UK travellers are being urged to check their past holiday bookings as millions of pounds of travel vouchers issued during lockdown have gone unclaimed.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many airlines controversially started to issue travel vouchers rather than offer cash refunds for travellers whose flights had been cancelled. Now it has emerged that many are still to be claimed, meaning that airlines are in possession of millions of pounds worth of customers' money.
It was reported in The Mirror that passengers of airlines, including easyJet and British Airways, were being urged to claim their travel vouchers before they expired. Aviation consultant and former IAG employee Robert Boyle flagged up the figures to the BBC and explained how the vouchers were issued when airlines were forced to cancel a huge number of flights during the pandemic.
International Airlines Group — the parent company of BA, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling, and LEVEL — is estimated to be sitting on around £533 million (€600million) in vouchers issued during Covid. Meanwhile, figures suggested that easyJet still had around £110million in unclaimed vouchers.
Both companies have several times extended the expiry date of their vouchers. EasyJet said no vouchers had expired yet, while British Airways vouchers appear to run out in September this year.
EasyJet told the BBC that the expiry date had been extended "to ensure customers have the maximum opportunity to utilise their vouchers". The airline said the number of unused vouchers at the end of its last financial year on September 30 equated to around £110million.
Easyjet said this was around 2 per cent of its overall revenue for 2019 and that there was a "very small proportion of customers who have not yet used their vouchers". In its statement to the BBC, it added: "And it is also worth noting that the number will have reduced since then as five months have passed — including a busy booking period at the turn of year."
British Airways told the BBC it was "always reviewing" this date. It also said 700,000 vouchers were used last year and it was sending reminders to customers who had outstanding ones. During the pandemic, airlines controversially issued travel vouchers rather than cash refunds for travellers whose flights had been cancelled. Travellers were then reported to have claimed that these vouchers were difficult to use for future bookings.
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The Civil Aviation Authority, the UK regulator, criticised airlines for its initial response to the pandemic including a backlog of refund claims in 2020. It said the process did improve as airlines recovered as the crisis wore on.
How to claim a travel voucher
If your flight was cancelled by the airline due to Covid-19 restrictions and you opted to receive a voucher, you should have been contacted about it by your airline. According to the easyJet website, you should be able to find your voucher by searching through your email inbox by searching for the term "flight voucher", "easyJet voucher" or the booking reference of the disrupted flight for which your voucher was issued.
The airline also said passengers should check their junk and spam folders for the email account registered for the cancelled booking. British Airways website states that those affected will have been contacted already and had sent their voucher to the email address registered with the booking.
The airline also has an online tool if you are unsure if you have an e-voucher or if you are unsure of the amount left on it. All you need to enter is the email address that would have been linked with the booking. You can find this tool here.
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