Courts are set to decide whether a Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) ‘no-go’ ruling on a destination means holidaymakers are entitled to a full refund.
Traditionally, as soon as the FCO warns against travel to a destination, holidays are cancelled and customers are entitled to a full refund.
However, since the coronavirus pandemic began, the FCO has issued warnings to countries such as Bulgaria and Croatia, even though these destinations have significantly lower rates of new Covid-19 cases. This means many flights have continued to operate to destinations on the FCO’s “no-go” list and some online travel agents have refused to refund holidaymakers.
At the ABTA Travel Law Seminar, Farina Azam, who is a partner and travel leas for Kemp Little said: “Ultimately it’s going to come down to an interpretation of the regulations. A court will no doubt come to that decision for us.
“There is a basic contractual point that customers book package holidays against a background of reasons being offered in the event of a change to FCDO advice.
“So I think if you do want to overrule that, then it has to be made very clear in your booking conditions.”
