While nobody could have anticipated the impact COVID-19 has had on all our lives, the impact on travel and tourism in all its forms and sectors has been what one could only describe as cataclysmic, as it appears has some rather unsavoury behaviour by some operators.
While that has been bad enough, it appears that some operators in the industry have not behaved as ethically and morally appropriately as they might in the area of refunds to travellers that entrusted their often hard-earned funds to them, to provide them with the travel they booked, with some operators no delivering what they promised and holding on to the clients’ money.
I have to say I find that behaviour not only reprehensible and highly immoral, but also unethical and it should be commercial suicide for the operators who pursue that approach, but it has been what has been going on in many situations in Australia, with many Aussies many thousands out of pocket because operators will not refund them for travel which has not taken place through no fault of the clients.
While some of us have been reporting on this debacle for some time, CHOICE recently undertook a survey, which revealed to the champions of consumer rights in Australia that very few have been given refunds after travel plans were cancelled due to COVID-19.
The report revealed that: fewer than one in five (17%) of those surveyed received a full refund, and even then it often took many months to do so; many consumer who’ve received credits or vouchers said they were unlikely to be able to use them; and nine out of ten respondents saying Australia’s laws should be changed to make it easier to get money back.
This was no small survey, with in March 2021, 3,865 of the 4,295 people who responded (90%) saying the law should be changed in Australia to make it easier to get a refund.
In addition, the report says that for many, refunds or other remedies took more than six months to arrive, with Australian travellers not happy about travel businesses holding on to their money for so long or about not getting it back at all, with this causing significant uncertainty and doubt in consumers’ minds about who to book with in the future, with many Australians have lost trust in the travel industry.
The report says that unless the terms and conditions of your travel agreement specify your right to a refund, you may be offered a credit or voucher instead, but as the ACCC points out, credits or vouchers “should have an expiration date which is long enough to allow you to use the credit note or voucher”.
The CHOICE report also says that many players in the travel industry who provide flights, accommodation, car hire, cruises and other services have been unacceptably slow to respond to customers’ efforts to get their money back, astonishingly, if they responded at all, with over half of the people surveyed, that is 53% saying they waited more than three months for a refund, credit or some other resolution and Australian travellers aren’t happy about travel businesses holding on to their money for so long
Even some seeking credit card chargebacks were told the time limit had expired, even though cardholders had no control over the time span between booking a trip and its cancellation and although eight in 10, that is 83% say they bought travel insurance before the pandemic hit Australia, it appears that the cover didn’t pay off for many travellers.
The CHOICE survey results deliver a clear message to the travel industry in Australia in that many Australians have simply lost trust in the travel industry.
Some well know travel names have been revealed in the report, including Expedia, Virgin Australia, Webjet, APT and Flight Centre all coming under significant criticism, with an affected traveller saying Webjet was “absolutely horrible to deal with” and in many cases, it also wasn’t clear who had the money, the travel provider or the booking agent
The report says that for customers of businesses such as Virgin Australia and STA Travel, both of which went into administration in 2020, the confusion and back and forth entailed was that much worse, adding, that more than eight in 10, that is 86% of the cancellations survey respondents reported were for flights, and many have said that trying to get their airfare back has been a fruitless exercise, with the next most cancelled service being accommodation, at 65%.
An Air Asia customer said that the process had been “a nightmare”, with QANTAS also being criticised with one respondent saying “QANTAS seemed to go out of its way to make things difficult,” adding, “They deliberately limited the means by which customers could communicate with them”, and “The chat option was removed from their webpage, as was a general email address”, and “Phone calls were impossible as wait times were in excess of two hours, after which we were cut off more than once.”
More than one in four, that is 27% of the CHOICE survey respondents did get some of their money back, with 25% were only offered a credit or voucher, or just a voucher and sometimes partial refunds offered, were very partial indeed, with travel providers keeping as much as half of the money customers had paid.
Club Med was also mentioned with one survey respondent saying Club Med will only deal with the travel agency that made the booking on the client’s behalf and will not speak or correspond with us and that Club Med charge 50% of the total cost if the client chooses to cancel.
Another respondent received a refund of $146 from the cruise line operator Royal Caribbean International, but Royal Caribbean International held on to $550 “for any travel needs I may have in the next 12 months. A respondent also received a future cruise credit of $800 from Celebrity Cruises, but said thinks it will probably come to naught, adding, “It is unlikely that I will book another cruise as I am now in my 80th year and I feel that cruises are not the healthiest or safest type of travel for me”.
One respondent expresses the frustration of many: “The chance of me being able to use my credit before it expires is not going to happen, and I am absolutely filthy that I am expected to be grateful that I received anything at all. 6K down the drain and no one cares.
The respondent added that everyone is putting their hands in the air and no one will take responsibility and as I have not received what I paid for, I should be able to lodge a credit card chargeback or claim on travel insurance, but both won’t allow it because of this stupid credit I can’t use.
Many travellers who took out travel insurance also had claims rejected because of the pandemic, ‘force majeure’ or insolvency exclusions in their policies, with some finding out they’d be getting nothing only after they’d lodged a claim.
CHOICE says that one survey respondent deftly summed up the sentiment that runs throughout the thousands of stories consumers shared with CHOICE, saying:-
- “I cannot understand how a business can be within its rights to take money for a service it cannot deliver.”
- “There is no other business I know of that would be allowed to do that within the law.”
- “These businesses have now had access to our money for years and we feel they should not only be refunding the funds but doing so with interest rather than taking fees.”
- “We feel the industry has done a lot of harm to itself through the lack of goodwill.”
While the following will not help those already affected, CHOICE is calling for the federal and state governments to implement:
- Easier travel refunds
- Minimum voucher/credit rights
- A mandatory industry code for all airlines and large travel providers
- A travel and tourism industry ombudsman
- A mandatory information standard at time of booking
- An ACCC market study into the travel and tourism sector
- A national travel restrictions website to provide clarity to consumers.
This is clearly a debacle of massive proportions and the cause of what will certainly be severe damage to the travel industry throughout Australia, which the industry and government ignores at their peril.
Because of the seriousness of this situation, I also, therefore, took the opportunity to interview some leading experts in the field this week and they included: –
- Alison Elliott, Head of Policy and Government Relations at CHOICE
- Adam Glezer, advocate and leader of Facebook page Travel Industry Issues – The Need For Change for Australians
- Angus Kidman, international editor-at-large at Finder.com and award-winning journalist on travel.
To hear and see my very revealing interviews with Alison, Adam and Angus, which will shock you about the behaviour of some of the travel industry, please click on the videos below and please add your experiences by clicking on COMMENTS below.
Alison Elliott, Head of Policy and Government Relations at CHOICE
Adam Glezer, advocate and leader of Facebook page Travel Industry Issues – The Need For Change for Australians – https://www.facebook.com/groups/312283093247824
Angus Kidman, international editor-at-large at Finder.com and award-winning journalist on travel.
An opinion and report, including from CHOICE by John Alwyn-Jones, Special Correspondent Travel and Tourism, Global Travel Media.
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