I am going on a group ski holiday at the end of Jan, there are 10 of us. Unfortunately, my girlfriend broke her leg in Austria when skiing over Xmas so won’t be able to come.

We have paid for the holiday upfront, and now the Mrs. is going to cancel her spot to get the certificate of cancellation in order to claim from her insurance. She is not expecting any money back from the travel agent due to the short notice.

This should all be very simple, but Neilson have come back and say they want a £225 cancellation fee! They have said this for the empty bed. That’s right the one we’ve paid them for!

Is anybody fluent in travel agent, cause it’s like talking a imbecile at the moment.

BTW, in case you were in any doubt – i’m still going 8)

Why did you tell them that all 10 of you aren’t coming?

Just tell them that there has been a mistake, and you’ll all be there as originally planned.

Dave

edit: just read it better….. you need a certificate of cancellation.

Is that cancellation fee a deduction against the balance paid, meaning you’ll get a partial refund, or are they really saying that they want extra money from you??

Sounds very odd – have you explained to them that as you’ve paid in full, sounds like they think you’ve just paid the deposit?

Well this is coming second hand through e-mail from Mrs.88, but she has spoken to three people at they have all confirmed that there is no refund PLUS the cancellation fee of £225!

She has asked for an exact breakdown of that £225 – which obviously won’t exist, or will be covered by thr £500+ we paid for the holiday.

It’s just absolutely insane. Is this the level of anger needed to read the Daily Mail? Beause I think I’m there!

[/quote]Dear Sarah,

Yes, just to clarify:

There will be no refund on the price of the holiday due to the proximity of the departure date.

There will be an additional £224 added to the booking as an empty bed supplement as there is now 1 bed not being filled.

Kind regards,
Lucy

[head explodes]

weill the insurance not cover the additional fee as well?

tbh, if it’s due to you now beign single occupancy on a twin/double room it may well be in line with their t’s & c’s.

take me take me 🙂

Seriously is there noone else you could take? (if they continue to be idiots)

Before doing anything, check that you’ll even have a valid claim. Unless a doctor has said she can’t travel, she can still go on holiday. The fact that she can’t ski when there may be of very little interest to the insurer – this used to be the line when I worked for one of them

Single occupancy is different though – that bed is unused and will not be ‘bought’ by anyone else.

In this case you have paid for that other bed already.

Are they expect more monies from you when you are there – that they could be losing out on?

Or maybe they thing you are wanting a refund – that sounds like what it must be – or a confused agent who has read/calculated the fee but missed the refund bit.

Maybe an ‘admin’ fee for preparing the cancellation doc and the bookwork associated, but anything is

It can’t be a single ocupancy fee as this would result in a lower price, not higher

The way it should work is

Double/twin room
2 x people @ £500 = £,1000

Double/twin room
1 x person @ £500
1 x single occupancy fee @ £225 = £725

So the hotel still gets paid the same per room but the tour operator can sell on the flight to someone else so they don’t lose out on their profit.

Sounds like Lucy is just hard of understanding.

I think jfletch has it – they’re charging your gf 100% cancellation and then adding a single occupancy fee to your booking.

Or maybe they thing you are wanting a refund – that sounds like what it must be – or a confused agent who has read/calculated the fee but missed the refund bit

Suspect it is a very confused agent, but still very frustrating

Maybe an ‘admin’ fee for preparing the cancellation doc and the bookwork associated

Yea I was expecting an extortionate charge like £25 not £225!

@Legend – she def can’t fly, the doctor has told her already so not a problem with that end

The holiday is full board, with flights, ski-pass and ski hire already paid. So (and not that this would make it fair) they’re not exactly missing out on upselling!

take me take me

Ha- you’d have to share a room with me!

titusrider – Member
take me take me

Roughly? 😈

Similar situation to us, 1 of our 4 cant travel due to broken back, all pinned back together now and he’s on the mend
Advised by Thomson/agent just don’t turn up and then on return ask for a no show invoice to present to the insurance company.

90% fee to cancel or £70 to change name

Yeah, it’s a mistake, got to be.

They need charge you a signal occupancy surcharge to make up for the loss of revenue on the other bed, but in this case there is no loss of revenue because you’ve already paid for it.

Thanks guys, I will copy and pasting a lot of the above points into an E-mail of Scorn this evening. I will let you know how I get on.

It’s a shame, because I’d previously heard very good things about Neilson. But now they’ve got 10 people who go on 2+ trips a year who will never book with them again.

Not that I’m bitter (!) but I hope Thomas Cook’s share tank (even more so)

@Legend – she def can’t fly, the doctor has told her already so not a problem with that end

Glad (well not glad, but you know what I mean) to hear it.

With regards to the single occupancy, there is loss of income if they think they can sell it again?

Tell them she is going then.

Tell them she is going then

I need the certificate of cancellation to claim on the insurance…

Will the Ins co. allow the £255 as part of the claim?

Not sure, but if not we won’t know until it’s too late so trying to ensure we don’t pay it in the first instance.

They must have a Faceache or Twitter thing you can Spam?

Hi eightyeight – I’m from Iglu.com and came across this discussion this morning.

I’m going to spend a bit of time identifying the booking and hopefully getting the matter sorted. It doesn’t seem right that you are being charged underoccupancy on top of 100% cancellation.

In the meantime, could you give me a bell if you get a chance (020 8544 6402 and ask for Peter – mentioning this post) or drop me an email (again for my attention) to customercare@iglu.com.

All the best – Peter

Ah, the power of google alerts…

impressed he bothered to register to post, though.

If they’re taking random extra money off you, I want in…

Send me £67 NOW, please….

DrP

Ah, the power of google alerts…

Shame you have to post on a public forum before they treat you sensibly though. I’d much prefer it if they were just reasonable from Day 1.

You’d think iglu would take that line too. They now have some credibility to make up.
Iglu
Cancellation
Excess

Peteriglue – Thank you very much for taking the time to register and reply.

Mrs.88 will be ringing you shortly.

Hopefully this can be resolved, as it has caused her (and me) a fair bit of stress (on top of a broken leg and not being able to go skiing).

Everyone else – thanks for your comments. I’ll let you know how things go!

Thanks all. Agree that we should have been more questioning of the information that we were receiving from the operator in the first please.

88 – The booking’s been identified and hopefully we’re on the way to resoluton. I’ll be in touch once sorted, or at least with an update.

Keep us posted!

I can confirm that Pete the Feet has danced his way in and stole the show! Problem resolved 😀 There was some sort of blame game between Iglu and Neison, which I care about even less than I understand, but all in all a good result.

Pete even offered to remain on hand should we need any help with our insurance claim. So top marks Pete.

Thanks to everyone else for their help!

Yay! 😆

🙂