COVID-19 travel chaos: ‘I paid over £400 to rebook my holiday after weeks of delays’

We reveal one couple's struggle to rebook a holiday to Spain during the COVID pandemic when travel restrictions and self-isolation rules changed last minute.

This article was correct when it was originally published on 11 August 2020, but the updated date is due to certain information being removed.

Millions of people have had flights cancelled during the coronavirus pandemic, and many had to reschedule holidays following last-minute travel restrictions.

This caused havoc for holiday providers, who have been working hard to help people reschedule or in some cases, cancel their holidays.

‘You’re on the phone for hours’

We talked to Charles* who spent two months trying to reschedule a holiday to Spain, which was originally planned for September 2020.

He'd booked a week’s holiday to Mallorca with travel firm On the Beach in January 2020 and paid approximately £1,300 on a debit card.

But in July 2020, when the Government announced a 14-day quarantine on travellers returning from Spain, Charles and his wife realised they wouldn't be able to take the requisite amount of time off.

“We couldn’t take three weeks off [including the self-isolation period],” said Charles, who stressed that his wife is a primary carer for her mother.

They decided to re-schedule their trip for this year. Initially, the couple thought this would be easy to do by calling On the Beach, but unfortunately, this wasn’t the case.

“You ring the number and you’re waiting for hours,” said Charles, who rang the firm four times and racked up a phone bill of approximately £60-£70.

When we got in touch with On the Beach about the time Charles spent contacting them and the costs incurred, a member of staff said they were ‘unable to comment on specific details relating to individual customer cases.’

In their response, they stressed they were ‘working through unprecedented volumes of requests’ [at that time].

According to Charles, On the Beach's phone system was misleading as he was told an expected waiting call time, which kept changing – and when his waiting time fell to around three minutes, he was disconnected.

“Our phone line system prioritises bookings over the next seven days, and these customers will be moved up the queue when they call,” commented a spokesperson for On the Beach in August 2020. 

“Therefore, there may be some delay for some of our customers when they try to contact us.”

Charles also sent On the Beach a message through its site on 23 July 2020.

According to a member of staff, someone tried to get in touch on three separate occasions between 27-29 July, but Charles said he received no calls, just messages that On the Beach tried to get in touch.

*Not his real name

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How did On the Beach respond? 

When Charles got in touch, loveMONEY contacted On the Beach, who helped Charles reschedule the holiday within a few hours, although he had to pay £460.

Despite loveMONEY stressing the cost and hassle that Charles said he incurred, no compensation was offered.

When we asked On the Beach about the best way for customers to get in touch [in August 2020], a spokesperson recommended customers use their messaging system.

“The pandemic continues to present complicated and fast-moving situations for the travel industry, and, in most cases, we receive no advance warning of changes to travel advice,” they added in a statement issued in August 2020. 

“We are contacting all customers who are due to fly imminently with their options and are working to resolve all queries in departure date order.

“Our phone line system prioritises bookings travelling in the next seven days, and these customers will be moved up the queue when they call. 

“We do not comment on individual customers; however, we can confirm that we have been in contact with the customer and his request has been processed.”

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