Yet another holiday screw up...

[Guest]

Originally Posted by mickee

Of course you can, I have once booked in December for the following April. That's less than 12 months. x

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Yes but no one will sell you a room for a month in the past is the general point the poster was making here

[Peko]

Originally Posted by duchy

No they are a tour operator.
A travel agent is a business who sells other people's products (e.g. sells other airlines and tour operator's products)
In this case the OP has booked direct with TUI not through a middle man (travel agent)

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True, but the semantics of operator vs agent aside (and these days the same company can be either, depending on what it is selling), the underlying point being made was surely that Tui is still a middleman between the consumer and the actual owner and operator of the product (in this case Disney / Swan and Dolphin)?

The product Tui “owns” and provides as a principal is a package, but not necessarily all the elements contained within it, and in this case Tui definitely does not provide the accommodation itself, so a greater possibility for miscommunication exists. On the other hand, it may have been the case that booking direct was not possible so far out, and tour operators were the only option at that point. The UK market is particularly early in its booking patterns, a demand that tour operators satisfy (and arguably helped create).

[DonaldDisney]

For Swan or Dolphin you should be able to call them to confirm the booking (or Starwood/Marriott) to put your mind at rest. If they have correct dates they should be able to get Disney to correct it, if they have incorrect dates it would have to be tui.