Airline gone bust? Where do you stand?
The recent demise of Kiss Flights, the thirteenth travel company to collapse this year has prompted Warwickshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service to provide Warwickshire consumers with advice and information on their rights in these situations.
Your travel company or airline going bust is the last thing most people are thinking about when they book their holiday or prepare to travel.
However, if it happens to you then it’s important that you know where you stand and how to exercise your consumer rights.
Package Holidays
If you buy a package holiday (flights and accommodation together), and either your tour operator or the airline goes bust, you should be protected by the ATOL scheme (check your company is ATOL protected before you book).
If you are abroad on a package holiday and your airline fails, your tour operator will take care of you at no extra expense and if your airline fails before you travel, your tour operator must offer a replacement holiday or a refund.
If the tour operator itself fails ATOL will get you home if you are already on holiday or give you a full refund if you have not travelled.
Some travellers stuck abroad are finding that though they are ATOL protected, some hotels are asking their guests to pay again for accommodation. If this happens holidaymakers should send a claim to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on their return home so that a full refund can be considered. ATOL protected customers should receive a refund.
The Independent Traveller
Things become more complicated if you have not booked a package holiday and have chosen instead to buy your flights and accommodation separately
If you book a flight directly with an airline (for example via the Internet), you will not be covered by ATOL if the airline fails when you are abroad and you will need to pay again to get yourself home.
However, you could protect yourself by paying with a credit card (for sums over £100) or by booking through an agent who offers protection under ATOL. Some holiday insurance companies also offer insurance for this eventuality.
For credit card protection the total sum of one transaction must be £100 or over. If you purchased a ticket for £99 and made a second purchase for £9.99 you won’t be covered.
But, as long as the single transaction figure is over £100, you don’t have to pay it all on the credit card to be covered. You could pay £59 cash and £50 on the credit card and you would be covered as the total figure for a single transaction is over £100.
If the airline you booked with goes bust, you will need a return flight with another airline. If there is a delay or no other airline flies the same route, you may need to book a hotel or do some extra travelling at one or both ends of your journey and you will have to make and pay for these arrangements yourself.
And, as it’s unlikely your hotel or apartment provider will have ceased trading, you won’t normally get a refund from them, even if you can’t reach your destination.
Checklist
Before you travel:
Make sure you are protected if your holiday company or airline ceases trading (ABTA or ATOL bonding or private insurance for example)
If you choose not to protect yourself, ensure you have adequate funds to pay for hotels and flights home if things do go wrong
Take with you the contact telephone numbers of your holiday company, airline, ABTA, ATOL and the CAA
ABTA: 020 3117 0500
ATOL: 020 7453 6700
CAA: 020 7379 7311
For more information on your consumer rights, visit our website: http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tradingstandards.