O/T Anyone still looking forward to taking holidays abroad?

[mellowmiller]

Tell that to the hotels abroad that Tui have told won't be getting paid, after their block booking of hotel rooms, & how this spirals down to people losing jobs, firms going under.

You've claimed your money back so how do you think that helps the situation you've described?

[howdydoo]

To be fair to the bloke, I believe he’s making a valid point. If help is provided to TUI is a proportion of the money going to filter down to the hoteliers, their workers and suppliers?

I think he suspects, NO.

FWIW We were due to travel to Malaga in 3 weeks. Accommodation was booked direct with the resort chain. Got an email weeks ago saying refunds would be paid. Two weeks ago they threw out another message saying due to liquidity (cashflow &#128521 they would provide vouchers +20% value of the deposit.

We’ve stayed in their resorts before and this is a brand new hotel. Thought fair enough.

Then looked to book later in the year or early next and the prices were 60% higher seasonally.

Told them I wanted my deposit back because their tactics were disgraceful.

They said it would take 3 months. I told them they either pay me the deposit back in 7 days or book the same dates, same accommodation, next year.

To be fair they gave me both options. Now I’ve taken the option of visiting next year.

If these holiday companies play fair and take their share of pain, I’m prepared to do the same.

This does not include Ryanair 😉. I urge everyone to pressure them for refunds. You reap what you sow.

[WanChaiMiller]

Howdy - I just dont think they have the liquidity (cash &#128513 to play fair. Like I said above, and also in the Which? article, they are all trying to hang on to their cash and hope to resolve the position when trading restarts.

I cancelled mine because I dont think bars, restaurants and pool will reopen again this year. In the past I took a credit note due to a terrorist attack in the resort but had real trouble rebooking flights, hotels and a suitable time.

The fear of bankruptcies takes confidence out the market so reducing bookings. The holiday market crashed from early Feb. I bet theyve had no bookings the last 4 weeks.

[WanChaiMiller]

Tui got £1.7bn off the German Gov last week. Not sure what conditions came with the bailout.

[WanChaiMiller]

One of the conditions I can see is the German Gov required Tui to furlough 11,000 UK staff to take advantage of our liquidity crisis fund.

[WanChaiMiller]

The other term I can see is 'dont refund Eric'. But thats in the small print.

[howdydoo]

Tui got £1.7bn off the German Gov last week. Not sure what conditions came with the bailout.

If a proportion of that is being filtered to their hotels and their staff, that’s playing fair.

I’ll make a point of being generous with tips to the local staff if we get away anytime this year.

[WanChaiMiller]

If a proportion of that is being filtered to their hotels and their staff, that’s playing fair.

I’ll make a point of being generous with tips to the local staff if we get away anytime this year.

Good on you Howdy.

And yes agree totally regarding playing fair. Im bang up to date with all my suppliers as are you Im sure - thats playing fair.

But, many these hotels are international branded resort hotel where little ends up with the locals. All inclusive means even less ends up with local business. And workers are on minimum wage.

[Brin]

We as a party of 6 have deferred our holiday over to next year at the same price. In all honesty we had a conversation between ourselves and in reality none of us want to fly again this year.

The general consensus was realising that the majority of hotel/resort staff are on zero hour contracts, so some may be looking to risk anything to return to work, just to get a wage in their pocket to survive. They may or even may not know they may be carrying the covid bug and that is a risk we are not willing to take at this time.

The email we received from Virgin went as follows:

''We hope you’re keeping safe and well at home. We’re contacting all our customers to let them know the current status of their booking, their choices at this time and the best ways to contact us.
We’re reaching out right now because, although your holiday has not been cancelled, our flexible policy does mean you are able to rebook your holiday for a later time with no change fee. If you’d like to take up this option, you can let us know by filling in this form, and we’ll call you back to get this changed for you.
It’s worth noting that if the situation changes and your existing holiday can no longer go ahead under our policy, you would then be eligible for a full refund and we will contact you again via email if this is the case.
Right now, our contact centre is only open to inbound calls from people who are due to travel in the next 72 hours, so we’re unable to help you right away. Rest assured, we will be in touch with you via email if there’s any information about your trip you need to know. Please be aware we’re working through an unprecedented number of rebooking requests. But we will get to you, we promise.
Many thanks for all your understanding and patience''

Although it clearly shows we are eligible for a refund if our holiday doesn't go ahead on the 18th June, we didn't want to risk it actually going ahead, thus making us take the holiday or losing all our money paid, hence the referred new booking. There have been posts saying Virgin Atlantic won't do refunds, well here's the proof they are willing to do so.

[Ericsladkilnhurst]

tui told the hotels abroad they were not going to get paid, so no money feeding down the chain.
But tui still asking people for their balance on their holiday booking, & taking new holiday bookings, Simon Calder travel expert said last week, that holiday companies using new booking money, for people that go in 6 to 12 months time, to pay for hotels etc for the people that are due to go shortly.
Where has travel companies don't pay for your hotel until after your holiday, this happened with Thomas Cook, look what happened, tourists abroad had to pay their hotel bills while there, because company not paid the bills.
If you want fairness, why don't travel companies say right if you let us keep your deposit, then you pay the balance before you travel but no they want the rest of your balance.