Britons booking holidays online to get protection if travel firms go bust

People using websites to book flights and hotels separately won’t run risk of losing money or being stranded abroad

Beach near Athens, Greece.



Millions more holidaymakers now opt to save money by booking online rather than visiting a high street travel agent.
Photograph: Simela Pantzartzi/EPA

Britons booking holidays online to get protection if travel firms go bust

People using websites to book flights and hotels separately won’t run risk of losing money or being stranded abroad

Britons who book their own holidays online are to be given the same protection if the firms they use go bust as consumers who buy package deals through a travel operator.

From 2018, new legislation will mean people using websites to book flights and hotels separately do not run the risk of being stranded abroad or losing their money.

Until now, the protection for holidaymakers offered by the government-backed Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (Atol) has failed to reflect the huge changes in the travel industry, as millions more people opt to save money by booking online rather than visiting a high street travel agent.

The Association of British Travel Agents holiday habits report 2016 found more than three-quarters of UK consumers now booked their vacation online.

“Atol was set up for good reason – we go on holiday to relax, not worry about ‘what ifs’,” said the transport minister John Hayes. “But people who buy their flights and hotels separately sometimes miss out on the protection, and peace of mind, that comes with this protection. This change will make the law fit for the modern age – and better able to adapt to any future advances in the technology that people use to book their getaway.”

Since 1973, Atol has protected people booking package holidays in the event that the firm goes bust, with more than 20 million holidaymakers covered annually. Almost all big travel companies operating in the UK are part of the scheme, which is funded by their contribution of £2.50 per passenger protected. In the event that a travel provider goes out of business, the scheme promises holidaymakers a refund or a flight home.

The new legislation will ensure Atol protection covers passengers who book flights, hotels or car hire that are not sold as part of package holidays. From next year, when holidaymakers book a flight and are then directed by the airline to a separate company to book accommodation, within 24 hours the holiday will be covered.

In recent years, a growing number of British holidaymakers have been unwittingly caught out by the lack of an Atol guarantee when things go wrong. The collapse last summer of LowCostHolidays left 110,000 holidaymakers out of pocket and highlighted how people were left vulnerable by booking through websites that appeared to be British but were in fact based overseas so not under the Atol umbrella.

Many of those who bought expensive holidays from LowCost had been unaware that in 2013 the company, which ran glitzy TV ads, had moved its corporate base from the UK to Majorca, and with that ceased to be covered by Atol.

In 2013 the Civil Aviation Authority had warned that LowCost was no longer offering protection. But at that time Irish regulators had gone much further and demanded that the company supply a bond after it moved its business to Spain so Irish holidaymakers got full refunds. In the end LowCost’s administrators predicted that holidaymakers would each receive compensation of less than £10.

The Atol bill, which is getting its second reading in parliament on Monday is the first to be debated in the House of Commons since the Queen’s speech.

Go to Source