TUI cancelled hundreds of thousands of holidays due to travel restrictions

Friday, June 12, 2020

Britain’s biggest travel firm, TUI has cancelled hundreds of thousands of peak-season holidays. Tui blamed “the ongoing travel restrictions” for cancelling another 10 days of trips, which were due to depart between 1 and 10 July. The package holidays and flight-only bookings are affected.

The rival company of TUI, Jet2, had previously cancelled all package holidays and flights up to and including 14 July. The cruise holidays with Tui’s Marella brand will not start before 31 July. Many sailings after that date have already been cancelled.

The advising customers to apply unnecessarily for renewals increases pressure on the Passport Office.

Conversely, travellers to destinations that do require months of extra validity, or visas, are in an especially difficult position.

Every passport holder has seen the value of their travel document eroded during lockdown; for a family of four, the cost of passport ownership is £35 a year. They are therefore call upon government to give a clear timeline for when the current FCO advice will be reviewed and decide on alternatives to a blanket quarantine, such as air bridges, as quickly as possible.

All other holidays are presumed to be going ahead, though there is no guarantee that operations will begin on 11 July.

Under the Package Travel Regulations, Tui customers affected by the latest round of cancellations are entitled to a refund by 25 June.

But the company insists that cancelled travellers wait up to three weeks for a “refund credit” and only then apply for their money back.

Tui says that they are unable to process your refund request if you haven’t yet received your refund credit code. The customers will then have to wait up to four further weeks.

Separately, the Department for Transport has written to the Right To Refund group to confirm that the law on refunds for cancelled travellers has not changed.

The letter adds that the government appreciates the frustration that consumers may currently be experiencing when seeking a refund. Please be assured that the government is taking this issue seriously, and is working at pace to help support passengers, workers and businesses through the Covid-19 crisis.

The Right To Refund campaign leader, Kane Pirie, said that the position for both travel companies and customers is now finally crystal clear: pay up.

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