Just booked TUI flights and chose the wrong dates! Help!

[blueplates]

I am not sure how it happened but I booked flights and the calendar was on a different month to what I thought it was on. Luckily I've realised straight away as I went to book an airport hotel and the days of the week didn't tally with the date.

Of course their customer service line is closed until 10 tomorrow. I feel sick. How likely is it I will be able to change the dates, get a voucher or get a refund.

I'm so brain foggy at the moment ( recent diagnosis of overactive thyroid alongside peri-menopause) I shouldn't be allowed to do anything grown up anymore. 😟

I've not told DH. Hoping I can get it sorted without him knowing.

Have you tried logging into Tui Manage my Booking portal and trying to amend , probably be an admin fee , but as long as the flights aren’t within 28 days should be doable .
Actually I think this might only work for complete holidays , apologies

It's not giving me any cancellation options. The flights have been booked for the end of this month so less than 28 days. An initial search (AI) told me TUI allow cancellation within 24 hours but I'm not sure if it is true since I can't see the option on my booking.

Email them immediately with your booking reference setting out the issue saying you will call as soon as they open tomorrow. Most travel companies (even Ryanair) will allow a change within a few hours of booking if it’s clear it’s an error. You may need to pay a change or admin fee or the difference between the cost of the flight now and when you booked.

0203 451 2688

They open at 10am tomorrow.

Belt and braces:

https://www.tui.co.uk/destinations/contact-us/pre-travel You can fill in this contact form to get yourself in the queue, then phone anyway.

British Airways allows cancellations within 24 hours. ExDP made the samei mistake as you and got a refund.

I think you're fecked, better plan to go on the dates you've actually booked.

I’d do the same!

Most airlines have a 24h free cancellation period - contact them as soon as possible and they should be able to help sort it. Don’t mention needing X dates instead, as they’ll just try to charge you the change fees to move the flights. Cancel them outright and then buy the new ones.

Tell your husband…two heads are better than one…maybe he has an idea. Good luck x

Don’t beat yourself up, you are not the first and won’t be the last, it’s an easy mistake.
I think it’s less than 24 hours and they will sort it without to much bother.

I had to change dates on a TUI package (intentionally and fairly last minute) and I got an amazing TUI guy who went through every option to reduce the overall cost.
Fingers crossed for you Op.

Did you get anywhere, @blueplates ?

What a nightmare! Did you get it resolved @blueplates

Sorry - I forgot to update.

No - it was not resolved. With Tui package holidays you can make amendments within 24 hours. Tui flights do not allow that. As the page defaulted to the current month, the booking ended up being less than 14 days away, so they won't make any changes and treat it as a cancellation and charge 100% of the ticket cost. 😭😭 I shed a lot of tears. Even Ryanair has a 24 hour grace period.

It was also exhausting trying to get through to Tui customer services. The first person I spoke to was lovely and she even said " that can happen" when I said the page must have defaulted to the current month. After that, I tried to go more and more senior but only got to speak to either an AI agent or overseas agents who only knew how to stick robotically to their script.

When I go to my browser search history and open up any of the Tui pages, it still populates with the dates I'd have originally used. But I don't think that is enough proof. although they could look into my account and see I'd spend the previous two weeks always looking for holidays or flights for those later dates.

Ultimately - I didn't do a final check and I'm usually so careful. I did check the spelling of the names before booking but didn't check the date as I was so certain of the dates I had selected. I may have overlooked something as the flight was saying in red 'only 7 seats left' which I thought was feasible as I was trying to book for a popular future date.

Anyway, it's done. I will try a letter of complaint but doubt I will get anywhere. DH was surprisingly calm about it. He knew I was very upset and he has done something similar before - albeit for a smaller sum of money and he was able to remedy it with a phone call.

I'm not sure if I can get taxes back or anything like that. There's no breakdown of these on my confirmation email.

That’s really frustrating @blueplates.
You will be able to reclaim the airport tax back if nothing else. Why can’t they just change the dates for an admin fee?
I wanted to change my EasyJet dates coming back. It was cheaper to just book a new single flight than the admin cost in fact.

That’s awful - I thought consumer rights gave you 24 hour cool down period on everything, even stuff bought online.

Might be worth contacting the JVS show at the BBC, he's really good at getting consumer disputes sorted. Call or email today, they're really quick.
They got me an expired £1000 travel gift card refunded

JVS Show
The JVS Show. Jonathan Vernon-Smith with the big phone-in, your stories, and the team fight for your consumer rights. Call 08081 008800.

Will they allow a name change for a fee? You could then try and sell them.

Sorry OP. Such an easy mistake, we have all done something like this at some time.

This bothers me. I'd tell DP and we'd work it out together.

In my case an admin fee would have been favourable. It would have salvaged something. These were not cheap flights 😬

Oh, I told him and he supported my endeavours to get TUI to budge. Just might have preferred to keep my pride if I hadn't had to tell him.

I considered that but there was so little time to sort something out. Plus they're expensive tickets as booked so near to departure. Is have had to reduce them so much and still pay £300 for names changes. It didn't seem feasible.

It doesn't apply to flights. I've found out in the US it's law to allow cancellation of flights within 24 hours. Not so in the UK, although there are airlines that have this built into their business. Ryanair being one, surprisingly!!