‘I got £600 on top of a refund after cancelling a holiday thanks to Martin Le…

If you’ve ever cancelled a holiday at the last minute, you may assume there’s no hope of getting a refund. But one woman begs to differ. It seems she not only bagged a full refund, but also an extra ‘£600’ despite cancelling her flights in the nick of time.

‘Mrs P’, a savvy reader of Martin Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert (MSE), drew to its financial gurus, claiming their weekly newsletter was the reason behind her financial success. She was given no option but to rule out her package holiday due to sickness and went about securing a refund shortly after.

“We got our money back for the holiday through our travel insurance but it didn’t cover APD [Air Passenger Duty],” she told the experts. “Then we saw the MSE weekly email and decided to follow up.”

To her surprise, Mrs P managed to claim an ‘impressive £594’ and thanked Martin and his team. But what exactly is APD?

In a nutshell, it’s a tax charged to passengers flying from the UK to both domestic and international destinations. The Office for Budget Responsibility explains it is typically paid to HMRC by the operator of the airline a month after you fly.

Importantly, APD is only paid by an airline if you fly so, if you don’t, you’re usually welcome to request a refund. MSE suggests the amount payable can be anything from £7 to £202 per person depending on the ticket destinations.

For instance, a standard APD rate from London to Manchester might be around £14 per person. But tax for a long-haul flight like England to Australia may be something like £202 per person.

Although some airlines impose deadlines for refund requests, there is no overraching ‘official’ deadline for this. That means you can often request refunds from flights that occurred years ago.

MSE experts add: “The rates change every year, but from 1 April 2023, there are four bands: a ‘domestic’ band for destinations in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland only, and international bands A, B and C for all other destinations.”

Wondering how you claim? The experts suggest there is no consistent process across airlines, but several major operators have online forms for this purpose. This reportedly includes Emirates, Etihad, Jet2 and TUI, for instance.

However, if a travel agent was used for the booking, you’ll need to contact them directly.

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