Will I get a refund if I can’t do the 14-day travel quarantine?
Simon Calder answers your questions as coronavirus continues to send shockwaves through the travel industry
Q I have a package holiday booked to Ibiza in August. I really can’t afford to spend a fortnight at home on my return. Will the travel company keep my money if I decide not to go because I refuse to self-isolate for two weeks?
Amy F
A No. While the travel industry has been deeply damaged by the quarantine announcement, the vast majority of decent holiday firms will not behave unreasonably towards their customers.
The home secretary revealed at Friday’s Downing Street briefing that starting on 8 June, most travellers arriving in the UK by air, sea or rail will be interviewed on arrival. They must give the address at which they will self-isolate for 14 days, and provide contact details.
The big holiday companies – Tui and Jet2 – and many others are certainly not going to send people on trips they don’t want to take. So if your holiday were due to depart while quarantine was still in force, you could expect your money back – or at very least the chance to postpone.
But I don’t think your trip will be affected. I would be extremely surprised if travellers from Spain were still subject to two weeks of self-isolation by August.
The quarantine policy is open-ended, and as I have pointed out, the conditions that the government cites as justification for the policy are likely to prevail for many months. So logically quarantine should remain in place for the rest of the year.
But the medical explanation for quarantine at this stage in the epidemic is, to put it politely, sketchy. As MPs are reminding the government, the economic and emotional harm the policy will cause is intense.
The government has promised to review the policy every three weeks, and I predict quarantine will not last more than six weeks – at least from popular destinations including Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Turkey. Some political fudge will ensure that arrangements are brought in to allow British travellers to visit the most popular countries.
Q In December I paid in full for a two-night “non-refundable” hotel break in Bath through Secret Escapes for 27 and 28 March. Just before the break I got a generic email from them about the Covid-19 lockdown situation telling me that I would need to liaise with the hotel directly about my booking.
The hotel was closed on the dates we were supposed to stay there, and of course we could not reach the location in any case.
So I emailed Secret Escapes asking for a refund but never received a response. I then passed the query to my credit-card company.
They have said that because the break was a non-refundable booking there is nothing they can do.
I have tried contacting the hotel by email since then but have not received a reply from them either. I would like a refund from Secret Escapes as they are the merchant but do not know where I stand legally?
Name supplied
A Secret Escapes is a company that specialises in selling “distressed inventory”. Hotels, airlines and holiday companies with product that they can’t offload will sometimes engage Secret Escapes to sell at a deep discount on their behalf. The “secret” aspect helps the provider to preserve some anonymity and avoid upsetting its mainstream sales.
Secret Escapes says it “acts as an intermediary and the contract is between you and the hotel”. The firm adds: “Secret Escapes is contractually unable to refund customers without the explicit permission of the hotel. It is up to the hotel whether they will offer a refund or not.”
This last assertion is plain wrong. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says it expects full refunds to be issued “where a business has cancelled a contract without providing any of the promised goods or services”.
Clearly you are entitled to your money back. When you booked, you accepted that “your contract for the travel offer is with the travel provider” – ie the hotel. While it is disappointing that you have had no response to your email, I suggest you keep trying – and try phoning as well. Not unreasonably, the hotel remains closed; the government bans all overnight stays except for essential workers.
When finally you get through, you may well be asked if you would accept a postponement or a voucher for a future stay instead. Given the economic hammering the UK travel industry has suffered, that would be a kind outcome.
Finally, the credit-card company did have a valid reason not to pursue the payment – but not the one it gave. The fact that the booking was non-refundable is immaterial if the hotel cannot provide the service. But it could have declined on the grounds that the payment was to Secret Escapes and the credit-card firm had no relationship with the end supplier.
I hope you get to enjoy a break in Bath soon.
Q I have booked flights with Virgin Atlantic from Manchester to Las Vegas. I received an email yesterday saying Virgin is stopping the route and therefore we have been re-booked to fly from London Heathrow. Virgin Atlantic will not reimburse our travel expenses to actually get there (we live on the Wirral).
Virgin are saying I can rebook elsewhere, but they have limited flights from Manchester, or take a credit note. No option of a refund. But am I entitled to my money back as they have changed the original flight?
Faye T
A Manchester to Las Vegas is one of dozens of routes to and from the UK that will be lost as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, on Virgin Atlantic and other airlines. When I learnt about the cancellation, I imagined that Virgin Atlantic would re-book passengers on British Airways from Manchester to Heathrow to connect with the Virgin flight to Las Vegas. But an airline spokesperson told me: “Unfortunately we are unable to offer connecting flights from Manchester to London Heathrow.”
I am not sure that this is legally sound, since the European air passengers’ rights rules that govern cancellations make it clear that Virgin Atlantic has to offer a suitable replacement journey. But in any event, a better option is to take up a different opportunity: to fly from Manchester to New York or Atlanta and change there for a Las Vegas connection on Virgin’s partner Delta. You will still have to change planes, but by doing so in the US you will clear immigration and customs at New York or Atlanta, and be able to waltz straight through when you land at Las Vegas as a domestic passenger.
If this does not appeal, then the Virgin Atlantic spokesperson confirmed that you can get your money back, saying: “If customers are unhappy with these options, they are able to take advantage of our commercial policies which includes changing to a different destination, receiving a credit note to the value of their flight or receiving a refund.”
There is, though, no entitlement to further compensation since you have been given more than two weeks’ notice.
Q My fiancee and I were due to be married in August this year but have had to postpone, due to coronavirus, until August 2021. We are still planning to fly to Zanzibar for our “would have been” honeymoon in December this year. Unfortunately, I booked the flights in my fiancee’s soon-to-be married name, with the assumption that we would be married in August and she’d update her passport to her married name (as it was due to expire in August this year also).
I’ve contacted Qatar Airways, which the flight is booked through, and they have said they can only change a name from maiden to married and not the other way round. I will need to cancel and rebook the flights if I want to do this. This is a huge problem as the flights cost me, essentially, my entire savings. What can I do?
Phil W
A I am sorry about your wedding being postponed. As you are aware, the UK Passport Office is happy to issue a fresh passport in a married name. Unfortunately, your circumstances no longer qualify because of the stringent conditions that the authorities impose: the passport can be issued no more than three months before the marriage ceremony, and crucially is post-dated to be valid only from the date of the wedding – as certified by the religious minister or registrar who will conduct the ceremony.
Fortunately there is another remedy, which I often recommend in cases when flights are booked in the wrong name. Since the airline refuses to change the name on the ticket to the name of the passenger, the passenger has to change their name to the name on the ticket. It is a fairly routine matter involving a legal change of name by deed poll (price £36) and a fresh passport application in the new name.
Along with the passport form, your wife will need to provide evidence of using the new name, but this is not an onerous condition; she might choose, for example, to change to her soon-to-be-married name on a bank account.
As her passport is due to expire in August, and she will need one in the new name, there is barely any financial impact. In the more normal circumstances, the passenger changes their name back and obtains yet another passport. Happily, in the case of your wife-to-be this will not be necessary. She just needs to remember to book all future flights in her soon-to-be-married name.
Email your question to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments