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?

The Tui FB group/page I joined (during Covid, for travel restrictions updates etc) is INSANE.
People going cosmic because their flight was 15 minutes late taking off or they had a 1 hr transfer to the hotel they weren't expecting. Half of them sound like they shouldn't go on a day trip to Bourton on the Water frankly as they have something to complain about everything.

Tui are massive, and apart from the package holiday side have lots of other strings to their bow.

As others have said, they're ATOL protected and you'll have insurance so we're the worst to happen, you're protected.

They are the only package tour company I would book with.

Don't quite know where to start with this😂. MN snobbery at it's finest.

www.postoffice.co.uk/travel-insurance/holiday-company-bust

Not true. I've claimed on travel insurance when a airline went insolvent.

We were on holiday with Crystal (their snow section) in December.
Three days before we were due to leave France closed the border. Within hours Tui had rearranged the flight (and transfers) to go though Spain instead (to Andorra).

You've got to remember... People who have a good holiday won't go online just to praise it. People are more vocal when things go wrong.

Same with passports... there's no group about how quickly someone got their new one, but lots of people worried about delayed ones.

They own so much that its doubtful . I personally can*t stand them !

How on earth is it snobbery to say that people that can afford private jets won’t be using TUI

They just handed back pandemic support money to the German government because of high profits. I would not worry

I’d be shocked! But then again I was shocked when TC went down and heartbroken when Monarch/Cosmos went overnight in 2017 (not least because I lost a job I’d had for 26 years).
BUT, they are ATOL protected.

Went with Tui at Easter and had a great time, great service from Tui the whole way through, used them a few times and would happily do so again.

By the way, I've been twice in recent years with TUI and found them excellent. The airline, the cruise ships and the TUI owned hotels. I've booked for 2023. Feel a lot more confident with them than independent travel currently

Why on earth would your contingency plan for your tour operator going bust be chartering a private jet?

You have ATOL protection, which will give you a refund or send a rescue flight to get you home.
Some people have travel insurance that covers this.
Or like we did, we just put it on a credit card, which was refunded in weeks due to the Section 75 protection.

Now I realise that MN considers credit cards to be either the height of financial recklessness, unattainably aspirational or akin to borrowing from Big Barry round the back of the Bookies to pay for your holiday but a more measured response is that they can save you a lot of money and hassle in various circumstances, such as if your holiday company goes bust at an inconvenient time.

Looking at some specific aviation sources it does look like TUI certainly have had a bad few days (incidents such as you describe) with a handful of flights to/from the UK, airports various.

In all likely hood probably just down to a run of poor luck with aircraft serviceability and then perhaps for reasons unknown not being able to wet lease (basically hire) alternatives.

Ultimately if things went utterly wrong they are ATOL protected.

I’ve heard rumours about this. They are struggling, but hard to know how bad it is.

A private flight is not the same as a private jet! Perhaps it was worded badly, but I’m sure the poster meant “commercial flight” - ie, with enough funds so you could buy tickets on another airline, if need be. Not that you hire your own private plane.

Yep my thoughts- people confusing the wording.

we have a holiday with tui for August - I’m not particularly worried, travel insurance, Atol protected and flights are BA operated.

Their prices have suddenly dropped, which would suggest they're trying to get some cash in.

We booked a holiday to Florida a couple of months ago and priced up flights with BA, Virgin and Tui. Ended up paying £1,500 for flights with Virgin as although Tui was a bit cheaper at around £1,400 it was more convenient to fly in to MCO.

Looked the other day at Tui and we could get the same flights for £700. We could go Premium for the price we're paying Virgin. It's still less convenient and felt too cheap, IYSWIM, so we've stuck with Virgin.

I assumed it just meant a commercial flight. Private jet never crossed my mind🤣

No it won't. Travel insurance doesn't cover for tour operators going bust. That's what the ABTA guarantee is for.

Yeah there’s some wilful misunderstanding here, I think the PP meant have some funds to buy some alternative flights back/a credit card to put them on NOT start chartering a private jet!

I hope not, we are travelling with them in September. I've never had a problem with them in the past, and they do seem to have cornered the market. And as per everyone else that's what the ABTA guarentee is for. I will pay at least £100 of the final amount owed on a credit card:
The goods or service you bought must have cost over £100 and not more than £30,000. However, to claim under Section 75 you don't have to have paid more than £100 or the full amount on your credit card – the card company is liable even if you made only part of the payment - perhaps a deposit - on your card

Thank you for your thoughts everyone.

Feeling a bit reassured. The Facebook pages scared the life out of me but like you say people don’t post when they have good experiences generally and moan a LOT when they have bad ones (understandably).

I think I’m just very nervous as both Ds and I are disabled (highest rates of disability benefit/ both blue badge holders) so to be stuck at an airport for hours on end with no one to liaise with would be a disaster…! I must add one of the reasons I booked with Tui is their special assistance for disabled people like us is very well thought of and they couldn’t have been more helpful (extra luggage allowance for medical items, fast track boarding, free private transfers etc).

Fingers crossed it all goes to plan!

Fingers crossed that it will be fine. I’ve been with them before and they were pretty good.

We have a tui holiday coming up, postponed from 2020. All we've had so far are problems (changed booking, half our party not appearing online and thus unable to check-in / buy seats), wrong baggage allowances, half of us have to change our room halfway through our stay. It's a nightmare honestly. We've pushed and called numerous times and we just get told "turn up at the airport and it'll be fine". I'm hoping it'll all be alright in the end but we are not happy at all with how things have been customer service wise.

Sorry to hear you’re having such difficulties. These are exactly the type of posts I keep seeing all over Facebook. There’s a woman just posted saying their flight from Manchester to Malaga was cancelled and they were put up in a hotel overnight and then expected to fly out the following day but weren’t told times / etc etc just expected to suddenly be able to go at the last minute. I’m hoping these things are very much in the minority….! Really sad for those having issues, it’s not what you want when you’re looking forward to a holiday.

We are on a tui holiday. No problems at all. Infact found them good. My son wasn't well on the first night. Rang them up as they had a 24 hour contact number, they got intouch with the hotel reception right away. Dr came out very fast. Thankfully it was him just getting himself worked up and he only has a sore throat. Flight was problem free and reps seem nice.