British Airways customers trying to rebook breaks cancelled by Covid blast ‘hidden charges’

Furious British Airways and easyJet customers are complaining that they cannot rebook breaks cancelled at the start of the coronavirus crisis using vouchers handed out by the airlines – or redeem those vouchers for cash. 

Millions of British holidaymakers accepted vouchers from airlines and travel companies facing financial ruin as trips abroad were dashed by the viral outbreak and whole fleets were grounded.

But many customers are now bitterly angry that many airlines – including BA and easyJet, which have been hit hard during the crisis – appear to be making it as hard as possible for them to redeem the vouchers for cash.

Would-be holidaymakers have also complained of facing unexpected charges and hurdles when they try to use the vouchers to book new breaks.

Restrictions on what the vouchers can be used for hinder like-for-like replacement of the original holiday, while many holidaymakers allege they were denied any choice by their provider.

BA and easyJet have been slammed for failing to ‘play fair’, with Martyn James of consumer complaints website Resolver telling The Guardian: ‘It’s outrageous that people who chose to help airlines by taking vouchers are now being told they can’t redeem them for cash if they can’t or aren’t able to use them. 

‘There’s a real sense of anger about the behaviour of certain airlines, given the problems with customer service and ignoring of refund rules that took place when lockdown began. 

‘If the industry wants to tempt us back on the planes, it needs to play fair.’

The anger comes amid further travel chaos after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps struck Portugal, Hungary, French Polynesia and Reunion from the Government’s quarantine exemption list for England last week.

The coronavirus crisis has taken a sledgehammer to the travel industry in its gravest ever crisis, with airlines forced to cut thousands of jobs and slash the number of flights they provide as demand for international travel falls. 

BA, which has been forced to lay off thousands of staff, is understood to have removed the refund option from its website in March, telling passengers to apply for vouchers instead.

The airline issued online vouchers and now allows customers to convert up to three vouchers into one mega voucher. This can be redeemed via the website, but only after applicants have phoned the helpline to acquire it.

However, none of its vouchers are valid for extras such as reserved seating or checked-in baggage. They also can’t be transferred to other passengers and can’t be used to pay the balance of previously booked trips.

One BA customer complained on the MoneySavingExpert website how she had spent almost two hours on the company’s site and phone line trying to rebook a cancelled break.

She said she had almost £100 left after redeeming her voucher, but had to pay £40 separately to reserve seats on her new flight, while the outstanding balance was put on a new voucher.

Another BA customer said the website had refused to accept her voucher code when she tried to book replacement flights. She was directed to call a number which was never answered and had to foot the bill herself.  

On its website, BA has a long section on the ins and outs of redeeming the vouchers, and explains that some of the vouchers need to be used by phone. 

‘Call volumes are extremely high at the moment due to the unprecedented circumstances so please bear with us if it takes some time for us to help with your booking,’ it warns customers.  

A spokesman for BA told MailOnline: ‘We are doing everything we can in these difficult and unprecedented circumstances to help our customers and our incredible staff have answered well over two million calls since the beginning of March. 

‘Our customer service teams have been responding to up to 8,500 tweets per day – up from 2,500 per day before the pandemic. Since March we have provided more than 2.1m customers with cash refunds and more than 1.6m with vouchers to fly with us that they can use right up until April 2022.

We will always provide a refund if a customer is eligible and we’re offering flexibility if any of our customers need to change their flights. We’ve also extended the tier status for our Executive Club members for another year.​’   

EasyJet also removed the refund option from its website and demands that consumers redeem vouchers through the same channel used to request them – meaning vouchers requested over the phone can only be redeemed by phone and only one voucher can be used for each booking.

One customer struggled to use her voucher on the easyJet website and saw the price of the flight double to £120, and spent four hours trying to get through to customer services before paying the fare herself. She has since been unable to get her voucher refunded.

Another was told  that the process was ‘hassle-free’ when he accepted a voucher in lieu of a refund – but learned that he had to ‘phone customer services to arrange the flights and have wasted an hour trying in vain to get through’.

An easyJet spokesman told MailOnline: ‘Customers whose flights have been cancelled are notified and informed of their options which includes transferring to an alternative flight free of charge, receiving a voucher or applying for a refund via a webform on our dedicated Covid Help Hub at easyJet.com. All vouchers issued by us continue to be accepted. 

‘Most vouchers are redeemable online however there are some vouchers which are only redeemable via the contact centre. 

‘We continue to see a very high level of enquiries and so have invested in extra resources in our call centre to help reduce our queue times and assist customers as quickly as possible. 

‘We took 9700 calls yesterday with an average wait time of a minute. We continue to work on making it possible to redeem these vouchers online moving forward.’

The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) has ruled that customers are entitled to exchange a voucher for a refund if it does not cover the cost of a new reservation.

A spokesman told The Guardian: ‘If customers have booked through a third-party agent, the agent may choose to charge a fee on top of the original fare, but this should be made clear at the time of booking.

‘Agents should not make additional charges on top of the new airfare when customers use a voucher to book a replacement flight with their original airline. 

‘Customers always have the right to go direct to the airline for a refund, even if booked through a third party.’

It comes as travel quarantine on Portugal and Hungary came into force this morning after the last Brits arrived back in the UK following a mad scramble before the 4am deadline.

Fuming Britons returning from Portugal last night blasted the Government’s travel quarantine as a ‘shambles,’ as they revealed they had forked out hundreds on earlier flights. 

The cost of flights home soared to £600 within minutes of Thursday night’s announcement, and British Airways laid on an extra service from Faro on the Algarve. 

Many of the 35,000 Britons currently in Portugal will have no choice but to carry on with their holidays and self-isolate for 14 days on their return. Some may have to take unpaid sick leave and university students could miss the start of term. 

Simon Garner was due to arrive home on Tuesday with wife Clare, but forced to cut his holiday short.

The 48-year-old, from Ipswich, Suffolk, said: ‘It’s a shambles, they don’t give you enough notice to come back, they should give you a week to come back safely.

‘They have allowed people to go out yesterday who have now got to come back today.

‘People have flown out with children and they have had to scramble back today, they have lost thousands.’

He added: ‘When you come through you fill out a form, but no-one checks your forms. The planes are filthy too, it was really packed.

‘The one going out with EasyJet was fantastic, Ryanair coming back everything was dirty. We have had to pay £400 to come back early but they went up to £1,000 yesterday, they are profiteering off us really.’

The dock worker added: ‘We feel safer over there too.’

Abbie Willcox had tried to get to Portugal three times this year with each time being cancelled due to the virus.

She ended up arriving at her family’s private villa in the Algarve at 2pm yesterday but immediately booked a flight back when the restrictions were announced.

She said: ‘Portugal is so safe compared to the UK – especially the Algarve where we were staying in a private family villa.

‘Once Portugal was taken off the quarantine list two weeks ago we booked for this week thinking we would surely be fine.

‘We arrived at 2pm yesterday, and two hours later we found out about the quarantine news.

‘We immediately felt sick – neither of us can quarantine with work.

‘We had to pay hundreds and hundreds to get the only flight we can get back before 4am Saturday which is to Birmingham.’

She added: ‘Our car is at London Heathrow so we need to get on a 100 per cent full flight back to Birmingham, stay in a Birmingham hotel tonight – big cost – and then get a train – another big cost – back to London tomorrow.

‘The busy flight, visiting Birmingham, and getting on a train to London is so much more dangerous than staying in a private villa in Portugal. Utter shambles.’

Isabelle Brett, 20, had only arrived with her family in the Algarve on Monday to stay in a villa.

After scrambling to get last minute flights home, they cut their holiday short by two days and flew back last night. 

The decision was taken after the number of cases in Portugal over seven days jumped to 28.3 per 100,000 people on Thursday, over the Government’s threshold of 20.

The new restrictions do not apply to the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Azores, where infection rates are lower than on the mainland. 

Lorraine Norden, 65, and husband Anthony, 69, were also forced to fly back early and were stung for an extra £250. Fearing a packed flight the couple put on extra PPE to help protect themselves. 

Mrs Norden said: ‘To some extent I can see the rationale but when the infection rate is not much different compared to here it is a bit odd. 

‘This morning when we were at Faro airport the plane was so crowded, we were put in a situation that was more dangerous. I also think there possibly should be more warning.

‘We had to cut our holiday short by a week, we hedged our bets when we realised this might happen last week we booked a flight, but we were hoping to stay. 

‘We did notice in Portugal that the Portuguese follow the rules more than the English.’ 

Her husband added: ‘It is one of those things. We were lucky to get a holiday and it is a very serious situation.’ 

Lorraine Anastasiades and husband Stas were also forced to fly back from their holiday early. Mrs Anastasiades said: ‘We have had to cut back our holiday by 10 days. 

‘It’s a bit heartbreaking after lockdown but it is what it is, we both have jobs we can’t do at home.’  

Sophie Petro, 22, was also returning from Portugal but did not have to change her plans. She said: ‘I’m just lucky I got this flight rather than one later. 

‘My parents have to fly back Sunday so they will have to quarantine. If I couldn’t get back I would have to stay home for two weeks, I work at the Amazon warehouse so I would have to miss work. 

‘I felt quite safe over there, apart from the flight. It was really busy as it was probably one of the only flights you could get. The flight on the way back was full with people coming back early, I could hear people on the beach trying to change their flights.’ 

Steve and Claire Knight, both 46 and from Telford, Shropshire, were enjoying their honeymoon in the sun when they found out they had to return.

Mr Knight, who owns two schools in Shropshire, said: ‘We’ve been on our honeymoon, believe it or not.

‘We got married last week so we booked 11 nights and were due to come back next Wednesday, but obviously that’s had to change.

‘We were straight on the internet booking the next flight home – that was 5pm yesterday and it was panic stations. We were desperate to get back.’

Unfortunately, the couple payed an uplift of £200 on each return flight so they could come back early enough to avoid having to quarantine themselves.

Mrs Knight, a factory finance director, said: ‘Fortunately we didn’t have to pay for the nights we didn’t use at the hotel.

‘The holiday company was good too so we only had to pay the duration.

‘We’re disappointed, we’re frustrated – but I suppose if you go away you have to be prepared for this to happen, don’t you? It’s a risk we took.’

Mr Knight added: ‘We knew the risk, we knew it could go on the list but we went anyway.’

Fiona Bolton and Neil Simon, 47 and 51, who were also returning from their trip, said: ‘We were there just 20 hours in total.

‘It was a long break but these things have to be done to protect everybody.

‘We planned it after the quarantine was lifted last time. The streets there are not vey busy and they have lost a lot of tourists.

‘We’re disappointed, but its life at the minute; nothing is certain and you have to just go with it.

‘We have spent £1,200 for 20 hours. The flight back was £250 each extra on top of the BA flight cost.’

John Dawson, 60, who works in the pharmaceuticals industry, said: ‘We should have come back on Sunday, but we came back today and we had flights booked for Wednesday as well.

‘We were on holiday, it’s very disappointing. Luckily I had it on air miles so I could change the booking. It was a pain in the arse but it didn’t cost us very much.’

Vicky White and Jane Herrington, 47 and 41, we’re taking a much-needed break from lockdown but had to cut it short.

Ms White, a payroll officer for a cinema company, said: ‘We were due to come back Wednesday next week but I booked an extra flight for today knowing that they would probably put in on the quarantine list last night so this was a security flight.

‘We’ve come back about six days early. We’re disappointed but we did have five days in the sun so after a long, long summer at home being cooped up it’s been really lovely.’

Ms Herrington added: ‘Portugal felt very safe, they knew what they were doing, they’ve got it under control there. We were in The Algarve so there weren’t many people around.’

Meanwhile, Sweden, which did not impose a compulsory lockdown and chose a ‘herd immunity’ approach to tackling coronavirus, was removed from the UK’s quarantine list after its infection rate fell. 

Hungary, French Polynesia and Reunion have also been added to Britain’s ‘red’ list of territories subject to quarantine.

Scotland and Wales had already added Portugal and French Polynesia to their quarantine list, but other changes announced on Thursday apply to all four parts of the UK. Industry leaders told of their dismay at the latest decision, which comes three weeks after Portugal was removed from the quarantine list.

Travel consultant Paul Charles said: ‘The weekly review needs to be changed. They need to move the system to a traffic light system so that consumers are clearly-informed about ministers’ intentions and which countries are at risk. It would enable them to book trips with more certainty.’

It came as Home Office figures revealed officials have only managed to fine 34 people for breaching quarantine since the rules were introduced in June – despite the fact that two million people have arrived in the country since then. 

Public Health England said it had made or sent 149,579 calls or text messages to passengers to check they were self-isolating at home. Some 64,800 people had confirmed they were self-isolating.

Portugal has seen a steady rise in cases since it was removed from the quarantine list three weeks ago, now reporting a total of 1,852 deaths amid 62,126 confirmed infections. 

It saw 646 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, the nation’s highest figure since April.         

Wales and Scotland had already imposed their own self-isolation rules on Portugal, with Nicola Sturgeon also recently mandating 14-day isolation for arrivals from Greece and Wales adding six Greek islands to its list.

Downing Street’s switch-up of the quarantine exemption list comes after Mr Shapps last week insisted there would be no changes to English travel corridors.   

Sources told MailOnline at the time that although Portugal was above the ‘trigger’ threshold for cases per 100,000 people over a seven-day period, that appeared to be because they were carrying out more tests.

‘The rate of positives per test has actually gone down,’ one senior source said.

The Government also announced on Thursday that Sweden has been added to the ‘safe’ travel list.

The new air bridge will come into force at 4am on September 12 after the Scandinavian nation saw a drop in cases – despite not enforcing a lockdown. 

Stockholm’s strategy of ‘herd immunity’ – once backed by Downing Street – to allow the disease to spread through the population, was criticised as reckless but new data increasingly vindicates the decision. 

Sweden currently has 13 patients in intensive care, by comparison the United Kingdom has 843 patients in hospital, 80 of them on ventilators.

Furthermore, Sweden has had an average of just one death per day for the last 10, compared to 9.3 fatalities each day in the UK over the same period.

Announcing the changes on Twitter yesterday, Mr Shapps said: ‘Data shows we need to remove PORTUGAL (minus the AZORES and MADEIRA), HUNGARY, FRENCH POLYNESIA and REUNION from the Travel Corridor list to keep everyone safe. 

‘If you arrive in England from these destinations after 4am Saturday, you will need to self-isolate for 14 days.  

‘Through enhanced data we now have the capability to assess islands separate to their mainland countries. If you arrive in England from the AZORES or MADEIRA, you will NOT need to self-isolate for 14 days. 

‘This week, SWEDEN has been ADDED to the Travel Corridors list. If you arrive In England from Sweden, you will NOT need to self-isolate for 14 days.’  

Mr Shapps added that all travellers returning to the UK must now complete a Passenger Locator Form to ‘protect public health’ and ensure self-isolation rules. 

‘It is a criminal offence not to complete the form and spot checks will be taking place,’ he said.  

It comes after the Portuguese government today agreed tougher infection control restrictions against the coronavirus ahead of the start of the school year. 

Ministers agreed on new rules which will come into force next week, including limiting gatherings to 10 people rather than 20 previously – a cap already in force in the capital Lisbon since late June.

Sales of alcohol will also be banned from 8pm onwards alongside drinking in public places. Meanwhile, sporting venues will remain closed to fans ahead of the football championship kicking off next week.

‘We’ve been seeing a sustained rise in the number of new cases since the beginning of August,’ Prime Minister Antonio Costa said.

But most new cases were among asymptomatic people aged 20 to 39, Costa added.

He urged companies to allow for remote working or other infection control moves wherever possible.