2017... the year airlines went into a tailspin
WITHOUT wishing to sound miserable, 2017 hasn’t been a great year for British travellers.
For starters, in many countries everything is significantly more expensive. After the EU referendum in 2016, the pound plummeted in value against key foreign currencies, and it hasn’t recovered.
Depending on when exactly you were abroad in the past 12 months, you would have found that the pound was worth up to 17 per cent less against the euro, and up to 20 per cent less against the US dollar, when compared to the period before the referendum.
Many flyers also had their journeys and plans upended. In May, tens of thousands of British Airways passengers were unable to fly, or were separated from their luggage, due to a collapse in the airline’s IT system.
In September, Ryanair spectacularly failed to live up to its ‘Always Getting Better’ mantra. Due to pilot shortages, it cancelled thousands of flights. To make matters even worse, until the Civil Aviation Authority stepped in, Ryanair failed to provide affected passengers with accurate information of their rights – specifically that the cost of being rerouted on another airline would be met.
Then in October, Monarch Airlines went bust – the largest ever failure of a British airline. More than 100,000 passengers had to be repatriated, and a further 300,000 held tickets for future flights.
Lessons to be learnt? Know and fight for your rights when flying (see caa.co.uk), and where possible book a package, which will give you financial protection and more back-up.
Other disadvantages included no more free drinks or food with BA on short-haul flights, and Ryanair’s decision to introduce a more restrictive hand luggage policy, which it thinks will speed up boarding and cut delays. From mid-January, you will be allowed to take only one small bag into the cabin, unless you’ve paid extra for priority boarding.
Elsewhere, problems with car hire showed no sign of abating. A Which? study found complicated contracts leave bookers facing steep, unexpected bills. Some rental firms are continuing to apply scare tactics on customers to buy their absurdly expensive excess-waiver policies, and there have been worrying stories of companies charging for inflated repair costs.
Switching to accommodation, hotel booking websites (such as booking.com) have become extremely powerful forces in the travel industry. The Competition and Markets Authority is now concerned that information on the sites could be misleading. It is investigating whether the amount of commission paid by a hotel affects its ranking in search results, pressure-selling techniques (for example, claims of how many rooms are left), and if advertised discounts stand up.
With the phenomenal growth in ‘peer-to-peer’ room, apartment and villa booking websites such as Airbnb, there is an escalating problem with online fraud. Scams vary, but include making up adverts for non-existent properties, creating copycat pages of real properties, and sending fake emails.
When using companies such as Airbnb, the key way to avoid scams is to communicate only with hosts and pay through the online platforms.
But there was one bright spot this year: rip-off roaming charges were abolished in the summer for using a mobile phone in other EU countries.
Here’s wishing you safe and hassle-free travels in 2018.
One bright spot was abolishing the roaming cost rip-off