This letter is in response to today’s article titled, Prepayment refunds – ‘It’s the customer’s money, not yours!’
UK and European package travel regulations require agents and operators to refund 100% of the customer's money in a case like this [COVID-19], where the cancellation is unavoidable and not the customer's fault.
The problem is that suppliers in Africa, and elsewhere, are not subject to the package travel regulations (PTRs) and are sticking to their cancellation policies.
To my knowledge, they are legally allowed to do so, since the agent or operator contracted with them and agreed to the terms of that contract.
This is why companies like Jedek/Best4Travel in Austria have filed for bankruptcy already. They have to pay back all their customers but are unable to get their advance payments back from airlines, wholesale operators and local suppliers.
I think governments need to act fast to prevent more failures like this, by doing what Belgium did – overruling the PTRs. They apparently issued a directive that no customer would get a refund but that each traveller was entitled to a voucher for future travel.
This eliminates the need for cash refunds, and allows the trip to be postponed to a future date, something most suppliers have been willing to do at no, or minimal, cost. Except of course for some of our local airlines...
Onne Vegter, MD and co-founder of Wild Wing Safaris
