I booked the wrong holiday dates – can I get a refund?

Q I booked a late-notice family package holiday and the following day realised I had booked the wrong dates. The travel company tells me that the majority of the £3,000 is not refundable and there is no cooling off period. Is this correct?

Steve H

A Sorry to hear about your expensive error. Such mistakes happen frequently in non-leap years with confusion between February and March – when the days of the week are numbered exactly the same.

Whatever the cause, booking travel on the wrong dates is an unenviable position to be in. While transactions such as buying insurance come with a cooling-off period, there are hardly any such concessions in the travel industry. To some extent this is justifiable: prices fluctuate in line with demand. Were customers to be offered (say) a one-week spell to change their minds, they could simply monitor price changes and, when advantageous, cancel and rebook at a lower price.

The best free cooling-off opportunity is provided by British Airways, which allows cancellation for a full refund within 24 hours of buying through the website, ba.com. But you have booked a package holiday, which comes with different options. The first is to offer the trip to friends or family in return for a discounted price. Organisers of package holidays are obliged to allow name changes for a nominal sum (no more than £50).

If this does not work for you, challenge the company to demonstrate why it will not refund a significant amount of cash. If it is an online travel agent, it will typically have bought seats on easyJet or Ryanair flights, which are indeed non-refundable. That money cannot be retrieved (though if the fares were sufficiently high it may well be worth paying a fee to rebook flights for other dates, if you can use them).

The other aspect is accommodation. While the travel agent’s terms may insist that payments are non-refundable, you can demand proof that the company has actually had to hand over money. In many cases, hotel rooms are only paid by the holiday company after the stay has taken place. Challenge your firm to say how much money it will have lost on the accommodation part of the transaction. If you are not satisfied, you can always go to Money Claim Online – whereupon the travel firm will need to provide evidence of its commitment or repay you.

open image in gallery

Q On a recent domestic flight with Vietnam Airlines, we had emergency exit seats – but were ordered to move to ordinary seats. The reason given: we were over 60! That has to be ageist, surely? We are both fit and well.

Barbara S

A Passengers seated in emergency exit rows have serious responsibilities in the event of an aircraft evacuation. They must be able to assess conditions outside the exit and decide if it can be opened for evacuation or not – for example, if fire is present. They must be physically able to open the hatch swiftly if required. And they must not impede other passengers exiting the plane. In other words: open up if it is safe to do so, and get out fast.

Removing the hatch is fairly intuitive. Cabin crew should brief emergency exit row passengers about how to do it. A certain amount of strength is required, though anyone reasonably fit should be able to manage.

I have not been able to ascertain from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam whether the age limit is a national stipulation or simply an airline policy. The UK Civil Aviation Authority does not impose any upper age restriction, though the organisation does say children should not occupy emergency exit rows. The CAA stipulates who should be kept away from the prized extra-legroom seats. They include “passengers who, because of age or sickness, have difficulty in moving quickly”. Also excluded: those whose physical, sensory or mental impairment – or size – means they would not be able to respond to instructions and leave the aircraft in a hurry, thereby slowing up other passengers. Again, most passengers, doubtless including you, would qualify to occupy an emergency row.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency says: “Passengers who are asked to move away from an exit row/seat should not be offended by this action.” But I agree that as you were moved simply because of your age, you have every right to feel miffed.

open image in gallery

Q I am contacting you from Birmingham airport. I am supposed to be on a plane to Madeira, arriving mid-afternoon. But Jet2 has moved our flight eight hours later, citing adverse weather. They’re the only airline doing this. We would have missed the bad weather with the original flight, and other airlines are flying. What can I do?

Name supplied

A Be patient, and ensure you get the meals to which you are entitled. On Flightradar24 I can see that Jet2’s flights from Belfast, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle are also delayed by around eight hours or so. Instead of arriving in time for a stroll in the sunshine, a drink and dinner on the beautiful Portuguese island, around 1,500 Jet2 passengers will be touching down around 11pm. Conversely, an equal number will get a surprise extra day in Madeira, again with all meals supplied – but the price they will pay for that is an arrival time of 4am.

Madeira’s spectacular airport has a runway on stilts high above the Atlantic. It is arguably the most challenging in Europe. Each airline has its own specifications about the winds they will tolerate, and the individual captain will ultimately make their decision about whether to attempt a landing.

With adverse weather forecast for Madeira during the day, Jet2 has clearly decided to postpone its entire flying programme until it can be sure that everyone will be able to reach the island. The alternative could have been diverting either to the nearby airport in Porto Santo, to the Canary Islands islands or even back to the starting point in the UK. I can see the sense in the airline's decision, and also ensuring that coach transfers are orchestrated in line with the new flight times.

Your travel insurance may offer a modest payment for delay, but beyond that, I am afraid I see no prospect of a claim for compensation, frustrating though the delay undoubtedly is.

Email your question to s@hols.tv or tweet @SimonCalder