Info correct at 11:27 on 31/10/2020

The travel advice for mainland Spain, the Canaries and the Balearics was changed late at night on 25th July 2020. At this point the FCO advised against all but essential travel to mainland Spain. At the time, they were not advising against travel to the Balearics or Canaries (Majorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura). Travellers to Spanish destinations including the Balearics (but excluding the Canaries from 25/10/2020) are required to self isolate on return to UK for 14 days.

Customers currently on holiday in Spanish destinations:

Enjoy your holiday as best as you can. For now we assume you will come back on your return flight as planned. If your flight home changes, we will be in touch. Unless government advice changes, you will have to quarantine on return to the UK for 14 days in line with amended government policy.

Customers travelling to the Balearics or Canaries (Majorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura) up to and including 25th October:

In the majority of cases, flights are still operating to these destinations and we are able to provide the accommodation booked or a suitable alternative*, and therefore, unless we notify you otherwise, your package holiday will be able to proceed without any significant changes. Make sure you check your coverage with your travel insurers and ensure you have an EHIC card.

If you choose to cancel your holiday in these circumstances, we will refund the hotel and transfer monies and we will waive our administration fees for processing the cancellation. As stated above, most airlines are continuing to fly as planned and are advising customers to travel to the airport as planned so if the flight operates, the flight cost will be non-refundable. Our ability to refund the flight cost will be dependent on the airline(s) cancelling and refunding your flights.

If your flight is subsequently cancelled prior to departure, then the full flight monies (minus ATOL fee of £2.50 per person) will be refunded following receipt of the flight refund from your airline. We cannot guarantee how long this refund process will take as it varies by airline and may take several weeks or months.

*suitable alternative means alternative accommodation that is of the same or better standard, has the same main features, and is in the same location (i.e. it’s the same tourist destination) as your original accommodation.

Customers travelling to the Balearics or Canaries (Majorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura) post 25th October:

This is a fast moving situation. It is entirely possible that your holiday can go ahead as planned. We are monitoring the situation closely and will be in touch if your holiday becomes affected.

From 14th November all visitors to the Canary Islands over 6 years of age (and not residents of the Canary Islands) must be able to prove that they tested negative within 72 hours prior to their arrival. Hotels are permitted to refuse entry to customers who do not comply.

If necessary, hotels will be able to inform visitors of the nearest test centre, or visitors may have the test completed at the hotel – at their own expense – if available. If a visitor agrees to being tested they can be allowed entry until their results are available, however they must self-isolate in their hotel room until they receive their results.

Evidence of a negative test can be shown via a printed or digital test certificate, which must clearly display the date and time of test, identification details, the name of the testing laboratory, the test type and the negative result.

This will not be applicable to visitors travelling prior to the 14th November.

Additionally, customers will be required to download the RADAR COVID app (free to download from Apple and Google Play stores) and must use the app during their stay in the Canaries as well as for a period of 15 days upon their return home.

Flight info as at 28th August 2020:

TUI: Flights to Canaries and Balearics cancelled until 14/09.
Jet2: Flights to Canaries cancelled until 13/09 and Balearics until 01/11
Easyjet: Flight programme to Canaries and Balearics currently scheduled to operate as planned
Ryanair: Flight programme to Canaries and Balearics currently scheduled to operate as planned
BA: Flight programme to Canaries and Balearics currently scheduled to operate as planned

FCO advice is not referred to anywhere in the Package Travel Regulations (PTRs). Regulation 12(7) of the PTRs states that in the event of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances occurring at the place of destination or its immediate vicinity and which significantly affect:

(a)the performance of the package, or

(b)the carriage of passengers to the destination,

the traveller may terminate the package travel contract before the start of the package without paying any termination fee.

In this case, the flight is still operational so we are able to carry passengers to the destination, and the accommodation (or a suitable alternative) can be provided so the package can still be provided without its performance being significantly affected.

FCO advice against all but essential travel has previously meant that there is a clear and present threat to life resulting in a total shutdown of that destination and all flights to that destination stop. If this were the case currently with your destination, then flights from the UK would not remain operational in the volumes that they are. As you can see above, most airlines are continuing to fly to your destination.

Customers travelling to Spain (mainland) up to and including 25th October:

In the majority of cases, flights are still operating to mainland Spain and we are able to provide the accommodation booked or a suitable alternative*, and therefore, unless we notify you otherwise, your package holiday will be able to proceed without any significant changes. Make sure you check your coverage with your travel insurers and ensure you have an EHIC card.

If you choose to cancel your holiday in these circumstances, we will refund the hotel and transfer monies and we will waive our administration fees for processing the cancellation. As stated above, most airlines are continuing to fly as planned and are advising customers to travel to the airport as planned so if the flight operates, the flight cost will be non-refundable. Our ability to refund the flight cost will be dependent on the airline(s) cancelling and refunding your flights.

If your flight is subsequently cancelled prior to departure, then the full flight monies (minus ATOL fee of £2.50 per person) will be refunded following receipt of the flight refund from your airline. We cannot guarantee how long this refund process will take as it varies by airline and may take several weeks or months.

*suitable alternative means alternative accommodation that is of the same or better standard, has the same main features, and is in the same location (i.e. it’s the same tourist destination) as your original accommodation.

Flight info as at 28th August 2020:

TUI: Flights to mainland Spain cancelled until 14/09
Jet2: Flights to mainland Spain cancelled until 13/09
Easyjet: Flight programme to mainland Spain currently scheduled to operate as planned
Ryanair: Flight programme to mainland Spain currently scheduled to operate as planned
BA: Flight programme to mainland Spain currently scheduled to operate as planned

FCO advice is not referred to anywhere in the Package Travel Regulations (PTRs). Regulation 12(7) of the PTRs states that in the event of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances occurring at the place of destination or its immediate vicinity and which significantly affect:

(a)the performance of the package, or

(b)the carriage of passengers to the destination,

the traveller may terminate the package travel contract before the start of the package without paying any termination fee.

In this case, the flight is still operational so we are able to carry passengers to the destination, and the accommodation (or a suitable alternative) can be provided so the package can still be provided without its performance being significantly affected.

FCO advice against all but essential travel has previously meant that there is a clear and present threat to life resulting in a total shutdown of that destination and all flights to that destination stop. If this were the case currently with your destination, then flights from the UK would not remain operational in the volumes that they are. As you can see above, most airlines are continuing to fly to your destination.

For all holidays to mainland Spain, the Canaries and the Balearics travelling up to and including the 25th October an email will be sent shortly offering all customers the option to keep their holiday or to cancel their holiday. For specific instructions please refer to the email.

Customers travelling to Spain (mainland) post 25th October:

This is a fast moving situation. It is entirely possible at the moment that your holiday can go ahead as planned. If you do wish to cancel, then usual cancellation charges would apply. We fully appreciate that many customers due to travel over the summer period want to speak to us urgently about their holidays. It is however essential that we deal with bookings in departure date order.

In the current environment with workloads from flight cancellations and hotel closures, there is limited resource we could assign to quote requests to change dates. We do not set the prices for flights or hotels. These are set by the airlines and hoteliers respectively. Therefore any price increase to change dates is as result of the pricing policies of these suppliers and not On the Beach. Over the past few weeks and prior to the new advice about travel to Spain, we have quoted several thousand date change requests. Because summer 2021 is currently on limited release, these quotations were often double the price paid for the 2020 holiday and as a result well in excess of the cost to cancel the holiday. As a result of this only a very small proportion of the customers quoted proceeded with a change of dates. We regret that we are therefore unable to deal with date change requests at the current time.

The above advice also applies to requests to change destinations.

Where flights continue to operate, these are non-refundable. To protect package organisers and customers then where hotels are closed, package organisers are obliged to provide suitable alternative accommodation. A suitable alternative is deemed to be of the same or higher star rating (and quality), the same board basis and a similar location.

The relevant clause in the Package Travel Directive is as follows: Where, following commencement of the package, significant proportions of the package cannot be performed, alternatives offered should be at no extra cost and should, where possible, be of equivalent or higher quality than those specified in the original contract. If the organiser is constrained to propose alternative arrangements of a lower quality, the organiser must grant an appropriate price reduction. Travellers may choose to reject alternative arrangements only if they are not comparable with those originally agreed, or the price reduction offered is inadequate.

A change of hotel is not a major change that triggers the cancellation of the package and so where hotels are closed but flights are operating, suitable alternatives are being booked for all guests for the duration of their stay. Our operations team continues to deal with these in departure date order to ensure that all guests have suitable accommodation for their stay.

The operations and service teams have been working around the clock to update our systems with the flight cancellations as the airlines move through their forward programmes and notify the cancellation of any flights that are not operating. Whilst these are updated in system, any balance payments are suspended as we work out whether each holiday is proceeding as planned. Where the flights are confirmed cancelled then you will be notified via outbound email and we can begin the process of commencing the application for a refund.

On the government’s website they reference the following when advising how travel companies use the FCO advice:

“Travel companies and airlines often take our advice into account but the decision to cancel or reschedule a flight, holiday, tour or excursion is a decision that can only be taken by the travel company and the customer. The question of refunds is a matter that must be resolved between the customer and the relevant airline, tour operator or travel agent. We don’t dictate when travel can or can’t take place.” (Source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-the-foreign-commonwealth-office-puts-together-travel-advice.)

Where holidays are cancelled, we are able to refund any monies paid for hotels and transfers within 2-4 weeks. These refunds are automatically added to your booking and an email will be sent to tell you how to claim. Where monies are owed for cancelled flights, we are doing our best to refund as soon as we receive from the airlines but with many millions of refunds to process across the industry and the workloads created by the changing travel advice, the refund process is slower than it should be and for this we apologise.

On the Beach pays for flights for all of its customers in full at the time the booking is made. In order to protect you in the event of cancellation, OTB is obliged by the Package Travel Regulations to refund cancellations within 14 days, but this assumes that airlines will have refunded within 7 days in line with the requirements on airlines under EU261. Airlines have not complied with this law for the last 4 months and OTB has been one of the loudest advocates lobbying regulators and government to get them to impose the law for the benefit of all consumers. Clearly travel companies cannot afford to refund flight monies without receipt of refunds from airlines and of course those airlines that we are waiting on refunds from are many times bigger than us and have had billions of pounds worth of support to ensure that they can pay these refunds via us to you.

We are currently waiting on confirmed timelines from each airline for refunds for holidays that were due to depart in May, June and July. We are in constant touch with the airline to do anything we can to make this process happen more quickly. Once we have received the refund from the airlines, we will do our best to get the refund over to you in the shortest possible timeframe. As soon as this is received by us, it will be loaded directly into your booking and an email will be sent to you detailing how this can be collected.

Your refund will be completed in two stages:

• We will first be returning any monies paid towards the cost of your hotel and transfer. This refund will be paid in cash and will be credited to the payment card used at the time of booking.
• Your flight costs will be refunded once we have received these from your airline. We are in contact with your airline to confirm that these also will be paid in cash. We are unable to commit to any time frame for this element of your refund as this is down to your airline themselves, however please be assured that we will pass this over to you as soon as we receive it.

As we are working through an unprecedented number of bookings, we ask that you be patient with us during this time and we will issue your refund as soon as possible.

If you do not have a pending refund showing on your 'My Bookings' page this is because we have not yet received your refund from the airline.

If you have paid your airline for any extras (for example priority boarding or additional luggage) then these will have been paid using your own payment card and the cost should have been refunded directly to you. If you have not yet received a refund for these extra costs then you will need to speak to your airline.

You should ensure you keep up with instalment payments as per the original booking terms and conditions. Failure to keep up with payments may result in the holiday being cancelled and subject to cancellation fees. Where we cancel your holiday in these circumstances, you will not have ATOL protection, nor will your holiday be covered under the Package Travel Regulations. If the information from the airlines then later changes and your flight is cancelled you will not be entitled to a refund as we will have already cancelled your holiday.

We are working through a considerable number of bookings and, as such, our online system may be slightly delayed in reflecting the status of your booking. If you have received an email from us confirming that your holiday has been cancelled, then no further action is required and this will show on our system shortly.

Cancellation costs will vary depending on when you are due to travel and the type of holiday purchased. For full cancellation costs please log into the 'My Bookings' section of our website where you can see a full breakdown of costs and – if you wish to cancel – submit a cancellation request.

When you log into the 'My Bookings' section of our website, there is an option to change the date of your next instalment payment. If you are unable to make a payment, as per the original booking terms and conditions, you will need to send us a message through ‘My Bookings’.

You can make changes to your booking by logging into the 'My Bookings' section of our website. Please be aware that amendment charges will apply as per the original booking terms and conditions.

It's always extremely important to take out travel insurance whenever you plan to travel. In regards to Coronavirus, you should refer to the individual policy of insurers to check if you're covered.

If you have an On the Beach travel insurance policy please see our dedicated FAQs page for a complete breakdown of your coverage.

If you have booked a flight-inclusive package holiday, you are financially covered by ATOL.

In the event that you do feel unwell whilst abroad, we ask that you comply with instructions given by the health authorities. For the latest advice please visit the FCO website.

You can find up to date information on the FCO website.

You can find up to date information on the FCO website.

It is our responsibility to make sure that your holiday goes to plan, and that you and your fellow holidaymakers are looked after for the duration of your stay. Therefore, if – for any reason – your chosen hotel is unavailable, we will look to find you a suitable alternative, to the same or better standard and we will be in touch if this is the case.

From the moment you arrive at the airport, your wellbeing comes first. New measures have been introduced, such as readily available hand sanitiser stations throughout airports, and all planes will be disinfected thoroughly between each flight. At some airports you can even pre-book security slots to avoid the queues.

Holidaymakers will be expected to wear masks and all boarding passes must be presented on a mobile device, rather than a print-out. Additional checks may be in place, so giver yourself plenty of time to get through the airport. It’s important that you check the websites of both your airline and departure airport for the most up-to-date information on this before you travel.

As hotels prepare to reopen, destination governments have been working hard to keep the safety and security of customers in mind. Each of them have put a set of stringent requirements in place for hotels to re-open this summer.

As you may have seen in the news, most holiday regions are now already opening up ahead of the UK. This means you’ll still be able to enjoy your stay to the fullest (in a socially distanced way, of course). Some hotel facilities may be adapted or stay closed until they can open safely. Please check with your chosen hotel for more details on what to expect upon arrival.

Our hotels are reopening and, with that, we are committed to ensuring that all of our guests can enjoy their holidays to their fullest, whilst maintaining the safety and wellbeing of everyone involved.

You may find that, for the time being, some destinations and resorts will have their own hygiene requirements and certain amenities will temporarily be limited or unavailable. Rest assured that these are simply precautionary measures and shouldn’t get in the way of you enjoying your beach break.

As a result of this, some of the information on our website may not always be entirely accurate; however, we will do our very best to keep you updated with any changes to your individual booking. If there is a significant change to your hotel, we will be in touch with your options.

The health and safety of our customers is our number one priority. The best way to protect yourself while you enjoy your holiday is to continue to follow advice from the World Health Organisation and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Rest assured that in the unlikely event that your chosen hotel is affected by Covid-19 before you travel, we will do everything we can to find you an alternative you’ll love.

We advise that, before booking, you check any travel restrictions that may be in place for your chosen destination. You can view this on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website. Please follow any government advice while you are in resort, too.

Some destination airports may require you to follow specific protocols whilst travelling and upon arrival. For further information about this please see our airport measures page.

For any passengers travelling with Enter Air, there may be some additional declaration forms required. Please see their website for further information.

The government has announced that there is no longer a 14-day quarantine in place for travelers returning from destinations with a reduced risk of Covid-19 transmission. For a full list of all destinations which are exempt from quarantine rules please see the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website.

Our transfers partner has put together this useful guide highlighting the precautions and safety measures that they are taking to ensure your wellbeing whilst abroad.