BRITAIN'S biggest travel operators and airlines have been accused of openly breaking the law on refunds for cancelled holidays.

New research claims the UK's 20 biggest travel operators and airlines are delaying refunds for cancelled trips or removing customers’ refund rights altogether as a results of the strain that the coronavirus pandemic has placed them under.

The analysis has been carried out by the consumer organisation Which?, that has received thousands of complaints and requests for help from people struggling to secure a refund for their cancelled travel.

It comes as the International Air Transport Association said that faltering consumer confidence will slow the recovery of air travel once coronavirus restrictions end.

More airlines are likely to follow Virgin Australia into administration without swifter government support, predicted IATA, the sectors' main global body, while fuel hedging will prevent many from benefiting from cheap oil.

As part of its research in April, Which? contacted 10 of the UK’s biggest holiday companies, including TUI and Jet2, and 10 of the UK’s biggest airlines, including British Airways and easyJet, to establish if they were offering customers cash refunds for cancelled travel plans, and if so, under what circumstances.

It found that none of the UK’s 10 biggest holiday companies or airlines are currently offering full refunds within the legal time frame, with some refusing to provide refunds altogether and instead offering customers the choice of rebooking or accepting a voucher or credit note. Holiday companies should offer refunds within 14 days while for airlines it is seven days.

Yesterday it emerged that Ryanair infuriated passengers who had been promised refunds for cancelled flights by pressing them to accept vouchers instead.

Customers were initially told they would have their money back within seven working days of their request after the majority of flights were grounded when the UK went into lockdown.

The Herald:

The airline had provided an automatic refund link, albeit one that people reported they were struggling to use. But Ryanair is now telling its customers to either accept a voucher for future travel or wait for an unspecified amount of time get their money back.

An email from the company read: "We highly recommend using the refund voucher. You can request a cash refund however bear in mind we will place your request in the cash refund queue until the Covid-19 emergency has passed."

Which? warned that some airlines and package travel providers are refusing to provide refunds, in a breach of their legal obligations to their customers, while others are providing vouchers or credit notes – which may prove to be worthless if holiday firms run into financial trouble.

Travel industry estimates suggest that up to £7 billion in payments made by UK customers – many who may also be struggling financially due to the impact of the pandemic – are affected.

Which? has launched a 10-point plan to maintain trust in the travel industry and has warned that without swift and tangible government action, consumer confidence in the travel sector could be permanently damaged.

The practical measures in the plan, which would help the industry and protect holidaymakers, include protecting consumers' legal right to cash refunds, extend Foreign Office travel warnings to a definitive date, establish a temporary government travel guarantee fund, and ensure travel insurance terms and conditions are more transparent.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: “The government must urgently set out how it will support travel firms and airlines to ensure they can meet their legal obligations to refund customers for cancelled travel plans – and avoid permanent damage to trust and confidence in the travel industry.”

TUI said: “We are proactively contacting all affected customers as fast as we can to help them amend their holiday to a future season. If they are unable to amend to a suitable alternative, we will discuss their various options with them. One option currently available for customers is to cancel the holiday and receive a full refund, however there is a delay in this process due to the large volumes of customers impacted.”

Jet2holidays said: “We are continuing to operate a fully staffed call centre, and even though our teams are subject to the same difficulties and restrictions as everyone else, they are working tirelessly to proactively contact customers in departure date order to discuss their options, one of which is rebooking their holiday to a later date.

"We believe that contacting customers in departure date order is the fairest way to deal with this. The number of calls we are receiving is unprecedented. We ask customers to bear in mind that contacting us will result in longer call waiting times, which is why we politely remind them to wait for us to be in touch.”

A Ryanair spokesman said: “For any cancelled flight, Ryanair is giving customers all of the options set out under EU regulations, including refunds."

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