No more fighting for refunds after last-minute cancellations
Planes on the tarmac at Cork Airport(Image: Karl Kachmarsky)
It’s been a few weeks of fairly miserable weather here in Cork, and while conditions are slowly improving, many households will be looking forward to breezy summer holidays later this year. There’s some good news for holidaymakers who enjoy travelling across the EU this week, as new laws mean they’ll soon benefit from extra protections should anything go wrong.
MEPs are set to vote on a set of new EU travel rights later this week, with the legislation expected to pass without issue. The laws will ensure that those who book package holidays are better protected and entitled to compensation should anything go wrong with their bookings.
The news was welcomed by Irish MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, who has served as the lead negotiator in discussions with travel companies ahead of the vote. The Transport and Tourism MEP said the new rules will ensure greater transparency and fairness in the travel industry.
Ní Mhurchú said that MEPs sought to strengthen protections for holidaymakers without imposing significant additional bureaucracy on package tour operators. The new rules will apply to package tours or package holidays. Once voted on this Thursday, Member States have had 28 months to transpose it into national law, with the new rules applying 6 months after that deadline.
The protections apply to all package holidays and include provisions for cancelling holidays with no penalty in exceptional circumstances, specific voucher protections and a guaranteed reply to complaints made against package holiday providers.
Cancelling a holiday
The new EU rules give passengers more rights regarding cancellations, allowing them to cancel, penalty-free, when faced with unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances. This includes sudden natural disasters, conflict or public health emergencies.
Tour operators are also required to have insolvency protection so that, in the unlikely event that they go broke, holidaymakers will be entitled to a refund within six months. Those same insolvency protection schemes must be sufficient to guarantee not only consumer refunds but also the repatriation of holidaymakers if things go wrong on a package holiday. A refund is must be issued within 14 days
In practice, this means that if a holiday destination is hit by intense flooding or forest fires and official travel warnings are issued, consumers can cancel their package holiday without incurring costs and should receive a prompt refund. Ní Mhurchú pointed out that this is particularly important given the increasingly erratic weather patterns in parts of Europe, leading to flooding, fire and more extreme events. Voucher protections
Voucher Protections
The Package Travel Directive states that holidaymakers who are offered vouchers as compensation by travel companies will now have the right to refuse a voucher and opt for a cash refund within 14 days.
If a voucher is accepted but not used, its value must be reimbursed at expiry. Vouchers should be valid for up to 12 months, and transferable or extendable once. Importantly, vouchers must be backed by insolvency protection and usable across all services offered by the organiser, either in full or in instalments.
Making complaints
The new laws also ensure that complaints made by holidaymakers are acknowledged within 7 days and replied to within 60 days. Tour operators will also be required to provide clearer information on payment methods, passport/visa requirements, accessibility for people with reduced mobility, and termination fees if you cancel.
Where an “add-on” booking doesn’t create a package, for example, when booking a hotel or a car rental through the Ryanair website after you have booked a flight, the onus is on the business, Ryanair in this example, to clearly explain in advance that the package travel protections do not apply.
If the business does not make that distinction clearly enough in the booking process, and the extra service is bought in the same sales flow within the conditions set out in the directive, the arrangement may be treated as a package.
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