TUI cancellation when low deposit paid

[Twigletgirl27]

I have a holiday to Tenerife booked for November with TUI. I've decided to cancel and lose deposit we have paid (£100) so I don't have to pay £300 next month and balance of around £2000 in September. I thought I'd lose the £100 but trying to cancel online it looks like they say it's the 'full' deposit of £400. I hold my hands up entirely and didn't read the small print but is this correct? Don't rate my chances of actually talking to someone!

I had to remove a person from my booking previously and thought I'd only lose the first part of the deposit that had already been paid (£50) but no, I actually had to pay the rest of their deposit before I could cancel so yes I think you'll lose the £400 sadly.

@moveandmove thank you for your reply. It sounds like a lesson learned sadly. But I don't want to TUI to have over £2000 of my money for a holiday that won't happen 🙈

If you cancel you'll lose the full deposit not the low one.

Just wait until it's cancelled and get it all back if you can afford to wait.

@IGottaGetOuttaThisPlace thank you. They already have £3000 of my money for a holiday supposed to happen next week which is rearranged. I really don't want another £2000+ paid but will have to decide if we can lose £400

You will have to pay the £300 before you can cancel
Why not change to 2021

Hi, there’s a thread with a few of us on who aren’t happy with tui’s non-transparent low deposit scheme and don’t want to pay more money for something that will be cancelled in order to get our money back. I’m not paying any more than the £200 low deposit I paid for a holiday in August that I’m certain won’t happen. It would cost mean extra £600 to cancel. At the moment I’m just not paying and ignoring reminder emails. They can have my £200 but I’m not paying any more.

I think tui’s ‘low deposit’ scheme is misleading because it’s not a low deposit, it’s a partial deposit which isn’t made clear when you book. I believe a holiday company can only charge a reasonable amount for cancelling, i.e. what it will actually cost them. If your holiday’s in November I think that gives them lots of time to resell it (if it’s even able to go ahead then) so if I were you I’d ask them to justify/list why it will cost them £400 to cancel your holiday.

If you don’t pay the full deposit you will be chased for the outstanding amount

here’s the thread if you’re interested

Wow that’s a long thread

It amazes me that people are not paying money that they know they owe

The holiday companies are allowing you to transfer to 2021 which means all money you have paid would be transferred over

It's nothing new - as long as I can recall, the terms of the low deposit schemes for all package operators have been that if you cancel you have to pay the full deposit anyway. I'm not really wanting to defend package operators, but I don't think they can be blamed for people not reading what the terms they agree to are.

Why not ask them if you can transfer it to a deposit on something for next year? That way you lose nothing.

As a general observation, I have always found it quite scary how many people sign up for things - and by that I mean any form of contract - without actually reading the terms.

@moondust001

100% agree

I work In the travel industry and we get our clients to either sign a low deposit form or email it to them which I turn they respond by email to say they have read it

However the amount of people that then decide to cancel and say they didn’t know this is unreal

But why are the holiday companies acting like holidays in August will be happening as normal and asking us to continue paying for them when we all know that’s not the case? I understand what’s been said about small print and in normal circumstances I’d agree and expect to pay the full deposit. But I’m not really the one cancelling here, the situation is, and I can’t get behind the idea that I need to keep paying the full balance of my holiday in order to get money back, and also don’t agree with paying an extra £600 to cancel a holiday that is basically already not going to happen anyway.

I’m not sure about postponing until next year either; for a package holiday that relies on the tour operator, the airline, the hotel and also the coach/taxi transfer company all still being in business in 2021. I’m not confident that will be the case, or that international leisure travel will be back to completely normal either.

The companies will go bust , the airlines will collapse , the hotels will close if people take the attitude “oh it’s not going to happen so I won’t pay “
No one knows what will happen in August not 100%
At the end of the day not paying the rest of ur deposit is breaking a contract and they can demand the money

Ok, that’s a fair point there. It’s hard to know what to do when everyone’s worried about money and what the future holds.

Totally sunshineoutdoors

I work in the travel industry and so worried about my job - like everyone will be but this industry has been hit soooo hard

@SunshineOutdoors, I'm in the same boat. Have paid £200 deposit and keep getting emails for the balance £5000+. Due to travel 20 July.

Emails say to call if we want to amend but can't get through. I'm not paying any of the balance and don't mind losing the £200 deposit.

Don't mind changing to 2021 though but not willing to pay a higher deposit.

Don't really know what to do.

FCO says no international travel anywhere so am not sure why they keep chasing for the balance of a holiday that's not going to happen.