Travel Question: Should I rebook in case airline is sold?

Q I have booked two Flybe flights for next summer as a surprise special birthday trip to a big sporting event for my husband and a friend. I’m now very worried by the announcement that Flybe is looking for a buyer and may not be a long-term going concern. So I’m tempted to buy different flights before the alternatives get too booked up and expensive. If I do so, will I be able to get a refund on travel insurance or the credit card I used to pay for it?

Name withheld

A Europe’s biggest regional airline has put itself up for sale as it struggles to limit its losses – which I currently calculate at £7,000 per hour. The airline is “reviewing every aspect of our business”, which may mean cutting routes. Flybe stresses that operations continue as normal. But the airline has lately been cutting back routes in a bid to “shrink to success”, and that strategy may continue.

All you can do, though, is wait. Neither travel insurers nor credit card firms pay out on the basis of what may happen in the future. Your husband and his friend have confirmed bookings (even if they remain blissfully unaware of the fact). Unless or until there is some signal that the flight might not go ahead, you have no right to seek a refund.

You could book new flights, but then the only way you might claim the cost of the Flybe tickets back would be if the flights did not go ahead. You are in the unfortunate position of having to guess the best strategy. Personally I would do nothing and trust that such in-demand flights will go ahead.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder