Are Tui about to go bust?

[Afterfire]

I booked a holiday for 2023 this weekend. It’s our first “proper” holiday as a family and a huge amount of money to us. When I first booked it I was very excited and I did the usual things of checking trip advisor and google for reviews of the resort and overwhelmingly the reviews were really positive so went ahead and booked it all.

Since then I’ve joined a few Facebook groups related to Tui and the hotel itself (also Tui) and I’m starting to panic a bit because there are so many complaints - people being left stranded at airports for hours (literally 10 plus hours) without any communication, whole holidays being cancelled at the last minute etc etc. The actual Tui Facebook page itself it’s flooded with complaints and people being unable to contact anyone.

I’ve only paid the deposit so far and given the holiday isn’t till 2023 I’ve got time to work out what to do.

Several of the comments on Facebook suggest Tui is £600m in debt and owned by a Russian whose funds have been severed by the war sanctions…. No idea if that’s true or not?!

Do people still trust Tui? Are they as bad as they seem now? Would I be better to cancel or is this just a case of things being all a bit of a shit show after covid and it will get back to normal by the time we go do you think?

Little bump…..

Hope not! Following in case anyone has further info.

Make sure you have decent travel insurance. This will cover you if they do go bust.

Just had a Google, largest shareholder was sanctioned by EU back in February, share price has dropped but has been lower, most recent profit announcement was positive. I’m not an expert but it doesn’t look too terrible, they are in lots of debt, but so is the entire travel industry. Nothing to suggest things are worse now than last month.

Is the parent company not German?

Alexey Mordashov is the largest private shareholder and a Russian billionaire and he has sanctions against him. I think all tour operators are going to struggle after covid, it's been a tough 2 years for the travel industry.

We returned from a Tui holiday in Menorca yesterday. We had a wonderful time, the first time we have been away since 2019. We returned to a hotel we had been to previously and it was exactly as we remembered. Our flight was on time and everything went without a hitch. Everyone seemed pleased to see tourists again, even usually dour passport control were smiley.

I thought they had cornered the market

Returned from tui holiday today, stayed in a tui hotel, and could not fault the hotel in any aspect

Have a tui holiday booked for later in the year, and am not long back from another one.
not worried at all.

Holiday bookings are higher than pre covid so I doubt it.
What has been a problem is staffing. Airlines as well as tour operators virtually shut down in 2020. Everyone was furloughed and many of those trained people found jobs elsewhere. The upsurge in bookings seems to have caught them on the hop as well as staff being off sick with covid.
Tui is the only proper tour operator left apart from Jet2.
I rate Jet2 highly but they have also had some very unhappy customers lately.

Tui are abta and atol protected, so I wouldn’t spend a single second worrying about it. If they went bust (which I very much doubt) you’d get your money back.

I’m currently away with TUI, no sign of trouble. Btw Gatwick security was fine

I heard that too, definitely rumours on the ground. I think they found the pandemic and their overheads very difficult. It has been in trouble for years on and off.

I’m of on a Tui holiday on Sat
As I didn’t book or pay for the holiday I didn’t get choice
but if I had a choice or I was paying for the holiday I wouldn’t touch Tui

No, it really won’t. Bankruptcy or liquidation of a tour operator is a general exclusion on most travel insurance policy terms and conditions.

That’s not to say travel insurance isn’t important, it really is, but it won’t cover you if a company goes bust.

Tui won't be going anywhere, they are struggling with staffing issues like the rest of the industry as a previous poster said. I work in the travel industry on the supplier/ operator side and its an industry wide problem - everyone left and found work elsewhere and its proving challenging to recruit. Iworked for Tui until around 6 years ago and there were always hundreds if complaints across forums, FB pages etc but honestly these are just a fraction of the sheer numbers of passengers they carry every year.

I feel sorry for those that might get stranded. When a travel firm goes tits up so many people suffer the consequences. I will never forget the families on holiday that were basically held hostage and forced to pay the travel companies bills when the pandemic started.

I would take out extra insurance, make sure you have the funds to book private flights home and to stay elsewhere and be prepared for all eventualities if you are travelling with them. You can mitigate against some of the issues that way if they go to the wall whilst you are overseas. They usually suspend operations immediately, so there will be no notice given when the creditors are called in.

I am sure Monkey pox is going to have an effect, there are many problems. Not just the Russian owner.

I imagine it's rare to go and look for a Facebook group unless you're pretty annoyed at the service you've received. I wouldn't worry.

People spent all day in an airport yesterday waiting for a TUI flight only for it then to be cancelled until the next day, on a smaller plane so some people’s holidays just got completely cancelled.

@Swayingpalmtrees I don't think a TUI customer is the kind of demographic that has money out aside for private flights home. That's a ridiculous suggestion.

Can't comment on whether or not they're likely to go bust, but you're protected by ATOL/ABTA, anyway, so won't lose money even if you lose your holiday.

Also, you get extra protection if you pay for some or all of your holiday on a credit card - we got the cost of new, more expensive, flights refunded when Monarch went bust 2 days before we were due to fly with them.

I did notice that they had some spectacular deals when I was looking for a holiday at the end of June a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately their dates didn't work for us for where we wanted to go, but if anyone is looking for a week in the Med any time soon and are flexible with exactly where/when, it's probably worth a look (see above re ATOL and paying on credit card, just in case).

Also deals on AI in Mexico. You could get a week there for less than you might expect to pay for B&B in the Med.

Frigging hope not!

Tui are ATOL protected so if they do go bust tourists will be helped to go home via other operators so you won't need money for private flights. The tourists stranded overseas in the pandemic were trapped because all airlines ceased flying so it was a completely different situation.