How to complain about a TUI flight?

TUI asks you to raise an after-travel complaint within 28 days of getting home. If eight weeks pass and TUI has not resolved it, you can bring the complaint to AviationADR without waiting for a deadlock letter. Once AviationADR opens a case, TUI is given 28 days to respond, and it can settle the complaint, defend it in writing, or object that it falls outside the scheme.

Escalate it to AviationADR straight away. A rejection or final response from TUI means you do not have to wait the eight weeks. You must submit the complaint within 12 months of TUI’s final response. AviationADR is free and independent of TUI, issues a final decision within 60 days of establishing the Complete Complaint File, and can award up to £25,000. If you accept the decision it is binding on TUI, and if you reject it you keep the right to go to court.

UK261 pays £220, £350 or £520 for a TUI flight that arrived three or more hours late, depending on distance. Flights up to 1,500 km pay £220. Flights of 1,500 to 3,500 km pay £350, which covers most TUI routes to the Canaries and Turkey. Flights over 3,500 km pay £260 for a delay of three to four hours and £520 for four hours or more, which is where TUI’s Caribbean, Mexico and Florida routes sit. Compensation is not payable when the delay was caused by genuine extraordinary circumstances such as severe weather or air traffic control restrictions, though routine technical faults and crew shortages do not count as extraordinary.

Yes. AviationADR is free for passengers, with no fee to submit and no deduction from your compensation. The scheme is funded by its airline members, and TUI is a participating member. Claims management companies and no-win-no-fee solicitors take a percentage of any payout, so the same claim is worth more to you through AviationADR. AviationADR is impartial: it does not act for you or for TUI.

AviationADR covers the flight element of a TUI booking only: delays, cancellations, denied boarding, baggage and pricing disputes. Complaints about hotels, transfers, resort service or the package as a whole fall outside its jurisdiction and should go to ABTA or the courts. The split still works in your favour, because if the flight on a TUI package holiday arrived three or more hours late, that part of the claim can come to AviationADR while the holiday elements are dealt with separately.

Keep your booking confirmation, boarding passes, every written reply from TUI, and receipts for anything the disruption forced you to pay for. Add screenshots of the departure board or a flight tracking record showing the actual arrival time, since UK261 is based on arrival delay rather than departure delay. For baggage, act quickly: damaged baggage must be reported to TUI within 7 days of collection and delayed baggage within 21 days of it being returned to you, under the Montreal Convention. Photograph any damage before repair or disposal.

Yes, if TUI cancelled with fewer than 14 days’ notice and the cancellation was not caused by extraordinary circumstances. The amounts are the same £220 to £520 bands that apply to delays. Separately from compensation, you can choose between a full refund within 7 days or re-routing to your destination, and under UK261 that choice is yours rather than TUI’s. If TUI re-routed you and you arrived close to your original scheduled time, the compensation can be reduced by 50 per cent. If TUI refuses the claim, AviationADR can decide it.