FCA Guidance Consultation on Cancellations and Refunds - Which? response

Which? welcomes the opportunity to respond to the FCA’s consultation on extending its temporary guidance for insurance and card providers to help consumers with rights and routes to travel related refunds.

In our response to the FCA’s original consultation on this guidance submitted in August 2020, we called for the guidance to remain effective for longer than the proposed period of 6 months on the basis that consumers were likely to continue to experience travel disruption and difficulty in accessing refunds for their cancelled travel arrangements. Recent research from Which? has confirmed that this is the case. Our research has found that approximately 2.3 million people across the UK have not received money back for flights they could not take since the UK went into its first lockdown in the middle of March last year.  Under Regulation EC261/2004, passengers flying on a UK or EU-based carrier, or flying from a UK or EU airport, are entitled to a full refund within seven days if their flight has been cancelled by the airline. However, many flights continued to operate but passengers were unable to travel due to government advice either in the UK, or the destination country, and other restrictions (such as new quarantine rules). As many restrictions are still in place this will no doubt continue to be an issue.