Covid 19
 

Currently North Terminal is closed so all flight departures are showing departure from south terminal, this however is dependant on when restrictions are lifted and how many flights will be operating. It is the Gatwick operators who have made this descision not the airline. So technically if you have a TUI booking they are operating from south terminal until restriction is lifted and North terminal is reopened. Hope this helps your problem not withstanding that we may still be in lock down in September, hope not I am due to go to Kos in September also.

I have been on 757 & 738 before. I'm sure the plan for S20 would have been 737 Max but I cannot see that now as this continues to have software issues and then there the question of CV19.

This makes sense, thanks!

And, if you purchased your policy after the WHO declared it a pandemic, it will NOT cover you for Covid-19, unless it specifically states this, which I doubt. Policies taken prior to this should, but all will fall foul of FCO guidance. You travel, you get ill, you pay.

I see that not only are Tui trying to delay refunds to those with cancelled flights and holidays, but also refusing to pay in full for hotel beds last winter.
The following Taken from Travel Weekly.Tui Group has told hotel partners they will not receive 75% of money owed to them for holidays taken last winter until after the coronavirus crisis.
In a letter sent to Spanish hotel suppliers, Europe’s biggest travel firm set out proposed revised payment terms for January, February and March.

G-TUII flew BY981 BOH-PUJ-KIN yesterday and BY982 KIN-LHR before positioning back to LGW.

Another repatriation flight?

Yes, it was. Advertised regionally here. Organized by FCO. Tickets were GBP367 if my memory is correct. Very hard to get to Jamaica though if you were not actually there!

o/b flight went via PUJ to drop of staff from a tui cruise ship that was in southampton

I've tried to claim my refund today. I appreciate these are very difficult circumstances but if you can get through without the line being out of order or engaged you are then transferred to a menu. All goes swimmingly, you press the various options and are then told they can't take your call and to call back another time. I'd rather be put in a queue and told I'm number 500 I think

From the Press Release:
"When people are allowed to travel, there is a chance that cabin fever will be a great sales tool....''
Errr, an unfortunate choice of phrase!

Not looking good at TUI at the momemnt, I tried to phone today as my booking was made in-store and due to that I cannot amend my booking online. Got through to automated line telling me they were busy and to call back later, this happens every time and then just cut off !!!! Having said all this they are still trying to sell holidays for the same date I am booked to go ?

So 8,000 job losses and so far in 2020 £750 million losses. Will they survive ?

Tui on their website today are still saying holidays are still going from 11th June but Hotels booked with the holiday are not showing reopening (sellinng) until a later date.

If the hotels are planning not to open till a later date is this just another TUi ploy to hang on to your money ?

Not impressed.

Normal call centre volume is about 30,000 calls per day. At present it is somewhere between 300,000 and 1,000,000. The travel shops are still closed so they cannot help out. The call centres are open but unable to accommodate the same number of workers. The number of people able to work at home is ramping up all the time. Online bookings are easier to deal with and an automatic process for the issue of vouchers and cash refunds if required has been developed. Holidays booked through the shops are more difficult to deal with. So far over one million bookings have been affected. Holidays until 18th June have been cancelled and in time I am sure this date will be pushed back. However, each week that date is pushed back and we approach peak season the number of holidays affected will increase massively and the company is probably just trying to manage the workload. It will all work out in the end.

If that is true then why is the web site still showing the 11th ?

I think it's a tactic to delay the process of refunds .Surely communications with your customers is all important in these troubled times ?

Again not impressed.

It is currently the 11th.

so just to be clear you're not impressed at not being refunded for a holiday that hasn't been cancelled yet?

Surely they're not actually in default until the day you fly - or rather, don't.

Hi

t's been 3 days since a paid some of my balance off a holiday for summer 2021 using my voucher I received. As of yet I've not received a email confirmation or a change on the balance on my booking.Does anyone know how long it takes to action my request?

TUIs website appears to be lagging behind what's happening in the rest of the world at the moment.

I am currently looking at booking Dom rep for March 2021 and thinking should I or should I just wait. Decisions decisions? I have a good feeling TUI will pull through this but I don’t think anybody can say for sure that I would be fine to book it and not worry about a cancellation further down the line.

I'm waiting until the Second Wave has passed through. Then, if there's anywhere left to travel to and to travel with, we'll check it out.
Meanwhile, I'LL be the one holding the money.
​​​​​

Who knows how the travel industry will look next year but I am sure TUI will be there. With regards to booking next year, the question to ask is "is it a good deal?" If it is what have you got to lose? Your money is ATOL protected. If you are flexible perhaps it might be worth waiting to see if prices fall. However, if there is a strong recovery in leisure travel with people looking to take the holiday they missed in 2020, will prices be high? Who knows? If only we had a crystal ball!

Still you can make 20% interest on your ATOL protected money (assuming you plan another TUI holiday) so if you can afford not to have the cash why not ? Bank interest rates are effectively 0.

Difficult to have trust in an airline that still shows your booking as going but you have to quarantine for 2 weeks at both ends.
The hotel is also showing unbookable till a later date.
How many customers have decided to cancel completely rather than rebook ?

My TUI holiday is still showing as going ahead to Greece in late June ! The Greek government are stating they do not want any UK tourists until further notice, they are not accepting any international flights until 1st July! The FCO are still advising against all non essential travel. So three reasons we cannot go, but TUI still have not cancelled our holiday or been in touch !

What are they hoping, the Greek Government or the FCO change their advice ? Or they want us to cancel without a refund ? I will wait it out and go next year and use my voucher if I ever get it !!!

TUI are probably desperately trying to hold onto cashflow for as long as they possibly can - lack of cash can easily make a firm go bankrupt.

About a week before your holiday is due to depart you will get a cancellation email if it's not possible to go ahead, trying to persuade you to accept a voucher or suggesting an alternative holiday (ie Spain), but permitting a refund if you insist on one. If the Greek Govt are refusing UK flights, I would not have any expectation of Greek holidays happening in June - start making plans for a trip to Devon instead

Until then, you just have to wait

I am in the same boat suppose to be going to Cuba in June with TUI but Cuba airspace is close till just 1st at the Earliest. Plus they are still selling Florida for June even though British passengers are not aloud in America!

Wish they would just cancel my holiday save me clinging to false hope

I have given up hoping, like you just wish they would tell me officially I am not going.

They are cancelling in manageable batches so many weeks ahead in advance so their staff and phone lines are not overrun (which they are already!) if your holiday is cancelled you will be notified in date order! Just sit tight.. not as if you can do anything else is it!!

I understand trying to hang on to Cash, but any company desperate for business in the near future should also try and keep the customers they already have.

How many people have changed their minds from rebook to Refund ?

Yes I guess they would be, FCO advise may lift at any point before then (Germany for instance announced they are lifting theirs) and the Greeks from what I read are reviewing the list weekly, by mid June we may be down to low enough levels for them to say come in by July and an air bridge set up.

I did read something about July 15th in the telegraph article for higher risk countries to Greece which would be a bit of a pain as I am due to land in Kos late on the 14th!

Things may well look very different in terms of our position come July 1st if the rates keep dropping as they are at the minute.

Unfortunately I live in the UK which is deemed as high risk ! But actually I am in Scotland which is probably considered low risk !
I am resigned to the fact that my holiday is not going to happen, due into Rhodes 23rd June. Even if I did get there what will it be like, my friends in Greece are saying it will be a totally unrelaxing experience, no buffet breakfast allowed - we booked B & B basis, social distancing everywhere, masks and god knows what else ! Quarantine at each end ? Would be a complete nightmare... cannot wait for it to be officially cancelled and then maybe attempt a relaxing holiday next year. For us at present too many variables ? FCO Greek Government and TUI themselves ! They all have to say YES !

I'd take that rose-tinted pro Scottish chip of your shoulder. Internationally, we are a single nation, oh, and Scotlands infection rate per capita is higher than England.

You should be careful what you say on here as you obviously know nothing about me, I may live in Scotland but I was born in England and have a Welsh family background. I am definately not pro-scottish I just chose to live there. If we are a single nation then tell me why are Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland easing their lockdowns later than England and have so many devolved powers.
We are no longer a single Nation, look at the United States of America... every state doing things differently they are no longer United ! The United Kingdom is going the same way !Its just a name !

Yeah.. be careful. Scary stuff.

The clue was in the word 'Internationally', i.e Germany, France, Spain... and any other soveriegn nation will NOT make an exception for any devolved nation as they are not recognised individual soveriegn nations, but even if they did, they'll likely take into account that Scotland has a higher infection rate the England at this particular time.

Thats exactly the problem Internationally we are classed as one nation but in reality we are not ! Lets face it, even in England certain parts are treated very differently.
Anyway my point was I do not wear rose tinted glasses or have a pro-scottish chip on my shoulder I am English and proud of it !

I have noticed that my flights to PFO with Tui in September from BHX are now showing as being operated on an A320, I thought the plan for this year was to use all 737-800s and 757s for European flights hence them leasing and painting a number of additional aircraft.

The way I'm looking at it is that the newly-acquired second-hand 738s are essentially "covering" for the MAXs as well as allowing for some additional capacity as the 757s and older existing 738s are withdrawn, although the latter are mostly younger than the "new" acquisitions. The planned additional ACMI capacity this summer (although there is normally always some) seemed to be part of the effort to fill the gap left by the loss of TCX. Of course, it seems impossible to say what could possibly happen this summer (or for the foreseeable future) but I don't envisage much/any ACMI capacity being used (and possibly not much of their own capacity either sadly).

A number of 320s/321s were due to be leased in S20 in order to facilitate the summer 21 expansion and to help "bridge the gap" whilst waiting for the MAX re-entry into service, hence the A320 flight.