Need to cancel

[nunsflipflop]

We booked a holiday in April, online through the Tui website. I changed the flights they offered to more appropriate times. An extra charge was added to the holiday to do this.

I stupidly didn’t check when the email came through. We paid a deposit of £360.

We booked it under the recommendation of my DD (36) who was reading reviews.
I have done a deep dive to get more reviews, it looks like this isn’t an appropriate hotel to take my grand daughters to.

Using trip adviser,I found the top 5 hotels in Lanzarote and I booked the top one, with a different tour operator who could offer the better flight times for myself, a disabled adult and the little ones in our party thinking I would only be losing £360. Tui did not offer this hotel or the flight times I believed I had paid for on our booking with them.

I called Tui to cancel and they are asking for £3623.74, which will be paid to EasyJet as the flights are non refundable. So I asked if I am paying for those seats on that flight, will they remain empty? The Tui rep said she didn’t know. I asked if easyJet then resell those seats would I get a refund? The answer was no.

Is there any way I can reduce the amount we will lose? Or do I put it down to an expensive lesson?

This is the first holiday abroad I have ever booked. We haven’t been away for 10 years, hence my mistake

I understand the trepidation though! I think you also have to be careful if they say they are sea water vs salt water - the former is literally sea water the latter salted freshwater (I think).

Sorry if it's already been suggested but if you're not willing to move the dates, then another option might be to sell the holiday to another family. Though you'd need to check with TUI and the flight operator if they allow this, and find out what the admin fee is to change guest details.

We had a family “meeting” today and went to a Tui shop. The lady was lovely, heard me out and gave us 3 other hotels to look at. We went away and had a look and another conversation. We have now amended the Tui holiday and we are going to a different hotel. Obviously we paid for amendments, including a change of flights, but it was a whole lot less than what we could have lost.

Thankyou everyone for your help and advice, I had got myself in a bit of a state. As I stated previously, this money came from an inheritance. I suffer terribly from anxiety (most of you had worked that out I think), this is my DGD first holiday abroad, we will never have this chance again.

Our new booking is somewhere much smaller that I think will suit us better, and for the first time since I made the booking, I feel more settled.

I have been able to cancel the Jet2 holiday.

It’s hard to say for sure without seeing the terms and conditions. I would seek advice from Citizens Advice. I’m always banging on about them but they are really knowledgable. It seems unusual to ask you for payment in full since you are cancelling well in advance. I can see you losing the deposit but not the full holiday cost. I wouldn’t give TUI any more money at all. Usually the full amount is due much closer to the departure date, at which point it becomes non refundable. I don’t see how they can say it’s not refundable when they haven’t actually got the money from you yet to be able to dictate whether they refund you or not. Don’t pay them and seek advice. TUI has enough time to resell the holiday.

I'm glad you sorted it, op. Have a lovely holiday