New rules regarding holiday cancellation charges set to be announced
New rules regarding holiday cancellation charges are likely to be introduced following a campaign by a national newspaper.
The Competitions & Markets Authority is expected to announce that holidaymakers should no longer automatically forfeit all of their deposits if they are forced to cancel trips due to death or ill health.
The Telegraph, which handed the CMA a dossier of readers’ complaints in January, said thousands of older holidaymakers have to cancel holidays each year due to their own or their spouse’s or another relative’s sickness.
However, many operators automatically refuse to refund deposits, even when they manage to re-sell the holiday, cruise or flight to someone else.
Telegraph Money said it believed that as a result of its action, the regulator is due to publish new rules regarding unfair terms in consumer contracts legislation, which covers holiday deposits.
It claimed it had seen private correspondence between an MP and the CMA suggesting the rules would be modernised.
In 2014, pensioner David Bruce Crawcour scored a court victory against TUI after it tried to keep 100% of his deposit when he cancelled a holiday two weeks before departure due to his wife’s illness, even though he believed the operator had resold the trip. The judge ordered TUI to refund Mr Crawcour £2,236.
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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