“My wife’s mother has been taken ill, and rushed into hospital, and understandably my wife wants to be with her. We can’t possibly go on the skiing holiday that we’ve been planning since last year, because it’s in France and if anything happened to my mother in law, we wouldn’t be able to get back home. She has no other relatives close enough to take care of her.
“I asked the travel company if we could cancel the holiday, but they say that because we are only four weeks from the date we were due to travel, we aren’t entitled to any refund at all.
“We booked the holiday through a specialist ski company, and they are refusing to budge, pointing at the clause in their contract that says we can’t cancel and get a full refund at this short notice. When I asked why, they said it was because they would have difficulty selling the holiday. Surely they, as a company, can afford to lose the money more than we can as a family?”
Advice on the Next Step
Firstly, check your booking conditions. It’s quite likely that the tour operator is within their rights to deny you a full refund, however unfair that seems, because they will have set out the terms in their brochure.
Tour operator cancellation charges are usually calculated on a sliding scale, with the cost of a late cancellation increasing as you get closer to the departure date of the holiday. Legally, by cancelling your holiday you are in breach of your contract with the trader, the tour company, and this means that they are entitled to compensation for that breach of contract just as you would be if they had done the same to you. The Competition and Markets Authority (which replaced the Office of Fair Trading in 2014) previously looked at these clauses under consumer protection regulations, and decided that in most cases, cancellation charges weren’t disproportionate.
The cancellation charge can be almost as much as the entire cost of the holiday, unfortunately. If you cancel a holiday earlier with more notice, you may only lose your deposit, which is reasonable as the holiday company will have a much better chance of reselling the holiday and therefore you’re only paying a nominal amount for their inconvenience.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
What Can I Do?
There’s not much that you can do in this situation – unless you have taken out holiday insurance cover which sets out the circumstances under which you can claim.
Check your insurance policy carefully – make sure that covers you for this type of cancellation, as some of them do have exclusions. Most insurance policies will cover emergencies like illness, death in the family, or redundancy but you might have to haggle with the insurance company over the meaning of the phrase ‘close family member.’
If you knew that your mother in law was ill before you booked, you could also have problems, as most policies exclude cover for anything that you knew might happen when you booked the your holiday.
All in all, this is an unfortunate situation, but as far as the law is concerned, there isn’t much that you can do to get your money back. See here for more information on holiday cancellations .
I was due to fly on the 17th October however my Dad passed away on the 15th so obviously I didn’t go. My friends went and mentioned at the check in desk that I wouldn’t be flying but that was it. I wasn’t in the right headspace to think about it
I have submitted my insurance claim but they want proof I didn’t fly. How would I go about getting this. Also my friends still went on holiday so the hotel wasn’t cancelled I just wasn’t there. Again they say they want proof
Any advice ? Thanks. Alison
Love holidays continued to take month out of my account per month I rang them and said I cancelled the holiday, they said I didn't and to cancel would cost me £500 because flights are non refundable. So I decided just to pay for the holiday because I didn't want to pay the cancellation fee
Now a month before am set to fly I tried Checking in, and the flights have been cancelled, easy jet said I did cancel on that day but love holidays are saying they didn't know I cancelled because easy is an independent company and they weren't to know. They are offering me a full refund with a fee of £130 to cancel. I don't know what to do
Thanks you
My two sons are booked on a school ski trip in January 2019.
One of the has a precondition (epilepsy) but was accepted on the schools annual group insurance.
Unfortunately in November he had a seizure and is now back on medication. Whilst his specialist says he is OK to travel, I understand the insurers are no longer willing to cover his illness.
His brother is very close to him. With this in mind if we have to option but to cancel his trip due to a lack of cover, would we be able to claim for both sons as neither would travel without the other?
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