help regards Thomson Holidays Booking

A question about : help regards Thomson Holidays Booking

Hi all,

so this is a pretty long story, but long and short of it is that Thomson holidays are holding me to terms and conditions that do not exist in the booking contract... I have been in touch with them and ABTA and absolutely gotten nowhere as ABTA are useless and Thomson just seem to be making their own rules up - here is the story:

To anyone interested and who may be able to offer further advice, here are the bullet pointed version of events:
booked holiday to dominican republic
changed holiday to morocco due to budget, paid Ј70 admin fee
discovered morocco resort actually miles away from anything and cannot leave resort alone as high risk - changed booking to tunisia, paid Ј70 admin fee.
Booking for tunisia is garden view room, half board. Can no longer access booking online, told by Thomson that the web system does this and anything now has to be done over phone (cannot even go to a shop or do anything online, phone, email and post only)
Month or so later, look into upgrade as finances improved. Checked online, saw upgrade to sea view room and all inclusive is at Ј11.01 per person per night
Ring thomson to upgrade. Get told price is actually Ј43 per person per night - Ј11 for room upgrade, Ј32 for all inclusive. Argue point that online shows Ј11.01 pppn - am advised that upgrade cost is set at time of booking
request evidence from thomson of upgrade cost being fixed at point of booking, none received - am advised on phone and via email that a clause stating 'prices may go up or down' is a fixed price clause that confirms cost of upgrade is fixed - argue this point as the clause is a variable price clause and there is no clause within any of their booking terms that states upgrade prices are fixed.
discover clause in contract that states that any changes made to a booking are charged as per the applicable rate on the date the change was requested - argue this point with thomson who state that the change I made is not a big enough change to invoke this clause? review entire contract, booking terms, and online T&C's - no definition of what constitutes a 'change' and still no clause stating upgrade prices fixed.
Thomson state upgrade price seen online was special offer for new customers only - request details of terms showing this was new customers only - thomson send no definitive term, instead advise that becaiuse it tells you to select option before clicking pay, then is obviously new customers only!
Thomson maintain upgrade price, however now state upgrade is Ј35 per person per night, not original Ј32 I was quoted - therefore have broken their own terms of contract by increasing price of upgrade - thomson refute and hold fast.
review costs - booking cost around Ј1700 for 2 weeks (15 nights), upgrade alone at Ј43 pppn = Ј1290 on top of holiday cost - almost doubles cost of holiday! Therefore do not upgrade
Report to ABTA who state to take case to arbitration at cost of Ј180 for me - arbitration is pointless and of no use because the arbitration is for compensation, not complaints over pricing prior to travel. complain to abta who state decision is final - refer to arbitration.

Now feel totally f@#ked over by Thomson as they have flouted basic contract law, holding me to terms that do not exist and have never existed and the industry ombudsman tells me to pay Ј180 to arbitrate - unwilling to do this as according to my understanding of basic contract law, a price fix cannot be held to if not expressly defined in contract. For those wondering, my booking contract contains nothing about upgrades, be these prices or otherwise.

I fly in less than 2 weeks and have battled this for what seems like forever - am I right in believing Thomson are holding me over a contractual barrel that actually does not exist - does this fall within unfair contracts act? am i legally correct? i can evidence everything i say and even have an email from thomson confirming no such upgrade price fix clause exists.

Best answers:

• This comes down to basic contract law, which unfortunately is not on your side. The advertisement for a Ј11.01 upgrade is an invitation to treat. You then offered to take up that upgrade, and they refused, and counter offered at a new price.
  The only thing I can see that you could complain about is that the website is misleading - however this would not bring you any remedy, it would have to be pursued by Trading Standards and *if* it was seen as intentionally misleading TC could be fined.
• You were never going to get an upgrade to all inclusive for Ј11 pp pn so you knew there was a mistake. They don't have to honour mistakes if they catch them in time before it's booked and confirmed, so no contract has been formed and the correct price has been quoted, which you have now declined. The original contract has not changed, you are still in the same position as you were before you wanted the upgrade.
• You should of stuck with Morocco
• My advice would be to do lots of homework before booking in future. First you booked a holiday which was obviously at the top of your budget, then you rebooked in a hotel without checking where it was, then you booked another holiday in a room with a garden view which wasn't what you really wanted.
  Might just be me, but when i book a a holiday, i make sure that i'm happy with everything, cost, room, view, facilities, location before i confirm the booking.
  Try to forget about Thomsons t & c's and enjoy your holiday.
• I'd suggest you misunderstand contract law.
  Do your T&C say say upgrades are at the advertised or at the applicable rate as they are not the same thing at all and you have used both terms interchangeably.
  Upgrade prices will only be fixed once you have contracted them - how else would they ever increase their prices?
  They are under no obligation to offer you an upgrade at a price you want wherever you may have seen it ie they are free to choose not to do business with you despite your already having a booking. Their only obligation is to fulfil the contracted holiday you already have.
  As you have already been told their upgrade offers are an invitation to treat - the fact you have a contract for a different product already is irrelevant. You will be forming a new contract when you upgrade, so they can offer you whatever they like. They are also free to not consider you as a new customer should you cancel.
• Phone the hotel and find the price to upgrade when you get there.
• Hi, Martin's asked me to post this in these circumstances: I've asked Board Guides to move threads if they'll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to the Overseas travel board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com.
• Make your mind up BEFORE you book
• Hi raaboo - I have great sympathy having gone through a similar frustrating battle with Thomson's booking T&Cs (cruise booked via Cruise Deals, all part of TUI Travel).
  Our situation was an addition to an existing booking and what made it all the more galling is we were acting on verbal advice given by Cruise Deals. As the fiasco developed, however, I did keep everything in email.
  My sister and mum had booked 2 twin cabins in Dec 11, each paying single supplements. They invited me along but I couldn't confirm due to possible work commitments at the time of the cruise. My sister had asked Cruise Deals if I could be added to the booking at a later date and how that would work. She was told the price would be based on the cost on the day of the change ('today's price') and it could go up or down - if it went up we would obviously pay the difference and if it went down, the difference would be refunded. Yes, the refund word was used.
  I still wasn't able to confirm by the time the final balance was due so my sister checked again if I could be added after she and mum had paid the full amount and was given the same explanation, including the part about the refund.
  Needless to say, this is not what happened when I was finally able to confirm. I was going to be joining mum in her cabin and at that time the cost of a twin cabin was Ј180 less than she had already paid. Was it recalculated at 'today's price'? - absolutely not.
  Initially they wanted to change me more, so while I was repeatedly put on hold during a call lasting over 40 mins, I checked the T&Cs online and para 11 'If you Change Your Booking' stated 'When changing your holiday details, the price of your new travel arrangements will be based on the price that applies on the day you make the change. These prices may not be the same as when you first made your booking.
  Some accommodation is priced according to the number of people staying there. If your party size changes, we'll recalculate your booking cost based on the new number of people going.'
  This seemed to be in line with the previous advice Cruise Deals had given.
  After emails, phone calls, an official letter of complaint, the best they would offer was not charging extra to add me to the booking, ie Ј180 more than 'today's price'.
  Their (eventual) explanation was that mum was bound by the price in Dec 11 and only I benefitted from today's price, ie they took 'my' price from what mum had already paid and the balance was her price. I couldn't find that anywhere in their T&Cs. Also, mum had paid for sole use of a twin cabin and was now sharing, so surely 'today's price' for the twin cabin applied to her too?
  I'm afraid ABTA were disconcertingly quick to support Thomson so the only recourse we were left with was paying for legal advice to see if we had a case for small claims.
  As we only wanted to use the amount we thought we were going to save to upgrade from deck 2 to deck 4 (closer to the restaurant so easier for 85 yr old mum to manage with no stairs), it's not worth spending more money to pursue it now.
  BTW, the cruise was lovely and the staff on board were great. The same cannot be said of the booking staff!