karlm the holiday company doesn't have any obligation over the reasons for cancellation. Your holiday insurance should cover these charges and if you are all close family of the relative who has been hurt you should get everything back. You should get in touch with your insurers and tell them what has happened and they will tell you what you have to do next (provide proof of cancellation and proof that this is a family member etc.).

I hope your relative is okay by the way.

I know and wouldnt of minded if they would of told us that in the first place but we were told one thing then another when it was too late.

Would of done that but travel insurance wasnt done at time of accident.

Next time we book a holiday we will get insurance straight away

Travel insurance should always be taken out when you book your holiday.
This sort of thing is the very reason why.
A hard lesson to learn.

It is really important to take out insurance immediately you book a holiday - it is simply too late to leave it until just before you go. If you could tell us a bit more about the processes you went through with with the TO somebody might be able to offer you a ray of hope.

For example, on first phoning them, did you then immediately re-arrange the holiday, paying the admin fee that is usually charged and book for a new holiday/date, and is it this new holiday booking that they are now trying to cancel? If that is the case then you might be able to salvage something because they have entered into a new contract with you when they accepted payment of the admin fee and you should contact Ros immediately. Or did they simply say that it was possible to re-arrange the holiday but you then did nothing more abut it until after the origianl departure date had passed? If this is the case then you would have simply appeared as a 'no-show' in their system when you never arrived at the departure airport to check-in and I doubt that there is anything you can now do about that.

I appreciate that in the circumstances trying to re-arrange a holiday was the last thing on your mind but in a situation like this you need to try and get things re-arranged before the original departure date comes and goes.

SM

It is normally a condition of booking that you either provide proof of insurance or you take out insurance with the Agent/TO.

fwh

Hi sma

We phoned 10 days before the departure date and that was when we was told they would rearrange the date to next year they then did nothing about it we thought they were doing it we then phoned after the depature date to comfirm they had changed the dates that was when they said it was to late.

Did you arrange a specific holiday and date as a replacement, or simply agree that you would re-arrange?

If you said OK first two weeks in May 2008 at X hotel in Corfu for example then you could possibly have a case. You would of course have been given a booking reference. If you said I will look at the brochure and get back when I have found what I want then I doubt you have a case.

The term & conditions of holiday bookings are quite specific regarding penalties that will be charged when a holiday is cancelled. The offer to re- book for another date is really a goodwill gesture on behalf of the TO/Agent.

Technically you were in breach of the booking conditions by not having insurance in place. Any legal action you were to undertake would, in my opinion, fail because of the breach of contract on your part

I am sorry that this has happened and hope your family member makes a full recovery.

This just shows how important insurance is.

fwh

Hi yes we comfimred dates and were told that they were going to change it for us we diddnt get a booking number however

If what you say is correct then I think that you need specialist advice.

Perhaps your best solution would be to contact Ros Fernihough who is a specialist in travel law, she has helped many members of HT.

She will be able to advise you exactly where you stand. We can only express our own opinions.

TEL. NO. 0845 2262332 (local) or 01922 621114

FAX NO. 01922 629042

We can only express our personal opinions which, whilst they might be supportive of you carry no weight in law.

fwh

Have you asked the company if they record calls most companys do this now? If they do record the calls asked to a) review the the initial conversations and b) if they still disagree ask for a copy. Its normal to record digitaly so the voice file can be emailed.