Hi

I'm new to the forum and apologies if this query has not been posted in the correct section. I have searched the sub sections and thought this was the best place to post this.

Essentially we are booked to travel to Jamaica with TUI this August as a package holiday. We have seen recent news of many TUI flights being delayed and/or cancelled. Whilst I'm not too worried about the long haul flights being delayed I would rather know my rights beforehand just in case we get a late text message of flight delay or cancellation. My reasoning is that if the holiday is cancelled then we can book another one straight (not with TUI) so we can at least go away on or around the same dates (it doesnt matter if it then takes a few weeks to get the refund from TUI, just that we have certainty that we are entitled to a refund).

I have researched this and found various relevant information.

The CAA website states that when a flight is delayed by more than 5 hours that you are entitled to a refund. However, this only relates to flights. So my question is - if a TUI flight is delayed by more than 5 hours can we rightfully claim that the whole package holiday can be classed as cancelled?

TUI website T&C's extract concerning major changes to your holiday;

Major changes to your holiday........ a change in the time of your departure or return flight by more than 12 hours, a change of UK departure airport (excluding changes between London airports, London, Ebbsfleet and Ashford stations and between Dover/Folkestone ports). A delay to your flight that we need to make within 24 hours before you are due to depart will not be considered a major change unless the delay is for more than 24 hours. These changes are only examples and there may be other significant changes which constitute major changes.
If we tell you about any of these changes after we have confirmed your holiday booking, you may........ cancel your holiday with us and receive a full refund of all monies paid.The above slightly contradicts itself as it says a major change is a delay of more than 12 hours. Then the subsequent section states 24 hours. So I'm not sure whether I would be comfortable after 12 hours to re-book another holiday, or whether 24 hours would be the time limit. I'm tempted to lean more towards the conservative 24 hours.

So on balance I'm reasonably comfortable that once a TUI flight is delayed or cancelled by more than 24 hours that we will be entitled to a full refund in due course and we can go ahead and book another break with confidence. I would be glad of any thoughts on this approach from those more experienced!

One slight issue I have with this is that I have also found some other TUI T&C's in their search function which state that they only consider that a holiday is cancelled when they tell you its cancelled. If they dont then their standard T&C's still apply until they tell you this. The inference being that if I consider its cancelled before they formally tell me, then it isnt actually classed as cancelled, if that makes sense!

thanks