Coronavirus: Will the pandemic mean extra charges to my future holiday?

Simon Calder answers your questions on surcharges and the latest Covid-19 travel advice

Barbados awaits, but we’re worried British Airways will add extra costs (Getty/iStockphoto)

Q We have a package holiday booked to the US and Barbados with British Airways Holidays in November. We’ve paid the deposit, and the balance is due at the beginning of October.

I know that you’ve said air fares could go up as a result of the coronavirus epidemic and its effect on airlines. I am therefore worried that BA will apply additional surcharges and it could make the trip unaffordable.

Would it help if we paid the balance off before it is due, to make it harder for them to put the price up?

Alison B

A How lovely to have something to look forward to. You will be able to exchange the November gloom of the UK for an alluring Caribbean island just at the end of the storm season, when Barbados is fresh and welcoming.

I can see no advantage to paying the balance any earlier than it is due, though. In the unlikely event that a surcharge is imposed, whether you have paid the full cost or not is irrelevant: you still have to pay.

You should wait until the due date in October for a couple of strong reasons. There may be a significant change in your personal circumstances. Also, there is a small possibility that the trip could be called off entirely because of the coronavirus crisis. In either case, the less of your money that the holiday company has, the better.

While air fares (and holiday prices) may indeed go up for new bookings, that should have no impact on the price you paid. Surcharges on package holidays are rare. The last time they were brought in at any kind of scale was in 2008, when the price of oil surged and the value of sterling plunged.

In 2020 fuel prices have plummeted, though other costs may rise – particularly if the pound goes south. If they do, the law says British Airways Holidays must absorb the first 2 per cent of any increase in costs, and if a price increase exceeds 8 per cent then you are entitled to cancel for a full refund. You may not be surprised to learn that surcharges rarely rise 8 per cent. But I predict the price will remain exactly the same. If you haven’t been told of an increase with three weeks to go, it definitely won’t happen; the holiday company is not allowed to impose with less than 20 days’ warning.

Should I accept changes to my flight in November? (Reuters)

Q In February I booked to fly from the UK to Michigan in November. I have just received an email headed: “Message from Delta Airways regarding Covid-19.” It continues: “There has been a change affecting your trip. Please click ‘Accept’ to acknowledge this change and view your updated itinerary. After you accept, you may be eligible to change your flight(s) at no extra cost. If you choose to cancel, you may be eligible to receive an eCredit.”

The thing I am concerned about is: they want me to press the “Accept” button to acknowledge this change and update my itinerary, but I don’t know what these changes are. Am I acknowledging my right to no refund? There is a lot of money involved here and I don’t want to lose it all if we can’t go on the trip because of Covid-19.

Chris S

A Judging from this email, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic are reaching well into the future. While there is nothing unusual in normal times about flight schedules being altered months ahead, from the email header it seems Delta is already making significant changes to its winter schedules because of Covid-19.

Don’t fear the “Accept” button, though. The airline has used an unhelpful verb. When you click on it you will simply be saying, “Yes, I have read this notification”. It does not affect your rights. My guess is that it will probably involve a relatively minor change in schedule of a couple of hours, which I presume is not going to prove much of a problem. If it is any more significant, and impinges on your trip, then you should be able to find alternatives – for example, changing planes at a different gateway city.

Should the flight be shifting by a day, it would count as a cancellation under the European air passengers’ rights rules that govern your transaction. At that stage you could decide to cancel for a full refund, which would be in cash rather than an “eCredit”. But I imagine the trip will go ahead without a problem.

One final point: late November and early December are very low season. For future transatlantic trips at that time of year, you could probably afford to wait until shortly before departure to find the best deals and the most appropriate timing – with little risk that the schedule could shift.

Should we wait for a refund or pay up for our holiday? (Getty/iStock)

Q I’ve got a family holiday booked with Jet2 in July to Menorca. We’ve got to pay off the holiday by 5 May as we’ve only paid the deposit. But I’m unsure if we should pay for it or cancel it? Is it true that Jet2 aren’t giving refunds out and are only offering to change the dates of the holiday or give vouchers out? This is something that we wouldn’t want as we’ve got kids and we can’t take any other time off for the rest of the year. We’ve already booked next year’s holiday so getting vouchers and re-arranging isn’t an option.

We would want a full refund but the Jet2 website doesn’t give any information on that other than someone nearer the time will call you let us know our options. This is why I’m unsure about paying anything unless I get a guarantee that one of the options is getting a full refund. I want to either go on holiday or get a full refund. I’ve only got two weeks to decide if we should pay for the holiday?

Matt L

A Pay the balance. Happily, I can guarantee that you will either go on holiday to one of the Mediterranean’s loveliest islands, or you will get your money back reasonably soon after a cancellation.

Jet2, the second biggest tour operator in the UK after Tui, has cancelled all holidays up to 16 June, but says it will commence operations the following day. For your trip to go ahead, the UK lockdown must be lifted to allow you to go to the airport. The Foreign Office must relax its “indefinite” warning against all but essential travel abroad. And Spain must decide whether or not it is able to welcome in overseas holidaymakers in July.

If one or more of those conditions does not prevail, then your trip will be off. Jet2, which has behaved well during the coronavirus crisis, will probably give you plenty of warning.

Under the package travel regulations, when a holiday company cancels a trip, you are entitled to a full cash refund within two weeks of notification. That time frame looks optimistic. All travel firms are suffering. They have almost no money coming in, and have been forced to change from providers of safe, good value holidays into organisations that hand back money. Leaving aside serious cashflow challenges, this is made all the more difficult because many staff are having to work from home. So don’t rely on that 14-day deadline.

While some travel firms are making a difficult situation worse by misrepresenting the rules, and Tui has made the refund process more complex than it needs to be, Jet2 should make it relatively easy for you to get your money back. But the company hopes you will travel – as do I.

Email your question to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder