Will Russia extend my visa when the coronavirus crisis is over?

Simon Calder answers your questions on tricky paperwork, passenger rights and getting money back for a deposit

Foreign tourists are banned from entering the nation until the beginning of May (Getty)

Q Last month I procured at great expense and inconvenience a visa for Russia. The trip is off. Will I be able to get a refund, or even better an extension of the visa to cover a trip in early summer 2021?

Margaret D

A Plenty of travellers are in the same position as you: saddened that their trip to the world’s largest country this spring won’t be going ahead – and maddened to learn that their visa (priced at just over £100, including the mandatory service fee) is as good as useless. Foreign tourists are banned from entering Russia until 1 May 2020 at the earliest, and that prohibition may well be extended.

It seems entirely fair to ask for the money for a now-redundant visa to be refunded (although you will never get the time back spent on the gruelling visa-application process) – or, better still for many people, freely extended to allow a visit sometime later this year or in 2021.

But no such concession has been afforded. My understanding is that the same applies for other key countries that have expensive and arduous visa-application processes, notably China and India.

You have a couple of options, though you may be on a one-way trajectory to yet more wasted time. The first is to take on the Kremlin – or at least the Russian visa service centre in the UK – by arguing that the contract to provide a visa has been frustrated or nullified by your inability to travel there. Alternatively (and possibly more easily) you could check with your travel insurer if perhaps they might cover this loss. But as you would imagine, travel insurance isn’t the happiest and most benevolent industry in the world right now.

I rate your chances of success with either option as low, and even if your insurer says “Yes” I imagine at least half of that £100 will disappear because of an excess on the policy. Hang on to all the paperwork, though, because it may be that the Russian government has a change of heart. It has happened before.

The Irish carrier Aer Lingus is operating some transatlantic services during the crisis (EPA)

Q We live in Belfast, and ages ago we booked with Aer Lingus to fly from Dublin to Chicago on 26 April and back on 17 May. With the coronavirus pandemic we will clearly not be travelling. We imagined we would get a full refund, but the airline will only allow us to rebook for different dates (with one further change permitted if we want to change our minds). Why can’t we get our money back – is it because we live in the UK but booked flights from Ireland?

Name supplied

A No, the fact that you live in one country and planned to fly from another is irrelevant: all flights from the island of Ireland, the rest of the UK and the remainder of the EU are governed by the same European air passengers’ rights rules, at least until the end of 2020.

This legislation stipulate full refunds when an airline cancels a flight. But Aer Lingus hasn’t cancelled. The Irish carrier is continuing to operate a few transatlantic services despite the Covid-19 crisis. And the Dublin-Chicago link is among them.

A spokesperson told me: “Aer Lingus continues to operate a reduced schedule to a small number of North American destinations for repatriation reasons, including Chicago. Guests due to travel before 31 May 2020 are able to change their booking without incurring a change fee.

“Guests are able to change to another date or route of their choice on the Aer Lingus network. A fare difference may apply.”

The airline is actually doing you a favour by allowing you to reschedule: Aer Lingus would be legally entitled to say that it can satisfy the contract between you, and if you choose not to avail of them, the airline could hang on to your money.

There is still a possibility the outbound and/or inbound will be cancelled, in which case you will get a full cash refund. So don’t make a decision until shortly before departure

If you really can’t find other dates or destinations that appeal, you could try claiming from your travel insurance. But I wouldn’t be especially confident of your chances, and were you successful there is likely to be an excess payable that would make a sizeable dent in any compensation.

Trips to Bulgaria and many other destinations after mid-June are likely to still go ahead (iStock)

Q We are booked to go on holiday to Bulgaria on 19 July and are travelling with two other families. The balance of the holiday was originally due on 24 May, but the holiday company has now extended that to 21 June. We all know we won’t be going. With current travel advice and restrictions, can we cancel now and get deposit back?

George D

A No. You can cancel if you wish, but the only certainty is that you would lose your deposit.

I am intrigued to read that you know you won’t be going, because I estimate that, by current trends, there is every chance that you will be flying out to Bulgaria’s beautiful Black Sea coast on 19 July for a well-deserved holiday.

Before any of us can go on holiday again, several things need to line up. Lockdown at home has to be lifted so you and I can go down the pub – or, even better, an airport.

The Foreign Office needs to ease its “indefinite” warning against travel anywhere abroad. Airlines and holiday companies must decide it’s worth their while putting planes in the air. And the destination country must be open for business.

Tui, the UK’s biggest holiday company, reckons 15 May is the start date – or at least everything up to 14 May is definitely cancelled. I think that is optimistic, but Jet2 is probably right to say mid-June.

The holiday company has done well to defer the payment of the balance to midsummer, by which time everything should be clearer. Even if it is not certain whether your trip will be going, if you can afford to do so, pay the balance. You will either get a holiday or your money back.

If the travel company should fail, then the full cost of the holiday would be refunded under the Atol scheme.

Travel insurance is not relevant. If the trip does not go ahead, the holiday company must refund you.

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