Dave
Thomson didn't appeal.
The moral of this story (as far as I understand) was proving that Thomson had re-sold the holiday and had incurred no losses, and therefore the bloke thought it totally unfair that they should pocket all of his money. It wasn't about having insurance, it was about the unfair practices of penalising customers with unreasonable cancellation fees. (when they (TO) haven't incurred any losses.)
It became a matter of principal, which was fuelled by the taxi issue, which he wanted them to cancel 6 days in advance and return the sum of £150, and by Thomson being pig headed and not moving an inch, it infuriated him .....I do believe the money he won in court was given back to his insurance company.
He just wanted to prove the point that Thomson had incurred no losses by having resold the holiday and this practice of ripping people off is a nice little profit windfall for them,
IMO: It serves Thomson right, if they'd given him his £150 back for a cancelled taxi 6 days in advance, not 6 hours, then they'd have been a couple of grand in profit.
He won his case because he quoted some trading laws and Thomson couldn't show the judge where they had lost any money.
In relevance to the OP...if he has cancelled 6 months in advance and if the cruise has been resold, he is asking a fair question, which is, why should he lose all his deposit?
Same principal?
Sanji x
If the contract term really is unfair, I'm pretty sure a term that has been more or less the same for years and years would have been called out by The Office of Fair Trading, Abta or been sorted in the Package Regs before this case was brought this year.
Thomsons sensibly didn't appeal. If they had and they lost, it would set a precedent which would have had far reaching implications for all the travel industry, not just themselves.
When it comes to judges though they sometimes seem to come to the stupidest conclusions ever these days. I had a friend who ended up taking a tour operator to court when the tour operator wouldn't play ball, all because a dead cockroach on their balcony wasn't moved by the maid, so was there for several days. He ended up with nearly the full cost of his holiday refunded. Total bl**dy madness
As the saying goes 'the law is an ass'.
Thomsons sensibly didn't appeal. If they had and they lost, it would set a precedent which would have had far reaching implications for all the travel industry, not just themselves.
When it comes to judges though they sometimes seem to come to the stupidest conclusions ever these days. I had a friend who ended up taking a tour operator to court when the tour operator wouldn't play ball, all because a dead cockroach on their balcony wasn't moved by the maid, so was there for several days. He ended up with nearly the full cost of his holiday refunded. Total bl**dy madness
As the saying goes 'the law is an ass'.
Sunaddict wrote:Chris wrote:Slightly off topic, however CenterParcs offer an insurance policy at the time of booking (£20ish) that pays out 100% of your holiday cost, including the deposit, should you need to cancel (with a valid reason). I do think more travel agents should offer something similar, to protect against instances where you pay large deposits and then say, you lose your job and can not pay the balance.
If you're made redundant travel insurance should cover.
I don't think the travel agents should offer such policies unless they're acting as the principal, but it might be something the tour operators/cruise companies etc could think about.
Does the Centre Parcs one cover for change of mind or deciding you can't afford what you've booked, or is it more like a standard insurance eg death, illness, redundancy etc etc?
It is a standard policy sadly, however worth the £20 it costs in my opinion.
With many Travel Agents assuming principal status by selling under ATOL Flight+ I think it would be a good thing for them to sell.
Sunaddict wrote:If the contract term really is unfair, I'm pretty sure a term that has been more or less the same for years and years would have been called out by The Office of Fair Trading, Abta or been sorted in the Package Regs before this case was brought this year. .
Funny you should mention that, because this and Thomson incurring no losses were the fundamental points in his presentation to the judge.
TUI refused to budge, so Mr Crawcour took the case to the Small Claims Court himself, on the grounds that TUI was in breach of the Unfair Terms Consumer Contract Regulations 1999 and the 2004 guidance from the Office of Fair Trading on Unfair Contract Terms in Package Holiday Contracts.
This, argued Mr Crawcour, only allows operators to impose a sliding scale of charges which increase as the departure date approaches provided they are a genuine pre-estimate of the holiday company's loss. The vast majority of tour operators impose such charges, which usually rise to the full holiday cost if you cancel within two weeks of departure.
Mr Crawcour pointed out that the internet and development of real time information over the last 10 years has fundamentally changed the situation since these clauses were written. Tour operators can now measure easily and precisely whether they have made a loss or not on a cancellation, and holidaymakers should not be unfairly penalised by an arbitrary charge. In particular, he argued that the 100 per cent charge for cancellations within two weeks of departure was unfair.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-advice/10662931/Thomson-case-could-spell-end-of-unfair-holiday-cancellation-charges.html
Sanji x
They are still at it. We paid a deposit 30th October, never received terms and conditions or a receipt of payment. Over 5 calls, they kept calling back due to awful reception, they never mentioned the terms and conditions at all. We cancelled in writing on 1st November - less than 48 hours later - for a holiday due in 2018 so they have lost nothing. We have read so many bad things about this company and only wish we'd suspected them sooner. In my view they are crooks.
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