Foreign Office advice against travel is “a strong indication” that a consumer is entitled to a full refund for a cancelled package holiday despite neither the UK Package Travel Regulations (PTRs) nor the EU Package Travel Directive (PTD) referring to travel warnings.
That is according to Travlaw senior associate Nick Parkinson who told an International Travel Law Network conference: “No Foreign Office advice automatically triggers a refund, but it is evidence. It’s a benchmark. There is also European Commission guidance that it is a strong indication.”
German travel lawyer Klaus Siebert noted: “This was an easy question in the past. A travel warning was a trigger for cancellation and full refunds. Then with the Arab Spring [in 2011] and other situations it became more difficult.
“The view of the [German] courts became that a travel warning indicates the right to cancel but is not the only indication.”
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Michael Wukoschitz of Vienna-based law firm KWC said: “In Austria, the courts say the advice is an indicator of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ but not of itself extraordinary circumstances.
“But in almost every case, it would be unreasonable not to refund if such advice exists.”
The PTRs and PTD entitle consumers to a refund for cancellations due to “unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances”.
Travlaw senior associate Krystene Bousfield suggested that to win a case “in front of a judge” for not refunding a customer in such circumstances: “You would have to prove you know better than the Foreign Office.”
Wukoschitz noted: “I argued the other way, that an organiser has a right to cancel and it would be unreasonable to operate when the advice is against travel, when a passenger wanted compensation for loss of holiday enjoyment [due to a cancellation].”
He added: “They lost but appealed.”
A revision of the EU Package Travel Directive due before the end of the year is expected to clarify the legal approach to travel warnings.
The issue caused a rift in Abta at the height of the pandemic in 2020 when two online travel agents, On the Beach and Love Holidays, quit the association over its policy that Foreign Office advice against all but essential travel requires members to cancel bookings and offer full refunds.
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