"Travellers should ensure they have taken out adequate insurance to cover any losses or unexpected costs they might face."
- Jenny Ross, money editor at Which?
Image: Chris Brignola via Unsplash
Following the ease of Covid-19 restrictions, businesses have struggled to recruit enough new staff to cope with the resurgent travel demands.
Consequently, last month, hundreds of British Airways employees working at Heathrow Airport voted to go on strike over pay.
Airlines are now expected to announce a series of cancellations for UK summer flights this week.
Government regulations are also set to allow a one-off ‘amnesty’ on the slot rules until Friday, with the hope of helping airlines deliver a more realistic timetable over the summer.
A spokeswoman for British Airways has said:
“We welcome these new measures, which help us to provide the certainty our customers deserve by making it easier to consolidate some of our quieter daily flights to multi-frequency destinations well in advance, and to protect more of our holiday flights.”
According to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) if a flight is cancelled due to airline staff strikes, and the airline has not given its customers at least two weeks warning, they are required to pay compensation for cancellations or delays.
However, although airlines are required by law to refund the cost of a cancelled flight, Which? has warned travellers who organise their own travel, accommodation and car hire separately to make sure they purchase suitable travel insurance when booking holidays abroad.
In a survey, Which? assessed 199 travel insurance policies offered by 71 providers and found 120 of them provided cover if travellers had to cancel a trip owing to strike action.
However, 78 didn’t provide cover for cancellations owing to strikes and one policy only offered it as an optional extra.
Jenny Ross, money editor at Which? has said:
“Travellers should ensure they have taken out adequate insurance to cover any losses or unexpected costs they might face.
"We advise travellers to always check policies carefully to ensure they offer the cover that will be most appropriate to their trip, and to ensure they have cover in place from the time of booking."
