Package holidays and Covid-19

Many people have already had holidays they had booked cancelled as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and it is inevitable that many more holidays will be cancelled over the coming months. In many cases, those holidays have already been paid for either in full or in part.

Travel companies have already been notifying people that they are only entitled to a rebooking or a future travel voucher which is effectively a credit note. Where consumers have been offered these options as opposed to a refund in respect of a package holiday, the travel company is acting in contravention of the law.

Package holidays are subject to the Package Travel Regulations and where a package holiday has been cancelled, consumers are entitled to a full refund within two weeks of that cancellation by their agent or tour operator.

Please note this does not apply to non-package holidays. It is important to identify that the holiday is therefore a package holiday. A holiday is likely to be a package holiday if:

• It was advertised as a package or all-inclusive deal
• It was purchased for an inclusive or total price
• More than one part of the holiday, such as flights and accommodation were purchased from one company with one payment
• There was a prompt after one component was purchased to purchase another and it was purchased using the same payment details within 24 hours

If the holiday does fall within this definition, a full refund cannot be denied. In the event that it is, it is possible to make a claim against the travel company to recover the cost of the holiday.

To obtain advice and representation in respect of a claim, please call us on 020 3709 2402.