Should passengers book an alternative British Airways flight to Tenerife as a back-up?

Q I’ve heard that British Airways is cancelling flights to Tenerife at 24 hours’ notice. I am booked to fly there on BA in a couple of weeks. It’s for a really important event. Should I book an alternative flight as a back-up?

Name withheld

A Definitely not. I am currently analysing British Airways cancellations every day – because it’s important for travellers to be able to get a picture of what is happening. However, as I emphasise in the article, the 100 or so daily cancellations to and from BA’s main base of Heathrow are planned at least a week in advance. They are also on routes that have multiple daily flights – usually a minimum of four, and often more. On Friday, for example, three Heathrow-Amsterdam round-trips were grounded. But that left a further six, as well as three to and from London City – which, for flyers heading to or from the capital, may well be more convenient anyway. Barcelona, Berlin, Geneva, Milan and Nice all feature regularly on the list.

Today, British Airways has two departures to Tenerife from Heathrow and one from Gatwick. There is no absolute guaranteed they will all depart, because short-notice technical, staffing or weather-related stuff happens all the time in aviation. A few weeks ago a Gatwick-Tenerife round-trip was cancelled by BA when the plane “went tech”, I understand, but that is simply business as usual for any airline.

In the unlikely event that your flight is cancelled, then British Airways has a duty to get you to your destination on the same day if at all possible. This could involve travelling via Madrid, for example. If the airline is responsible for the cancellation (for example for technical reasons) then you also get cash compensation.

The longer-term and longer-notice cancellations on BA are due to shortage of resources, principally cabin crew and ground handlers. There is no sign of imminent decline – indeed this week the average daily number of cancellations has been increasing slightly. They are regrettable because they diminish capacity and choice. But let’s hope that British Airways – and rival easyJet, which is having similar problems – sort their resourcing issues soon.

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Q Earlier this month you said that the queues at Dover last weekend weren’t because of P&O Ferries suspending sailings but were a consequence of French officials checking passports post-Brexit. Are you suggesting that pre-Brexit the French didn’t look at passports? Passports have always been checked.

Pete J

A Yes, that is exactly what I am suggesting. My experience of travelling in British-registered vehicles from the UK to France (which, anecdotally, is shared by countless other people) was this. You drove up to the French passport booth. You held up one or more passports, closed. You were waved through. On occasion, you might have to open the window, and very rarely the official might open one or more.

While that might sound dreadfully lax practice, I can understand why it happened. Within the European Union, the only check that can be made for EU citizens is to verify that the travel document and the individual match. It was doubtless considered, whether officially or not, that checking every passport against the traveller was a pointless waste of resources.

Since the Withdrawal Agreement took effect on 1 January 2021, the border officials must conduct a much more rigorous check on every non-EU traveller entering France from the UK. You are entering the Schengen Area – comprising most EU nations, plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and plucky Liechtenstein. This frontier-free zone has a robustly policed border, and strict rules about how “third country nationals” like us must be processed.

At the very least, every passport must be stamped. A diligent official would check to see whether the holder has, in the past 180 days, spent more than 90 days within the European Union. They might also ask about financial resources during your stay, and demand to see proof of a ticket back to the UK (or to any destination outside the EU). In practice, staff are very unlikely to do much more than stamp each passport. But compared with the previous process for a car containing a family of four when the “check” typically took a couple of seconds, even with fast work the newly labour-intensive formality is likely to take a minute or more. Which, on a bank holiday, can add up to very long queues.

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Q I am one of many passengers, it seems, who have been messed around by easyJet ground staff – and turned away at Gatwick from a long-planned and much-anticipated trip to Italy because they wrongly said my passport wasn’t valid. Because of work I wasn’t able to set up an alternative. So, what can I claim back? In particular, can I claim for loss of enjoyment?

Roger N

A First, verify that you are due compensation. Flying to Italy or anywhere else in the Schengen Area, on the day of arrival the passport must be less than 10 years old (so look at the issue date) and have at least three months remaining from the intended day of departure from the Schengen Area (look at the expiry date). If your passport fails either (or both) of these conditions, then I am sorry to say you were correctly turned away.

But if you qualify, you are due denied boarding cash compensation: a simple legal entitlement that is in addition to all other recompense. The amount is £220 for flights of under 1,500km (pretty much Rome and everywhere further north) and £350 for longer flights.

You will also need to get your airfare refunded, and can apply for costs you lost for elements such as accommodation and car rental. The airline, not unreasonably, will want full receipts – and may ask for proof that the payment was not refundable.

In legal matters of travel, the emotional toll of a company’s behaviour is not typically considered in a claim. Had it been, for example, a vital family trip, a lawyer might argue that additional compensation is due. But I believe that a more likely outcome is that easyJet may decide to give flight vouchers to passengers they so needlessly upset. We shall see...

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Q I have been left frustrated by trying to get answers from the airline, travel agents, government website and the embassy but am getting either vague responses or nothing at all. My wife and I are due to fly on easyJet from Luton to Barcelona next Tuesday 3 May and return on Wednesday 11 May. Our passports were issued on 25 July 2012 and expire on 25 March 2023. Are we OK to travel? Do I just turn up at the airport and risk being turned away?

Badman 1

A You are legal to travel to beautiful Barcelona up to and including 24 July 2022. I am delighted to say that easyJet has, since I last complained to them (late on Monday night), changed its conditions to reflect the actual rules. Until yesterday easyJet wrongly asserted: “on your day of travel you’ll need your passport to have at least six months left on it”.

The airline now says: “Your passport will need to meet the following criteria: “It must be valid for at least three months after the day you plan to depart from the EU. It must be no more than 10 years old on the date of travel to the EU or above countries.” This is an accurate reflection of the rules, though as I have told the airline it would be helpful if an extra line explained these conditions are independent of each other.

I have also written to the airline requesting confirmation that an easyJet passenger with a British passport issued on 28 April 2012 and expiring on 28 January 2023 will be able to travel today. The notable exception to the airlines adopting the actual European rules is Ryanair, and I have asked whether they will follow easyJet’s example and comply.

Meanwhile, passengers wrongly denied boarding by easyJet’s misapplication of the rules are able to claim from the airline for their losses, plus statutory denied boarding compensation and a refund of their fares.

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