One common theme in this thread is that they were all Thomas Cook holidays , perhaps that explains why the company was in so much financial trouble and still will be if these recent examples are anything to go by .
If a holiday is priced so low that it only covers the flight fare , I can't really see the point of a TO selling the holiday especially if its AI , the price would only cover the flight and gaining around about £100 to offset losses is nothing to compare to the thousands it costs to make a flight , it's almost negligible and then having to supply food and drink for free for 2 weeks even if they have made a bulk purchase and are just filling spaces , as that would affect the figures for room prices the next year with the hotel as they would set a rate on how many people had stayed there this year , what you are doing is actually devaluing your business and your negotiating position , a business will not survive on selling things for free or for unsustainable profit margins .
A company needs to get its purchasing correct rather than slashing prices to " get something rather than nothing at all and to keep reducing the price until something eventually sells if you are having to pay the suppliers for it anyway "
( sounds like a failed task from The Apprentice ) you end up working for nothing !!
It will also struggle too if it keeps on making pricing errors because then people lose trust , if they can't simply price up a holiday correctly what hope that they will competently administer the rest of the travel plans .
I have the most interesting points made on page 1 and made by the mods Kiltman and Glynis .
Kiltman posted the email he received and that indicates that TOs can cancel a holiday at anytime if it has been sold at an incorrect price or is a pricing error by simply returning paid monies .
And Glynis made the enlightening point that the TO made a mistake and then offered a voucher as a " sorry " to SPEND WITH THEM !!! Not exactly on the customers side and could be seen slightly as a marketing ploy .
Glynis HT Admin wrote::think Hmm so they send you a £100 voucher that you need to use against one of their holidays which, means you end up giving them your custom............ So their error swings into being in their favour.....
Kiltman HT Mod wrote:I went trawling through the old emails that are stored in Virgin Media to see if I could find anything regarding my booking and it was from over 2 years ago and I also asked ABTA and this was their responce at that time -
The first thing to say is that the tour operator cannot insist on the client paying the higher price. Equally, however, the client is unlikely to be able to insist that the operator provide the holiday at the lower price. The most likely result will be that the tour operator will cancel the booking and the client will receive a refund of any monies paid.
In these cases the first thing to do is look at when the contract comes into effect. This will be stated in the tour operator's booking conditions but is usually when the tour operator issues their confirmation invoice (not when it is received).
If the contract has not come into effect then the tour operator simply returns any money paid and that is the end of it.
If the contract has come into effect, the next thing to check is when the balance due date is. If the balance due date has not been reached, the tour operator is entitled, under the ABTA Code of Conduct and, usually, under the booking conditions, to cancel the booking and give a refund of monies paid without any other reason.
If the balance due date is passed, the tour operator will not be able to cancel the booking but is likely to argue that the contract has been entered into on the basis of a mistake. If this is correct then the contract will be void and the client will be entitled to a refund but not to any further compensation, nor to have the holiday at the lower price.
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