My flights will surely be cancelled – so why can’t I get my money back?
Simon Calder answers your questions on refunds for journeys hit by coronavirus
Q I have four flights, all UK domestic, in April with easyJet. After 100 minutes of holding on, I got through on the phone. They have refused to refund, even after I pointed out my legal right to a refund under EU261. They accepted that they have put out a press release saying their fleet is grounded in April and May but ask me to turn up as normal for the flights, even though government restrictions mean I’d be breaking the law by doing so! Should I just ask my credit card provider for chargebacks?
Keith R
A Like British Airways, easyJet says that passengers can no longer simply apply online for a refund for flights cancelled by the airline – but instead must call the customer care centre. This itself is a daunting prospect, as you discovered. And how disappointing to find that you did not get the answer you wanted when you finally got through.
But before you invoke your right to seek recompense through the card provider, may I ask you to pause?
Yes, as easyJet said earlier this week, its entire fleet is grounded indefinitely.
Yes, Britain’s biggest budget airline also said that its UK cabin crew (who would inevitably be staffing your flights) will be on the government’s job-retention scheme throughout April and May.
An intelligent traveller would conclude that there is not a hope of any easyJet domestic flight taking off before June. But before you, understandably, get even more indignant, bear in mind that the airline has also said it stands ready to operate repatriation flights if called upon. In the extremely unlikely event that the coronavirus crisis takes an unexpected turn and starts to go away, then easyJet may well wish to operate some domestic flights; they are likely to precede any international return to service. So you cannot say at this stage for certain that none of the flights will operate – however vanishingly small that possibility.
The airline is working through its inevitable cancellations in date order, and I imagine in the next few days you will get a notification – at which point you can get on the phone again. I agree that this situation is far from ideal and customer friendly, but I believe easyJet is staying within the rules – and a chargeback would not succeed right now.
Q If passengers book flights through a travel agent or third party that are then cancelled, are they still entitled to a refund? I am hearing lots of accounts of people being told they have to accept a credit voucher.
Helen C
A For any flight beginning in the UK or EU, the European air passengers’ rights rules known as EU261 are crystal clear: if the airline cancels your flight, you are entitled to get all your money back within a week. This also covers any return leg on the same booking. So if your London-Barcelona flight is cancelled, it doesn’t matter if the inbound departure is still showing as operating: you still get a refund for the whole trip.
That sum is supposed to be paid “in cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank orders or bank cheques” – though in practice airlines refund to the original form of payment, usually a credit card, and this practice has not been challenged.
Airlines much prefer you to accept vouchers because it allows them to hang on to your money. But crucially they can offer a voucher only as an alternative to a monetary refund, and must obtain “the signed agreement of the passenger” before issuing one.
It is irrational to accept a voucher over cash unless there is an incentive, such as the 10 per cent bonus currently being offered by Finnair to passengers who are prepared to take a voucher rather than actual money. If you know you will be travelling to Helsinki (or across to Asia) later in the year, it could make sense. But if you’re uncertain about the future, cash is king.
The European flight rules make no distinction between tickets bought direct or through third parties – usually travel agents. And any airline or travel agent that claims to have terms and conditions that override the legislation is, to put it politely, mistaken.
In the case of flights that are part of a package holiday, there is still a theoretical entitlement to cash back for a cancelled flight under EU261. But package holidaymakers are much better off relying instead on the package travel regulations, which cover the whole booking including accommodation, etc. They guarantee a full refund of the entire trip – albeit within two weeks, not one. But in these difficult circumstances, few organisations are paying much attention to the statutory time limits.
Q Our family is due to travel to Florida on 26 May 2020, but due to Covid-19 I think this is unlikely to happen. If the government still advises against non-essential travel, would the holiday company refund me even if the airline continue with the flights?
Also, we need to order our Esta permits. Should I order them or not?
Sarah P
A Seven weeks is a very long time in the coronavirus crisis. At this stage no one can say what state the UK, the US and the travel industry will be in by late May. The current Foreign Office warning against overseas travel expires in less than two weeks; any time now, I expect it to be extended until the end of April, but after that, who knows?
Fortunately no mainstream tour operator will take you anywhere contrary to Foreign Office advice (though some small, specialist companies take adventurous or reckless travellers to no-go areas). The same applies, of course, if the UK says it is OK to travel to the US but the current presidential decree continues to ban Brits.
It would be appropriate for the holiday company to make a call in early May about whether the trip is likely to go ahead. Until then you should take no action – however unsettling that might feel. Cancelling the trip when the holiday firm is still preparing to go ahead will result in your losing some or all of your money; and postponing it will not necessarily be the optimal solution for you. Better to wait and see; either you will get a great holiday, or you will get all your money left.
I normally urge anyone contemplating a trip to the US to get their Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (Esta) permits before they book a trip; I hear too many stories in which permission is denied, often arbitrarily, and the holiday is wasted.
But in your case, choosing not to follow the recommended track may actually work to your advantage. Wait until the travel firm says the trip will go ahead before applying at the official site esta.cbp.dhs.gov and paying $14 (£12) per person for the privilege. Or save the money for your next trip.
Q In your coverage of the government’s airlift plans to bring back stranded Brits, you failed to mention that the Foreign Office has agreed with some UK airlines that they would help passengers get home. Did you not know or did you deliberately leave it out?
Jon S
A The government says hundreds of thousands of British travellers are stuck in various parts of the world, and on Monday the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, announced a £75m exercise to bring many of them back. The money will go to laying on charter flights from locations where normal commercial air links are not possible at the moment because national governments have closed their airspace.
Those charters will certainly involve UK airlines – but not necessarily most of the bunch featured in the Foreign Office announcement.
Four carriers were mentioned in the statement as follows: “Where commercial routes remain feasible airlines, including Virgin, easyJet, Jet2 and Titan Airways, will be responsible for getting their passengers with pre-booked tickets home.”
I was mystified by this statement. First, “getting their passengers with pre-booked tickets home” has been the airlines’ obligation for 15 years. Under the EU air passengers’ rights rules, which still pertain in the UK, anyone with a ticket sold by a British airline for a flight that turns out to be disrupted is entitled to be re-routed on the fastest possible alternative to get them home. Re-stating what the airlines know to be their duty is odd.
I was equally perplexed by the choice of airlines. Virgin Atlantic certainly warrants a mention: there are plenty of British travellers in India, South Africa and other locations who need Sir Richard Branson’s airline to help out, and Virgin will surely be involved in elements of the airlift with its long-haul-only fleet.
But for easyJet, which on Monday grounded its entire fleet, and Jet2 – as far as I can see, their work is done.
The crews of these short-haul airlines have worked tirelessly to bring tens of thousands of short-haul travellers back, particularly from Spain. While I am still being contacted by people who have loved ones in odd parts of the Balkans, none of them is likely to be a distressed passenger of easyJet or Jet2.
And much as I enjoy flying on Titan Airways – either on a ski charter operated for firms such as Neilson, or when their planes stand in for easyJet – I believe this “ad hoc” carrier has never sold a ticket itself and therefore cannot have left anyone stranded.
Given the scope and complexity of the actual repatriation operation, I deemed it best not to waste readers’ time with an element that the Foreign Office seemed keen to be covered but appeared to me to be irrelevant.
Email your question to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder
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