Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer has cautioned agency members against paying customers cash refunds for cancelled holidays out of government loans.
He insisted the best solution is “to build confidence in refund credit notes”.
Tanzer told Travel Weekly: “Agents are in a very difficult position. They clearly want to preserve the customer relationship and the customer is knocking on the door wanting a refund from the tour operator.
“I feel for them being caught in the middle and feeling, ‘Do I keep the customer or take the risk that I may not get the refund from the tour operator or may not get it soon.”
But he said: “The best way to resolve this is to build confidence in the refund credit note system.
“The customer can have a refund credit note for a future booking and a cash-refund guarantee rather than being scared that if they don’t get the cash now they will lose out.”
Tanzer insisted: “Getting people to understand refund credits, getting confidence in them, knowing that the CAA and Abta stand behind them, is the best solution rather than taking out emergency loans to pay refunds.”
But the Abta chief refuted the suggestion that a refund credit note could replace a refund if a customer insists on a cash repayment.
Tanzer said: “This has been a misrepresentation of Abta’s position. From the beginning of this crisis, we have been very clear that customers are entitled to a refund if their package holiday is cancelled.
“We said we will make our members engage with customers and recognise there is an obligation to a refund. What we can’t do is make them pay in 14 days if they haven’t got the cash.
“The alternative is going down a deferred refund route. If customers have pressing needs, they should talk to the travel company and say, ‘I want my refund now. I don’t want a refund credit note’ and agree the timeframe for that refund to be paid.”
He insisted: “This is very much in line with the advice the Competition and Markets Authority [CMA] came out with last week.
“Customers are entitled to a refund and need to understand, if it can’t be paid within the statutory timeframe, what is the timeframe [for repayment].”
