Tui has cancelled all Tui holidays travelling on or before 30 June 2020, “lakes and mountains” holidays up until 30 September 2020, and river cruises up and until 25 November 2020.

It has also postponed Marella Cruises departing before 30 July 2020, as well as a number of cruises scheduled for various dates in 2021.

The company previously put all trips on hold until 11 June. It said it had extended the suspension of trips due to ongoing travel restrictions.

The Package Travel Regulations state that customers whose package holidays are cancelled by the tour operator should receive a full refund within 14 days of the cancellation.

But Tui is encouraging customers to re-book trips by offering a “refund credit” of 20%. For example, if you paid £2,000 for your holiday booking you’d now have £2,400 to spend.

Those who want a cash refund can apply using the “refund request form” on the Tui website.

Amended refund process

Tui has been forced to amend its refund process after a deluge of customer complaints since it started cancelling trips in March.

Which? described the firm as “acting disgracefully” by failing to provide any information about customers’ rights to a refund, and telling affected travellers to wait for a call from the holiday company.

Which? also highlighted Tui as one of the many travel companies routinely issuing credit notes for cancelled bookings, even when customers had asked for a cash refund.

Since 21 May, Tui customers with cancelled holidays can access a self-service section on the Tui website to apply for a cash refund, rather than needing to call customer services.

TUI UK & Ireland managing director Andrew Flintham admitted the firm hadn’t “got it right” up until that point, and apologised to customers impacted by delays to refunds.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office initially warned against all but essential international travel on 17 March for 30 days. But it changed its advice on 6 April, extending the ban indefinitely.