Is this legal?

[anonymouswriter]

Hi all,

I booked a holiday through love holidays for dubai in august 2024 a month ago. I paid a £60 deposit then make payments of £250 a month until July next year.

I have just found out I am 7 weeks pregnant.

I contacted the company to say we needed to cancel and they wanted to make me pay £1,000 upfront to do this. I also asked to rearrange and they said I can but again would be 1-2k Ontop of what I’m already paying.

Is this legal?

Yes, if that’s their T&C

claim on your insurance?

What do their terms and conditions state? None of us can advise you without sight of what you have agreed to.

Do you have insurance? It likely falls down to whether you would be deemed safe to travel or not.

Which, from the dates you gave, you clearly won't be.

Congratulations on the baby!!

What are the terms of the booking ? You should have received a contract of some sort. Looking quickly at the terms on the website there appear to be refundable and non refundable options. So really depends on what sort you booked.
They also seem to allow amendments to enable someone else to go instead? You could offer to someone else for a smaller discount?

Yes, of course it's legal. It should be in the T&Cs

This is the sort of thing you would claim on insurance.

You did get insurance on the same day you made the booking, didn't you?

I didn’t, and I don’t know why because I normally always do.

They want to charge us to move the booking to someone else and also said emirates flight ticket can’t be swapped so they’d have to pay for their own flights - pointless really

As the holiday is end of august and the baby is due July I think I’d be safe for travel, we just wouldn’t be able to. I don’t know why I didn’t get insurance I always usually do same day as booking. X

Any cancellation will incur a cancellation processing fee of £75 per Package booking and £25 for hotel-only bookings, plus any charges from the Service Provider(s) as follows:
Flight: 100% of the value of the flights is non-refundable from the point of booking (including baggage, insurance, etc.).
Accommodation: Cancellation charges will depend on whether you have booked a refundable or a non-refundable product. Cancellation charges will be specified to you at the time of booking and vary from one Service Provider to another. You should check your Booking Confirmation and any documentation for details of your specific cancellation terms.

does this mean we’d be liable for the flight cost? (£1,186)

I travelled to America when my son was 5 weeks old, could you still go? You don't need an extra seat and could just ask for a cot in the room. You'd just have to get a passport ASAP.

Hard lesson to learn there regarding insurance, I am lucky that I always have an annual policy through DH work, but I go on holiday with my sister and always have to nag her to death over it.

Reading the terms it seems like the flight refund depends on the operator. It may be worth asking Emirates directly?

Yes it does and just FYI August in Dubai is horrific. I used to run a warehouse there and if I ever had to go over in August I would dread it. One year it was so hot, people were passing out in the car park walking from their cars to buildings.

I suspect moving it from August to any other time is coming up more expensive because August is usually cheaper because no one wants to go then. You definitely can't take a small baby at that time.

I'm afraid that does look like you are going to be liable for the flights, unless you can beg the airline to allow you to get vouchers or something.

Congratulations on your pregnancy BTW!!

It’s actually 1st September I thought it was end of august. Says 35 degrees.

Flights: yes it does, and it's very clearly worded, and not an unusual condition, so if begging does not work, then your have no further options.

It's not possible to tell from the bit you have quoted what the conditions are on accommodation. Have you got the contract from the Service Provider?

(If it's non-refundable, but they're offering to change dates, then that's as good as it gets. But if it's refundable, only subject to reasonable admin fees, and they are not offering a refund, then that is extremely poor)

They want to charge £1,080 to cancel, or £1,178 to rearrange the flights plus £800 (possibly more) to rearrange the hotel dates

Speaking from experience, insurance wouldn't have covered you either. Pregnancy is not classed as an accident or illness that prevents travel.

Love Holidays are notoriously awful to deal with post-booking and are screen-scrapers so not always authorised to even sell the flights that they sell.

Could you possibly have travel insurance included on a bank account or credit card which you've maybe overlooked? If not, then I'd consider going on the holiday and adding the newborn on.

1st September is still unbelievably hot. You cannot take a newborn from the UK to Dubai in that weather. Seriously. It's not mid 30s, it will more likely be 40s and will feel even hotter because of the humidity. It is unbearable there at that time of the year. You can't go outside, you literally have to stay inside anywhere airconditioned. It's just not worth it. I'm not being sensationalist - I had to go over there and visit a warehouse for years and it is unbearable then.

If you're going to move the tickets, November to March is probably the best time to go.

Hi, firstly - congratulations, hope all is going okay for you x
How annoying with love holidays though!! Sorry I am not good at the legal side of things but have you tried looking at selling on https://www.transfertravel.com/? I wasn't able to go on holiday anymore when I found out I was pregnant so put my holiday on there and it sold. I didn't get all of the money back but I got more than I would have if I had cancelled with my travel agent. Worth a look anyway but hope this helps and good luck with everything x