Holidays

Sounds weird seeing as it is illegal to travel abroad for a holiday! There must be an answer somewhere.

Assuming they are ABTA affiliated, report them.

Not a bad little earner if everyone's money's in a high interest bank account. People are all out to fleece you whatever it is and it's wrong.
If you paid by bank card there's something you can do.

High interest bank account? What’s that?

More information please EV.

Prague is in full lock down, they have the highest C19 rate in the world.
Hotels are not open to tourists.
My son lived there until Dec 2020, his friends and colleagues still in Prague are miserable.
You have been lied to.
All the information is on the government website.

I had a problem with a company in the Uk last year. It was illegal to travel but they said as the property was open it wasn’t their problem. A friend knew a contracts barrister who drafted a letter for me to send. They very reluctantly paid up. I think Martin Lewis’s site had a version of the letter. Something to do with ‘frustration of contract’. Good luck.

Thank you all

We are still waiting for a refund from Air Asia and Virgin Australia from 1st lockdown. I doubt we will ever get it. Spent hours trying to. Trouble being we paid our Oz relatives and for bizarre reason they paid cash. Probably be giving up soon as Australia has outdated rules that are not the same as UK and Europe.

It's a high-risk jobby Calendargirl.

I remember having a word with my bank a few years ago but you have to be prepared to lose a lot and they wouldn't touch such an account as they're not covered by the FSCS.
Money tied in for a period which could technically win big if invested in all the right places but----if they failed you could end up losing the lot and owing the companies involved.

Was your holiday a package holiday? Flights and hotel booked at same time with an ATOL certificate? If any elements are cancelled then you would be entitled to a refund but IF flights are going ahead and hotel open then you would need to rely on your insurance to cover you for this. If the insurance you have taken out doesn’t cover you, and flights and hotel open then sadly you won’t be able to get your money back.

Sorry not what you want to hear but it is as it is.

Just to add a rebooking is probably as good as you will get as many insurance companies are taking the stance that the offer to rebook is sufficient repayment.

get as much publicity for this as you can. Contact moneybox on the bbc who are excellent at sorting out such things, but of course they have a lot of calls for this , but it would be worth writing to newspapers, local and dailies. put it on the internet , print in capitals the company who is doing this. Contact covid information and tell them what they are doing - which I would consider is illegal and report to the ombudsman. Like the pebble in the pool tell us all the name of the people concerned and we can all pass this on to everyone else.

Go on their Twitter account and Facebook and name and shame them.

British Airways still has my money from a cancelled flight to India in March 2020. They refuse to give me my money back on to my credit card because apparently I agreed to a voucher. I think the voucher has been extended for another year. I am just thankful I was not stranded in a foreign country.

What is happening may not be illegal, before you decide to start any naming and shaming. I don't know when you originally booked your holiday but it has long been advice to (a) book packages through ABTA, not separate flights and accomodation and (b) pay by credit card. Frankly, if you have not done either, you are on shaky ground. It is frustrating when you keep getting deferred credit though.

Australia aren't allowing anyone in their country until they've all been vaccinated and they're looking toward sometime next year.

Prague is shut! UK airports are also shut for people going on holiday. Report the company to ABTA. If it's not a member of ABTA make sure you do your research in future and steer clear of disreputable companies. I lost two sets of flights last year - one set with Tui, and another set with SwissAir - both offered refunds for up to one year, and changed flights for up to 18 months. I've rebooked with Tui but it looks as though those flights will also be cancelled as the original date for travel abroad of 17th May is being pushed back to June.

I am thankful that I refused a voucher or rebooking from TUI last year as it looks now that my rebooked holiday ( now hotel only) will not be going ahead in July. There is now talk in the media that it might be August before we will be able to travel abroad! I will probably lose my £250 deposit for the hotel as I don’t expect them to move my dates yet again, it is a small family run place where I’ve stayed several times before. I’ll get there again one day!

Can you not just change the date until later in the year.

EV please tell me where I can get a high interest account as I am feeling peeved to be earning almost nothing on my savings.

@Calendargirl as EV said, they're very high risk and you can lose money big time. I lost a packet in one a few years ago not to the pint I owed money to the bank admittedly but over half my original investment. Don't go there unless you can afford to lose a lot of money.

It's illegal for you to travel. You should get refund. You could have had one last year too when travel was banned.

Talk to your bank, first. Unfortunately, it depends what kind of bank card you hold whether the bank can get your money back or not.

I thought the UK had the equivalent of the Danish Ombudsmand, and had imported the term. He is the chappie you want to deal with sharp business practise.

Have you considered getting your solicitor to send the company a fairly stiffish letter?