TUI Cancellations...advice?

[caniputthewashingout]

Hi everyone. i could see old threads from last year but none recently apologies if I've missed it....
to cut a long story short we have a summer holiday to Italy booked for August, we paid the low deposit of £150. My partner lost his job last week so we decided we need to cancel the holiday.
Trued yo do it online- no option to do so even though it says you can, so I rang up and after 1.5 hrs got through to a guy. He said it would cost £400 (full deposit) to cancel so he would advise waiting to see if they cancel it. But as I explained to him - we can't afford the full balance if the holiday was to go ahead - hence why I want to cancel, and I can't afford to pay the extra £250 right now. He said the Finance team would call me back within 24 hours. No call. I just checked my booking online & it hasn't been cancelled despite me asking. Tried to call again and recorded message says over an hour wait - I don't have time to do this with work.
Wondering if anyone else had had this and what you did? I am worried that we may now be within the timescales of them asking for even more money to cancel, even though I already asked and they haven't done it.

thanks to anyone who responds.

You will have to pay the rest of the £400 deposit to cancel. It does explain that in the T&C when you book. We had similar. We ended up moving the holiday for free to next year, so we haven’t lost any money (yet).

thanks @FrownedUpon - I understand that, but as I explained to them I can't pay it right now - I just don't have it. I assumed the Finance dept were going to call me to make an arrangement but they haven't. So they are essentially withholding cancellation of the holiday until I pay it, by which point I am worried I will owe even more.

I guess that's not really their problem though, it's yours. I would try and call them back to talk through it again.

I guess I will have to Apollo. Yes it is my problem, but if I can't pay the extra £250, I'm not sure how they expect me to potentially pay more further down the line. I explained I could probably pay the £250 in a few weeks just not right now.

When do you have to pay the balance?

Can you wait a couple of weeks until you have the £250 and then cancel.

They are within their T&Cs to ask for the payment to cancel.

Try and get a hold of the finance departments number if you can OP, they should help you set up a plan.

It's probably likely that they can't cancel it on their system until payment has been arranged for the extra £250, which is probably why it's still showing on your online account. (Although I'm just guessing with that, I have no experience with TUI, just that I know other companies are similar to the above)

thanks both. I am off work on Friday so will try to get though to them then and ask to speak to the finance department. I suppose I am just worrying about this on top of other bills we will now be struggling to pay.

Do you have travel insurance that would cover the redundancy?

sadly not @SJaneS49 😒

This is why you should buy travel insurance at the time of booking!

You will need to pay the deposit to cancel if that is in their t&c. They may just take the money from your account/card if you don't pay on time.

@caniputthewashingout exact same problem for us last summer, we couldn't pay the next instalment, we lost our deposit

Can you not move it to next year (and make sure you save up the £400 deposit during the next 12 months if you still need to cancel then)?

@bunburycucumbersandwich I do have travel insurance-, bit it doesn't cover this scenario - I've asked. They can try to take it fro. my bank, but won't won't able to. That's what I am saying. I am not refusing to pay it, I'm saying I simply don't have tje money right now.

@wouldukissafrog would they allow you a repayment plan for the rest of the deposit?

I suppose I could @caramel81, but to be honest I just want to cancel and not have to worry.

I would move it to next year or even 2023 for free if you can. Hopefully if your partner gets work, you’ll be able to take the holiday then and if not you’ll have time to save up the rest of the £400 deposit.

They won't forego your paying the remainder of the deposit. So you either have to pay the remainder and cancel. Wait and see if they cancel (if they don't you'll have to pay the deposit and cancel). Or move to next year (which is free)

Lots of people want to cancel because of the pandemic but airlines / travel companies are starting to tighten their policies because they can't afford to keep giving refunds. Given Italy's cases, it may very well be that the Foreign office will change their advice and drop the advice not to travel to Italy by August (even if it remains on the amber list) so airlines will start to travel to amber countries and TUI won't cancel.

@caniputthewashingout we were booked to go to lanzarote, we knew it was likely to be cancelled but jet2 were still insisting they would fly there by our date (they didn't) we couldn't afford to pay the rest of the balance so holiday was cancelled with loss of deposit, a few weeks later they did then cancel the holiday anyway but as we hadn't paid the balance in full we had defaulted

thanks all, I will call them on Friday. I suppose I am hoping they will let me cancel then make a payment arrangement to pay off the rest of the deposit. thank you all.