If your husband had booked these days as annual leave and had that request authorised prior to booking the holiday then you might have some come back against his company or be able to clain agains yout insurance but I've just had something similar arise at my work and the employee has lost her holiday deposit.

In this instance, she found a good bargain on the Net, checked her diary, thought that the dates were suitable and that she had no definite work commitments and booked the holiday prior to getting the leave formally authorised. However, she did have commitments that she had forgotten to put in her diary, colleagues refused to swap work duties with ther to cover (she's done this before!) and her line manager as result refused to authorise the leave retrospectively. She feels hard done by but her line manager and our employer are within their rights. And in this instance, because she hadn't got the leave authorised before booking the holiday, her insurers won't pay out on the grounds that this is her own fault for not ensuring that she would be able to take the leave before commiting herself to the holiday. She's got no other option other than to either forfeit the deposit or try and persuade the TO to change the holiday for her on payment of an admin fee.

Whatever happens with flyblue's husband's employer Olympic are entitled to the full deposit and whether they have any comeback with his employer will really depend on whether this holiday was booked because he assumed he wouldn't have to go on this business trip but hadn't yet booked the leave or whether he had already had the leave authorised, then booked the holiday and his employers are wanting to withdraw their permission for him to take leave on these dates.

sM

SM

Yes in most things in this life if you pay a deposit and then change your mind you loose that deposit. I dont think its worth even trying to contest that fact.

Shame its a lot of money to loose. Schools have two weeks off at christmas and easter maybe it could be swapped for one of these two holiday periods. Nice to get some sun when we are cold and wet here in this country.

Yes I agree I think your best bet flying blue would be to transfer your holiday to another date . and as this holiday isnt until August there is nothing stopping you keeping this booking as it stands for the time being , dont rush to cancel , pay the balance of the deposit which as pointed out you would have to pay anyway and wait for summer 09 holidays to come out probably in the spring ,then you could transfer to the following year if its a sumer holiday you prefer. you will have plenty of time but just check with Olympic up to how many weeks before you are due to travel can you make this type of change . its normally somewhere around the time the final payment is due . .

Just another option to through in the pot

lyn

sorry very bad spelling this morning . that should say throw in the pot . although just another thought Olympic are probably a little later bringing out their brochures than some of the others . but arnt they part of airtours/my travel

Thanks for your replies,

I did feel it was more likely than not that I would lose the deposit but I was really just "wondering" more than anything else. Obviously I would prefer not to lose the money but if I do I do. My husband can usually take holidays whenever he wishes his employers are extremely flexible so I wouldn't even consider asking them for a refund,the reason he has to go is for a trade show in the Far East, originally it was felt he didn't need to go but then changed to being relevant that he did.

I wasn't impressed with the response of Olympic, sometimes its not what you say but the way that you say it. Thats businesss for you.

lynwestie wrote:

but arnt they part of airtours/my travel

Olympic are an independant TO. Not part of any other. They bring their brochures out around the same time as most of the others and their second edition Summer 2008 brochure is available already.

flyingblue, we are often unhappy with the response from a company when it is something we don't want to hear.

Louby

The problem is not of the making of Olympic.

Someone has booked a holiday, and unfortunately, their own personal circumstances have intervened.

It is not unreasonable of Olympic to request the balance. they are in business to make money. They have a duty to shareholders and employees alike - something that I think gets lost when people complain. It is always easy to say that the TO should be more understanding.

fwh

I agree with your post fwh and yours louby, and well done flyingblue for accepting that there is probably nothing you can do in this instance. But it is always worth asking! This site has a wealth of knowledge for everyone!!!

Thanks for coming back on and feeding back to us flyingblue. (many folks just don't bother )

Your post has stimulated a lot of discussion, which is good for the site. I hope you go on to have a good holiday when your hubby gets his new holiday dates.

Doe