That seems really odd. I have never heard before that you cant change your booking for the cost of an admin fee of x amount per person.

It has been mentioned on this board many times of people doing this when they can't go on holiday for a given reason as a way not to lose your deposit. I think it is accepted that as well as paying the admin fee if the new holiday is more expensive that you will have to pay the extra, but presumable you were preperared to do this ?

I am assuming you booked either by phone or via their web-site and not in a high street Thomas Cooks ?

I hope this is not yet another change that is being brought into the Travel Industry that is anti-customer.

Thanks for your reply

Yep we booked on-line and have to ring up the change which as you said were willing to pay admin plus any more over the price of our original booking , as we hadn't paid the final balance there should not be any problem

i will send a email back requesting Thomas Cook actually point out where this ruling is in their T&C as , as i said there is no mention on website , back of invoice or ven in brochure

thanks again

I think it's a good idea to get them to show you exactly where it is in their terms and conditions/small print.

I'm just wondering if you just actually got a lazy member of staff in the call center who just couldn't be bothered. If you had only called once I would have guessed that was what had happened, but it sounds like you have called more than once. Is it worth giving it one more go ? I know its premium rate pnone lines as I moaned to the sales assistant about this in the summer when I had a problem. He just said 'you know that before you dial it' which was a bit cheeky I thought but true I suppose.

Have you got something specific you want to change to in terms of date and the name of the accommodation ? If you have I can't beleive it's that hard to transfer the booking accross to the new date and accommodation, at the end of the day that's what the 'admin fee' is for.

Let us know how you get on.

Doe

Hi

In answer to your points i have just this minute sent a email back asking where it was in teh T&C's , as for lazy member of staff yep we seemed to get them but sales were brilliant , think its the case that sales get a small commission on each booking and the admin depts don't, that's what it was were i worked (in sales) and admin there were next to useless

we had a specific date and accomodation , we also said the dates we were able to go and the resort to help them if their was accommodation problems but "i cant be arsed attitude" seemed to be abundant

if we dont get this osrted will never use Thomas Cook again which is a shame as one they have our favourite complex in Lanzarote on their books and two they sponsor my football team(well for this season at a least)

thanks for your help

Instead of using premium rate phone number, go to this website saynoto0870.com

I use it and it saves you alot of your well earned pennies.

I can't see anything in their online T and C's either except that they can change them if they so desire Would it be that the season here changes on 1st May? There certainly is plenty of availablity on their website. Is it likely their is no communication between operators taking calls for the winter season as opposed to the summer

I have just cancelled a holiday with TC to the Xanadu in August 09 (booked direct with them as it was a lot cheaper) . I then transferred the £50.00 per person deposit to cyprus may 09. At first they wanted to charge £30.00 per person per change. Date, resort and country. I just laughed and said that £90.00 worked out more than the deposit.

I said i would loose the deposit and would book cyprus with someone else. Do you know they just charged me £15.00 per person. This was six weeks ago. I had booked with Future Travel part of the Co-op group. So they do do it.

As I recall from working at FC - we couldn't switch seasons on amending a booking. However, they can cancel the original booking and rebook you to the new season, then transfer your deposit to the new booking.

Or, that's what our admin used to do before I left in 2004 to live in sunny Cyprus

CwB

I think I've heard of changing seasons but they charged twice ie the move and the move to a different season.

As i say they charged me £15.00 per person to change my deposit from one booking to another.

Thanks for you help , we have argued and argued with Thomas Cook and finally gave up , we decided to sod a xpensive xmas and go in Jan after all , and will never use TC again , i sent emails to the customer relations and a director without replys or acknowledgment

just glad they will not be shirt sponsors of city next year

Emails are too easily ignored. A serious complaint should be put in writing and sent by Royal Mail preferably a signed for service.

luci

I think the problem may be the fact that you are changing your holiday from an earlier date to a later date.

Therefore the travel agent only has from October to January to re-sell your holiday, and there is no guarentee they would be able to sell your holiday during that time, (though this would be highly unlikely) and therefore could make a loss. Based on the dates you have provided, you would have informed your travel agent on 29th October 2008 that you wouldn't be able to travel on say 1st January 2009 = approx 65 days = 9 weeks and 2 days.

Most travel agents require full payment 10-12 weeks before departure, then charge a sliding scale cancelation fee.

An analogy would be you were booked to go on holiday on the 15th December, and you contacted the travel agent on the 14th December to say you couldn't make it and you wanted to transfer to July. It would be highly unlikely that the Travel Agent would be able to resell that holiday in 1 day. That's why you would loose 100% of your holiday cost.

It's easier when you want to transfer your holiday from a later date to an earlier date, as the travel agent would then have more time to sell your holiday.

I cannot speak for Thomas cook, but one travel agent I worked for would not let you transfer a holiday to a later date within 8 weeks of departure, for the reasons already explained.

I understand that your circumstances have changed but travel agents are businesses, and they have to protect themselves from potential losses to changes in customers circumstances, they should not have to write off money because a customers circumstances have changed.

I can appreciate the situation you are in and I am not aware of Thomas Cooks T&C's regarding this matter, but if they have covered this in their terms and conditions, then you would of had to agreed to these when you booked your holiday.

I feel sorry for the situation you now find yourself in, but you cannot hold Thomas cook liable for something you have had to to change for your own personal reasons. The T&C's and admin fees are in place to ensure that the travel agent/tour operator are able to recouperate any losses, so they can keep their holiday cost as low as possible.

Again the only consructive advise I can offer is that you check Thomas Cooks T&C's to enurse you have been given the correct information.

I hope everthing works out for you, and the intention of this post is not to critisise, but to offer the perspective from the Tour Operator, and to warn other holiday makers that the T&C's are really important, even when unforseen circumsances crop up that are out of your control.

I hope you don't feel I am on the side of the Tour Operator, but am offering advise that may help you and others in the future.

Best of Luck!

I too am spitting feathers with Thomas Cook. Having booked a two week holiday with them to Tunisia from 26th April I discovered I needed to bring this forward by a week to 19th April. I checked the website and saw the new dates were available and, although prices had gone up, the price for the new date was cheaper than the following week. I noted that the cost for a change would be £30 but they came back to me with an increase of over £60. I replied that I thought this was unjustifiable and extortionate but would reluctantly accept it, to which they replied that it had now gone up by another £20. I then said I would cancel and was prepared to lose the deposit. I then got a phone call to ask if I really wanted to cancel? could I get the holiday any cheaper? what about luggage allowance, meals, transfers etc.? I replied that I could fly out with BA much cheaper, the luggage allowance would be 23kg rather than their 15, meals were provided and a transfer from Tunis was less than £6 and I would have no problem getting an hotel at a decent price. The young lady said she was trying to retain my custom and offered to reduce the cost by £10 - I remembered that I was supposed to be a lady and declined politely.

Can i just point out to weebabymonkey the Travel Agent has absolutely no control over admin fees and cancellation charges.
I think you are referring to the Tour Operator as Travel Agents have no control whatsoever over prices, admin fees etc.

we have a holiday booked with thomas cook for september which we need to change to may 2010 and we were told at the moment they are not charging, hopefully this will last until 2010 goes on sale when we will change our holiday if not and the charges come back on i will cancell and go with first choice.