Firstly what are the dates that your wife booked your holiday for as they will be charging you 50% to cancel looking at their terms and conditions I guess its because you are travelling in the next 55-36 days 50%.

Here are their terms and conditions from No.12 paragraph.

http://www.thomson.co.uk/thomson/page/tandc/tandc.page?depDate=2009-05-01&accommInvSys=TPP&flightInvSys=TPP&lang=en

Angie.

Oh dear . That's a big difference with the same company for package V hotel/flight

I'm assuming you have less than 6 weeks before travel and you are now on the sliding scale of money you would get back between this point and the point of departure . If you have over 6/8 weeks before departure (normally before full balance is due) you would loose the deposit only .

Unfortunately there is no cooling off period with holiday bookings and unless you can get Thomsons to move on this as a gesture of good will the only other option I see you have is to move that £1500 onto another booking for a later date elsewhere Or Change it for a more expensive holiday where you know you will be getting better value for your money . You could look at changing it to an A/I . Doesnt need to be the same destination.

If they are wanting to charge you a 50% cancellation fee then I am assuming that this holiday is for sometime during this season's school holidays? If this is the case then it doesn't make any difference whether you booked it 2 years ago, 2 months ago ot 2 days ago - they are charging this because you want to cancel so close to your departure and has very little relationship to the costs they have incurred so far.

This is probably not what you are wanting to hear but I don't really see what you can do about getting a refund unless they have some sort of price matching guarantee in place that you could try and invoke. Whether the cost is justified or not is beside the point - your wife is a responsible adult who entered into a contract with them, will have signed to say that she agreed to abide by the Terms and Conditions and presumably paid a deposit to secure the holiday. As she booked this over the counter I would doubt that there is any sort of cooling off period that allows you to change your mind either.

If it was me, rather than losing £1,500 by cancelling and still having to pay out for a holiday on top of that I would try and concentrate on finding a decent holiday that was worth £3,000 and then try and get them to transfer your booking for the relatively small admin fee that they usually charge. Even in the school holidays, you stand a good chance this year of being able to get an AI deal outside of Europe for that sort of money including the Caribbean - and possibly for 14 days at that - and you would need little additional spending money. Your wife must have thought that £3,000 was affordable and within your budget so why not direct your efforts at trying to get value for money rather than getting embroiled in trying to get a refund which I think is a battle you'll lose?

SM

Have a look at Sol Rio de Luna & Mares resort Cuba you should get two weeks all inclusive for your £3000.00 you need very little money on top of that.

If it was me, rather than losing £1,500 by cancelling and still having to pay out for a holiday on top of that I would try and concentrate on finding a decent holiday that was worth £3,000 and then try and get them to transfer your booking for the relatively small admin fee that they usually charge. Even in the school holidays, you stand a good chance this year of being able to get an AI deal outside of Europe for that sort of money including the Caribbean - and possibly for 14 days at that - and you would need little additional spending money. Your wife must have thought that £3,000 was affordable and within your budget so why not direct your efforts at trying to get value for money rather than getting embroiled in trying to get a refund which I think is a battle you'll lose?

I agree with SMa here and I would 2nd Sol rio Luna &Mares in cuba . Off there ourselves in 4 weeks .

Another thought if you decide to try and put your £1500 towards something else . first choice are also part of Thomsons now .check if they Would allow you to pick from what they have on offer too .

Agree entirely with SMa and Lyn, holidays to the Caribbean are really good value and you really would need very very little spends

What a nightmare for you and your wife.

Feeling ripped off is horrible at the best of times and I totally agree that the price for what you have appears to be rather ridiculous.

I agree with the others and would pay the admin fee and move your booking to something far more worthy of the 3K price tag. I am getting an AI two weeks peak season with daytime flights for that price and I don't blame you for being gutted.

Ouch! I've spent the same for 2 weeks in the Caribbean at Christmas...It's a shame your wife didn't shop around first before booking the first thing she saw.

Perhaps I may raise two points here.

First is your wife obviously decided that you needed/deserved a holiday. I agree the price makes your eyes water a little but don't put all the blame on her. Sometimes we lose sight of how much pressure work puts on our lives and it takes someone else to bring it to our attention. Your wife obviously thought you needed a break.

We all start out on the holiday booking trail without being very good at looking for bargains. Once we discover sites like HT then we quickly become experts and don't fall for the tricks played on us by the TOs and agents again.

Second you will get lots of good sensible advice here and the suggestions made so far have merit. Yes booking the hotel direct can save money but add on the flights and transfers and the price gap may not be quite as wide as it looks. If you are to change then perhaps looking at two weeks rather than one may bring things more into line. Certainly if you cancel and lose £1,500 and then book another holiday you are still out of pocket. Talk with the agent and see what you can negotiate first. You never know it might just work out.

Either way don't brood about it you are going to have a holiday some way or another. Enjoy it.

fwh

That price differential seems crazy to me. Far too high. £100 I could understand.

Are all aspects of the holiday exactly the same - flights, hotels, room types, inclusions, transfers, meal basis etc.

Make sure you are actually getting exactly the same then take it from there with some of the suggestions. And that the other prices you've seen are available.

I'm not saying it's not exactly the same, but i've never come across such a massive difference before so i'd be double checking.

I agree with Sam. I have priced up packages and then booking hotel and flight separately with Thomson many times but I have never found a price differential as much as that.
You can also ask Thomsons if you can transfer your payment to a holiday next year and then you could rebook something cheaper for this year?
I did that myself last year. I transferred my deposit from a holiday for February 2010 to a holiday in March 2011 and then rebooked something off the internet.

Ok it seems somewhere some problems have occured, but, am I right in thinking you now have a £3000 holiday booked? You'd lose £1500 if you cancelled? You can rebook the same holiday yourself for £1000?
If so then why not ask Thomson if they'll let you change to a different holiday and then book it, there may be a small fee. BUT then see if they'll let you use any remainder of the original money to book another holiday for summer 2011.
You may have to add a little towards next years but you'll have about 10 months to pay it off!

Don't forget though that doing it DIY you usually have to add on transfers/ luggage/ etc which can add up a bit!

Another thing to try is to see if it's cheaper for the holiday as 4 adults! If it is tell Thomson that they should have done it this way instead!