Canadian Affair Postponing Trip

GP30

So we booked a trip if a lifetime with Canadian Affair in 2019 to go in 2020. As you all probably remember Covid then happened. They said we could either get a full refund or postpone. We decided to postpone as we still really wanted to go. 2021 same thing.
2022 arrives and we are supposed to go end of April. Trouble is they are doing random covid testing when you land in Canada and you have to isolate until you get your result which can take up to 3 days and if you get a positive result then isolate for 2 weeks before you’re sent back. Trouble is we’ve got a very packed trip and should have left to our next part of the trip after 2 days. Also I don’t plan on getting covid but we all know how catching it can be.
the great thing with Canadian affair (we thought) is that they told us over the phone don’t worry if you decide you don’t want to go because of these rules you can still postpone it up to a week before you fly. 

After much consideration we’ve decided to postpone just because a few of us are concerned with the random covid testing. I know the chances are slim of it affecting us but knowing my luck it will. So we told them we’ll postpone. Now they’ve come back and said tough you’ll have to cancel it then as it’s so close to your holiday departure date (end of April) and the cancellation rules as it’s so close is we will keep 80% off your payment. That’s over £7k. 

Apparently because it’s over 2 years we are no longer ATOL protected as it runs out (is this true? I can’t find any info) and because there’s no covid rules saying we can’t go they can’t do anything. They explained multiple times over the phone we could postpone up to a week before and now they’re going back on it. What can I do? Do I have any consumer rights?

TIA

[Deleted User]

Yes, you have your consumer rights. But you need to read your contract to see what it says regarding cancellation.

I'd be very surprised if it allowed for late cancellation for change of mind. Insurance won't cover you so you'll end up either taking the loss or still going. I would go. 

GP30

Deleted_User said:

Yes, you have your consumer rights. But you need to read your contract to see what it says regarding cancellation.

I'd be very surprised if it allowed for late cancellation for change of mind. Insurance won't cover you so you'll end up either taking the loss or still going. I would go. 

The thing is they told us we could change it down to the last minute if if we weren’t comfortable with the Covid rules and now they’ve gone back on their word and silly us didn’t have it written down anywhere!

jimi_man

Hi.

The first thing is that you don't need to quarantine whilst waiting for the test result (if you get selected for testing). And it's 10 days isolation rather than two weeks. 

Personally, faced with a loss of £7k I would quite definitely take the risk and just go. Try and limit interactions beforehand to give you the best possible chance of testing negative (if you have to test).

If you have taken out the Canadian Affair insurance and get Covid before you go (you can do a test) and you know you'll give a positive test on arrival, then you can claim on that.

Alan_Bowen

You should have received a replacement ATOL Certificate for your new booking, the CAA has been quite clear about that, so ask for it. That doesn't necessarily help if you want to cancel but Air Transat, the company behind Canadian Affair is certainly not the most healthy Canadian airline and you definitely need the protection.

Testing is random but generally on flights from destinations with high levels of Covid but you would be very unlucky to be chosen, so if they won't refund, go.

GP30

Thank you all for your advice you’ve been really helpful. I’ll request the replacement ATOL certificate as certainly didn’t receive that and I didn’t know about Air Transat so that’s incredibly useful!
I think you’re right I certainly don’t want to lose £7k and there’s still a chance nothing could happen. Just annoyed at how Canadian Affair have misled us and handled it poorly!