Can we claim for a missed onward flight due to delays?
Simon Calder answers your questions on travel warnings, Brexit passport rules and unstable booking companies
Q Three weeks ago, my wife and I were booked a British Airways flight from Heathrow to Johannesburg. Due to a technical problem it was delayed by two-and-a-half hours. We had also booked (separately) an onward flight to Cape Town.
We had allowed a three-and-a-half hour gap between flights to give us plenty of time to transfer. Unfortunately due to the delay by we missed this connection and had to buy another flight to Cape Town. Can we claim any compensation from BA?
David McD
A Had you booked a ticket covering both legs of the flight, rather than just Heathrow to Johannesburg, the picture would be very different.
British Airways would be responsible for finding you an alternative connection from Johannesburg to Cape Town, at no cost to you. And in the event that you arrived at Cape Town four hours or more behind schedule, BA would also need to pay you €600 (£515) in compensation under European air passengers’ rights rules. (For a delay of between three and four hours, the figure is halved.)
These regulations apply only to the journey you have booked with the airline. British Airways managed to get you to Johannesburg, albeit two-and-a-half hours late, and its responsibility, like your BA ticket, ends there.
You can try writing to the airline to ask if it will recompense you for your financial loss under the provisions of the Montreal Convention. But I fear the chances are that the airline will reject the request on the grounds that you had booked an “unsafe” self-connection.
Assuming you are knocked back, you could try to pursue the matter legally, but I do not rate the chances of success as very good. Instead, I recommend you see if your travel insurance will provide any recompense for circumstances like this, and if not put it down to experience.
In future, consider booking a connecting flight along with your intercontinental leg – though I appreciate that it not always easy to do this economically. I have just checked fares on BA next week to South Africa; a Johannesburg return is £537, while the cheapest deal to Cape Town is £704. As you will know, it is easy to find a return trip between the two South African cities for a lot less than £167.
One final thought: I am not sure if you alerted cabin crew to your unfortunate position, and enlisted their help getting you off the plane first to try to make your connection. It is always worth trying to be given priority; one hour is not an impossible transfer at Johannesburg airport.
Q I am looking at a journey to north Africa and want some advice about advice: specifically the travel advice on the Foreign Office website. Does it have legal force? If I book a package but the Foreign Office then warns against all but essential travel, do I automatically get a refund? And does the same apply if I book a DIY trip – with flights and accommodation bought separately?
Name withheld
A The Foreign Office advice is just that: advice. But no mainstream travel firm would send package holidaymakers to a location where the FCO advises against travel. Furthermore the 2018 Package Travel Regulations say: “In the event of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances occurring at the place of destination or its immediate vicinity … the traveller may terminate the package travel contract before the start of the package without paying any termination fee.” This is informally known as the “terrorism clause” and gives the traveller the chance of a full refund.
As has been demonstrated in Tunisia and Egypt in 2015, and Sri Lanka in 2019, when the Foreign Office changes its advice in response to a terrorist attack, the mainstream travel industry has a standard response. Tour operators organise the evacuation of holidaymakers in the destination, and offer future travellers the choice of a full refund or an alternative location.
The legal position if you book a flight on its own to country X and the FCO subsequently advises against travel is, basically, tough luck. The contract with the airline is simply to deliver you safely to your booked destination. The fact you don’t want to go there anymore is irrelevant. In practice, most airlines will allow some flexibility (as with Sri Lanka after the Easter Sunday bombings) but there is no obligation to do so.
Hoteliers and Airbnb providers, too, can say “we’re sticking to our terms and conditions”; again, some may be more flexible, but you cannot demand a refund. My advice is not to commit to non-cancellable accommodation very far in advance.
Some high-quality insurance policies may protect against losses arising from Foreign Office warnings. On which subject: if you travel to a location which has a FCO warning against it, standard travel insurance policies are rendered invalid. While a few extreme companies offer trips to “no-go” destinations, they make it plain that you are going against government advice and will offer advice on special, expensive insurance.
For the avoidance of doubt, this applies equally to places where the Foreign Office advises against “all but essential travel” (orange on its risk maps) or “all travel” (red). I really don’t know why the FCO differentiates.
Q My husband and I are travelling to Singapore on 20 January 2020 for a cruise. Our passports expire In November 2020. They were issued in April 2010, and have seven months carried over from the previous passport. Do the rules concerning travel to the European Union after Brexit without a deal apply, or is it only within the EU?
Pauline F
A Whatever your view on leaving the European Union, the government’s recent £100m “Get ready for Brexit” campaign, telling citizens what would change from 31 October 2019 onwards, was clearly a waste of money. But, worse than that, it may have sown confusion in the minds of travellers.
The passport expiry issue concerns the long-held policy in the UK of offering credit for unexpired time in a previous travel document. When you renewed your passports in April 2010, the seven months remaining were carried forward to your new document – hence its validity to November 2020, representing a total validity of 10 years, seven months.
That is fine for as long as the UK remains in the EU. But once we leave, a separate European Union policy on third-country passports takes effect. The EU has a long-standing rule that passports issued by other nations are regarded as expired 10 years after the date of issue, even if the expiry date says something different. So your passports would run out, in the eyes of the EU, in April 2020.
In 2018, someone spotted the problem, and cut back the maximum validity of new UK passports to exactly 10 years. But plenty of decade-plus passports are in circulation, and I fear some travellers to Europe will face problems after the UK leaves. To the best of my knowledge, no country outside Europe imposes such a condition. The only interest is in the date quoted for expiry, not the date of issue. For Singapore, all you need is six months remaining until the actual expiry date shown on your passport, from the day you enter the country.
For your next trip, wherever it may be, you will probably need to renew your passport; the UK is next due to leave the European Union on 31 January 2020. But if you have no imminent plans to travel, you might as well leave it as late as possible. The UK’s former friendly passport policy is one of many casualties of Brexit for the UK traveller.
Q We have booked a holiday to Peru next year with Cox & Kings and have paid a deposit. There has been some talk in the travel press that their parent company in India has had financial problems. Should we be worried about the British company?
Stephen M
A Cox & Kings calls itself the “longest-established travel company in the world”. It can trace its history back to 1758, making it even older than Thomas Cook – which collapsed in September after 178 years. The firm expanded its travel operations a century ago and in 1970 was bought by Grindlays Bank as part of a plan to boost tourism to India. The “mother ship“ of Cox & Kings is based in India, and Cox & Kings Travel Ltd UK is a separate company.
The firm’s UK operation promises “high-quality travel to the world’s most captivating destinations” and has a good reputation. In the last annual report, the chief executive Peter Kerkar said: “As we envision our future, we are reimagining growth and will focus on high-growth businesses that have the potential to deliver higher return ratios.”
But globally Cox & Kings has been suffering severe problems. Two respected UK operators, Superbreak and Late Rooms, that were part-owned by the firm closed in September after a loan default by Cox & Kings in India. The firm’s US operation suspended operations in October, with reports that it was unable to pay its suppliers for trips that had already been booked.
A year ago, shares in the Indian company were trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange at 125 times their value today. Meanwhile, the UK operation is continuing to trade and has engaged KPMG to seek a possible “investment partner”.
While negotiations continue, most holidays, except a handful to Australia and Canada, including international flights, are therefore covered by the Atol scheme. Were the company to fail before your trip begins, you would get all your money back; were you on holiday at the time, the trip would continue as normal.
Of course, getting your money back is not the same thing as enjoying a holiday, but it should be possible to arrange an alternative trip to Peru should the worst happen.
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