Impact on ATOL renewals for travel consumers

By Darren Cronian on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

Let me start off by briefly explaining what ATOL is from my understanding. If you book a flight or holiday with a travel company in the UK that is ATOL bonded then you are financially protected should that company go into administration.

Important information for consumers

The Civil Aviation Authority also has a responsibility to fly you home should you be stranded abroad. You’ll also receive a full refund of any flight or holiday that you have booked with that travel company. So, simply put your holiday is financially protected.

Frequently Asked questions

At the end of March, I understand that travel companies had to renew their ATOL membership. The Civil Aviation Authority has created a list of companies that have not renewed and therefore if you book with them, you may not be protected.

Questions for the travel industry

If a travel company who has not renewed their ATOL took bookings from consumers prior to 31 March for holidays from 1 April would the consumer be protected? I’m interested to know if not, how this is being communicated to consumers.

Will the Civil Aviation Authority be providing any information to consumers on the ATOL renewals on it’s website? Has it done in the past. From a brief look all of the information I could find was aimed towards the travel trade, not consumers.

Feel free to add (or correct) any information that you think consumers should be made aware of.

Warning to consumers

This is a tricky area to give advice on but the CAA has provided two lists for ATOL renewals. The lists are meant for the travel trade. You can find out what these lists relate to on the CAA website. From a brief look at the list of companies they appear to be smaller travel agencies.

Hat tip: Travolution for bringing the ATOL renewal process to my attention.

As a consumer if I was booking a holiday I would be checking the lists to make sure the company I am booking with, is still ATOL bonded. Please note that I do not work in the travel trade and these are just my opinions as a consumer.

Check the ATOL number on the CAA website

You should always check the companies ATOL number prior to booking any holiday but during the renewal process it is possible that some of the companies on the CAA list had not yet removed the ATOL logos. I have not checked any of the websites but it is worth bearing that in mind.

Please read the comments below for up-dates.

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7 responses to “Impact on ATOL renewals for travel consumers”

Nick | 8 April, 2009 at 10:07 am

Darren,

DO NOT PANIC

All booking taken by an ATOL holder for there ATOL up to the day of expiry is covered.
Also customers may still be covered by ATOL, very few customers have to worry.

Here are 3 things that effect renewals, but not customers

The thing to note here is a lot of small ATOL holders (Travel agents) are not renewing but will continue to sell under others ATOL’s. Here is an example, a Travel Agent gets a deal to provided 3 trips for a sports group, so obtains at 200 seat ATOL. This year they do not have the same deal or have managed to cover it under someone else’s ATOL so they do not renew. The rest of what they sell BOTH when they had the ATOL and now, is as a normal travel agent so even if you booked a holiday with them it would not be covered by there ATOL, but by the company they are buying from.

Then there is company’s that are taken over, for example in the list there is Travel Center (Norwich) well they have been sold to another company, Premier which still holds an ATOL. (in my mind I think the CAA should note these).

Finally there is Group ATOL’s. Both myself and Lee are covered by these.

What this means is for example, the TTA apply for a group ATOL then a member applies to use that License and sells the seats under the TTA ATOL instead of there own. Each year number agents covered by these grows. So an agent that had it own ATOL last year will not renew but instead use a group ATOL. (There is a lot of money to be saved as an ATOL is expensive for a few people but gets cheaper per person the larger the license).

Finally the list also includes company’s that are no longer Trading, so are not there to sell holidays anyway.

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Clive | 9 April, 2009 at 2:19 pm

Thanks Nick for the clarification that was very useful.

I think most people, if they check at all will be just looking for the ATOL logo, however I know that the CAA provides a link where you can check if your company is covered. I have put the link on my site as I dont think it is widely publicised. However what happens if an agent or one of these umbrella sell more than their quota of setat and then fails. Who picks up the tab?

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Darren Cronian | 9 April, 2009 at 7:05 pm

@ Nick

Yes, in agreement with Clive, thank you for the clarification. I wasn’t going to write the post but I think it’ll be useful to any consumers reading the blog. Whilst I didn’t want to cause panic I do think that it’s important to check the ATOL.

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Nick | 11 April, 2009 at 9:59 am

Clive,

When a booking is made a ATOL invoice is issued by ATOL Holder, this checks that overselling does not occur, in the same way as any other transaction with any other ATOL company.

the link to check an ATOL is
http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=490&pagetype=65&appid=2

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A Atkin | 12 April, 2009 at 2:29 pm

I am wanting to book at £3,000 holiday for sept. The company is Destinology and is an internet based company. They have a ATOL number which i have chekced and indeed they are registered. They are not registered with ABTA and it says on their web site as they are internet they do’nt need to be?
1 is that true
Is my money safe?
they are asking for 800.00 deposte which is not the norm for a hol in sept?
I will pay by credit card but want to make sure i am safe?

Thanks

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debbie | 17 April, 2009 at 4:53 pm

hi darren the airline we was flying with was olympic and i seen the holiday on their web page and phoned to book it the transfers where included in the overall price we were due to fly 15/6/09 we dont seem to have a atol number on any conformation letters we have been sent flight times accomodation vouchers and transfer vouchers the holiday was booked with freedom direct but the conformation letter says we was flying with olympic airlines sorry this is all jumbled up im so upset not knowin whats going to happen

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