Should I cancel my trip to Florence over health fears?

Simon Calder answers your questions about the impact of the coronavirus on travel

The city has not been listed as unsafe by the Foreign Office (iStock)

Q I have booked a city break to Florence a month from today. However, the coronavirus is spreading in Italy and people are dying there. I am afraid to getting on the flight as I am over 70, and worried for me and wife contracting the virus.

I phoned the travel firm to cancel and get a refund but they are saying the trip is non-refundable. It doesn’t make sense that a travel company will not cancel and refund booking when there are people going to a country that is being locked down because of a deadly virus.

The firm were not helpful at all and I don’t know enough about my rights for a full refund. Can you help?

Name withheld

A Certainly the spread of the coronavirus known as Covid-19 in Italy is a concern for millions of travellers with advance bookings to the country. Yet every day, many other travel firms send people to locations where there are deadly viruses.

If the Foreign Office warns against travel to Florence or the wider area, then you will be entitled to a full refund. But I think that is a very unlikely scenario, and I envisage your trip will go ahead as planned.

In that case, as with the multitude of other risks on your forthcoming city break, the coronavirus poses very little danger. To minimise the threat, keep washing your hands thoroughly and avoid people who look unwell. Be particularly wary at airports, which is where I believe microbiological hazards are highest.

The only other possible avenue for a refund that I can foresee depends on your state of health, your doctor’s preparedness to write a letter on your behalf and your travel insurance policy.

If your overworked GP advises against travel next month to Italy, then you may be able to make successful claim. The first step would be to ask your travel firm, in case the company may issue a refund even though it not legally obliged to do so – but that sounds unlikely. There is a chance that your travel insurance policy may cover you, so long as you declared your age and/or any pre-existing medical conditions accurately.

Milan is one of the Italian cities most affected by the outbreak (EPA)

Q I had planned a week’s train trip to Milan, Rome and Turin starting on 3 March. Given the current status of the coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy, the associated closure of museums and key sites in Milan and Turin and (importantly) the risk of further spreading the virus, I have decided not to travel.

I have travel insurance and have notified them of my intention to make a claim. They, quite rightly, have asked me to first obtain refunds from the train companies and hotels. This I can do for Italo train, but it seems not the TGV trains from Paris to Milan and Turin to Paris. Could you help me with this? Also Booking.com are not being helpful about my hotel bookings. Two Italian hotels are refusing to refund me. Can you suggest how I might approach them?

Name withheld

A I am sorry to hear about your decision, and I wonder if you might consider un-cancelling? There is no official warning against travel to those three great Italian cities. And while life is far from normal in northern Italy, some people are reporting that it is a rewarding time to visit due to the absence of tourists. Practising good personal hygiene, as I am sure you do, drastically reduces any risk of contagion. To answer your questions, though: in the absence of any official warning against travel to your planned locations, there is no reason for the train operators or hotels to offer refunds. I am glad that Italo recognised the unusual situation and has refunded you. But, like most airlines in the UK, the others appear to be sticking doggedly to their terms and conditions.

I understand that this feels most unfair, given the coronavirus crisis. But they would counter that they must protect the interests of their staff and shareholders. And that includes declining refunds that are, as they would see it, unnecessary. One glimmer of hope: the fact that your travel insurer hasn’t flatly rejected your claim suggests they may compensate you for some or all of the travel costs you cannot recover. Good luck with that. Meanwhile, a bit of advice for future trips: booking rail tickets (and short-haul flights) well in advance is usually an excellent plan, because it delivers the lowest fares. But hotels are different, and often you can get almost as good a deal on the day. So you might prefer to consider that. Or, cut out Booking.com and deal direct with the hotel. That makes subsequent negotiations easier, though there is no guarantee of success in a situation like this.

Passengers wait at Las Palmas airport in Gran Canaria (Reuters)

Q We arrived home five days late from Gran Canaria to Manchester after our flight was initially cancelled on Saturday because of the sandstorm. Later the crew went out of hours and there was a technical problem. The airline has said it will pay us €400 in compensation. But I think we are owed more than that for the miserable experience we had, including a night on the floor of the airport. What might be reasonable to ask for?

Name supplied

A Hundreds of passengers endured a dismal journey back from the Canaries after a dust storm rolled in from the Sahara on Saturday afternoon. Gran Canaria was worst affected, but Tenerife was also badly hit (and I am still trying to find out if a planeload of Jet2 holidaymakers have made it back to East Midlands airport at last; they were originally due home on Sunday).

However, passengers like you, booked on Tui’s flight 934 from the island’s Las Palmas airport to Manchester, were singularly unlucky. While the initial cancellation could not be avoided, the misfortunes after that can be attributed to Tui Airways. The company sent a replacement plane but somehow the pilots and cabin crew did not have time to get back to Manchester within their legal duty hours.

They went to a hotel to rest, while many passengers slept at the airport. Unfortunately, there is no mechanism for claiming the cash the airline should have spent on accommodation – Tui saves money when you kip in the terminal. While compensation is not payable under European air passengers’ rights rules for disruption caused by bad weather, the clock started ticking again when the replacement plane arrived on the island.

I think it is reasonable to conclude that the €400 that Tui is paying you is for the first crew-hours delay. I believe you could legally argue that the second delay is a separate claim for the same amount again. The plane had a serious technical fault, and Tui had to charter in another aircraft. But you might want to go through a claims handler such as Bott & Co to argue the legal technicalities for you. The firm takes about one-third of any compensation.

In addition, your travel insurance policy may offer some fairly token compensation of, perhaps, £25 for every 12 hours of your delay.

Taking precautions at St Peter’s Square, Rome (Rex)

Q We are a group of 10 people booked to Rome for the Italy v England rugby match on 14 March. The deal includes flights, accommodation and match tickets. Where do we stand with regard to a refund if the match is cancelled due to the coronavirus? The only reason we booked the package was because of the rugby match.

Helen M

A Because you wisely booked a package holiday for the express reason of attending the rugby international, then you are among the relatively rare cases where you are plainly entitled to a full refund.

If the match is called off – or is ordered to be played behind closed doors – then, under the Package Travel Regulations 2018, there has been a significant change to the holiday you booked. This gives you an automatic right for a full refund within two weeks.

Compare this with the miserable position for runners who booked flight-only deals to Tokyo for the marathon this Sunday. While the race is still taking place, it is now reserved for elite athletes only.

Thousands of amateurs have booked plane tickets to the Japanese capital. Because the flights are still taking place, the airlines are perfectly capable of fulfilling the transport contract, and are not issuing refunds. The fact that thousands of people no longer want to be in Tokyo is not the airlines’ problem.

However, before you call in the Rome refund, I suggest you discuss with the participants whether you want to shoot for a cut-price weekend. Because the hotel and flights will be paid for, and quite possibly are non-cancellable by the tour operator, you might well be able to strike a deal with the company for a city break without the rugby. The firm would probably be very interested in mitigating the likely losses if the match is called off.

Email your question to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder