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Financial Conduct Authority urged to update ‘non-essential travel’ refund guidance
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is being urged to update guidance for people who want to cancel packages to destinations where the government advises against all-but-essential travel.
AITO, the Specialist Travel Association, has written to the FCA asking it to suggest customers may be able to claim back cancellation charges from their insurance company, rather than wait for their tour operator to cancel the holiday.
The association said the advice is necessary because tour operators are unlikely to cancel the holiday immediately after the FCO updates its advice to ‘all but essential travel’, because they feel the advice will change and the destination will be deemed ‘safe’, meaning the holiday can go ahead.
AITO Chair Chris Rowles said: "We seek urgent amendments to the FCA’s currently incorrect advice – on its website and as explained to helpline callers. The rules are complex, but government bodies such as the FCA simply have to get things right.
"With FCO travel advice changing frequently and without warning, as we have just seen for Spain, the regulators must take care to communicate clearly to consumers how they are affected and the steps that they can take."
AITO Director Noel Josephides added: "We want the FCA to give a more flexible reply and not to advise people to assume that the tour operator is going to cancel because of the change in FCO advice against non-essential travel.
"The tour operator can wait to the last minute to cancel the holiday, but customers who decide they want to cancel may well be able to claim cancellation fees through their insurance company.
"Tour operators are shouldering all of the burden, while some customers could get their money back quicker if they have a policy that covers against cancellations due to FCO advice."
Josephides acknowledged not all insurance companies would offer such cover, but insisted some policies sold by tour operators do, such as insurance provider Campbell Irvine.
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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