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 have been wondering he same, our holiday is in October and I have paid £800 so far. I am it paying anymore, just waiting to see what happens. As you say a voucher for a company that no longer exists is not worth having.

I'm in the same situation. I'll be paying my balance in full and will take a reschedule or credit note.

If they go bust the money is protected by ATOL isn't it?

@SunshineOutdoors we are in exactly the same position. Paid £200 deposit under the low deposit scheme for August holiday. Remaining deposit of £600 was due 2 weeks ago. I haven’t paid and it and I’m not paying anymore. Had a reminder email from Tui last week which I’ve ignored. I know I’m in breach of contract but I’m willing to lose the £200 and risk them taking me to court for the £600. I doubt they will, especially seeing as it’s highly unlikely the holiday will go ahead. I’d rather have my £7.5k in my bank going towards my mortgage thank you very much rather than be receiving a credit refund from them.

You can cancel, and get your £200 back.

If you are unable to travel due to government restrictions, then legally speaking, the contract is frustrated due to supervening illegality - you haven’t ‘cancelled’ at all.

Always worth checking the legal position before looking at the contractual details. The contract (the T&Cs) is only ever able to add to your statutory rights, not remove the legal protection you already have.

Don’t pay any more, and commence a claim against them for the £200 if they are difficult about it.

You will probably have to wait until the date of the trip has passed though, as you can’t claim anticipatory frustration (as in you can’t claim before before the frustration has actually occurred)

I was in the exact same situation and moved our holiday to next year. Had to pay the remaining £600 deposit but at least that’s all I now need to pay until next May.

@Rollergirl11 I think that’s what we’ll do too. £600 was due a few days ago but we haven’t heard from them yet. Surely they’ll have bigger fish to fry than try and chase us up for this? And they’ll get to keep the £200 for nothing!

@Ozzie9523 I’m concerned about booking for a year’s time too. Even if tui still exists then, what about the hotel, the airline etc. I just don’t think I can rely on the atol protection - would do in usual circumstances but the amount of people who may try to claim is really putting me off. I sincerely hope you get your holiday next year though. I think as soon as we’re allowed to holiday I’m just going to book a ferry, stick the tent in the car and have a (much cheaper) adventure holiday instead. With dc 8 and 6, what could go wrong?

@SunshineOutdoors same here. Paid £200 low deposit further £600 due last week. The have sent a reminder email to pay the £600 which I’ve ignored. When I looked to cancel, it states we would still owe the remaining £600. I’m not sure how they would enforce that though. I’ve done nothing

@SunshineOutdoors there is another thread posted with quite a few people in similar situations

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3873298-tui-low-deposit-august-holiday

Someone on that thread said they have had an email threatening court action after they ignored a reminder for payment. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since I should have paid and a week since I had the email saying the deposit was outstanding so I’m expecting another email tomorrow perhaps. I’ll keep you posted. I just can’t see that they will take it further. There will be loads of people in the same boat and they have enough on their hands trying to sort out refunds/credits for holidays already cancelled. With every day they’ll have more holidays to sort out!

If you pay via credit card is the money not then insured if the holiday company go under ? That's what we thought and paid the full balance of our TUI holiday via credit card .

I assume that in the instance where they are threatening court action, they are doing so on the basis that non-payment is a breach of t&c’s but I really can’t see how any tour operator can claim they are upholding their end of the t&c’s at the moment. My contract with virgin says I can make amendments at any time (subject to a fee) and that ‘customers are the centre of our world’ yet every time I ring they put the phone down on me, won’t answer what’s app messages and refuse to answer my concerns! Surely customer service is a basic part of any company upholding their contract?!

They are taking the piss, taking customers money for holidays that are highly unlikely to happen this summer. OP I would cancel it before the next payment is due, better to loose £200 than £800 and having to go to great painful lengths to try and get this back in the future with no guarantees that you will.

*I'm in the same situation. I'll be paying my balance in full and will take a reschedule or credit note.

If they go bust the money is protected by ATOL isn't it?

@ChipsAndKetchup* If you can afford to risk this than go ahead but there are no guarantees of anything anymore and when the chips are down these companies will do anything to wriggle out of their responsibilities.

I'm waiting for a refund from them ( was meant to go in early April)
Not had a penny back.
I don't understand why they are making people pay the whole thing first ..of course, people pay it and it'll take them months to refund! It's up to you to weigh up the costs of losing a deposit , but be prepared for a long wait to see your money again if you pay the whole thing.
Twitter and facebook are all over this but they don't care , don't answer their phones and generally been awful.

@BackInTime the issue is that in order to cancel we have to pay the remaining deposit which is equal to £200 per person. A lot of us have only paid the low deposit of £50 per person and the rest of the deposit is payable upon cancellation by the customer. So I am not going to cancel or make payment in the hope that Tui will just cancel the holiday. But they might come after the remaining deposit of £600. I really doubt that they will and am going to stick it out but lots of people are worried about being taken to court so are amending their holidays instead to push the payment dates out. I will just continue to do nothing and call Tui’s bluff that they’ll sue me for non payment.