Tui announces four more weeks of holiday cancellations in early summer

Britain’s biggest holiday company has axed nearly 900,000 trips so far

Travel pause: Tui has cancelled all its beach holidays up to and including 11 June (Simon Calder)

Britain’s biggest holiday company has cancelled all beach holidays up to and including 11 June.

Tui has extended its previous cancellation date of 14 May by four weeks due to “the on-going travel restrictions” across Europe and the world. There is no certainty that holidays will resume on 12 June.

Until Tuesday it was selling Spanish holidays for departure on 15 May.

Sailings on Tui’s Marella cruise brand will not resume until 1 July at the earliest.

The firm said: “All impacted customers are being notified. Rolling cancellations have been put in place to ensure customer-service teams can support those impacted by the cancellations in date order.”

In total, Tui has now cancelled holidays for nearly 900,000 customers on 306,000 separate bookings.

All of them are due full cash refunds by 13 May at the latest under the Package Travel Regulations. But in common with the vast majority of travel firms, Tui says it will take much longer to pay back the money.

Disappointed holidaymakers will first be sent a “refund credit note,” offering a bonus of up to 20 per cent on the purchase price of another holiday. Those requiring a refund are told: “It is taking around 28 days for a cash refund to be processed.”

Tui is also offering customers with bookings between 12 June and 11 July to change to a later date without paying the normal change fee.

Meanwhile easyJet Holidays is inviting passengers booked to travel in the summer of 2020 to switch their booking to next year without losing their deposit.

Anyone due to travel in June, July and August 2020 can “retain their deposits as a credit towards a new holiday booking to be made within the next year”.

Unlike most companies, easyJet says it has been processing refunds for cancelled holidays within the two-week window.

Matt Callaghan, customer director at easyJet Holidays, said: “We’re working hard to process refunds for holidays we’ve had to cancel, and so far on average, we’ve been able to do this within 14 days.”