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?

[Roastonsun8]

@Thischarmlessgirl

We are in Greece at the moment and Tui cancelled our return flight, offering us the same flight 24 hours later but we would have to leave our 5* hotel and go to a budget airport hotel overnight. We have three children. We’ve managed to buy new flights with Easyjet for today and just boarded. Tui will compensate £520 pp so they say. Appreciate not everyone is in the position to do so. There were people in tears at the hotel this morning and people whose flight was cancelled two days ago, whose alternative flight the next day had then been cancelled again…..

I'm booked for Crete in 9 days. Can I ask what part of Greece you was in please?

[Roastonsun8]

@notimagain

The 64000 dollar question then is at what stage would you expect that consideration of staffing levels to happen and bookings made be cancelled?

TBH It's the nature of the industry that you can never completely avoid very short notice flight cancellations for all sorts of reasons (e.g. weather, engineering problems, crew duty limits, it's often a combination of causes).

On rare occasions even in supposedly the best of times with plenty of resources you have can cancellations happening after passengers have boarded.

What you don't expect the see is that sort of cancellation happening at the rate it's seems to be happening at the moment, day after day.

Well its the rate of cancellation we are talking about obviously!

So speaking upon what ifs is not the case. I flew last year after a couple of cancellations. If they didn't have staff on the rota customer's should of been told sooner.

Last year they manged! So there's no need for it.

[LIZS]

They managed last year because international restrictions were still largely in place and fewer tourists were travelling. Gatwick only reopened its South terminal at the end of March and many of the shopping and catering outlets have yet to or have gone under.

[Roastonsun8]

@LIZS

They managed last year because international restrictions were still largely in place and fewer tourists were travelling. Gatwick only reopened its South terminal at the end of March and many of the shopping and catering outlets have yet to or have gone under.

They cancelled flights before people getting to the airport. Obviously its not rocket science to realise this year a lot more people wanting to go away.

[LIZS]

No but I suspect additional recruitment and therefore training has not been timely due to relatively late decisions by the industry. Logistics lagging behind getting bums on seats(and cash in the bank). Many airport and airline workers were laid off during Covid and found other jobs in the interim or may be disinclined to work there again.

[Vodkaskirts]

The rumour mill and public social media posts speculating was the main reason Thomas Cook went bust.

Wish people would stop with speculation

[notimagain]

If they didn't have staff on the rota customer's should of been told sooner.

TBF some airlines are doing that (BA, Easyjet, others)..but the strident press reports often don't make it clear that some of the figures in their headlines ("Today Easyairways had 120 cancelled flights") include flights cancelled days/weeks ago.

[Roastonsun8]

True I'm sure the headlines are making it worse. However TUI are known liars I called today and the woman on the phone told me herself that my holiday could my cancelled on the day. I have a night flight and a DC.

I'm not surprised people are speculating you would too if you were due to fly next week!

[notimagain]

However TUI are known liars I called today and the woman on the phone told me herself that my holiday could my cancelled on the day. I have a night flight and a DC.


Firstly I hope it works out for you OK.

As to the phone call I'm not sure what answer you were expecting. I'm not sure about holidays but certainly flights, any flight, can always be cancelled on the day.

[Roastonsun8]

@notimagain thanks. Its all well and good taking that opinion but if your not expecting to go on holiday I don't think you would be so quick to hold that obtuse opinion of yours.


It's not the matter at hand. You could get knocked down tomorrow and so could I but we can't plan life like that.

[notimagain]

@Roastonsun8

@notimagain thanks. Its all well and good taking that opinion but if your not expecting to go on holiday I don't think you would be so quick to hold that obtuse opinion of yours.


It's not the matter at hand. You could get knocked down tomorrow and so could I but we can't plan life like that.

I'm really not trying to be obtuse.

Unless I'm missing some info (apologies if I am) it may well be that TUI are still be planning to operate the flight you are planned to go on.

OTOH objectively, factually, any airline in the world can be forced to cancel a flight on the day, even after the flight has been boarded, so I'm not sure what you expected the telephone operator at TUI to say.

[CeeJay81]

@Roastonsun8 obviously no idea which flights tui are choosing to cancel but not heard of any flights to crete been cancelled yet. Chania airport was a breeze yesterday.

[PaddingtonBearStareAgain]

Over 120 flights cancelled from Gatwick and Heathrow today alone.

I feel for those being affected

[notimagain]

@PaddingtonBearStareAgain

Over 120 flights cancelled from Gatwick and Heathrow today alone.

I feel for those being affected

A right PITA for many, but for context a lot of the flights in that headline number were cancelled several days or even weeks ago.

"British Airways and easyJet cancelled more than 150 flights to and from the UK on Wednesday...BA cancelled at least 124 short-haul flights at Heathrow airport, although the airline said passengers were given advance notice.

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/01/ba-and-easyjet-cancel-more-than-150-flights-as-travel-chaos-continues

[Thischarmlessgirl]

@Roastonsun8 Cyprus

[Whammyyammy]

I can't see how Tui can honestly survive this. During covid they handled refunds badly, and a lot of loyal customers jumped ship to the likes of Jet2, Inc me.
Now during this chaos they're poor customer services show again. No reps around to help those who are being cancelled last minute.

What with all the compensation they are going to be forced to pay out, ss well as refinds added with reducing customers... that'll be lucky to survive.

[Swayingpalmtrees]

I have been to four airports in the last five weeks, and my advice to everyone is pack lots of food, water, nappies if you need them and formula and take savings.

Only half the passengers made it on to the flight in Barcelona, the queues were so bad at the security (nearly two hours) and the airport is huge, they delayed the flight but at least 50% still missed it.

Heathrow was so mobbed you couldn't even buy a drink or a coffee. Queue of 1 hour and 50 minutes or more for a table, nowhere to even sit. I have never seen it look so busy in the 45 years I have been travelling.

Two flights were serving only drinks. They had nothing else to offer.

Dubai is also struggling with sheer numbers, and their double security measures are causing huge delays, so if you have connections you have to be super fast.

It is not just here, but almost everywhere. I felt sick it was so packed and claustrophobic.
If you have young children consider keeping your buggy so they can sit and rest/sleep.

[Swayingpalmtrees]

The rumour mill and public social media posts speculating was the main reason Thomas Cook went bust

Thomas Cook had been running at huge loss for years before it finally folded. It was not just speculation!

[Brianmccall]

Tui are about to announce the closure of 40 stores across the UK my family member works there and it will be announced in next few days there was talk of administration

[Watapalava]

40 out of 562 doesnt sound too bad

[Watapalava]

travelweekly.co.uk/articles/348902/tui-to-close-34-stores-over-next-12-months

[Starlightstarbright1]

I flew to and from Eygpt last week. Had no issues on the way there an hour delay on the way back.. No issues other than they didn't have Duty free.

[ShepherdMoons]

Yes I think they may go bust. I'm hearing stories of people having to refuel on relatively short journeys so that didn't sound good. Our holiday was cancelled along with many others and thank god we didn't get to the airport for it to happen.

[ShepherdMoons]

Yes and this idea that rumours can ruin a business are a nonsense. Imo people have too much faith in big brands like Tui and keep rebooking holidays to be only disappointed.

[notimagain]

. I'm hearing stories of people having to refuel on relatively short journeys so that didn't sound good.

Need context.

There might be need to do a refuelling stop if the airline have switched to a smaller aircraft than was planned and the one being used on the day can't do a journey in one hop..

If the aircraft can do the sector in one go it doesn't make financial sense to stop off en-route to top up, it's actually very inefficient to do that from a fuel and crew/aircraft hours POV.

In any event an en-route stop in itself is no indicator of an airline or operators financial state,.