Can I reschedule my Greece trip without any admin costs?

Q Will I be able to go to the Greek island of Rhodes in August. It’s for a family holiday that has been rearranged from last summer. If I’m not allowed to go, will I be able to park it to 2022 without paying an administration fee?

Bradley T

A Millions of people had their holiday plans destroyed last summer as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The vast majority of planned trips were cancelled, though something of a tourism season was accessible in the latter part of the summer.

I assume that your trip was cancelled by the tour operator, rather than you asking if you could switch it for 2021. If this is the case, the firm was obliged to offer a full refund. It was also perfectly legitimate for the company to invite you to rebook for 2021 – either with some sort of incentive, such as a 10 per cent bonus, or the opportunity to get a like-for-like a trip to replace the lost holiday.

I have always tended towards the cash refund because it gives complete flexibility: you can book again with the same company, or switch to a rival, and are not tangled in any contractual obligations.

As things stand, I am pretty confident that your trip will go ahead and I hope you have a happy and relaxed trip. Of course the past year has shown us that nothing is certain in the world, and there is some risk that events may prevent it going ahead. For example, it may be that Greece decides only travellers who can prove they have had both doses of vaccination are allowed to visit – making life very difficult for family holidays.

Were circumstances like that to transpire, then I believe you should be able to ask for a full refund of all the money spent so far.

If your original trip went ahead last summer, however, after you agreed with the tour operator to postpone the holiday to 2021, then the right to a cash refund no longer applies. But I daresay the firm will be happy to discuss options.

Q Any idea how the “90 days out of 180” policy is being monitored in the Schengen Area since Brexit? We left Tenerife last week and had our passports stamped, but I wonder if there is more sophisticated record-keeping behind the scenes?

Caroline M

A Coronavirus has camouflaged the many effects on British travellers of the end of the Brexit transition phase. They will become apparent to most only when international journeys become feasible once more.

The UK’s decision to become a “third country” means for the first time in decades there are limits on lengths of stays. For people who like to spend extended spells in the European Union, in any 180 days you can stay no more than 90 days (which also means any single stay is limited to 90 days).

This applies across the Schengen Area, which comprises most EU countries plus the usual hangers-on: Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and plucky Liechtenstein.

When researching the answer to your question, I was surprised to learn that Europe’s Entry/Exit System (EES) is still not up and working. From the start of 2022, the idea is that a central database will track arrivals and departures by third-country citizens. According to the European Union, it will “replace the current system of manual stamping of passports, which is time-consuming, does not provide reliable data on border crossings and does not allow a systematic detection of over-stayers”.

Which rather begs the question: how do they tell? After all, in normal times, you could cross a dozen frontiers without ever having to show your passport. From Tenerife you could travel right across the EU to Finland without challenge.

Those arrival and departure stamps provide the evidence. I imagine that frontier officials will, sometimes at least, check travellers’ arrival details as they leave. If your most recent arrival stamp was 91 days ago or more, that is a pretty good indication that you may have breached the rules. Or, if you have a series of stamps that suggests you spend a lot of time in the Schengen Area, the official may do some adding up.

I don’t expect the average British traveller will face much scrutiny, but of course you should stay within the rules. Overstayers will typically be banned from the EU for a year or more.

Q I booked a holiday to Tenerife a year ago for August 2020. When it became clear the trip would not be going ahead because the government warned against travel to Spain, the travel company were fixated on me moving it to April 2021. I said I would be happy with summer 2021 but they said they couldn’t do that as easyJet hadn’t released the dates. I was then told the summer price had gone up by a few hundred pounds. So eventually I settled for Easter. But now I’m running short of cash and now just want my money back. Can you help please?

Name supplied

A I imagine you are furious that you ever got involved with what looks to be an appalling company. At the point that your trip was cancelled in August 2020, the firm should have offered you a full cash refund within two weeks. There is nothing wrong with a travel company offering a different holiday instead, but that must always come with a money-back option as well.

The firm evidently decided instead to bully customers – including you – to try to hang on to your money. If it is a member of Abta, the travel association, then I suggest you make an official complaint against the company. However, in most of the similar cases I have encountered since the coronavirus pandemic began, firms such as this are not usually Abta members because they have no intention of upholding the association’s standards.

In that case, the best, cost-free approach is to make a claim under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act (if you paid with a credit card) or a “chargeback” (if you paid with a debit card). This will, at least, wake up the travel company and oblige it to respond. The firm is likely to say there is no case to answer because the trip is still going ahead. You can then point to the phone conversation you had, which the company is likely to have recorded, as evidence of your entitlement to money back.

If your card issuer declines a refund, not all is lost. You could go to Money Claim Online, which requires you to pay a fee to make a claim. But I suggest you wait until March. Your Easter flights may not go ahead, in which case you should be able to secure a full refund; whatever the travel firm might say, it is unlikely to have paid the hotelier.

I hope your question can help others avoid the same awful experience, by buying a proper package holiday through a human travel agent.

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