'Govt needs to tie up PTRs to stem flow of refunds'

In Advantage Travel Partnership’s daily video update on 3 April, Joanna Kolatsis, director at Themis Advisory, described PTRs as the “largest issue affecting members” during the pandemic.

The PTR rules, which stipulate operators must issue refunds in 14 days if a trip is cancelled, were relaxed by the European Commission on 19 March but have still not been made UK law.

With countries around the world in lockdown and bookings slowed to a trickle, airlines, operators and agents have been struggling to fulfil all the refund requests and many have been offering credit notes instead.

Kolatsis also touched upon card chargebacks, which is also impacting the sector.

”It’s really important that we try to tie this up as holistically as possible to stem the flow of immediate cash out of the door while we are trying to figure out what the future holds for the industry.”

She added: “We all agree it won’t benefit the consumer at all if none of these businesses survive.”

Advantage is releasing a video update for its members every day.