Booking your flight ticket online is fast, but not at all stress-free. Often, forms are confusing, and passengers end up inserting their first name in the surname field or writing their dates of birth the wrong way round (especially on American websites). However, when they do realise their mistake, it is usually too late to change it for free, and they end up having to pay hefty charges or book new tickets.

The Air Transport Users' Council has now called on all airlines to provide a 24 hour "cooling-off" period, in which their passengers can make changes to their bookings free of charge. Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Jet2, bmibaby and EasyJet among others have already introduced this window of opportunity. The AUC wants more airlines to follow suit, however, as there are increasing complaints concerning online bookings and how the airlines then handles the issue.

This will give passengers more confidence to book online, in the knowledge that they have 24 hours to spot and correct mistakes.