How do you know if your holiday is cancelled?

[janinlondon]

If your holiday company doesn't contact you at all prior to your departure date, how do you know that your holiday is cancelled? Or more specifically, how do you know that the company considers the holiday cancelled? I am thinking here of a major package villa holiday supplier. No way to contact them as the phone cuts off after being on hold for 20 minutes and they are not responding to emails. All the online advice I can find is about "If your holiday is cancelled....".

We knew ours was cancelled as TUI had said online all holidays were cancelled until 15/05 and we were due to travel 4/05, they then emailed us about 2 days before we would have been due to go.
As far as I'm aware all major travel companies are doing the same and just keep updating their dates for when travel is cancelled until so if you travel after that your holiday is still going ahead

Thanks - I know Tui did a blanket date cancellation. Others haven't though. Anyone with any similar problem please? My holiday company's website say please don't contact us until three days before travel...but no one can get through anyway.

Ds has this with Expedia and I'm unsure how to advise him.

I do think its affecting thousands of people...are they just hoping they can say we cancelled the holiday? Or failed to show? And this story is not helping - my holiday is not with On the Beach but you get the idea of where they are going with this.
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/ryanair-tell-customer-we-not-18260532

look at their website? They all have statements saying to what date holidays are cancelled to.

Hahahaha. Good one Hersetta!!
No. They do not.

Well i have holidays booked with TUI and Jet2 and they both do.

What travel company are you booked with (not travel agent, your airline or package provider?)

When are you due to travel?

I was avoiding naming (not really sure why - I am odd). Its VillaPlus. Many reviewers online saying they are now a week past departure and still haven't been told their holiday is cancelled. The company website says they will not contact everyone, and they will not respond to anyone who has a holiday departure date more than three days away. Ours is not till first week of June, so I am asking well in advance. Easyjet are allowing me to check in online for the flights, and villaplus online booking manager is offering me a timed visit from the local rep on our first day of the holiday.

To be honest whilst the government travel restriction is still in place no one is going anywhere so until that changes I would assume you are not travelling.

I'm not really in a position to presume anything. My problem is partly to do with annual leave bookings and the NHS but I left that out as its not really relevant. I simply need to cancel or confirm my leave dates and I need to find out if my holiday is cancelled. And as that Manchester News story above shows....some holidays are presumed to be going ahead...There are still flights leaving every day...and no one is stopping tourists unless they are being denied entry to the destination country, FCO advice or not. I am in no way alone in this - how do we find out if our holidays are cancelled??

Easyjet have said on their website they are only cancelling 7 days ahead. Given the major tour operators like TUI and Jet2 have already cancelled holidays beyond your date of travel I think it pretty safe to say you won't be going.

Thanks Hersetta, but I'm not looking for people to guess the likelihood of my holiday going ahead. I need to know how I can find out, prior to the departure day, if my holiday is cancelled.

The only way you’re going to find out is by contacting the company you booked it with op. Are they on Twitter?

Then why ask on an internet forum instead of contacting the company direct?

That’s very poor customer service for Villaplus, we have had quite a few trips with them and they are usually very good for customer service IMHO. I can only assume they don’t know themselves yet. I hope you get an answer soon OP.

Hersetta - please see my very first post - they are not answering emails or the telephone, and the website specifically states that they are not able to contact all customers, and that we should not try to contact them.

Thanks Roselilly - we are also veterans with VP and have never seen anything like this. There is of course much speculation online saying they are going under....its the fact that they are not telling people their holiday is cancelled until a week after it was due to start that is unbelievable...

We're going with villa plus and person who booked has said to us that people are being contacted 5 days before travel and refunds issued then. Holiday should be next weekend so I can update you if I hear more. Booking is not in my name.

Thank you blueflower - the website did say five days, then they changed it to three, and now it says it is not possible to contact all customers, so please do report back!!

BlueflowerRedthorns - did Villaplus contact your group before your departure date?

Just found this thread, we are due to travel with villa plus in a few weeks so am keeping my eye on the situation, especially as we are due to go to a country with no restrictions.

janinlondon have they contacted you at all? I read a few comments on their Facebook page from customers suggesting they are going into administration which is not good if true. It seems very strange there are no dates out for next year yet.

Barefoot - no, they are not contacting anyone prior to holiday departure date. We booked a package with flights, and can see that Easyjet have now cancelled both the outward and inbound legs (though only in the last few days - they are hanging on to the very end!). Are you booked with a package or villa only? I saw the writing on the wall on this back before lockdown and added flights to our villa to make it a package, but a lot of people have not done that and I think villaplus are playing hard ball with them....The first you will know of anything is if they refund you, from what I can see on all the fora....

We have villa and flights so fully protected. Not due to fly for a few weeks and we're going to Portugal which appears to be one of the only countries happy to let us in! I'm just wondering if they are quietly going bust. I hope you get your refund sorted quickly. We've used them for years but seeing the way they've handled everything this year is not making me want to book with them again.

We are due to fly tomorrow to Mallorca. Still not a single email or text or call from Villaplus and still no way to contact them. Have to just sit and hope for a refund I guess. I don't even know how they refund us? Does the money go back onto the credit card? I guess that's the least of our worries!

Some companies are being more proactive than others, so who knows how long it can take. There's also the real issue that companies who have to make a lot of refunds might run out of money and go bust.

You might be able to move your booking until next year, but you are entitled to a refund, so if VillaPlus are still off radar you could try for a section 75 refund or a chargeback on your credit card rather than risking waiting for them to deal with it.

Look on moneysavingexpert, they have guides for all aspects of coronavirius help including travel, that will walk you through what you need to do.