AIRTOURS Holidays, Thomson and First Choice have caved
in to pressure from the Office of Fair Trading and agreed to change booking
conditions.
The new terms give consumers greater rights when it
comes to surcharges, cancellations and compensation.
The change follows ABTA’s decision to rewrite its
model booking conditions, taking into account the OFT’s view.
Thomas Cook is in talks with the OFT.
The OFT has long argued that under the terms of the
Package Travel Regulations, operators should be ready to give consumers refunds
when the cost of holidays fall if they want the right to surcharge when costs
increase.
MyTravel, First Choice and Thomson have now agreed to
this, in addition to other amendments.
First Choice declined to comment, but MyTravel head of
legal services Andy Cooper said: “We worked closely with the OFT on this and
are glad to have reached a conclusion.”