Will our accommodation be covered if our flight is axed?

Q Can you recommend a travel insurer who will pay out for a cancelled villa and hire car if our flight is cancelled? I can’t seem to find any at the moment.

LJP

A Sorry, I can’t. The reason: given the industrial scale of flight cancellations this summer, if you took out a policy now, the significant possibility of being grounded would be a “known risk” – with cover accordingly withdrawn.

Good travel insurance policies taken out earlier this year (before cancellations became routine) or in 2021 may well cover lost costs that cannot be claimed from anywhere else. Such a policy could recompense the grounded traveller for accommodation, car rental, attraction tickets, etc, if these are non-refundable.

The very strong odds are that your flight will operate as planned. But there is a small chance that your holiday flight will be cancelled – perhaps because of the cap on passenger numbers imposed by Heathrow during the week, which will lead to some departures being axed.

In that unfortunate situation, though, travel insurance should simply not be a factor. European air passengers’ rights rules provide wide-ranging cover for grounded travellers – whatever the reason for the cancellation, and regardless of the amount of notice given. The primary entitlement is for another flight to your destination as soon as possible, and certainly on the original day of travel, if any seat is available on any airline.

While there are a few destinations in respect of which this may be impossible, for all the popular locations around Europe and in North America you should be able to find an alternative routeing on the day of travel. It is sad to see so many people who assume that a cancelled outbound flight means their holiday is wrecked, when this is far from the case.

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Q I have been watching the Tui flight from Bristol to Cancun for the last few weeks and it keeps stopping at Shannon in Ireland. Is this normal? I've never had to stop before on a nine-hour-long flight. I hope this doesn't happen during the school summer holidays.

Name supplied

A Tui flight BY658 from Bristol to Cancun does seem to divert to the west of Ireland rather often. I have tracked the progress of the Boeing 787 since late April and the flight diverts about one time in three. The 4,853-mile flight is no problem technically for the ultra-long-haul “Dreamliner” – the same type as used for nonstop Heathrow-Perth flights, covering a distance of over 9,000 miles. But the runway at Bristol is relatively short, and a 787 planning to fly such a distance will often encounter problems. A combination of air temperature at the west of England airport and Atlantic wind patterns can mean that the plane cannot carry sufficient fuel once passengers and their baggage are on board.

The flight is scheduled to take off just after 8am, much earlier than most transatlantic departures – specifically because the air is cooler and denser, allowing the Boeing to take off heavier than it would be able to do later in the day. But sometimes even with an early start (or if departure is delayed) the aircraft cannot carry sufficient fuel for the whole journey with the usual contingency added.

Shannon in the west of Ireland has a long and distinguished career as a “last fuel before the Atlantic” pitstop. When Concorde flew to Barbados, much of the speed advantage was lost because of a necessary refuelling stop in Shannon. The short-lived “son of Concorde” – the British Airways BA1 business-class only Airbus A318 jet from London City to New York JFK – had to refuel at Shannon. It actually took significantly longer than nonstop planes from Heathrow, but one advantage was the chance to clear US immigration in Ireland while the tanks were replenished. This does not apply to Mexico-bound holidaymakers, so all you can do is grin and bear the extra few hours.

In the unlikely event that Tui asked for my advice, I would say: diverting the plane to refuel is so expensive (I estimate at least £15,000) that the money could be spent offering passengers £50 each to travel only with cabin baggage – which could make all the difference.

Coming home, though, there is no problem: Cancun’s runway is more than long enough, and the jet stream provides a tailwind, not a headwind.

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Q Can you look into TravelUp? The customer service is appalling and I’m seeing so many people like me who are struggling to get refunds, get put on hold for hours and then just cut off or promised a call back (which never happens).

Daniel H

A “TravelUp has been taking the faff out of booking travel arrangements since 2004,” this Berkshire-based online travel agent (OTA) says of itself. “Since the company first started its only aim has been to make worldwide travel effortless for its customers.”

I have not heard any good reports about TravelUp – and looking at some of its online advice to customers, I am not entirely surprised. “Most countries now require passports to be valid for at least six months after your return date,” the company says. This is false; only a small number of nations have this requirement.

Then there is the odd requirement that passengers “must reconfirm with the airline at least 72 hours before the departure time shown on your ticket to confirm that there have been no changes”. Reconfirmation used to be a significant thing in the 20th century, with airlines sometimes abruptly cancelling bookings for those who did not comply. These days in which telecommunications are much easier and cheaper, it is safe to assume that once you have made a booking it is confirmed unless and until your airline tells you otherwise. (One exception, bizarrely, is Kenya Airways, which mysterious says “guests who intend to utilise their booking” must reconfirm a week ahead.) Regardless of airline, TravelUp insists: “Reconfirming your flight at least 72 hours before departure is a minimum requirement.”

I mention these odd assertions because they persuade me that TravelUp is not a great organisation with whom to book. While many travel agents are excellent, I get plenty of complaints about the online variety – largely saying that they are very quick to take money, and very slow to deal with problems. I am not saying I would never book with TravelUp; sometimes individual OTAs can sell for much less than the airline direct. If the saving compared with other providers on my proposed trip was sufficiently large, I would commit. But were anything to go awry, I would not expect good customer service.

Meanwhile, I advise you to keep going – and consider options such as asking your card issuer for recompense or writing a “letter before action” ahead of going to Money Claim Online. At least TravelUp is a UK company, rather than one of its foreign-based rivals.

Email your questions to s@hols.tv or tweet @SimonCalder