The pandemic has been harrowing for Dr Janak Bechar. The junior plastic surgeon from the West Midlands was pulled into caring for Covid-19 patients at hospitals in Coventry and Warwick, working around the clock. After months of this, Bechar, 32, was looking forward to a two week trip with his parents to visit family in South Africa. “My grandmother is 84 and has Alzheimer’s and might end up going into a home. I’m conscious we may not have many chances to see them again,” Bechar said.
Then the Omicron variant made the trip impossible. Bechar was disappointed but assumed they would at least get their money back from Southall Travel, which he used to book hotels and flights between Cape Town and Johannesburg. Southall Travel, however, said that because the hotel was still open and the internal flights had not been cancelled, it would not refund his £3,576. Amex Travel, another agent, did refund the cost of the Bechars’ flights from Heathrow to South Africa, which were cancelled after the Omicron outbreak.
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Southall Travel said “We do refund the trips that are cancelled, but in this booking, nothing has been cancelled.”
If the Bechars had bought a package holiday they would have been entitled to a refund but because they booked flights separately, they are out of pocket.
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Rory Boland from Which? advised booking package deals with firms “with a flexible booking policy. Good insurance is essential, and paying by credit cards may give protection.”
