Foreign & Commonwealth Office Update
Update: January 14th, 2021
The UK Government announced that all of England would be going into a period of lockdown, commencing on Tuesday 5th January. As a result of this new lockdown, all non-essential travel has been banned and holidays have been cancelled.
Similar measures have been put in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
We are contacting all affected customers in departure date order, up to and including 14th February 2021. In the meantime, please continue to check the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office website for up-to-date information.
Please note that the UK Government has announced that, commencing Monday 18th January, all international travellers will need to show evidence of a negative COVID-19 test to be allowed entry into the UK.
The new rule applies to UK nationals returning from abroad as well as foreign citizens. The test will need to have been taken fewer than 72 hours prior to travel to the UK and travellers who do not provide negative results may be fined £500.
As an Sunshine customer it is your responsibility to adhere to local rules and regulations when travelling – please see our terms and conditions for more information.
The 10-day quarantine rule still applies, regardless of the outcome of the test, unless visitors are travelling from a country deemed to be low risk on the government’s travel corridor list.
At the time of writing this rule only applies to people returning to England, however it is expected that similar measures will be enforced in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. For up-to-date information please see the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Website.
Getting in touch
Our phone lines are open Monday-Sunday 9am-5pm, and our colleagues in our contact centre have been busy speaking to customers, particularly those who are due to travel soonest. In addition to these core hours we are working Monday-Friday 8am-6pm answering questions and sending messages to customers who are looking for clarification on their upcoming holidays. Please be patient as we will contact all affected customers, we are simply focusing our attention on those who due to travel in the near future.
Difficulties in contacting us (telephone)
We apologise for these difficulties whilst we are dealing with unprecedented volumes of contacts. We fully appreciate that many customers due to travel over the summer period want to speak to us urgently about their holidays. It is however essential that we deal with bookings in departure date order. Our phone systems are set up to recognise and prioritise departure dates in the next 7 days. If your travel date is outside of this 7 day period you will not get through by phone as we do need to ensure that bookings that travel sooner are dealt with first.
Difficulties in contacting us (Email, social, messages)
We apologise for these difficulties and make the following request. Affected customers all want to contact us immediately and when they struggle to get an instant reply, they often contact multiple times and via multiple channels. Please do not submit multiple requests across multiple channels. By doing this our workloads increase dramatically and you will dramatically increase the length of time to answer your request and other customers’ requests.
General
Can I change the dates on my booking?
In the current environment with workloads from flight cancellations and hotel closures, there is limited resource we could assign to quote requests to change dates. We do not set the prices for flights or hotels. These are set by the airlines and hoteliers respectively. Therefore any price increase to change dates is as result of the pricing policies of these suppliers and not On the Beach. Over the past few weeks and prior to the new advice about travel to Spain, we have quoted several thousand date change requests. Because summer 2021 is currently on limited release, these quotations were often double the price paid for the 2020 holiday and as a result well in excess of the cost to cancel the holiday. As a result of this only a very small proportion of the customers quoted proceeded with a change of dates. We regret that we are therefore unable to deal with date change requests at the current time.
The above advice also applies to requests to change destinations.
What happens if my hotel is closed?
Where flights continue to operate, these are non-refundable. To protect package organisers and customers then where hotels are closed, package organisers are obliged to provide suitable alternative accommodation. A suitable alternative is deemed to be of the same or higher star rating (and quality), the same board basis and a similar location.
The relevant clause in the Package Travel Directive is as follows: Where, following commencement of the package, significant proportions of the package cannot be performed, alternatives offered should be at no extra cost and should, where possible, be of equivalent or higher quality than those specified in the original contract. If the organiser is constrained to propose alternative arrangements of a lower quality, the organiser must grant an appropriate price reduction. Travellers may choose to reject alternative arrangements only if they are not comparable with those originally agreed, or the price reduction offered is inadequate.
A change of hotel is not a major change that triggers the cancellation of the package and so where hotels are closed but flights are operating, suitable alternatives are being booked for all guests for the duration of their stay. Our operations team continues to deal with these in departure date order to ensure that all guests have suitable accommodation for their stay.
How do I know if my flight is cancelled?
The operations and service teams have been working around the clock to update our systems with the flight cancellations as the airlines move through their forward programmes and notify the cancellation of any flights that are not operating. Whilst these are updated in system, any balance payments are suspended as we work out whether each holiday is proceeding as planned. Where the flights are confirmed cancelled then you will be notified via outbound email and we can begin the process of commencing the application for a refund.
What is the UK Government's position on cancellations?
On the government’s website they reference the following when advising how travel companies use the FCO advice:
“Travel companies and airlines often take our advice into account but the decision to cancel or reschedule a flight, holiday, tour or excursion is a decision that can only be taken by the travel company and the customer. The question of refunds is a matter that must be resolved between the customer and the relevant airline, tour operator or travel agent. We don’t dictate when travel can or can’t take place.” (Source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-the-foreign-commonwealth-office-puts-together-travel-advice.)
Coronavirus FAQs
We appreciate you may have some further concerns about your holiday and have laid out some additional FAQs below.
Refunds
How are refunds being managed?
Where holidays are cancelled, we are able to refund any monies
paid for hotels and transfers within 2-4 weeks. These refunds are automatically
added to your booking and an email will be sent to tell you how to claim. Where
monies are owed for cancelled flights, we are doing our best to refund as soon
as we receive from the airlines but with many millions of refunds to process
across the industry and the workloads created by the changing travel advice,
the refund process is slower than it should be and for this we apologise.
Sunshine pays for flights for all of its customers in full at the time the booking is made. In order to protect you in the event of cancellation, Sunshine is obliged by the Package Travel Regulations to refund cancellations within 14 days, but this assumes that airlines will have refunded within 7 days in line with the requirements on airlines under EU261. Airlines have not complied with this law for the last 4 months and Sunshine has been one of the loudest advocates lobbying regulators and government to get them to impose the law for the benefit of all consumers. Clearly travel companies cannot afford to refund flight monies without receipt of refunds from airlines and of course those airlines that we are waiting on refunds from are many times bigger than us and have had billions of pounds worth of support to ensure that they can pay these refunds via us to you.
We are currently waiting on confirmed timelines from each airline for refunds for holidays that were due to depart in May, June and July. We are in constant touch with the airline to do anything we can to make this process happen more quickly. Once we have received the refund from the airlines, we will do our best to get the refund over to you in the shortest possible timeframe. As soon as this is received by us, it will be loaded directly into your booking and an email will be sent to you detailing how this can be collected.
Why have I not received my refund in full?
- We will first be returning any monies paid towards the cost of your hotel and transfer. This refund will be paid in cash and will be credited to the payment card used at the time of booking.
- Your flight costs will be refunded once we have received these from your airline. We are in contact with your airline to confirm that these also will be paid in cash. We are unable to commit to any time frame for this element of your refund as this is down to your airline themselves, however please be assured that we will pass this over to you as soon as we receive it.
Why do I not have a refund pending in 'My Sunshine'?
If you do not have a pending refund showing on your 'My Sunshine' page this is because we have not yet received your refund from the airline.
How can I claim a refund for any extra costs associated with my flight?
If you have paid your airline for any extras (for example, priority boarding or additional luggage) then these will have been paid using your own payment card and the cost should have been refunded directly to you. If you have not yet received a refund for these extra costs then you will need to speak to your airline.
Payments/cancellations
Do I still need to make my next instalment payment?
You should ensure you keep up with instalment payments as per the original booking terms and conditions. Failure to keep up with payments may result in the holiday being cancelled and subject to cancellation fees. Where we cancel your holiday in these circumstances, you will not have ATOL protection, nor will your holiday be covered under the Package Travel Regulations. If the information from the airlines then later changes and your flight is cancelled you will not be entitled to a refund as we will have already cancelled your holiday.
My holiday has been cancelled – why does it still show as ‘confirmed’?
Customer protection
Other
Planning for your holiday
Where flights continue to operate, these are non-refundable. To protect package organisers and customers where hotels are closed, package organisers are obliged to provide suitable alternative accommodation. A suitable alternative is deemed to be of the same or higher star rating (and quality), the same board basis and a similar location.
The relevant clause in the Package Travel Directive is as follows: Where, following commencement of the package, significant proportions of the package cannot be performed, alternatives offered should be at no extra cost and should, where possible, be of equivalent or higher quality than those specified in the original contract. If the organiser is constrained to propose alternative arrangements of a lower quality, the organiser must grant an appropriate price reduction. Travellers may choose to reject alternative arrangements only if they are not comparable with those originally agreed, or the price reduction offered is inadequate.
A change of hotel is not a major change that triggers the cancellation of the package and so where hotels are closed but flights are operating, suitable alternatives are being booked for all guests for the duration of their stay. Our operations team continues to deal with these in departure date order to ensure that all guests have suitable accommodation for their stay.
Do I need any additional documentation to travel?
For any passengers travelling with Enter Air, there may be some additional declaration forms required. Please see their website for further information.
I have transfers arranged whilst on holiday - what safety measures will be in place?
Our transfers partner has put together this useful guide highlighting the precautions and safety measures that they are taking to ensure your wellbeing whilst abroad.
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