The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Be prepared for a delay to foreign travel – but let’s hope it won’t come to that
As more uncertainty looms, a we need a better system for refunds in place – and targeted financial help. By Nick Trend
The mood music surrounding the rules on overseas travel developed a more sombre tone last week. Epidemiologists and politicians – including the Prime Minister – sounded an alarm over the state of the pandemic in Europe, the risks from the spread of new mutations and how they may affect the restart of international travel.
New legislation, which comes into force on Monday, now allows the Government to fine people £5,000 for breaking the travel rules and for the ban on overseas holidays to be extended until the end of June. This doesn’t necessarily mean the May 17 date for reopening international travel has been pushed back. But it allows for that to happen.
In another telling development, the Prime Minister also said that he would give more news about foreign travel on April 5, a week earlier than expected, since the Travel Taskforce, which is looking into the issue, isn’t due to report until April 12. Quite what this means isn’t clear. But it is hard to see how an earlier update will bring good news when all the emphasis from both scientists and politicians has been on the need for caution.
The optimist in me still hopes that we will get a managed return to overseas by the end of May, with a handful of destinations with low levels of infection and variants being reopened to
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British travellers, and others added as the summer progresses. I have a flight booked to Greece on June 5 and I certainly haven’t given up on that yet.
But clearly, we need to be prepared for a delay. And that could trigger a disastrous new round of cancellations, adding to a refund crisis which, for many, is still unresolved. The industry estimated last year that the total cost of refunds could reach £7billion. There is no reliable data specifying how much of that has been returned, but much of it is being held in the form of Refund Credit Notes (RCNs) – a CAA backed scheme, which allows a credit to be protected by the Atol bonding scheme in case the operator goes out of business.
And we know, there are still significant issues with many airlines and several operators failing to give refunds or RCNs. A delay of more than two weeks to travel to key holiday destinations after May 17 would hit the half-term week (May 29-June 6) and trigger millions more cancellations. If this does happen, it is vital that we avoid a repeat of last year’s crisis, with major destinations being opened or proscribed with only hours notice, and consumers forced to make balancing payments for holidays which were unlikely to happen and then left struggling for refunds or holding travel vouchers worth thousands of pounds, which they still don’t know if they will be able to use.
I obviously don’t know what Boris Johnson intends to announce on April 5 or what the Travel Taskforce will report on April 12. I doubt they do yet, either. But it needs to include the following.
Firstly, an extension to the validity of RCNs. As it stands, they can only be issued up to March 31, and only retain their financial protection until September 30. Obviously the first date must be extended, but if the May 17 restart is postponed, the second must be too – a window of only two or three months for people to rebook their travel arrangements is simply not long enough.
Next, in the event of a further postponement of international travel, targeted financial help is needed to prevent travel company failures and the loss of key expertise. Finally, we need a formal review into the issues surrounding refunds, so that consumers are never left in this situation again.