CD Traveller » ATOL

Air passenger advice

Editor — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:22:33 +0000

Early last year, responsibility for consumer complaints passed from the old Air Passenger Users Council (AUC) to the CAA – Civil Aviation Authority. Last week they announced a more user-friendly website that gives the answers to most questions you should have when you fly including what to do if there is a problem.
They suggest that you check it before you book.
Basically there are six sections that lead from the home page plus a further one on the environment.. The first deals with the ATOL bonding scheme and takes you to the ATOL website where you can check whether a tour operator is bonded. The second takes you through the various things you should do before and after you’ve booked to make sure you have the right documentation, the necessary health information for the country concerned and what you can and cannot take with you on the plane. The third deals with what to expect at the airport
When you are on the flight the fourth deals with seating, safety and what happens if you have a disruptive passenger. Screaming at the passenger that he has reclined his seat too far is not one of the suggestions made! But if problems occur and can’t be resolved during the trip it suggests in the fifth section what you should do next. The sixth covers airline safety and what the requirements are
The website is to be found by clicking here or pasting www.caa.co.uk/passengers into your browser.

Look for the ATOL logo

Editor — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:13:07 +0000

The familiar slogan goes, “Don’t just book it, Thomas Cook it.” But after the publicity given to Thomas Cook yesterday when they announced that they wanted to raise some more cash and the effect that it had on their share price meant that the company received more publicity than it would have wished. That is partially because it such a well-known and important brand.
The question for the traveller is should you continue to book with the company. Judging from the newspaper screeches this morning, you’d have thought the world was coming to an end. They have highlighted that both big tour operators, Thomas Cook and TUI (owners of First Choice and Thomson) have both had large share falls in the last year. The Daily Express this morning runs with the front page headline, “Holiday disaster looms for millions.” What bunkum. What uninformed and unhelpful codswallop.

Why?
Because the vast majority of people who buy at Thomas Cook buy package holidays and those will be protected under the ATOL regulations. If the worst were ever to happen then holiday bookers would receive their money back as Simon Calder pointed out on ITV’s Daybreak programme and BBC Breakfast and in The Independent today. (In fact Calder seems to be on a one-man reassurance campaign today.) What other purchases can you make that would give you such protection? It was only towards the end of the story in the Daily Express that they quoted an ABTA spokesman pointing out the same thing. At least The Scotsman began its story by pointing out that holidaymakers money was safe as does one in the Telegraph and the Guardian. As Charming of Cambridge wrote on the Mail Online page, “Don’t believe all the hype.”

So regardless of what you think of the viability of Thomas Cook – or even TUI or any other ATOL bonded travel company- you can still book confident in the fact that your money, if not your holiday, is as protected as it could be. What it does show is the doubt that should exist amongst holidaymakers in considering booking through a company that isn’t ATOL bonded. And the vast majority of tour operators and holiday companies are. But look for that ATOL logo when you shop.

Government announces ATOL Reforms

Editor — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 20:41:04 +0000

One of the worst kept secrets was finally let out of the bag today when the Department of Transport published its thoughts on the future of ATOL, the scheme which protects holidaymakers from their suppliers going bust and leaving them stranded either before or during their holiday.
Just to remind you, if an agent is ATOL bonded and you buy a package (flight and accommodation) then you are covered. If you buy a flight separately from the accommodation generally you are not.
What’s being proposed should mean that another 6 million “holidays” should be protected by the scheme. The main part is that “flight-plus” holidays comprising a flight and other holiday component bought within two successive days be covered. The word “component” was listed in the singular so does this mean just one component, any component or all provided they are bought within two days? And does two days mean two working days where the supplier is open two days in a row? What happens if the travel agent isn’t open on one of the two days? Does that mean we only have really one day to complete the purchase so that we are covered? We’ll do some checking and see.
The other two parts are not so vital. The first is that all purchases get an ATOL certificate saying what the coverage is and the other is that the supplier is made aware of their legal responsibilities.
We, along with many other organisations, have been calling for a change to protect more holidaymakers and travellers. The government is going to ask industry for its views and they have up until September to reply. Then they expect to introduce legislation in January 2012 so that it will apply to the peak summer period. That sounds ambitious given how slowly things go through parliament but let’s be optimistic and hope they can achieve their aim.
There is no plan – yet – to bring in a scheme to cover just flights but this could come in the future.

Merricks and Light on the Horizon

adrian — Sun, 15 May 2011 08:21:27 +0000

For longer than I care to remember, CD-Traveller has covered complaints, suggestions, conversations and proposals about reform the bonding system we have in place to help those who, through no fault of their own, are left in the wet and sticky when their tour operator or holiday company goes bust. The help you receive depends on how your package was booked and you may not even be aware of how the supplier or travel agent has put it together.
Now the CAA (who administer the ATOL scheme) has published the results of an independent review but it covers only claims handling. The reform proposals are not due to appear until much later in the year when some of the recommendations from this report will be included. The consultation period ended in early August last year. It has taken 9 months to give birth to just a 20 page document with an additional 31 pages of appendices! Am I being churlish especially as the author, Walter Merricks, admits the delay saying it was due to three more collapses last summer (Goldtrail, Sun4U and Flight Options/Kiss) and awaiting the government’s consultation on ATOL reform?
Yes I am because this report has deadlines and all should be in place for the start of the summer season next year.
Let’s skip to the nitty gritty. Merricks says that the legal framework of the ATOL scheme is outdated, some travel firms produce a poor standard of documents and, the system can’t handle the sheer volume of complaints that arose over the biggest collapse, XL and strict payment policies seem to exacerbate the situation. That payment to XL customers took over 3 months to settle in some cases, he suggests is wrong.
There are two features I would highlight. He suggests copying the insurance industry and paying out first and then seeking repayment from other parties later and that, if your company goes bust, the money you have paid could be used by a travel agent to buy another holiday, the travel agent being secure in the knowledge that the money would come from the bonding scheme.
The report comes just after a Travelsupermarket.com survey came out showing that only 14% of the 2,000 responders said that travel protection was important. That’s because we haven’t had a crash for a few months. Just because the great British public responders to this survey have forgotten the problems, the authorities shouldn’t. Anything to speed up and introduce wider protection to all travellers should be supported.

Changing the ATOL Scheme Doesn’t Go Far Enough

adrian — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 09:48:13 +0000

Yesterday the transport minister, Theresa Villiers, announced reforms to the way holidays are bonded. Or rather she announced what the government proposed to do subject to consultation. After that, and provided there aren’t suggestions, watered down ideas or whatever, the legislation will come in until the end of the year.
The government is proposing that bonding should occur if you book flight and accommodation separately at the same place at roughly the same time. If your holiday looks like a package holiday but it isn’t currently legally defined that way it will be when the legislation comes in. The second proposal is to deter businesses from selling you something that isn’t bonded but looks like it. They must make it clear to you what the situation is. Finally, there will be simplified single document that you will be handed which explains when protection is in place.
This is the first change in 15 years and, in my opinion, goes nowhere near far enough. For the package holiday industry it gives them a slightly more level playing field with those who don’t provide bonding and it will help to remove the doubts that you are not covered if you buy separate items from the one supplier. But it offers nothing to the holidaymaker who buys an airline ticket from one source and accommodation from another. The accommodation is less of an issue because, in most cases, you can cancel a booking up to 24 hours or even 6pm on the day of arrival. The issue remains with the plane ticket. If an airline goes bust, the only recourse is to have bought the ticket on a credit card and then appeal to the credit card company for a refund. If you use a debit card – which more people are doing to avoid the credit card charges- you have no recourse. In effect the credit card charge is becoming your “insurance” for the journey. And expensive insurance it can be too.
And what if you buy a hotel recommended on an airline website? Or an airline ticket from a hotel website? You still won’t be covered. ABTA, TUI and Thomas Cook have all said the change doesn’t go far enough.
We pay the bond fee of £2.50 per booking which is collected by the travel agent under the present rules. Why can’t airlines (or hotels if they offer flights on their websites) add a similar fee to their bills (they add everything else on) yet pass this to a bonding scheme so we are covered? Until then this system will still be a difficult mess to understand; – as transparent as a brick wall.

Diamond Holidays Go Down

adrian — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 14:29:48 +0000

Barely a week into the new year and we have our first travel company collapse. Diamond Holidays of Swansea have collapsed after over 40 years in business. Don’t get confused. There are 2 other similarly named companies and they are completely unaffected. It is only the company based in Swansea that has gone into administration. Already though, I have heard of two companies who have expressed interest in buying them. It is early in the year for any tour operators to go bust; they normally last through this key booking period to see how sales go so this is unusual. If you have holidays or day trips booked with them how will you fare since they hold no ATOL bond?
Diamond Holidays, also trading as Brian Isaac Coaches moved about 80,000 customers per year. They did have insurance taken out with the Association of Bonded Travel Organisation Trust (ABTOT) so those of you with holidays may be OK for a refund. ABTOT or Travel & General Insurance (who handle the insurance side) will be contacting all those concerned. The problem comes with those taking day trips, the sort where the coach takes you to York races for the day, a shopping complex or a historic town. It is unclear if these are covered, say the administrators, and they will add news on this when they have looked at it. Those people also not covered are those that have booked since the start of the new year since it may be the case that the insurance doesn’t cover this year. But if you have booked since January 1 and don’t receive a letter contact ABTOT anyway. Their website is www.abtot.com.
Why has Diamond Holidays gone bust given they say sales have risen by 15%? One reason suggested is the price of fuel which looks only likely to increase as oil prices rise and the April tax rise of fuel takes effect. But they have recently spend millions on new coaches. Is there a cash flow issue? Have they breached their bank loans limit? Did the banks pull the plug? As I said earlier, this is an unusual time to go bust so it will be interesting to see what the liquidators think is the reason.
Once again, though, this reminds all of us of the problems with the current bonding system and the lack of uniformity for travellers be they domestic or overseas ones. At least Diamond was a member of an insurance or bonding scheme. ABTOT has about 76 members and provides cover for those companies not bonded by the ATOL scheme. Still is this a substitute for being ATOL bonded? In some ways, yes particularly for those companies whose primary business is domestic travel like Diamond’s. All we travelers can hope for is that when the UK or EU finally get their acts together, one scheme will help protect all travelers.

Travel Dreams

adrian — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:58:45 +0000

Yesterday CD-Traveller covered the forecasts of ABTA for the coming year. As a change and since everyone else is forecasting (dreaming of what might be might be a better expression), I thought we would as well. Before that, however, let me wish you a happy new year. May 2011 bring all you wish for it because it certainly isn’t going to give me what I should like.
But let’s start with a quick review of the year – or at least from the point-of-view of the traveller.
Snow disrupted train, rail and air travel during the first bit of the year, – and then did exactly the same at the end of it. In between we had the British Airways strikes that caused more disruption and then the volcano. Not since the cod war, did Iceland receive so much attention. (It didn’t do them any harm; tourism to Iceland rose during the rest of the year.) Twice, one of our people was stuck in the mess of trying to return home. In this age of health & safety, the instant reaction was to close down any airport likely to be affected. Only when it turned out to be a longer event than planned did some rational thinking come into play. We had the usual succession of strikes through Europe to contend with plus the continuation of political unrest in Thailand. Tour operators and airlines went bust in the middle of the year before the summer season got under way putting even more strains on the bonding system. More of us cruised than ever before but one problem arose when due to the ash and weather and strikes, some people missed their cruises because they couldn’t get to the overseas ports. By booking air travel separately, some were left out-of-pocket as the bonding system was yet again shown to be deficient.. That could be one reason why people prefer to start cruising from UK/Irish ports. Even more ships will be based here in 2011 and Portsmouth will open a new cruise terminal.
What didn’t happen was more protection for those people who book air travel and accommodation separately. The ATOL bond covering package holidays is due for reform, there have been umpteen calls for the EU legislation to be altered and we await reports. Something is scheduled to happen in early 2011 but no legislation.
If I had a dream it would be – as readers well know – that politicians would get off their backsides and bring in legislation now so that each traveller pays the same sort of levy that ATOL booked holidaymakers do. Then all travelers are treated fairly. Will it happen in 2011? Legislation grinds slowly without political will. With no parliamentary committee on tourism what impetus is there? Politicians are anxious to take as much cash off us as they can through Air Passenger Duty (and tomorrow’s over-the-top rail fare increases) but reluctant to help consumer safeguards until the next airline or tour operator goes bust. Then, more words and more buck-passing.
So my wish for 2011 will probably be what I should like in 2012. And maybe even 2013. A fairer deal for travellers.

The Daisies Are Coming

adrian — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 07:45:39 +0000

As you all know by know, there is a bonding system for holidays called ATOL. To remind you, the idea behind it is that if you buy from someone who is ATOL bonded, your holiday should be covered in the event that the tour operator goes bust. You will get your money back (but it might take a while) but not a replacement holiday. The problem with the system is that if you book your accommodation and flight separately you may not be covered.
CD-Traveller has written frequently about this and urged change so that all travellers are covered. Between our governments and the EU, I may have remarked that I will be pushing up the daisies before something happens at the rate things are moving.
There is one change that was mooted at the ABTA convention this week that will help. The suggestion from the CAA (who run the bonding system) is that when you book a holiday you will be given a certificate that will tell you exactly what you are covered for. From this you will then be able to judge if you need to get additional travel insurance to cover what is not covered by the bonding. But this idea is to be discussed, then there is a working party prior to the full consultation and we all know what that means in terms of time! Those confounded daisies are getting closer.
Is there a chance that they can set a time limit of say, 2 months on this consultation so that it could be ready for the main booking period for next summer? Pigs might fly first. Why can’t the main ATOL bonded companies just do it? If someone comes up with an improvement than the companies can change. But in terms of good customer relations and PR just introduce it now. TUI, the owners of Thomson and First Choice have welcomed it. CD-Traveller would happily list those companies who will issue a certificate and then at least our readers will know where they stand.

Who Should You Book A Holiday With?

Editor — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:01:49 +0000

After the collapse of Blue Skies Destinations, (yesterday) Goldtrail, Flight Options (the owners of Kiss) and Sun4You in almost as many weeks and following on XL, Globespan and Libra, one of the common questions is can I trust my tour operator to still be around when I go on holiday? Who should I book with? Does anyone offer full protection?
As with most things in this world nothing is certain but here are some thoughts.
Any tour operator can experience problems. No-one foresaw the volcanic ash issue where airspace was closed for a week. So there will never be clear answers in answering these questions. The largest tour operators such as TUI Group, (owners of Thomson, First Choice, Crystal, JWT and 2wentys amongst others) and Thomas Cook (owners of Airtours, Club 18-30, Neilson, Panorama and Direct amongst others) are so big and so international now that it would very surprising if anything happened. But about 20 years ago, one of the largest tour operators of the time, ILG, went bust. Before that there was Court Line.
What about smaller companies then since some people are saying that you should stick with the big companies? If your preferred tour operator is one of the 140 who are members of AITO (the logo will be emblazoned on their brochures and websites) then you are fully protected. By fully protected they mean that if you just book the accommodation with them, that is covered as well as a package holiday and that exceeds the government bonding ATOL scheme.
Even if you do get your money back there are two things to realise. The first is that it could take some time and secondly, if you book a replacement holiday it is likely to cost more so chances are you will still be out of pocket. The best advice is book with an ATOL bonded company and pay on a credit card rather than cheque or debit. If the company is not ATOL bonded, then a credit card payment will give some protection.
Regular readers will know how many times we have urged better bonding to cover all aspects of a holiday and still the UK, Republic of Ireland and EU governments have got nowhere but talk and consult.
As we wrote last week, it is unusual for companies to go bust in peak holiday time. That suggests there will be more to come in September when money tightens for tour operators. In the meantime, the size of your holiday company doesn’t necessarily matter. Whether it is bonded does. And you can check that at http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=490&pagetype=65&appid=2

Airports and Passenger Interests.

Editor — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:25:21 +0000

What is the purpose of an airport regulator?
To make money? To manage the interests of our airports? Or the airlines? To control over-zealous ideas and practices? To make sure passengers fly safely?
I sometimes wonder.
Yesterday the Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, announced that he was giving additional powers to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) so that it can “apply competition law in respect of airport operators and providers of airport services.” What this means, I think, is that the powers we thought they had are being given to them. Or which we believed were being handled by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Anyway it looks like the CAA has a bit more power. But this time the power is to look out for the passenger. Hammond said, “…the CAA’s primary duty will be to promote the interests of existing and future passengers.”
Since they haven’t been renowned for putting us travellers first, or sometimes even second, one can only hope that they will do something this time and be seen to do something. The CAA regulates the package holidays bonding scheme which we know as ATOL. See an ATOL bond and, in a time of collapse, you should be assured of getting your money back. But this doesn’t apply to airline passengers just flying from A to B without accommodation. It doesn’t apply if the company isn’t ATOL bonded.
There have been calls for the last couple of years to widen the bonding and travellers accept that they would have to pay a pound or two extra for this insurance. (After all package holidaymakers pay a levy of £2.50 per passenger.) Instead of saying there is a European solution being considered (true but I might get my pension first), it would be great step forward if the CAA acted unilaterally and offered us travellers wider protection.
Hammond also said that “significant investment will be required if passengers’ expectations are to be met.” Well what are our expectations? He says things like better baggage handling. I say how about having the Air Transport Users Council (AUC) complaints/help line being open for longer than a five hours a day on just Monday to Thursday. Has no-one told them that Saturday is still just about the busiest day of the week for leisure passengers? But then we’ve only known that for 30 years or so. Hammond also said that the Passenger Focus (the consumer watchdog for trains, buses and coaches) will not now take over the responsibilities of the AUC. So this body that has managed just one press release this year, seven responses to consultations and no response, that I can see, to the March 2009 CAA report on Passenger Experience at our four biggest airports will continue. The same report also noted that half of the respondents to a survey were unaware of their rights and even fewer were aware of the AUC. So if passengers are to be put first, it would help if passengers knew who could help them.
Lots of words. I’ll be less cynical when I see action.