Holiday Balance - HELP!

[SB1971]

So - we have a holiday booked to Menorca end July.
Deposit of £400 paid and balance over just over £4k due on Saturday.
We had travel insurance - an annual policy to cover a trip in April but it was due to run out early July and I didn't extend before Corona -protection vanished - this was a huge error I realise.
So - do I pay the balance and hope it is cancelled and refunded as a whole or not pay the balance and lose the £400 deposit.

Advice seems conflicting on Martin Lewis etc
Any advice would be great!

We transferred deposit to a holiday next year at no extra cost, this was with Jet2. Is that an option for you?

I’m sorry I don’t know the answer, but what I will say is many people who have had their holidays cancelled are struggling to get the money back. The travel agents would like to return the cash, but the bulk of it is being held by the airlines and the hotels.

In your case, if you would need the £4K back quickly, I wouldn’t pay it at all and just accept the loss of the £400.

Can you move the date of the holiday?

I would cancel and lose the deposit rather than have to fight to get 4k back later in the year. We were due to go in Aug and I've let the deposit go rather than pay out more money.

Alternatively a lot of companies are allowing date changes to 2021 at no cost. I personally didn't do this because I wanted to save as much as possible in case of redundancy due to the pandemic.

I’d lose the £400.

@Monkeytapper We are trying to do the same with jet2 - call centre is closed for inbound calls and still waiting for a response to email/twitter.
How long did it take for them to get back to you please?

Depends who you're booked with. Jet2 are handling this really well and are allowing people to transfer bookings and even refunding, but not until nearer the time of the holiday, as obviously we don't know whether a late July holiday will go ahead - I'd say more likely to be not, but you never know.

If you can delay the holiday until next year, you won't have to pay any more until much nearer the time, so you just leave your deposit with them for now, which is a lot better than just straight giving it up now.

Thanks all - it's so tricky!
They won't let us move the deposit till next year so it's either pay the balance or lose the deposit.
I think they will cancel it and then we will get the whole lot back but it is a risk if they open up flights to the island again yet the FCO advises against travel..

We booked the jet2 holiday through Hayes Travel agency so we were able to go through the lady from Hayes who amended it for us. We decided to transfer a couple of weeks ago as holiday booked for end of August this year so I knew it was a no-go and don’t want to pay balance. Saw a good deal for next year so transferred it over, my thoughts were that prices are going to go up and up so wanted to sort it sooner than later.

Above response to you @Wired4sound

I'd lose the deposit. We're struggling to get money back for a package holiday that we were supposed to take early April. Insurance company won't do anything as it's the package companies responsibility. They won't do anything either.

It's not worth the hassle tbh so we're just waiting to see what happens but unless you don't mind doing that with £4000 I would just lose the deposit.

FWIW I'm not sure if your insurance policy may be valid if it was in place when you booked the trip and if it automatically renews? May be worth asking.

£400 isn’t much against £4K. Honestly just cut your losses.

We are getting a refund from.Jet2 within 2 weeks.

Say goodbye to the £400

My holiday balance is due in 2 weeks but have already decided to cancel. I can't see the holiday happening but as others have said I'd prefer to have the money in my bank rather than trying to claim it back. My holiday is with Jet2 and they are dealing with it better than some companies, if it's a TUI holiday I would definitely just lose the deposit, they're not coming out of this in the greatest of lights!

My parents were in a similar situation.

They decided to cancel and lose the deposit.

Overall they felt the risk of handing over more money was too great on the basis we can't even be sure which businesses will survive this crisis, so even if you should theoretically get your money back it's not guaranteed.

@Monkeytapper Thank you for that, really helpful. We booked direct and I’m kicking myself cos we’ve got a Hayes travel in our village.
We will wait it out, thanks again

I’d give up the £400. £4K is a lot of money to gamble with and like you say, without effective insurance, going on holiday, even if allowed is risky to the extreme so even if move it, there is no guarantee that insurance companies will change their policies until a vaccine has been rolled out which could be a year or two away.