Package holiday cancellation

[Bill Struth]

Hi guys, a bit of advice please!

My wife and I booked our honeymoon through a travel agent. The honeymoon was a week all inclusive in antigua. We flew from dublin to london gatwick, then we were supposed to fly from gatwick to antigua the following morning. The gatwick > antigua flight was cancelled due to the snow, and not re-scheduled. We had to then return home.

The travel agent has told me that they will not give us a full refund. The hotel in antigua charge a cancellation fee, and we are being charged for the flight from dublin > gatwick.

I booked a package holiday, and because I didn't get one, I was under the impression that we would be entitled to a full refund, and not be charged for parts of something that I booked and paid for as a package.

Can anyone advise me?

 

[TheShark]

Did you have Travel Insurance , you should make a claim on that.

 

[Bill Struth]

Did you have Travel Insurance , you should make a claim on that.

Yes, I'm claiming the return flight to Dublin on that, do you reckon i'd be able to claim for the hotel cancellation as well? I found out today that we'll be charged for 4 days, we'll only get a refund of 3 days.

 

[Complainer]

That's terrible - where these cancellation fees detailed on whatever order you placed with them? Sounds like a good one to Talk to Joe.

 

[Bill Struth]

That's terrible - where these cancellation fees detailed on whatever order you placed with them? Sounds like a good one to Talk to Joe.

No not at all. I didn't get any t + c's off them whatsoever.

 

[Ceist Beag]

My understanding was that the whole benefit of booking thru a travel agent was that you don't have to pay any cancellation fees if things go belly up - they have insurance to cover these events. At least that's what any travel agent claims when asked why should people bother using them to book holidays rather than book directly themselves. I'd take this up with the travel agent rather than go looking at using your own insurance just now.

 

[Complainer]

If you didn't agree to these t&Cs up front, I think they are on very dodgy ground trying to impose them later. You need to get tough with them, and start talking about Small Claims Court and disputing credit card charges etc. This article might help;

http://www.consumerconnect.ie/eng/H...ok-it-yourself_holidays_vs_package_deals.html

 

[Bill Struth]

Thanks for all the replies lads, I got on to the Irish Travel Agents Association, and I'm now waiting for a reply from them.

 

[Bill Struth]

A full 8 weeks after we were due to embark on our honeymoon, and after many, many phone calls and a strongly worded letter we have eventually got a full refund of what we paid for the honeymoon.

In the meantime we have been offered partial refunds and credit notes.

We held firm and were on the verge of talking to Joe and taking the case to court if we had to. What we encountered were three parties (Hotel, Tour Operator and Travel Agent) seemingly blaming each other and passing the buck.

Not a pleasant experience for us, the paying customer, and hassle that we did not need to be starting married life with!

Anyway, we got our money back in the end, and we're looking forward to going on holiday next month, hopefully with no slip-ups this time!

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[Joey99]

One good think is that this sector is pretty well regulated (legislatively anyway) even if the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs is a bit of a waste of time.

Check out section 19 of the Package Holidays and Travel Trade Act 1995. This law is one of the reasons why (reputable) travel agents absolutely positively insist that you have travel insurance - they are liable and if you do not have travel insurance they'll be left to carry the can. If you have travel insurance then they can reasonably ask you to claim on that but I'd be going after them for my excess!

By the way, I'm sure the ITAA are a perfectly nice bunch of people but they are the Irish Travel Agents Association. I wouldn't necessarily expect them to be strenuously fighting your corner against one of their members.

It sounds like there could be quite a sum of money involved (your honeymoon sounds as though it would have been lovely that time of year) so I would get on the blower to a decent local solicitor or, if you feel you're up to it, dust off all the paperwork, have a good 'aul read of the legislation (there are some other Travel Trade Acts you should have a look at also but the 1995 Act is good stuff) and file your small claims court claim pronto. They'll try and fob you off in arbitration but try and go for the small claims court as it focuses their mind far better than some arbitration through the travel trade industry.

By the way folks, while all this might seem like a bit of a palaver, it's a really good example of why you're a thousand times better off booking with an Irish registered travel agent than anyone else (UK or, worse, somewhere further abroad). The coverage the 1995 Act gives you is seriously valuable (provided your agent doesn't go out of business while your claim is pending).

Disclaimer: this doesn't constitute legal advice in any way.

 

[mathepac]

... we have eventually got a full refund of what we paid for the honeymoon...

... Disclaimer: this doesn't constitute legal advice in any way.

Thank God for that. Did you read OP's last post?