Brits urged to check their holiday booking terms amidst Greece wildfires

24 July 2023 , 13:26

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Greece wildfires: Families evacuated from beach on Rhodes

In a customer-facing business - and of course travel is very much that - communication and contactability are two key points when things go wrong.

British holidaymakers will accept that there are unfortunate events such as wildfires, snowstorms and air traffic control strikes that are completely beyond the control of a tour operator or airline.

It is not so much the fact that something has gone wrong, it is how you deal with it when it does. It’s never a good look on social media with exhausted, scared passengers sprawled all over an airport - and flying people out to Rhodes and then taking them straight to a school to sleep on the floor is spectacularly bad PR.

The constant complaint from UK travellers is usually the lack of information about the problem and being unable to contact someone on the phone and/or in person at, for example, an airport or in a destination.

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Thousands have been evacuated during the wildfires on the Greek island of Rhodes

Brits urged to check their holiday booking terms amidst Greece wildfires

Greece wildfires: Families evacuated from beach on Rhodes

Undoubtedly it’s very difficult for a travel firm or airline to suddenly conjure up a team of emergency staff and arrange emergency accommodation for thousands of people on a Greek island hit by wildfires in peak season, but certainly a large team on standby to man the phones here in the UK is absolutely imperative.

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Sensibly, several major UK tour firms have temporarily cancelled flights and holidays to the current fire-hit destinations and are organising repatriation flights.

Holidaymakers due to travel to affected areas are also being offered fee-free amendments to switch to an alternative getaway, or the option to cancel for a full refund. Normally this would not happen until the UK government issues an official Foreign Office 'no-travel' advice alert, so it is a very welcome move.

Your rights in the event situations like this do vary, depending on whether you booked a package holiday or separately arranged the flights and accommodation for your getaway, with the former offering more reassurance and clarity.

This is why I always recommend choosing a package holiday with protection via ATOL and the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018.

Here, in the depths of the legislation, Reg 12 (7) says “in the event of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances occurring at the place of destination or its immediate vicinity and which significantly affect (a) the performance of the package, or (b) the carriage of passengers to the destination, the traveller may terminate the package travel contract before the start of the package without paying any termination fee.

Reg (8) adds: “Where the package travel contract is terminated under paragraph (7), the traveller is entitled to a full refund of any payments made for the package but is not entitled to additional compensation.”

These are your rights in consumer law, raging wildfires on Greek islands are clearly “extraordinary circumstances”, so use them if necessary.