomas cook customers after they went bust. It is not easy to get refunded. There are still people waiting for refunds after 6 weeks. I wouldn’t risk it.

I am due to pay Virgin our remaining balance of several thousand next month, we were planning to pay and hold out to see if we could go this year and get the promised refund if they (probably will) cancel. BUT I’ve seen people posting on Facebook/Twitter over the weekend that virgin have told them a refund might take up to 7 months to process! So no chance am I paying it now!

We’ve paid a £200 deposit to Britanny Ferries but will not be going (ours is end of September). I’ve emailed them to see if they’ll issue a credit note against next years trip (doubtful).

I saw Martin Lewis on tv telling everyone to pay the final balance as you’ll be covered by ABTA anyway. I won’t be. Can you imagine how many people will be bringing claims? You aren’t issuing cash refunds and if they did they’d go bust. Given the situation, I wouldn’t like to place my faith in ABTA. And if it did go tits up, refunding holidaymakers is hardly going to be top of the government’s To Do list.

I'm in a similar situation with a Jet2 holiday. I think I'm going to write off the £240 rather than pay it all and fight to get it all back.

*Tui aren’t issuing cash refunds

We were due to travel with TUI in August. I decided to take the hit on losing the deposit (1k) and cancelled.

Main reason for this was because paying the rest would take up a sizeable chunk of our savings (another 5 k) the economy and our jobs feel more insecure now so I don't have the same confidence about having an expensive holiday.

I'd rather have that money in the bank as a fall back if things go sideways. It's not easy to write off a grand but I felt it was better than spending months trying to claw back 6k from TUI who may not even survive as company through this.

I’m personally not putting my faith in ATOL either, they took forever to settle Thomas Cook claims (mine included) and their funds are reportedly running low after that. If air travel doesn’t pick up soon I imagine many businesses will go bust, how will ATOL find the money to pay out in such massive amounts?

I managed a charge back on my card when Flybe went bust.

Paid in 4 weeks or so.

Thanks all. I think we’re going to try and cancel, but I’m reluctant to pay the additional £600 to do this. Will see how it goes but I can’t see them having much power or inclination to try and make us pay it. So hopefully will only be £200 lost.

What annoys me most is that the company are saying if your holiday is booked from 1st July onwards they’re still hoping to take you on holiday! Really??? Surely there’s no chance we’ll be going even in August.

I am due to pay my balance for August soon and am in 2 mins. I would rather lose the £400 deposit than risk the rest which is about 3K.
If it goes belly up and we have vouchers then they may not be worth anything. I can't see Italy open for holiday makers in August.

Not sure how they can enforce you to pay an extra £600 to cancel surely at some point when you haven't made the payments due they would cancel your booking themselves due to non payment