the times Saturday January 1 202250 Travel
W
hat a year. It
started with a ban
on foreign trips,
we saw a brief
reprieve in the
summer and it
ended in chaos,
with thousands of travellers enduring
pointless, lengthy and expensive
quarantine. As the government flailed
about in its response to Omicron, we’ve
seen more flip-flops than on a beach
in Benidorm.
In the past 12 months my bulging
Travel Doctor postbag has reflected the
anger, frustration and sheer exhaustion
felt by readers as they have tried to
unpick ever-changing rules, choose
reliable testing providers, find travel
companies with flexible booking policies
and fight for refunds for flights,
accommodation and holidays that had
to be cancelled. Will this year be any
easier? With infection rates soaring,
it’s not looking rosy, for the next few
months at least.
Based on the thousands of
queries I have received over the
past year, here are my top tips for
travel without tears in 2022.
Buy a package
As hordes of skiers who were hoping
to tackle the French pistes this
Christmas have discovered, holiday
plans can disintegrate at the last minute.
the online giants to put them right. Tales
of dismal levels of customer service have
filled the Travel Doctor inbox since the
arrival of Covid-19. It’s difficult to hold
these companies to account because
they are not members of Abta, the travel
trade body, and the Competition and
Markets Authority (CMA) doesn’t
handle individual complaints.
The most frequent offender by some
way is Opodo, according to readers who
have complained bitterly about waiting
for flight refunds for many months or, if
by some miracle they managed to make
contact, being fobbed off. Book direct or
with your local travel agent, who really
will be at the end of the phone.Avoid the refund wrigglers
The roll-call of companies that have sat
on cash after trips have been cancelled
is dispiritingly long. Thai Airways,
Lufthansa, Malaysian Airlines and
TAP Air Portugal are among the airlines
that have kept readers in limbo for
many months. Tour operators on
readers’ blacklists include Mark Warner,
lastminute.com, Love Holidays, On the
Beach and Teletext Holidays, which
finally faced court action from the
CMA in autumn over inadequate
progress on refunds to package-holiday
customers and ceased trading at the end
of October.Swerve cut-price car hire
Car rental prices have leapt up
worldwide since the start of the
pandemic as providers slashed their
fleets and sold cars to generate cash.
Then, when travel picked up again,
demand outpaced supply. However, this
is no time to pick a rental on price alone,
as readers who chose Goldcar this
year discovered.
When Katja McDonald hired a car
from the company at Malaga airport,
the clutch failed within 18 miles, but
she was charged more than £600 for
damage, roadside assistance and the
week’s rental. After I intervened, Goldcar
conceded that some vehicles had
remained in the fleet longer than
usual and refunded her in full.
Who to book with? The consumer
group Which? lists AutoReisen, Cicar,
Alamo and Enterprise as its
recommended providers.Check your passport issue date
There has been so much noise about
Covid-related travel problems that the
effects of Brexit on trips to EU countries
have perhaps slipped under the radar.
Readers have been shocked to have been
turned away from flights because their
passports are deemed invalid, even
though they have not expired. There
are two crucial (and longstanding)
entry requirements for those travelling
from “third countries” to the EU: your
passport must be less than ten years old
on the date of departure and you must
have three months’ validity left after
the day you travel back. And from the
end of next year UK visitors heading
to Schengen EU countries will have to
start paying a €7 fee for the new Etias
(European Travel Information and
Authorisation System) visa waiver.Contact us
If you have a gripe, suggestion or question
relating to your holidays, please email
[email protected]If they had booked a package with a
reputable tour operator they would have
been able to postpone, move the trip to
another destination or even get a refund.
But anyone who booked their chalet and
travel separately at anything other than
a fully refundable rate is likely to get
a big fat non when they ask for their
money back from the chalet owners
whose businesses have suffered so
badly during the pandemic.
Not so long ago packages
seemed old-fashioned. Now
booking one with companies such
as Kuoni, Trailfinders, Jet2holidays
or any member of Aito, the
Specialist Travel Association, is a
no-brainer thanks to the financial
protection and support they offer.Check the paperwork
You may think that your airline should
tell you exactly which rules and
regulations you’ll have to follow to fly off
for your week in the sun, but as far too
many readers were horrified to discover
this summer when they were turned
away at check-in, the onus is on the
passenger to arrive with proof of all the
necessary tests, vaccines, visas and entry
forms. If you get it wrong, you could lose
every penny.
Airlines are not only indifferent to
what you need to know, they have also
turned away a huge number of blameless
passengers since foreign travel reopened
in May because they have misinterpreted
or failed to keep up to date with entry
requirements. Henry Ripley and his son
were refused boarding by Ryanair at
Rome Ciampino when ground staff
insisted that his son’s single vaccination
meant he could not get on the plane.
After I intervened, Ryanair’s handling
agent agreed to pay him EU-mandated
denied-boarding compensation of €500
(€250 per person) and refunded the cost
of their unused flights, as well as the
difference in cost of the new flights,
plus expenses.
I’ve heard subsequently that other
passengers who were turned away fromthis flight for the same reason have had
no response from Ryanair. The next step
in this sort of situation is to lodge an
appeal with an airline dispute resolution
service (in this case AviationADR;
aviationadr.org.uk).Act quickly on refund claims
If your travel company has not replied
to your request for a refund, don’t hang
around hoping for the best. I have lost
count of the number of readers who, by
the time they sought my help, had left it
too late to claim a chargeback because
they had paid by debit card. You have
120 days from the date you were due to
“receive the service” to make a claim,
so if your travel company won’t pay up
when it should, get going.
Similarly, if you’ve paid by PayPal, you
have only 180 days from the date of a
transaction to make a claim. There’s no
time limit for making a claim through
your credit card issuer under Section 75,
but the statute of limitations in the UK is
six years.Don’t fall for bargain test prices
It’s galling to have to shell out for
Covid tests for travel, especially because
for a family the cost can mount up
astronomically — which is why it is
tempting to buy the cheapest you can
find. Yet, as readers have discovered, pick
the wrong company and it’s a horror
story. Trips have been ruined before they
started because results didn’t arrive in
time for flights, and isolating has lasted
far longer than expected because
test results failed to materialise or
couldn’t be registered. The choice of
providers is still bewildering, but the
comparison site Covid Testing Network
(covid19-testing.org) is a good place to
start. And to avoid the nightmare of tests
not arriving by post in time, an in-clinic
appointment is the best option.Beware of online travel agents
bearing discounts
The pandemic has certainly proved that
if things go wrong, it is foolish to rely onMalaga, above. Below:
Ryanair passengers found
themselves turned awayJulia Brookes (aka
Times Travel Doctor)
looks back at 2021
and gives advice
on avoiding
the bumps
this year
GETTY IMAGES; ALAMYTravel without tears: my tips for 2022