Avoid holiday chaos: make sure your holiday is protected

"> Posted on 25 August 2010 by holidayholiday

With the collapse of a number of travel agencies, most recently Goldtrail and kiss flights, have thousands of holidaymakers themself stranded without their much anticipated summer vacation.  Some tourists face the prospect of possible loss of money, as their holiday is not protected, either by insurance or ATOL bonding.  So how can you protect and protect your vacation should be your holiday operator fail?  Follow our guide below for advice on what to do to ensure you are protected when booking a holiday.

ATOL Protection:

The Air Travel Organiser's licence (ATOL) is performed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and is a protection scheme for holidaymakers.  If you book the holiday includes a flight and is sold as a package holiday – so that the accommodation and the flight on a bill – than the holiday should be protected by ATOL bonding.    So in this case, if the tour operator goes bankrupt you wear on your holiday abroad or get a refund if you are still not out yet.

There were some cases recently published on the news where hotels abroad demanded guests pay the Bill, although it has already the tour operator had paid for their vacation.   If this happens and you end up paying the hotel make sure you get a receipt and keep all the receipts as you will be able to claim them back via the ATOL scheme.  The hotel will be paid by the CAA for your holiday, so they should not ask you to pay, but when a tour operator goes out of business can take a while to payment via, with many hotels wrestling at the moment this mean that they may have to wait and some are not prepared to do this.

If your tour operator goes out of business, provided you have booked a package holiday as explained, then you will still be protected if the holiday is booked through the tour operator and protected by the ATOL scheme.

When is a package holiday is not a package holiday?

Unfortunately some holidaymakers are caught out when their last-minute reservation holiday recently if they thought it a package tour is protected by ATOLL that when in fact it was not had posted.  If you post the accommodation and flights separately itself is not a package, it is a DIY holiday.  Most people understand this, but where some holidaymakers from caught is where they have reserved online and selected the flights and accommodation separately but on the same website that holiday. These types of bookings are not always protected by ATOLL.  If the accommodation and flights are sent to you on separate accounts, it is unlikely that you are protected for the whole of the holiday.  You should check if there is an ATOL number on your confirmation and conditions of booking and it may be wise to check with the travel provider before booking if you are unsure.

What protection do I have if I a DIY holiday books?

Unfortunately, booking a DIY holiday means you are increasing the risk of not financially are protected if you have chosen to place the package of the holiday itself.  If your holiday is cancelled or the tour operator goes bankrupt, it will depend on which you have been made on whether you get your money back.  If your flight was with a tour operator or via a travel agent to fly to a tour operator, airline, the ATOL protected as before.  If the flight is a scheduled or no-frills flight booked directly with the airline that it will not be covered and you have to rely on the individual business policy if the flight is cancelled. If the accommodation is booked separately and not covered by ATOL than you have no compensation rights and will have to rely on travel insurance or credit card protection.

Travel insurance

Some travel insurance may cover you as the holiday company goes bankrupt, but check the fine print of your policy will need to make sure.  There are now some new policies in the aftermath of such travel companies going bust, such as a scheduled airline failure insurance, which offer protection to make this happen.  It is worth shopping around for the right insurance or ask your travel agent at the time of booking in order to ensure that you are protected by travel insurance that covers you.  Make sure you read the fine print and double check exactly what are you covered for.  It is strongly advised that you take out travel insurance to cover you and for your trip for each time you go on vacation.

Pay by credit card

If you are using for your holiday on a credit card it can help to protect you if you lose your vacation.  The credit card company under section 75 of the law on consumer credit is jointly responsible if something goes wrong.  However, this may not cover all aspects of your vacation, only parts of it.  In addition, you must make sure that you have paid more than £ 100 per person on your credit card to take advantage of this protection.

Atoll and ABTA protection-holidayholiday.co.uk

Holidayholiday.co.uk advertises only holiday of travel agents acting both ABTA and ATOL ptotected.  We have a strict advertising policy which means that all agents must be protected.  If you are not sure whether your holiday is protected with the travel agency Check before booking.

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