Dnata brands might take payments direct from customers in future
Dnata Travel’s UK boss John Bevan said its tour operators might start taking payments direct from customers to make it easier to process refunds in the future.
He told the ABTA Travel Convention that this might suit some agents, especially homeworkers who would prefer not to handle the payments themselves.
"So if a tour operator takes the money and is the contracted party then we can just return the commission to the agent," he said.
He said dnata has many ways in which it credit checks agents and only works with businesses where it is insured for pipeline monies.
"A lot of these things are up for debate. We need to find the right thing that works for customers. We want to make them confident their money is safe," John said.
He also revealed that dnata was reassessing its relationship with airlines that refused to provide refunds when destinations were placed on the no-go list.
While he acknowledged that airlines did nothing wrong in continuing to fly to destinations after the Foreign Office advised against non-essential travel, John said operators would be more inclined in future to give their business to those that would abide by the Package Travel Regulations.
In June, dnata introduced a Covid-waiver, warning customers that all elements of their bookings might not be refunded in the event that destinations were removed from the government’s safe travel lists.
As a result, when Turkey was removed from the UK travel corridor list, John said most customers who hadn’t signed the waiver wanted a refund but 80% of those who had decided to travel.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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