Martin Lewis has cautioned anyone arranging their summer getaway that they will not receive a refund if their flight is scrapped and they cannot reach their accommodation, assuming they have booked in a specific manner. During his Money Show Live on ITV last night, the finance guru was asked by an audience member: ‘If my flight’s cancelled due to no jet fuel, will you definitely receive all your money back, even for your hotel booking as well?’
Mr Lewis explained that holidaymakers would lose their hotel reservation payments if they had organised it independently from their flights booked with carriers such as Jet2, TUI, Wizz, Ryanair, easyJet, as they would not be covered by consumer protections. He said: “No. And I think this is what people need to be very aware of. If you booked a package holiday where you booked everything in one, then under the package holiday regulations and rules and protections generally, if your flight went, you would get everything back.
“And so actually at the moment package holidays give you a certain level of extra security that you wouldn’t get if you did a DIY booking where you bought your hotel and flight separately.”
This is because there is nothing wrong with the hotel booking itself, he clarified: “Because the point is if you lose your flight and you’ve DIY booked, there’s nothing wrong with your hotel. The issue is you can’t get there. Your hotel is still there. It’s not faulty. It’s not cancelling. So, you don’t have those consumer rights.” If the hotel has not committed any wrongdoing, then holidaymakers might examine how they have organised their reservation – but there is scant comfort to be discovered there. He said: “So, you would then say, ‘What about using a credit card or debit card protection?’ It won’t work because there’s nothing faulty. And that’s just giving you the same replica rights that you would have with the retailer.”
Ultimately, people may resort to their travel insurance. Mr Lewis explained: “So, you then say, ‘What about travel insurance?’ This is the bad bit. We were checking 40 travel insurance policies. Of those, only a few would have covered you for the knock-on eventuality of your flight being cancelled due to jet fuel and then your hotel costs.”
“Only about three or four, and most of those were package bank accounts where it’s linked to your bank account. Only one standalone provider. So we need to be blunt at the moment. There is a big risk in those circumstances. If you’re booking, you want something with free or limited cancellation quite short before. So you could just cancel it. You should always talk to the provider.
“The reason this is important to know is if you are in that position, once you understand you have no rights and they say, ‘Well, we’ll give you a voucher, and you can come back in 6 months.’ You suddenly realise you’re doing well, not badly, right? If you didn’t have free cancellation, this is going to be a problem if we get to that jet fuel shortage.
“Government are saying there isn’t one at the moment and they’re working on consolidating flights and doing things so there won’t be one, but people’s hotel costs if they book separately and other knock-on costs are potentially at risk.”