BUSINESS NEWS TRAVOLUTION EUROPEAN SUMMIT 2020 RESET REBOOT RESTART
Simon Cooper
Refunds ‘cannot be based on FCDO advice’
Cooper says obligation is a convention, not a legal right. Lee Hayhurst reports However, he insisted the Covid-19
Travel firms’ obligation to refund cannot be subject to changing government advice against travel to countries due to Covid-19, the boss of On the Beach told the Travolution Summit. Simon Cooper said the leading
OTA warned against allowing Foreign Office (FCDO) advice to dictate consumers’ right to cancel at the start of the pandemic in March. On the Beach quit Abta last
month, along with fellow OTA Loveholidays, over differing views
40 15 OCTOBER 2020
about whether refunds should be paid whenever the FCDO advises against travel to a destination. The two OTAs argue that if airlines
continue to fly, hotels remain open and bookings were made in knowledge of the risk, cancellations by customers should not trigger automatic rights to refunds. Cooper said there were no
grounds in existing legal frameworks that FCDO advice means travel to a destination cannot continue to take place, although a convention has emerged that that is the case.
crisis had made that convention unworkable for many travel firms. He added: “You’re going to end up
in a position where package operators are saying ‘we’re not going to operate because precedent is normally FCDO advice is not to travel’, but airlines will still fly.” Cooper said On the Beach accepts FCDO advice is applicable in certain
Continued on page 38
travelweekly.co.uk
BUSINESSNEWS
PICTURE: Dave Phillips Photography
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40
