The consumer champion carried out a mystery shopping exercise that involved contacting British Airways, easyJet, Jet2.com, Ryanair and Tui, to assess the accuracy of information they were giving to travellers on testing requirements.
Posing as passengers, Which? phoned the customer service lines for the airlines three times each and asked the same four questions about testing requirements when flying to Portugal.
At the time of the research, passengers were required to take a test regardless of vaccination status. Only PCR tests were accepted for entry to Portugal, and only children up to the age of two were exempt.
According to Which?, the mystery shoppers were given incorrect or contradictory information in seven of the 15 calls.
In four of the calls – two with BA and two with Tui – agents allegedly provided information that would have seen passengers turned away from their flight.
Only two agents – one from Jet2 and one from Tui – were able to answer all the questions correctly.
Two Tui reps and one BA rep reportedly said vaccinated travellers did not need to take a test prior to their flight, with one of those Tui agents adding that children under 12 were exempt. Another BA rep is thought to have said that children under four were exempt from tests.
These answers were incorrect at the time of calling, and customers taking their advice would have been denied boarding.
Which? said one Jet2 agent answered all of the questions "quickly and accurately", while also directing the caller to the Foreign Office website.
One Tui rep also provided the correct information, but doing so took them almost 20 minutes, with the mystery shopper reporting that the agent spent "more time upselling Tui’s testing partner than answering their questions".
When the undercover researchers managed to speak to reps for Ryanair, they were told variously to "ask the country", "check the government website", "call the embassy" or "visit Ryanair’s website".
Every easyJet agent Which? contacted reportedly recommended that it call airports for information, and incorrectly claimed airport staff – not the easyJet ground staff – check passengers’ Covid documents.
Another easyJet agent gave one of Which?’s callers a number that they claimed was a Covid-19 advice line, but that actually turned out to be HM Revenue & Customs’ Covid-19 helpline for businesses and the self-employed.
Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said it was "essential" for airlines to have a "thorough and accurate" understanding of the rules.
"Otherwise, passengers could be left out of pocket for the entire cost of their flight or holiday if they follow the wrong advice," he added.
However, a Ryanair spokesperson hit back at the claims and said: "This is more fake news from Which?. All Covid-19 travel requirements are fully set out on Ryanair’s website, and are emailed to all passengers 24 hours prior to travel.
"We do not expect our call centre agents to be experts on the multiple Covid travel restrictions, which apply across 40 different countries."
Reacting to the accusations, a BA spokesperson said: "Since the beginning of the global pandemic our teams have worked tirelessly to help customers navigate the fast-changing and differing global travel restrictions in place.
"While we don’t believe the issues raised in Which?’s three calls are representative of the hundreds of thousands we handle, we’ve reminded colleagues to keep referring customers to Gov.UK to avoid unintentional confusion."
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “Due to the fast changing, complex and widely ranging government policies around restrictions in place across Europe we do send written communications to our customers before they fly and advise them to check the latest government advice at the time to the countries they are flying to and from with links to relevant websites with up to date information."
A Jet2 spokesperson said: “Our contact centre teams are dealing with an unprecedented number of enquiries, whilst at the same time dealing with ever-changing travel advice from the UK government, which often comes with little or no notice. Despite this, our teams are working tirelessly to look after customers, and we have been widely praised for our handling of the pandemic.
“We would like to thank Which? for bringing this to our attention. Although we provide consistent messaging for our teams to use, alongside regular training, we will take steps to address this feedback."
A Tui spokesperson said: "This research highlights the complexity of frequently changing entry and testing requirements. We always strive to provide the best service possible for our customers, and our agents are trained and updated with new information on an on-going basis.
"Extra training to support fight-only queries is being provided, and to help customers further, detailed and current entry requirement information is available on our dedicated Covid hub."
