Thread: Minor signing a holiday booking contract **SORTED**

My son signed a holiday booking form as Lead Name for a group of friends, including himself. He was 17 years old when he signed. Can anyone advise me whether the holiday company were right in allowing this and if not whether this contract is legally binding?

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Could anyone advise me as to whether a booking is legally binding if it was signed by a 17 year old as Lead name for the group and the Travel Agents were aware of that fact? In addition is it correct that if you want to cancel a holiday the Travel Agents can refuse to do so?

Me and my daughter have been battling to get a holiday cancelled that was booked when she was 17. It doesn't seem to make any difference to the holiday compnay how old they are.

We have been trying to cancel the holiday since 4 hours after her and her friends booked it. They wanted £75 each cancellation fee from them. We tried to fight them and got no where. However 14 days ago we were told to email customer services to ask for the details where to send the cancellation fee - and we are still waiting.

The compnay my daughter used is rubbish, one of the worse I have ever had the pleasure to deal with.

Good luck!!

T&Cs state that the person making the bookings must be over 18 years old. They also state that unaccompanied passengers under the age of 18 need a letter of consent from a parent or legal guardian. They did not mention this to the group at the time of the booking nor have they requested any letters of consent to date. Several members of the group will still be 17 years old when they travel.

Many thanks for your advice Bookworm. Much appreciated.

Thanks for replying Martin3030. Have now moved to holiday Companies Forum.

The T&Cs do state that the person making the booking must be over 18 years old. In addition they also say that unaccompanied passengers under the age of 18 need a letter of consent from a parent or legal guardian. These letters have not been requested despite the booking being made and deposits taken.

It is all too easy for minors even children to book certain things on line, at the time of booking, the company involved doesnt know whether it is a child/minor or adult making the said booking, with people been able to pre-buy credit cards to use on the web, this is becoming even harder for companies to detect, when a booking is made, the person has to tick a box stating there are over the required age to make such a booking, hence making a false declaration, to that company...If this box was ticked, then the company acted as if a adult had made the booking, and would have requested information relating to the other travlers in due course, if the box wasn't ticked the system wouldnt have allowed the booking to proceed.
I'm not in favour of these so called pre-pay credit cards, as under age people can obtain them and use them to obtain adult only purchases, which more than ever has occurred above. The blame doesnt always lay with the companies, but also for the minors for attempting to use such cards to buy things there are clearly under age to purchase.

Thanks for everyone's help.

My son did book the holiday through a travel agent and after writing to them as suggested by Bookworm, and sending copies to ABTA, the company have agreed to refund all monies on seeing my son's birth certificate.

My son and his friends were offered the 'low deposit' deal which in hindsight they clearly did not understand. They did attempt several times to cancel their holiday a month after booking because they were misled about the type of accommodation - they wanted self-catering (with facilities) but were booked in for 'room only' which was construed by the travel agent to be self-catering. However the travel agent told them that they could not cancel their holiday. They decided then not to pay any more money owing and eventually the travel agents cancelled the booking and submitted to them the bill for the rest of the deposit owing.

Just for information in the Ts&Cs it did state that under 18s can only travel unaccompanied by providing a letter of consent from their parents/guardians. However, if they are travelling with a friend who is 18 years old then they are (obviously) accompanied by an adult!

This has definitely been a learning experience for this group of naive teenagers.

I wish you good luck Iaineynic.

Glad you got your case sorted Sey.

My post does not directly concern your situation, as it seems that your son and his friends were deliberately misled by the description; but I have read through the thread with interest and felt compelled to comment on the general assumption by travel companies that young adults (16-18 year-olds) are some sort of baboons with no rights who are too stupid to be able to board a plane and then check into a hotel etc. on their own. It's not rocket science and they are quite capable of doing that. As to behaving responsibly while on holiday and being able to deal with unforeseen situations and/or emergencies - that depends on the person in question: some are unruly when alone or with their friends and cause distress to others with their behaviour, but I believe the majority are perfectly capable of enjoying a holiday responsibly, maturely and with no problems.

Sorry for the slight deviation but I just couldn't resist bringing this up. 16 and 17 year-olds may not legally be adults but they are not children either and should be given a certain amount of leeway I feel, and I think, as I said, most of them could easily go on holiday without any problems. How mature someone is on the day after their 18th birthday is no different from how they would be on the day before their 18th birthday, i.e. aged 17. This must be taken into consideration. All I'm trying to say is that boundaries of course need to be drawn somewhere, and at the moment the 18th birthday is where they happen to be in this situation; but they should not be so 'blanket' and severe, if you get what I mean.

Originally Posted by Tom87

Glad you got your case sorted Sey.

My post does not directly concern your situation, as it seems that your son and his friends were deliberately misled by the description; but I have read through the thread with interest and felt compelled to comment on the general assumption by travel companies that young adults (16-18 year-olds) are some sort of baboons with no rights who are too stupid to be able to board a plane and then check into a hotel etc. on their own. It's not rocket science and they are quite capable of doing that. As to behaving responsibly while on holiday and being able to deal with unforeseen situations and/or emergencies - that depends on the person in question: some are unruly when alone or with their friends and cause distress to others with their behaviour, but I believe the majority are perfectly capable of enjoying a holiday responsibly, maturely and with no problems.

Sorry for the slight deviation but I just couldn't resist bringing this up. 16 and 17 year-olds may not legally be adults but they are not children either and should be given a certain amount of leeway I feel, and I think, as I said, most of them could easily go on holiday without any problems. How mature someone is on the day after their 18th birthday is no different from how they would be on the day before their 18th birthday, i.e. aged 17. This must be taken into consideration. All I'm trying to say is that boundaries of course need to be drawn somewhere, and at the moment the 18th birthday is where they happen to be in this situation; but they should not be so 'blanket' and severe, if you get what I mean.

It's nothing to do with behaviour or maturity; it's a matter of a minor not being able to enter a binding contract in law.