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Worst travel companies named and shamed by consumer champion
Virgin and loveholidays have joined Ryanair at the top of a list of the worst of the major travel companies for customer service during the pandemic.
The list was compiled by consumer champion MoneySavingExpert, taking into consideration more than 77,000 responses from its readers.
They were asked how they felt about their ‘refund experience’ and whether they actually got one.
The survey ran between 30 June and 6 July.
Ryanair scored the worst of the major brands after 90% of its customers rated their experience as poor and only 1% said it was ‘great’. It had a net score of -89%.
Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays performed almost as badly, scoring -88%, and loveholidays scored -81%.
To date, 4% or fewer of the customers of all three firms said they’d received a refund.
A majority of Virgin Atlantic and Ryanair customers also said they’d been waiting more than two months for a refund.
MoneySavingExpert claimed the survey ‘does paint a strong picture of what’s going on in travel refunds’.
Companies that have performed well include Travel Counsellors (+84%), Trailfinders (+81%), Jet2, Airbnb and Hays Travel. Trailfinders, Jet2 and Airbnb all performed better than the last MSE survey in May, but the net score for both Travel Counsellors and Hays was down.
The survey ranked firms by subtracting the percentage of those who had a poor experience with the company from those that had had a great experience to get an overall net score.
At the bottom of the list of 70 travel companies were AlphaRooms, Jetline and Teletext Holidays.
TUI came in the top half of the table, having improved its net score by 39%, but it was still -21%, indicating that fewer people had a positive than negative experience with the company.
On the Beach, easyJet and P&O cruises were all in the bottom half of the table, having seen their net score fall since the last MSE survey in May.
You can see the full results here.
Meanwhile, Kuoni, Explore and Trailfinders have made it on to a list of 21 trusted travel companies compiled by consumer champion Which? The list also includes VIVID Travel, whose founder Kane Pirie launched the Right to Refund campaign.
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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