Consumers still confused over holiday financial protection
By Darren Cronian on Saturday, January 3rd, 2009

It is heating up, the press releases are starting to flood into the Travel Rants inbox, and one that caught my attention was from Thomson on one of those dreaded travel surveys, but for a change it has an interesting stat that I wanted to write about.

Consumers still confused over holiday financial protection

Whilst the survey does not say how many consumers took part, apparently 96% of those surveyed have said that financial protection is important to them, and I for one think that it’s good that consumers are becoming more aware.

More education for consumers

I have to say though that the travel industry can do much more in educating consumers on financial protections. I wrote about this issue just after the collapse of XL leisure group, and it is one of the most read posts in 2008.

A lot of the confusion is around ABTA and ATOL, one of the most popular questions I receive in my inbox is what role do the association of travel agents now play where financial protection is concerned. Should they book with a holiday company that is a member of only ABTA.

Mis-information and confusion

There’s a lot of misinformation on the Internet, and that’s why I think its so important that travel agents have their say on here – but reading a lot of comments it’s obvious that even some agents cannot agree on some of the financial aspects of holiday protection.

Tim Williamson of Thomson was quoted as saying.
The regulations are confusing, but it is important that people really do understand that if their scheduled carrier or budget airline collapses, they will lose all their money.

Consumer protection for failed airlines

That’s strictly not true because you can take scheduled airline failure insurance which covers you should the airline collapses. You are also protected under the terms of the Consumer Credit Act, if you book your flight with a credit card, and the cost is over £100.

Over the coming months, Travel Rants will be publishing a number of travel consumer guides which will provide non-jargon, easy to understand information on financial protection, so if you have any questions please do leave them in the comments section.


Related posts

Please enter your email address to receive my free newsletter

 



12 responses to “Consumers still confused over holiday financial protection”

Gennaro | 3 January, 2009 at 5:21 am

I’m looking forward to your travel consumer guides, Darren. A lot of the venom is targeted at airlines in travel circles, but there are other culprits too. Misinformation should be legislated away or at least addressed in a way the public can understand.

Report this comment

Darren Cronian | 3 January, 2009 at 5:46 am

@ Gennaro

Thanks – I am conscious that I do not mis-inform consumers here, so all of the guides will be reviewed by travel professionals, who have more working knowledge of the travel industry, first set of guides should be out by the end of the month.

Report this comment

Julia | 3 January, 2009 at 5:52 pm

Good idea, but I personally think you should wait before you publish at the end of this month. The outcome of the CAA’s decision to take court action against non-Atol retailers and non-Atol ABTA agents who acted “unlawfully” by selling holiday packages which include a flight (yes that XL thing again) could change a few things. Court action set for February 2009. I am sure you are aware of that, as you keep up to date with travel news.

I sincerely hope you get unbiased reviews from your UK travel professionals, and that the reviews will be from a cross section of members from all associations, including ABTA , The TTA (Travel Trust Association), AITO and AAC. Otherwise it may be pointless. Will you be able to say who has taken part?

Report this comment

Darren Cronian | 3 January, 2009 at 6:51 pm

@ Julie,

Yes, I am going to try and get quality people reviewing the guide – have no idea at this point who I will ask, but if you know of anyone who would appreciate giving up 10/20 minutes of their time, then please do let me know.

Report this comment

Kevin May | 3 January, 2009 at 8:49 pm

Julie is right. The CAA-Travelrepublic court case is likely to have huge ramifications which ever way it goes.

As well as asking the industry to comment on your guides I would – for balance – talk to a lawyer as well – and not one in the legal department of a travel company.

Report this comment

Darren Cronian | 3 January, 2009 at 10:53 pm

@ Kevin

Mmm good point about the legal side – I just wanted to write some guides to help consumers on what is a confusining topic. I suppose I need to look at a legal disclaimer of some sort, I’ll look into this.

Report this comment

Murray H | 5 January, 2009 at 8:23 am

Well, good luck (really!) if one can write a definitive guide for a Jo Public Guide to Protection, then I will buy the first copy. I am a travel agent and I don’t mind admitting that I find it very easy to lose the plot. In many ways.

I wish we could go back to stabiliser when everyone had to be ABTA .. (from an agent perspective). All seemed so much simpler. By the way, airline failure insurance is not as easy to get as one would like. When I was getting our annual insurance.

I asked many suppliers about this and even AMEX didn’t offer Airline Failure. Eventually, I settled on the Post Office which offered the sort of policy I sought.

Had to watch out a bit as I use a family type insurance and had a few problems with what happens when we do not all travel as a family.

Report this comment

Donna Wood | 5 January, 2009 at 9:18 am

Hi Darren,

Good idea to put some kind of guide together, it took me some considerable time to learn more about this subject.

You should perhaps contact these people (protectmyholiday.com). I bought a policy from them in October and its appears to be administered by International Passenger Protection Limited whom through search engines like goodle are mentioned all over the place. Their home page ipplondon.co.uk mentions they have been providing consumer protection since 1990.

Hope this helps

Report this comment

Nick | 5 January, 2009 at 2:24 pm

Travel agents can no longer sell Financial Failure Insurance unless they are FSA registered which most are not. (applies from 1st January 2009). This unless another way can be found will effect millions of people.

Report this comment

Rob Boothroyd | 5 January, 2009 at 4:15 pm

Nick, true, but the post office and travel insurance companies can sell Financial Failure Insurance though right?

Report this comment

Nick | 7 January, 2009 at 2:16 pm

Rob

Not talking about travel insurance, talking about Financial Failure Insurance, which most travel insurance does not include. So if the company goes bust you lose your money. Agents use to sell or provide protection against this! Travel agents will still provide travel Insurance some way.

Report this comment

John Harris | 13 January, 2009 at 9:10 am

Most travel agents such as ATOL agents have taken out their own policies in their own name to cover the customers airlines and other components of the trip like hotel, car ferries, car hire etc. TUI for example give their own guarantee which you may have seen on the the TV and the only reason they can do that is by taking out their own insurance cover. ABTA agents in the UK also for example can either take out cover themselves online on a per trip basis or though an annual insurance policy. The Travel Counsellors group of travel agents give 100% financial protection included in their service.

Last year some 10% of travel insuance policies included financial protection, and already this year several major travel insurers are starting to include cover in their policies.

Report this comment