Use your Ghic card
The UK Global Health Insurance Card is not actually global – it just covers the European Economic Area (EEA) and a handful of other countries including Montenegro, Switzerland and, surprisingly, Australia. It gives you access to the state healthcare that a resident of that country would receive, so not everything may be free. It doesn’t help you get home if you are sick or injured, so does not replace travel insurance, but it is worth having for emergencies. And some travel insurers insist you have one. Luckily, Ghics are free – apply via the NHS website and don’t fall for services that try to charge you. You need to apply for each family member and take the cards with you. They last five years. HO
Claim for delayed flights
You can still use the flight delay compensation scheme brought in by Brussels as it was adopted by the UK after Brexit.
Passengers whose flight is cancelled last minute or delayed by three hours or more can claim between £220 and £520 compensation depending on the delay and the flight’s length, provided it was the airline’s responsibility and not an “extraordinary circumstance”.
Air traffic control problems or severe thunderstorms count as being beyond the airline’s control. Not having enough staff or not having an aircraft available do not.
You claim for each passenger individually and the sums paid are fixed, unrelated to your ticket cost, your cabin class or whether you used air miles at purchase.
UK passengers can only claim for flights that departed from a UK airport, or arrived at a UK or EU airport on a UK or EU-based airline.
Those delayed after flying back from, say, east Asia or the US, on a non-EU or non-UK-based airline, will not be entitled to the same sums if they encounter serious delays.
Be aware that getting the money out of airlines can be hard work, as they often ignore demands. The solicitors’ firm Bott & Co has a useful flight compensation checker, and will take on your claim if you haven’t the energy to do it yourself. It will keep about half of any payout it wins on your behalf, however, on a no win, no fee basis. MB
Complain about car problems
UK and EU residents who hire a car in Europe can turn to the European Car Rental Conciliation Service (ECRCS) to lodge a complaint if they have a problem and have gone through the company’s complaints procedure. The ECRCS deals with cross-border rentals and applies to the companies signed up to the scheme: Thrifty, Dollar, Alamo, National, Firefly, Sixt, Europcar, Enterprise, Avis, Budget, Hertz and Maggiore. SH
Remember section 75
Using a credit card to pay for your holiday, or at least the deposit for it, buys you extra protection if something goes wrong with an airline or holiday provider – but only if you paid that company directly.
The company you have booked your flight or accommodation with should be your first port of call, but if it has breached its contract with you or goes bust before your travel, then your credit card provider can step in and refund you. You need to have paid at least £100 on your card and are covered for goods or services costing up to £30,000.
If you’ve used your debit card you could use chargeback – provided that you make a claim within a period specified by your card issuer, typically 120 days. This lets you reclaim money spent on your card, but nothing extra. So if, for example, you have paid the deposit on the card and the rest by a bank transfer you will only be able to get back the first amount. HO