Hi Darren,
Now the website has been replaced with a short letter about the closure and the brands affected :
Freedomdirect.co.uk
Freedom-direct.co.uk
Snowdeals.co.uk
Holidaysyoulike.co.uk

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Do you know whether we will get a full refund if they close as we have paid in full and are to leave in a couple of months?

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We booked a hotel and flight with Freedom Direct towards the end of March. Why were we not told that this company was struggling financially?

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Have you ever tried to tell your 8 year old son that he will not be going on holiday next week? My wife and I had to do that tonight. As you can imagine he was upset and both of us are devastated.

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I am due to fly out in 4 weeks time with my family and also my sister and brother-inlaw and only found out today when trying to book another seat that something wasn’t right but have tried all night to get through on phone lines and getting nowhere, as you can
imagine absolutely gutted as have paid all money upfront and can’t afford to pay all that money out again – so very very disappointed family.

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How can this happen??????

I booked our holiday accommodation with Freedom Direct and the flight with EasyJet. Will we get all of our money back? Help please!

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how come i only booked my holiday lastweek, we only had booking confirmation today i tried to go on the website tonight to see if i could find out which terminal we WAS going from we dont seem to have a atol number on our conformation letter but we do have a abta number can you please tell me which number i have to ring tomorrow i hope you can help

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Why NO INFORMATION about this??

Your website is the only one found. A friend checked the ATAL website and he could not find Freedom Holidays. Why? They booked us a flight and hotel how do we know if its a package holiday?

I am not sure who to call.

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we booked with freedom direct in february, we were due to travel the 21st may, the flights are with fly thomas cook, hotel with hotels4u also transfers with transfers4u, they are all part of the thomas cook group, can anybody help me what number do i phone caa or apta, im so confused cant stop shaking with sadness and anger, only just found out, thanks

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In regards to Tony Richardson above. Do you have any idea what it’s like to tell your wife and kids that you no longer have a job. Believe me a holiday would be the last of my worries. Telling them that the roof over their heads is more of a problem is my greater worry.

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Darren – keep up the great work keeping everyone informed.

Couple of points….. not sure what kind of products Freedom Direct sold – but if it is mainly summer bookings – then this is a really bad time to fail – as there will be a great number of booked (Jan / Feb / Mar) that are yet to travel (as planning to travel in May / June / July). A lot of disappointed people.

Completely different to the XL failure (early Sept) where there was probably less exposure to untravelled bookings. XL was a big problem with people currently abroad who needed to be flown back (an additional benefit of ATOL bonding is that repatriation is organised for you)

Also, if it takes X months for consumers to get their money back – they are going to have to find the money for their replacement holiday from other funds on the working assumption that they will have their money repaid. Not exactly ideal.

I agree – ABTA / CAA should have an emergency site they can put up on these occasions. They can hardly say this is a one off

This isn’t official advice. I am just a travel technology guy.

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Darren,

This has the potential to be more of a story / issue than XL (depending if my ideas about booking timings is right)…. but also only when consumers realise what has happened. They won’t know they ought to be disappointed quite yet – they will still be hoping it will work out OK and that money will come through and a replacement holiday may be available.

Many probably are not even aware yet as it will take a day or two – then a postal day – for any official information to go out.

They weren’t a small business either. Bad news for everyone involved – consumers, staff, resorts and travel technology providers. No one has monopoly on feeling bad about this.

Don’t be too negative on CAA / ATOL – the renewals process appears (from reports) to have instigated this failure – which pretty much means the process works. Without having a single clue about anything official – this may actually, once the fog of war has calmed down, be looked upon as a success of the ATOL system. Of course it may not feel like that to those involved on the coal face and who have suffered loss and I apologise for moving into “analysis mode” while the news is still fresh.

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Sorry to hear this news. Not surprised though. I was wondering when these kinds of things would start happening. Conquest, a tour operator for over 30 years in Canada, shut down yesterday in a similar manner to Freedom’s. There are Canadian travellers stranded in various places. A group of Canadians in Cancun, Mexico, were told to pony up $1,000 dollars or leave the premises. Sorry for the employees as well.
-
But we shall not lose faith. There will be an economic recovery and hopefully responsible leaders who will regulate the financial industry the way it should be regulated to avoid the crises they generated.
-
Jaime

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Darren

Few points, it is not legal to say a financial protected company is in trouble, for 2 reasons, before this rule a company was brought down that was not in trouble by rumors that it was and secondly a company that maybe borderline (there has been a lot) have survived because people did not know.

Notes to help.

1) ATOL if you book flight and another element and have a ATOL invoice you are covered.
(ATOL publish claim forms day after failure on there website, or as soon as they can)

2)If you have accommodation only or any other holiday without flight, Freedom is a ABTA member, so if you have an ABTA invoice then contact cega on 01243 621500 or e-mail abtaclaims@cegagroup.com.

3) If you have paid in full, you can check with the suppliers of the holiday, eg airline and hotel company (if you have vouchers) and see if they have been paid. In which case your holiday will go ahead.

NB. An ATOL or ABTA invoice is any document issued by a company with your holidays details and costing on it and the relevant logo. Some holidays have been sold separately for example Easyjet flights, then hotel. In these cases if you have your flight tickets, this will be a ABTA claim, or check with your hotel company if you have there details. This information is a guide only and will depend on your booking, read both ABtA’s and the CAA ATOL websites.

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Why there is not a standard closing page. The CAA is government controlled and ABTA has it hands tied by the government and they are not allowed to act in any matters that are commercial, such as this. A suggestion has been made to the government, so maybe will have some effect in years to come.

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hi darren i phoned freedom direct freephone number to book it was a flight and hotel then the transfers last the flight was with olympic airlines we were due to travel on 15/6/09 for 2weeks we paid in full we only recieved the conformation yday we dont have a atol number on anything i dont know if thats a package or not i got all the info off line then phoned them ive tried abta number but they sayin try tour operator but we not got any numbers for them thank you debbie

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For those who will be looking to claim, if you have paid by credit card and IF the advice from the CAA is to go via your credit card company to claim (this is very likely) then you could well be paid out pretty quickly indeed.

Once you have confirmation from the CAA that this is the process you should follow (hopefully they will update their website soon) then give your credit card company a ring. They will probably ask you to claim in writing at which point there’s a good template letter here:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases#how

Those who paid by another method may be in for a bit more of a wait however if the claims process is similar to previous failures then there aren’t too much paperwork to do. If you are claiming you will need to get photocopying your tickets, invoices and any supporting information for payments made. The CAA will probably want original documents whereas your credit card company should be fine with copies.

This would be the page to watch on the CAA site:

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1052&pagetype=87

Has there been an Appointment of Administration? If not is there a timescale that needs to happen in?

@ Pauline it’s probably going to be the CAA you need to contact in the first instance, via the number on the holidaysyoulike.com site. Although it took about 2 hours for me to get through on their XL number recently!

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Darren

New information for all holidays has been provided by the government today.

http://direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/TravellingAbroad/BeforeYouTravel/DG_175232

As to the rest, helpful, it a mess and the industry have told this government from day one it is a mess. From the inside all that seems to happen is they make it worse, they have not taken on board one suggestion on how to make things easier.

Simply put with the Internet one company can now at a a ATOL tour operator/ Non ATOL bonded tour operator/ a bonded agent/an unbonded agent and a introducer….. how can anyone tell….???? ………. This is the mess we find ourselves in, worse because the government has not made the law clear that 6 years after ATOL guidelines where put in place we still do not know who right about the ATOL scheme.

As to the information on there website, it is clear and easy to understand. The other advantage in this case (not all are like this) is Freedom protected there customers with ATOL or ABTA, so everyone is covered.

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The CAA have a page up now with more detail:

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1052&pagetype=90&pageid=10633

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@DEBBIE

Olympic airlines (different to Olympic holidays) is not a tour operator, if your booked on them flight numbers start with Letters OA, then you will need to contact ATOL.

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Hi. I am from the BBC. if there are any Freedom Direct passengers worried about whether they will get refunds who would be willing to talk to me later this afternoon i’d be very grateful — please email me on dominic.laurie @bbc.co.uk — thank you

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The CAA said Freedom Direct would have enjoyed a ‘period of grace’ of ATOL protection for around three months. “If a company does not renew its ATOL it would have a period of grace where we would still continue to hold a bond and customers would be ATOL protected,” said the spokesman.

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I was due to fly to Turkey on Sunday with freedomdirect.co.uk This is the second time in 8 months as i was supposed to go with XL in October. I have managed to rebook the same turkey holiday with a company called holidayclick.co.uk at £100 per person more than i orginally paid:(..Luckily i have just received my refund from my October trip so i would say to all of those effected you will get your money back….eventually!

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Don’t know if this helps, I have booked accommodation only with Freedom Direct. I contacted the number on their website and was advised to contact my supplier “Hotels4u.com”. I did this and they confirmed my booking from my paperwork.,however, no payment had been made by Freedom Direct. They did tell me that all might not be lost and took my phone details as they would know more later next week and would call me back. Worst case scenario is this, no payment made so I have to make a claim to ABTA and then re-book direct with “Hotels4u” (ok I have to pay again, but at least my room booking will be safe for that date) Hopefully that’s not the case will post again when I get a reply from Hotels4u

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Please can you help i booked my holiday and just paided for it in full on the 6 of april,i have been on the website and its says that ATOLwas not with freedom direct from the 1st, will i still get my money back, we are so gutted it is unreal my children are teenagers and so upset how can they do this to people, they only text my phone on the 1st to tell me to pay it in full straight away how did they not no this was going to happen.

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hi darren im sorry about this but i have just looked at my conformation again and it sayin that my flight numbers are pgt482 going out and pgt 481 coming back the whole amount of money was taken out on 11/4/09 we still in limbo we dont know who to contact (apart from you)

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We had booked our honeymoon, due in 8 weeks. We also had made full payment which Freedom Direct choose to pay for our flights directly with Easy jet…by doing this they have now made our accommodation and transfer booking as a “non-air booking” (as per ATOL Crisis Management Information sheet – and telephone confirmation with ABTA). This now means that Freedom Direct are NOT protected by either ATOL/ABTA or CCA – therefore we have lost all our accomodation money but do have active flights that we now need to book accomodation. Our only hope for compensation is via our credit card company – who currently are not being very co-operative and say “we may be compensated, depending on the claim being processed”…Thank you Freedom Direct!!!

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Myself and 3 other family members, one of them my 82 year old Mother, have flights and accommodation booked with Freedom Direct and we were due to travel on 16th May 2009.

I took out “Supplier Failure Cover” at a smal additional cost, via Freedom Direct, with Rock Insurance Services Limited, at the time of booking. I tried to ring them this evening when I heard about Freedom Direct ceasing to trade, but was unable to speak to anyone who could help me. I was told to ring back on Monday between 9 and 5.

I then contacted the airline and they have confirmed our flights are fully paid for and are still valid.

I e-mailed the hotel and asked them to confirm our booking is valid, then, I noticed our accommodation is booked through another party called Holiday Brokers, Part of On Holiday Group (UK) Ltd. I have e-mailed them asking them to confirm our booking is still valid. I hope I get a quick response but If it turns out that it’s not valid, I’m unsure if we will get on holiday as I don’t know if the insurance company will be able to provide an alternative accommodation in time. I don’t even know if the insurance covers Freedom Direct going into liquidation, I think it may be cover for the airline or accommodation provider only.

Lots of unanswered questions for a lot of people but if your holiday is supposed to be in the next month or so, check your documents and e-mail/telephone anyone you think may be able to help.

Shortly after I booked this holiday in October last year, Freedom Direct were offering free “Supplier Failure Cover” to anyone booking flights and or accommodation with them. Again, check your documents, you may have this and not be aware of it.

I do have a lot of sympathy for the employees of Freedom Direct. They are often the last to know that the company is in difficulty. The company my husband and I work for is really struggling. I can’t sleep for the worry of us both being out of work together so I can imagine how they must feel.

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re: Debbie | 17 April, 2009 at 9:33 pm, my previous rant.

To: Sue | 18 April, 2009 at 12:24 am – yes I can confirm that our accommodation too was done through a third party, On Holiday – i did manage to speeak to them yesterday and they confirmed that they had not been paid from Freedom Direct and were in the process of cancelling all accommodation booked via them – I could however book the accommodation again through them at the same price. They did notify me about the Supplier Failure Cover policy, as they are not ABTA or ATOL bonded – and we wish we were advised of this at the time of our original booking – but at the time we thought we were booking a package holiday and would be protected.
To: Darren Cronian | 17 April, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Our accommodation was charged on my credit card by Freedom Direct, although as my paragraph above explains this was then sold on to On Holiday. Regarding ABTA and ATOL – ATOL state that because of the way payment was taken from my credit card it became a non-air bookin and Freedom Direct did not have a bond to cover these transactions therefore they will not deal with the claim, and that is the same reply I got from ABTA – just hopeful the credit card comes through…

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we booked our hols to travel to egypt in July. mt partner was just about to pay the full balance on wednesday night when we realised after going on website they had ceased trading. luckily we had only paid a deposit of just under £500. we had paper work and i phoned the tour operator libra hols who the flight had been booked with. luckily the flight was still booked and our deposit had been paid to them, we were told we could pay libra hols the full remaining balance on our flights and confirmation was sent through today!. after trying for what seems like hours i got through to the company who the accommodation was booked through (again we had paperwork stating who this was booked through somewhere2stay with a booking ref) they told me that our reservation was still valid and again if we paid them the remaining balance it would be ok to still travel in July. all in all we have only lost our transfers and discount we were offered from Freedom Direct. my advice to people in the same boat if you have any sort of paperwork with names of companies on ie allbury travel, somewhere2stay and relevant ref numbers all might not be lost. persevere and good luck!!!

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@Darren, it is complicated, isn’t it? I agree.

This is because they were 1)selling their own package holidays under their own ATOL. 2)selling components as an ATBA agent (and may have been considered a package holiday to the public when they booked). Thus avoiding a large ATOL bond to the CAA protecting all passengers.

ABTA’s website about failures: http://www.abta.com/consumer-services/travel_problems/ceased_trading

The government really need to do something to improve regulations on travel websites where agents are selling holiday components (flight plus accommodation) that are not protected, but are considered by the public at the time of booking along with many others (like the CAA) to be a package holiday.

If you are concerned for the future, I do suggest you consider this (not easy to do online), if you book over the phone ask before you book ‘is this a PACKAGE holiday’ and ‘is it protected by ATOL?’ If you’re told your flight is covered, beware, this is not a package holiday and your ‘whole holiday’ will NOT be protected.

@Sue – “Supplier Failure Cover” will cover airline failure or other third party providers become insolvent. I don’t believe it will cover in the event of the failure of a booking agent.
Maybe someone could advise on that.

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i booked our holiday for me and my wife in january and paid it in full.when travelling to work on friday like so many others i read about freedom direct and was in total shock,as this has not happened to us before i was running round like a headless chicken not knowing what to do,luckerly for us our flight had been paid for and confirmed(easyjet)and can still fly.but we had to borrow a large amount of money to rebook our hotel as we had no idea of what to do or who to talk to,i need to find out who to talk to and how to get our money back.

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Darren/Debbie

You may be correct about your accommodation meaning you have to make a claim from your credit card, same as the CAA will say. (This is due to the number of credit card companies not signing authentication for CAA etc. to handle the claims like they used to) but Freedom was both a Bonded tour operator and agent with ABTA, so no matter how you paid as long as you have a confirmation you money is safe.

@ Sue, the free supplier failure was other by all agents of the On holiday group. Looking at my information it does not cover the agent, but everything else down the line. However On Holiday group is a member of ABTA so they should protect your “pipeline” monies.

(Pipeline means monies collected by an agent that have not reached the supplier)

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For All,

If you have to make a ATOL/ABTA claim and you know the company has still got your accommodation, ask that company is they are accepting assignments instead of paying again.

this is advice for people who do not have an invoice with ATOL number 9740 on it. If your invoice shows this number contact the CAA.

If you have booked a holiday or other travel arrangements with Freedom acting as an agent for another ABTA member, Which you can check by reading your paperwork and receipts from freedom. You should if you booked more than 2 weeks from the failure have a invoice from the company your holiday is with. Then the following advice from ABTA applies.

What Happens if Your Travel Agent Ceases to Trade?

If you’ve made your booking through a travel agent, it’s important that you obtain and keep all the paperwork referred to above. This will show that you have a booking with the relevant holiday company.

You should contact the holiday company to make sure that the booking is in place. If it is, then your travel arrangements should continue unaffected.

In the unlikely event that your travel agent has failed to make your booking with a travel company you should contact your credit card company if you paid by credit card. If you didn’t pay by credit card, contact our claims enquiries office for advice and assistance. Contact: ABTA Claims, PO Box 127, Metro House, Northgate, Chichester PO18 8WQ, Tel: 01243 621 500.

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with regard to them flight numbers i gave you yesterday i have just phoned them they are saying that they got no recolection of our flights they said its a charter flight and gave me a number in marmaris to contact also on the letters we have had there is only a flight number and a departure date its not saying where from i have been trying to phone caa they just giving me a website address http://www.atol.org.co.uk ive been on that do you think that we are right to put in a claim at this stage does any more people know of any other numbers to get in contact with thank you

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Have not seen anyone affected by the demise mentioned above but living and working for a realtor/rental agent/relocation service in Panama we see snafu’s like this from time to time. We tend to recommend that people use travel services to plan and then make their reservations directly with the airline, cruiseline, etc.

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Hi, I actually booked a holiday through freedom direct last wkend on 12th April an had no idea they were ging to go bust. There was no mention of this on the web site at the time of booking. But I am really shocked because it is reported that freedom direct restricted from selling holidays after end of march as they were no longer ATOL protected, but yet last wkend they had over £1500 from me. I used my credit card but am unsure of whether I will be entitled to any money back. There is no advice for me, please is anyone else in the same situation? I have been sent an ATOL reciept from Avro travel, but that is all.

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Her’s an update to my previous post earlier today about my booking of flights and accommodation with Freedom Direct.
Holiday Brokers (part of On Holiday Group) who Freedom Direct booked our accommodation with are not ABTA/ATOL bonded but On Holiday Group are (ABTA No: L3315).
I e-mailed Holiday Brokers and received this reply:

Please note that we are not a travel agent and we are not ABTA bonded.
On Holiday Group Accomodation act as an agent on behalf of the hotel. Freedom direct have booked your accomodation through On Holiday Group Accomodation however Freedom Direct have not paid for the reservations they had booked with us.
All Freedom direct bookings have now been cancelled in our system because of this.
You will need to contact ABTA and supply them with Freedom Directs ABTA number or your credit card company to reclaim your money lost.
You can make another booking through On Holiday Group Accomodation however I cannot confirm that the cost of the booking will be the same or even available.
If you chose to make another booking with us direct you will need to make payment today.

Kind Regards

On Holiday Group Agency Support

I rang Holiday Brokers today and spoke to an advisor called Jack. He told me the same thing about not being paid by Freedom Direct and about the ABTA bonding. I asked what was the normal procedure for receiving payment from Freedom Direct and I was told they were usually paid either once the holiday commenced or even when the holiday was over. I find this difficult to believe. Does this mean the hotel wouldn’t get paid until after our stay? “Having the wool pulled over my eyes” comes to mind!!. Also, If they are not ABTA bonded, what is their ABTA Number L3315 for?
I’ve not been able to make contact with ABTA or ATOL as the office is open Monday to Friday only.
Barclaycard have told us they can raise a dispute against our payments, but this may result in our flight being cancelled. As we still want to use our flights, they advised us to wait until after the holiday.
I had paid Freedom Direct an additional fee for the supplier failure cover and this fee is shown on my invoice, although I am still under the impression that it will only cover the airline or acommodation going bust, not the agent. (Freedom Direct).
Now I’m not sure of how to proceed. We can rebook our accommodation direct with the hotel at around the same price, but by using the flights, I wonder if it would affect the claim we make for the loss of money for the accommodation?
RMTare the insolvency accountants dealing with the liquidation of Freedom Direct. Their web address is http://www.r-m-t.co.uk but they don’t have anything more to say than is now on Freedom Direct’s web page.
This is so frustrating and there doesn’t seem to be any information out there to help.

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I have booked a hotel for 7 days through freedom direct (unfortunately at about 1 am 1st of April! The price was £89 and paid via debit card. I have my reciepts etc however not sure if its valid or its possible to get my money back. It says on the email that they were working on behalf of hotels4u.

Anyone give me any help i’m a confused student!

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if you have received your flight e-ticket via e-mail then your flights should still be ok but it is worth checking with the firm that booked the hotel if this has been paid up front. if it hasn’t then try & rebook with them & claim the cost when you get back. this is what i’m having to do but fortunately for me the hotel only cost £80.00

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I booked flight only with Thomson,thru Freedom Direct last Sunday and payed £200 deposit.I have received confirmation and a copy of the invoice,and when the final payment is due,but there is nothing about my deposit I Payed with my Debit Card.What i need to know is were i stand

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i have booked accomodation only with freedom direct and there supplier was low cost travel group i have been informed by low cost travel they have not recieved any payments from freedom direct for the last 8 months.i have my voucher fro low cost but they say is no good because they have not recieved any payments.after speaking to abts they advised that supplier should still honour holiday because they entered into a contract and thats how agency law works but low cost travel said because they have not recieved no money they broke the contract.i dont no where i stand as i paid by debit card

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its distgusting that anybody can just pinch peoples money that people have workd hard for and saved all year if i went into a shop and pinched a packet of crisps i would be prosecuted its terriable and i hope like myself we can go on our well deserved holidays and would love to know where all our bloody money as gone

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i,ve booked my holiday begining of march to go to tunisia and we due to fly out on sunday 26th april 09 this weekend,we have firstchoice flights which we have the tickets for throw the posts all the hotel information and transfer information which was sall booked seperat so will it be still ok to go this weekend or should i check but not sure whoto call

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its so strange the day they go bust they send all ur documents out to u, i have booked to go in aug and have paid £1000 deposit they basicaaly sais to me is if u paid and it went to freedom direct then u are protected but if u paid and it went seperatly to the airline then accom then u would have to ring the hotel u was meant to be staying in, so i done that and the manager said we would have to pay £175 a night to stay there, i just thing freedom direct had a £48 million turnover last year and they have gone bust , strange, i hope we all get our money back

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hi we bked to go to hurghada 30th june for 8 of us flights were with thomas cook and accomadation with hotels 4u. after spending the whole weekend ringing both companies, weve been told that freedom direct has only paid 600 pounds to thomas cook and nothing of our accomadation. so we have no alternative to cancel and waite for our money back as our holiday was 3,500. and the most frustrating thing is this was our family holiday for some years an we worked hard to find the suitable accomadation etc as we are taking our disabled 9 yr old son with us. i am so frustrated to think they have left us in the lurch without a care in the world!!. good luck to everybody.

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one other thing does anybody have any idea of the time we will be waiting for a refund? thanks.

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I also booked a holiday through Freedom Direct on 11th April, and am worried because i believe they did not have the ATOL/ABTA number from 1st April, can i still claim any money back? Is the easier to claim my money back from my credit card company?

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Freedom Direct

Did have an ATOL, under the CAA grace period, so booking made on this are covered.

Also Freedom did have a retail ABTA license up to the 16th April.

There is a question here about On Holiday group, what they are saying about not taking the money till departure is correct, this is because agents would not provided an unbounded company with monies, so this is the route they took. If you have an accommodation booking (one without flights) and paid by credit card separately to your flights then dispute the transaction with you credit card company. If you paid by other methods contact ABTA.

The other question on here is how long do claims take, well once the administrators have handed over the details, claim forms are then sent out normally within a week, you then complete and return to the correct address, then depending on how busy they are it normally takes 4-6 weeks for payment to be made if all documents are correct. (keep in mind that the CAA are still dealing with XL), which was like 6 months of companies failing in one go.

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is’nt it about time,holiday companies,who have taken peoples money,instead of passing on the burden of rebookig and reclaiming monies,to thier customers,actually take some responsibility and sort out the problems they have caused .
we have accomodation booked in spain,with this company,for july 09,the booking was made in november last year.
we have not caused ”the problem”,be it bad business,or whatever
i am sure that holiday companies,would not accept,the public to pay for thier holiday on arrival.
yet we have to pay months in advance,to unbelievably,have NO holiday.
WHY DO PEPLE HAVE TO PUT UP WITH BUYING A BUS TICKET WHEN THERE IS NO BUS ?????

has our appartment dissapeared into the sea,why cannot we stay at where we booked,or indeed has the room never been booked………….5 months in the booking.
abta have informed us they cannot help,and have mentioned ”the small claims court”.
ONCE AGAIN WHY DO WE HAVE TO PUT UP WITH SUCH INCONVIENIENCE/INCOMPETENCE.
DO THESE PEOPLE JUST GO HOME IN THIERE BMW’s and pass ”the problem” onto everyone else

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been advised by abta that accomodation through a different person should be honoured i just phoned low cost tracel who confirmed they will not honour my booking so where next if you ask me there passing the ball on to each other i booked last year in august so they were abta protected then so why the hell is abta doing NOTHING

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update phoned Thomsons Holidays head office,finance dept on 01243621500, gave them my booking reference. I was told to send them my booking reference and a copy of my bank statement showing details of my payment to Freedom Direct, and they would claim my deposit back and deduct it from my final payment, They told me they were honouring all booking and not to worry, and would keep me updated. Also told me they had no record of people who had booked with Freedom Direct, so until people contacted them they could do nothing, so give them a ring

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An update on my story. I rang Rock Insurance this morning who could not give me any answers as to whether I was covered to make a claim with them. They told me to ring ABTA and make a claim with them.
I rang ABTA and they at first told me that Holiday Brokers should honour my accommodation booking.
Holiday Brokers said they wouldn’t as they are not ABTA bonded.
I rang ABTA back, got a different person who agreed Holiday Brokers will not honour the booking because of not having an ABTA bond.
Rang Rock Insurance who eventually rang back at 4.20pm to say I can make a claim on the insurance policy and to ring Europe Assistance.
Rang Europe Assistance who told me if I make a claim it will be for the original cost of the accommodation, not for the replacement cost which is £108.00 more if I re-book today. Also, the policy excess of £50.00, is per person, meaning I will lose out on £308.00 of the accommodation costs. This insurance is not worth the paper it’s written on!!
Because my flights are with Jet2 and have been fully paid, I wanted to still use them but ABTA suggested as my first payment covered all of the flights and a deposit for the accommodation, it may be safer if I re-book both flights and accommodation and claim the whole of the original amount paid to Freedom Direct, back from Barclaycard. The flights are now £187.00 more than I originally paid, so whichever way I go, I am going to lose out.
I’m frustrated to say the least!!
I live only a few miles from Freedom Direct offices and the local Chronicle newspaper are asking for people affected by Freedom Direct, to get in touch. I have spoken to Tom Mullen at the Chronicle newspaper and he says if they can get a big story together, it could push the liquidators into releasing funds to assist those who are losing out.
Anyone who wants to try this or just wants to have their say can contact this newspaper on the following e-mail address: tom.mullen@ncjmedia.co.uk

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I have downloaded a claim form from the ATOL website but it says i am required to provide at least 1 original document confirming my contract with freedom direct. I only booked last week and no documents have come through (and are unlikely now). All i have is my email booking confirmation. Does anyone know whether this will be valid? I am really worried i may not be able to claim anything back.

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I was going out on 27/04/2009 for 2 weeks. I read the sun paper and read Freedom Direct went bust. I paid £1800 for 4 adults.

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I found out on Saturday that FD had went belly up. (for want of a few better words)

We tried and failed as everything was closed, (why wasn’t there at least a recorded message with more than this office is only open Mon-Fri?)

We contacted our credit card company, who said we were to go through the ATOL/ABTA route and if we didn’t get any satisfaction, then they would deal with it.

I finally got through to:
ABTA 01243621500- who gave me the *wrong* number to contact Thomas Cook liquidation. They were only giving out more ‘phone numbers, which were extremely busy, 2 and a half hours constant ringing.

CAA 02074536350 – Girl there gave me really good advice. Basically it was, if I had paid for everything directly to FD and *not* the airline/hotelI should be fine, regarding the flights, not so sure on the hotel.
CAA’s official line is *DON’T GO* and reclaim the full amount.
Though if you’re flights are paid for (contact airline), you may still be able to travel, and rebook your accomodation.
They are sending out a claim form.

THOMAS COOK LIQUIDATION 01733416193 – This number is operated by 1 (yes 1 person) and the mail box gets filled rather quickly. Although when I did eventually get through, it sounded like they had roped in someone from god only knows where!
He took my details and said he will contact me, and that it looks like I should have my flights as I have a reference number. (?)

HOTELS4U.COM 08448754401 – this was initially straight onto an answerphone/mailbox. The girl called me back within half an hour or so (I was ‘holding on ABTA’ at the time) and as I had phoned them, they now had my details, and as soon as ABTA had confirmed what they were to do, they would get back in contact with me, but couldn’t tell me if they were paid or not.

We also took out the Suppliers failure insurance and according to the Rock Insurance website, it looks like you are getting insurance for agents going bust, but I may have gave up and read what I wanted to see.

Fingers crossed we’ll be going to Turunc in October.
If not it’ll be a soggy tent in the middle of the field out the back door! LOL

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hi i,m due to fly 9th may,booked hotel,flights and transfers with freedom direct but not sure whether it was sold as a package.it does say fdhl air inclusive package amongst the other provider details but i cant find an atol number.any suggestions please.thanks lisa

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has any body got there e-tickets to go can you help me on birthday some say you can go some say you cannot go i go on 27/04/2009 to turkey

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Booked last november to go to majorca in september. After spending hours on the phone think i have the information i need. I booked flights,accommodation and transfers all seperate. The flight is with Jet2 who tell me has been fully paid by freedom direct but the accommodation provider YouTravel.com have not been paid any money from freedom. YouTravel.com say i can rebook the hotel as a new booking then claim back what i had paid to freedom direct. CAA advise to claim everything back and not travel but why when flights have been paid. Very confused.

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were going the spanish grand prix, booked with freedom and our hotel supplier is hotels 4u have called them and they said its booked but not paid for but abta said they are legaly bound to honour the holiday as they are the supplier….also contacted the hotel and they said as long as i hve the voucher then its fine ,,, but i only have an e-mail voucher and they want original
any help would be great

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So,so sorry for everybody.Why hasn’t someone got a website where we can all get the answers we need quickly and correctly?Thank goodness for this one.I was clueless with what to do.I’m not sure i’ve done the right thing,but have not cancelled my holiday,(its only my second holiday with my sons and it’s his 18th).I phoned the airline direct(who were great) and also the hotel where we’re staying.Neither have been paid,yet the airline said they had confirmation and would honour my booking and claim from Freedom Direct themselves and the hotel will keep my rooms but I will have to pay again and hope to claim the money back.I felt a lot better for contacting both directly but have no idea whether this will still work out yet.Ive also no idea what specifically i’m covered for by Rock insurance as I’d not yet received the policy and whether I can somehow transfer this to help me now.I know I should have taken more care but never thought we’d,like all of us would end up in this position.I have an awful feeling things might still backfire and I end up with no compensation from Atol either now.I’ve had to borrow the money to ‘repay’the hotel and am stretched to way over my limit.It’s just my sons birthday and I can’t let him down.Really feel for everyone here,so good luck and let us know how you get on.

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i rang abta today and they advised me that our accomodation should be honoured by the operator even if they have not recieved payment from freedom direct because that is agency law so i spoke to operator who said they will NOT be honouring any bookings so i rang abta who told me that if they were not willing to honour our booking then we would lose ALL money paid.I asked if we were abta protected and they said we were but could not claim because operator should honour booking so nobody is offering to sort out anybodys holidays by the looks of things.I have spent all day on phone with abta lostcost holidays and rmt administrators and whoever you phone say you need to speak to others its like there passing the ball on.I booked because i was told i was fully abta protected but abta are not will to pay so who the hell is gunna because they cant just take peoples money like that i would say that is THEFT and i feel nobody is going to get a penny back CHEERS for whoever is responsibe because people have had to work hard all year for there holidays to have them taken away like that is a total JOKE robbing Bastards do they know what they have done to my kids and other peoples and where is all the money well something needs to be done and it needs to be done by ABTA if you ask me because there the ones named in this but are doing NOTHING but saying speak to operator they SHOULD honour your booking there is adifference between SHOULD and WONT

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help……… really confused now spent most of yesterday on the phone… as im sure most of you have. what i,be been told to do by most operators is to go ahead with the holiday and pay for it myself and then claim it back? is that the right thing to do? really really unsure of what to do….. the caa have sent me a claim pack out which i have filled now filled in… but would appreciate any advice or is anybody else considering doing the same? is that safe to do?

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See there’s lots of concern regarding accommodation. I two am waiting on Hotels4U. What’s the point in having agency law if companies just refuse to honour what I believe to be a binding contract. What are ABTA doing? Buck passing springs to mind. Waiting for them to contact me will post again when I know what their plans are or are’nt.

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@Amanda, Thomas Cook only has 1 person because this deals with travel agents going under, normally around 1 per week and maybe 100 bookings. Freedom has caused 1000′s of bookings.

@Lisa, it is unlikely you booked under Freedoms ATOL, however the e-mail confirmation if you did will be honored by the CAA. (look on it though to see it it mentions another company or ATOL number, if you can only find the number go to the CAA’s website to see who it belongs to)

@ Jim Walker, you advice is a bit backward, because in this case everyone thought they where booking with a Tour Operator, if they had of been just an agent the monies would of been safer! What works in one country does not work in another.

@ Debbie, this is what the industry wants, but the government will not listen to us, write to your MP.

@ Rachel, if your dealing with a ABTA/ATOL company, this is the correct advice, but I would push them to accept a deed of assignment (remember you must get all the claim details to them before you travel for this to work)

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correction on my post regarding travel agents going under, I meant 1 per month (not week)

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i have just got my holiday back same hotel in fethiye same flights and transfers i will print phone numbers.01733417100.thomas cook.transfers hotel acd 084444820090.bthis is brokers number holidaynights.co.uk.good luck all

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hi i booked with freedom having same problem as the above but even my flight with thomascook we can still use them we need to do a name change but they are being very owkward and passing me to department to department no one at thomascook know who can do the name change any one else have probs doing a name change becouse freedom gone burst

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Anyone else going on holiday on the 27th April 2009, three days on the phone and stil dont know what happening with our holiday???

Thought we had booked a package holiday with FD, so spoke with ATOL. Then it works out FD paid flythomas cook with my CC for the flights (with whom have been un contactable for advice). Finally spoke to liquidators for about the 4th time and saif flights are booked and paid for – have to take them or no money refunded.

Spoke to ABTA sai youtravel.com must honour the booking FD made for us, who are now disputing this and say we have to pay again for our accmodation and transfers – then claim it back.

Whats going on???? Six days till the holiday we booked and paid for in January , and we just get passed back and fourth from thomas cook, atol, abta, youtravel etc. . .

wish the company would offically declare themselve as ended then this may make things easier, check company house website for more details of this (http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/) trading standards/consumer direct for advice for when they do.

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yes i to got passed from pillaar to post ring this company ring that company. i have been told ring caa, abta,thomas cook and my hotel supplier. i did all of that and the final verdict as stated previously is my holiday has now been cancelled by the caa(not me). and i have sent my claim of to the them as i had all the relevant paperwork i hope!!!. and dont no if any body has checked but the flights have now gone up our original flights cost 2,240 they are now 3.240????. but thomas cook have responded by saying if we wish to book flights with them on the date we had originally, they would give them to us for the same price and so have the supplier of the hotels, but obviosly the final costing to lay out again is still much higher as there is no discount now that was supplied to us from freedom direct!.

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I share the same experience a lot of poor buggers here – have confirmed flights but no accomodation despite paying in full only 2 weeks ago. Being shunted from pillar to post to find out who to claim from – currently £1,400 out of pocket. Paid by Direct Debit and spoke to bank to try and claim on this chargeback scheme- they advised to claim through t ATOL, they advised to speak to ABTA who sais hotels 4U should honour the accomodation through this so called UK agreement law !!! Abta advised to contact them at the end of this week – not sure if I’ll get any further forward however I will certaintely be giving it another try. Also contacted Rock Insurance as I had taken out ‘Supplier Failure Cover ‘ with FD and they are sending out a claim form, however there is an excess of £50/£75 per person. Might be my only option – good luck to all.

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Hi there, a group of 15 of us booked a package holiday with freedom direct due to fly out 19th July for a week to Zante. I made arrangements to get proof from my bank for payments made. However on contacting atol, the office confirmed that their legal team are looking into matters and some holidays may still be honoured. Could you please confirm this and would you recommend our group to book another holiday or wait for the verdict?

Thanking you in advance

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I have been on the phone for 3rd day in a row, spoke to ABTA who told me Avro and Youtravel have to honour my booking and that they then need to claim from ABTA (not me claiming from them). I then spoke to Avro who said as long as i provide them with proof of payment to Freedom Direct then they will honour flights. Just spoke to Youtravel who are not prepared to honour the booking unless i pay up again (ABSOLUTELY NO WAY) even though they know they can claim it back from ABTA. I am waiting for one of their managers to ring me back now. But i am a little apprehensive because the CAA advice is that all holidays have been cancelled by them. Who are we supposed to trust? I am due to travel in 4 weeks and dont know what to do for the best. I am sorry for everyone else in this situation and hope we all get it sorted eventually.

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sorry what is a deed of assignment?.

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ABTA today have told me there is nothing they can do for me anymore and I need to claim on my credit card. My housemate has spent the last 3 days on the phone to be told by Thomas Cook that as the payment has been made directly to them they are providing the flights – if we choose to not go on them we lose the money. ABTA said due to the flights being provided seperately by Thomas Cook (even though i booked everything with freedom) my holiday is a retail package and therefore under licensing law YouTravel have to provide the accomodation. YouTravel have been extremely unhelpful and as an end result refused. The transfer company taxitansfers.com have been advised by their solicitor to not honour any bookings. Therefore neither, despite the legal requirement neither company will provide the service. This is when ABTA decided to not help anymore!!!!

So from somewhere, somehow I need to find some money to book accomodation and transfers. All this in the hope that Thomas Cook liquidators were telling the truth in that there will be a flight for me to get on on monday. YouTravel has been extremely disppointing. Needless to say when Freedom Direct declare themselves bankrupt on Companies House i certainly will be asking Trading Standards to act against YouTravel!!!!

Fingers crossed my partner and I will be allowed on the plane on monday!!!!!!!!!

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As a further update to my previous posts. I booked accomodation only with Freedom and my tour operator was Hotels4u. I have been in touch this morning and been told to submit certain documents to prove my booking and payment. It looks like they’re going to honour my booking and claim back from ABTA. Just be wary, anyone in the same boat, Hotels4u will ask for a balance statement from Freedom saying you have paid in full. I was not in posession of that document and asked if a bank statement would suffice, to my horror they said it may not be acceptable to ABTA. I then contacted ABTA on the emergency number for Freedom customers and was told by a supervisor that copies of bank statements are acceptable provided the transaction, account holder name and account number are clearly visible. I have since forwarded the documentation to Hotels4u and pointed pointed out that ABTA have advised that bank statements are acceptable. Hope this of use to those of you in a similar situation. Watch this space and I’ll let you know the outcome…

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PS RMT are useless and can tell you nothing!!! Is there anyone out there who knows what happens to the transactional databse? Surely this would show who has paid what and when. It has been suggested to me that ABTA would have it. If so why all the fuss over documentation???

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in answer to olivia,s comments made on here today we too have spoken to abta today who told us the same thing as our suppliers of both flight and hotel are the same as your,s! and i agree with you that youtravel.com are very unhelpful and damn right rude we asked the same thing and they told us no way the conversation ended when they rudely stated they are not going to help us and put the phone down on us! rang abta back who have told me to leave things with them as we are not due to travel untill 30th june and hopefully buy then things would be sorted fully as to whom is going to houner what, as they have been in talks with you travel for 2 days. so i have to sit tight for a bit and play the waiting game….. but thomas cook liquidations are telling us that they have not recieved full payment for our flights! arghhhhh its so frustrating the lack of information and then being given numerous numbers to ring but no body has any answers. the most annoying thing is that it took me over 2 months to find this holiday as were a party of 8 but four of them are children and one disabled child in a wheelchair. you save for many years to be able to afford a holiday ,research is thoroughly so it meets your needs and then some travel company take it all away from you over night!

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my friend booking is with hotels 4 u and they are going to hounor her booking but mine is with lowcost travel who have cancelled my booking i told them they have to give me my holiday but they said they dont because they no longer have a contract with them i spoke to abta and they said there is nothing they can do to contact there administrators rmt they told me i can claim from them but would not get all money i paid and would take about 18months

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I am due to depart on 6th June for a two week hol, to my horror heard the horrific news. I have paid Freedom every last penny £1.3k.

Flights are with Thomas Cook
Accommodation are with OnHoliday
Transfers are with taxitransfers.co.uk

Spoke to Onholiday (Monday), process of cancelling all accommodation as not been paid.
Tried to speak to Thomas Cook, some guy took a message on Monday and said they would get back to me (no joy yet)
Spoke to ATOL Monday asked to email all documents I have so they can advise best plan of action.
Spoke to ATOL again today (Thurs) as heard nothing yet, told me not to cancel flights. Problem is I cant afford to pay for accommodation again, so I have written off the holiday and just want my money back. he asked who was my money paid to told them all money was to Freedom Direct, he said well you should have a claim then. Too right I have!!!

So the upshot is my holiday is not being honoured, but dont know what to do with regards the flights.

So in the realms of a waiting game at the moment

Depressed Gemma

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I thought i was getting somewhere yesterday, ABTA said flight company and Hotel company would have to honour my booking and claim back from them. Flight company agreed to do this but not youtravel, i agree they were quite rude when i spoke to them they said there was no way they were honouring it unless i pay again!!!!!!! Youtravel told me that my booking is classed as a package and atol would have to deal with it (but there is no FD atol number on my booking only ABTA number so i am not convinced. So I too am back to waiting to hear from ATOL to see if they will take responsibility for this mess. someone needs to. i feel like we have no rights whatsoever. i eventually spoke to consumer advice centre who told me to write a letter to all parties concerned requesting my money back by a certain date, i think that is incase i have to go down the legal route (ie small claims). I hope it doesnt come to that.

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Latest on my case: Youtravel rang me this morning, told me that my booking is classed as a package and atol would have to deal with it (but there is no FD atol number on my booking only ABTA number so i am not convinced). So I too am back to waiting to hear from ATOL to see if they will take responsibility for this mess. someone needs to. i feel like we have no rights whatsoever. i eventually spoke to consumer advice centre who told me to write a letter to all parties concerned requesting my money back by a certain date, i think that is incase i have to go down the legal route (ie small claims). I hope it doesnt come to that.

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Due to travel on 19/05/09 for a week to Sharm el Sheik with my wife and two kids. Paid the full amount at the time of booking. Heard news and panic started. Ahter making numerous phone calls to ATOL ABTA KISS Flights and MEDHotels since Friday last week, the end result is that Flights okay, have to re book the hotel by exrta funds, (all spending money gone) and when times come to calim ATOl, they want me to email all the paperworks from Freedom Direct to see if i have a valid claim or not. Also my invoice from Freedom Direct clearly says it was a pacakge holiday and we are protect by ATOL.

There are no clear guidelines from any where, whatsoever. which is to me is wrong.

My sympathies with all the people (staff , travellers and all other) who suffered with this collapse.

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Lisa, If you look on your booking confirmation document from Freedom Direct. It should says at the bottom of the page “Freedom Direct Package” under the heading of YOUR COSTING. Also if its a package it should follow by saying “Money paid for these arrangements is fully protected by ATOL protection. Our ATOL number is ATOL 9740.”
ATOL 9740 number applies to all the bookings, booked as a freedom direct pacakage.

Hope this helps you and others

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Hello,

We are currently awaiting financial records from our bank to process the ATOL claim.
- We booked our holiday last Oct-Nov 2008. We paid the deposit in 2 installments via credit card and direct debit. We currently live in the Irish republic, 2 minutes from the NI border. All of our amenities are in the north. We therfore booked a flight out of Belfast as this is our nearest airport. Sadly my wife has lost her job and I have had my hours severely cut with the threat of losing my job to close for comfort. We therefore contacted the company with a vie to POSTPONING the holiday. We was informed that we had to cancel. This is a direct contradiction to the companies terms and conditions where they advise that cancellation is possible with the relevant charges. Not happy with this we started to ring round. The airline company informed that a postponment and change of airport is achievable at a £35 per person charge. Freedom directs fee is advertised as £25 per person. Contacting the hotel and then the 2nd party accomodation supplier they told us they would have no charge. This £35+£25=£60 x 7 travelling = £420!!! acceptable for a delay to spread the cost. Why then was we told that we had to cancel and lose £1200+. And the beauty of this, we was told this info in the 3-4 weeks before the company going into administration. We are now going to put in the claim to the CAA once our bank details arrive. Hopefully we may get the money back and get a postpoment of sorts!!!!!!! but what rattles me is what we was advised by the company, surely thats not right. I will be putting a letter of such in to the CAA as well. I will leave my name as Mr Smith because at this point dont wnt to go giving names. Advice is appreciated.

Sadly my booking confirmation is no longer in my email account. Will my booking ref number be sufficient? I have a contact email from freedomdirect in relation to our request for change on the booking ref.

Gemma,

we went through this with the same companies a few weeks before the company went into administration. we was looking to postpone. my comments above!!
The monies may have been paid to the companies involved.
- we rang both and asked to speak to the supervisor. the flight company were able to acknowledge from our flight date and time + booking names what monies had been paid.
the 2nd party booking company was also able to tell me what the balance was. Its worth a try !!! hope it all works out for you

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abta or whomever should have in place,a system where if one of these agencies goes down the toilet, for whatever reason,greed or otherwise, thier books should be sorted by abta or whomever,and we the public 10,000 strong, who have paid for our tin of beans, do not end up all independantly, rootin round, phoning everyone, with the possibility of further debt,to put right the mistakes of an agency who took our money and purchased mars bars to the tune of ,i would guess well over 400,000 grand.

abta or whomever could then claim the entire debt from the greedy one !
WE the paying public could and should go about our holiday as planned.

Martin Jones, founder of Freedom Direct, the travel firm that collapsed last week leaving more than 10,000 holidaymakers facing an anxious wait to see if they have lost their bookings, borrowed £400,000 from the company’s coffers last year to buy a new house.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/failed-travel-boss-vows-to-pay-back-163400000-home-loan-1670786.html

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Important note to all

If you paid any money to Freedom by a UK issued credit card (does not matter how small) the credit card company is liable for the whole amount you have lost. (as long as the value of your booking is over £100 and under £30,000)

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£400,000 house well he should be selling and sorting our bloody holidays out

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We booked with Freedom Direct in January to go to Spain. The whole package was over £3000 and was paid in 2 chunks by VISA debit. I noticed on my bank statement that my flights were paid to EasyJet separately when the deposit was paid. ( even though my deposit was £800, £416 was paid directly to Easyjet using my card details, and the rest to FD as a holiday deposit). I paid the remaining £2100 two weeks ago again by Visa debit card to clear the balance. Then Friday 16th happened!!!
Monday morning i contacted the CCA to be told that even though that everything had been booked as a “package” that it was not ATOL protected, even though my booking states it is protected under the ATOL scheme. I phoned the accommodation provider, Holiday Brokers, who advised me that the accommodation had been can cancelled and gave me a price to rebook. I contacted APTA, explaining the situation and they advised me straight away to claim for the accommodation costs through the Bank as it was paid by VISA debit card and therefore the Credit Consumer Act should come into play. As previously mentioned, my flights with Easyjet are fully paid so I had no choice but to rebook the same accommodation by credit card through Holiday Brokers along with a new taxi transfer. I am now seriously out of pocket and have the long wait of trying to reclaim this money back from the bank / Visa / creditors but feel it could take a while to sort this mess out.
I will let you know how I get on. Good luck to everyone

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I too am out of pocket to the tune of 2,200 through 2 outstanding holidays. Abta, hotels4u and taxitransfers are just passing the buck. No one giving straight forward advice. I paid mine via visa debit card and have been on to Abbey about claiming through the charge back scheme. they will send out claim forms. Dont know where I stand though as she said it is past the 60 days. Does anyone know anything about this.

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To be fair to the taxi transfer and hotel companies, they haven’t been paid by Freedom Direct and will never be, so they have no choice but to cancel reservations. The accommodation firm i booked with, Holiday Brokers, said the FD normally paid them on the day of departure.
As far as I am aware, if your card is VISA, whether it be credit or debit you are protected by your consumer rights. I found this on the following website and it may explain a few things a little bit better
http://www.which.co.uk/advice/your-rights-when-paying-by-credit-card/chargeback-on-credit-and-visa-debit-cards/index.jsp

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Hi All,

If you all visit freedom direct website it cleary states what your position is. All monies is protected and all of you will get you money back

i realise it may take a while for you all to get all your monies back. I am sick of reading people slagging off freedom . They should be actually praised for ensuring that all monies were protected and nobody will lose a penny.

Unlike the me and my 108 colleagues who now without a living. Ring the numbers on the website they will be able to get your monies back

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Thanks just looked up site this may be the best way to go as it looks hopeful. What I don’t understand is that ABTA said the hotels and taxi transfer companies can all claim the money back from them. Surely this would mean they are guaranteed their money whereas now a lot of people will have to cancel.

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Freedom hoilday staff person. We do not care about your job we want our £3k hard earned money back. Sorry but your job is not our problem. The information on your website is not helpful to me or anyone else.

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Freedom Staff member: I am in full sympathy with you losing your jobs as it happened to my husband in Augsut last year and at this present time, both of us are awaiting to hear if we are being made redundant.
As to what you are saying about the Freedom Direct website giving clear information about how to claim our money back, just read the previous posts, (mine included), to see what type of runaround people are having.
I have lost count of the telephone calls I have made, not to mention the stress, time and effort I have had to put into this, mostly when I should have been working at the job I’m likely to lose very soon, and I still don’t know who I’m meant to make a claim from. Holiday Brokers have cancelled our accommodation, ABTA are passing the buck and say they can’t help us as Holiday Brokers should honour the booking, ATOL won’t help as it was not a package holiday, Rock Insurance say we are probably not covered and Barclaycard won’t accept a Section 75 claim until we get written confirmation from all the above to say they are not responsible.
Freedom Direct have a few questions to answer.
1) Why was I not made aware that they were booking my accommodation through a broker that had no ABTA/ATOL bonding? Had I known this, I would not have touched them with a bargepole.
2) Why did they continue to take new bookings as mentined in some of these posts when they had been suspended from doing this by ATOL when their ATOL cover was revoked? 3) Martin Jones states in a press release in the local newspaper that all Freedom Direct’s bills had been paid and everyone who had booked with Freedom Direct will still get their holiday. How many of these posts say this is not the case?
4) Why didn’t Freedom Direct submit their annual accounts in time so they could renew their ATOL cover and what were the disprepancies the Auditors felt too uncomfortable with to stop them from submitting them?
I suspect their has been a few underhanded things gone on when Freedom Direct were trading and this is all going to come out eventually.
A question in general, where is the media coverage that was given when XL went bust?
I was in Turkey when this happened and we saw several broadcasts, even on the Turkish channels. Other than a few comments in the local newspaper, I have seen nothing in national papers or on national TV news.
This has affected just under 10,000 bookings, most of these will be multiple bookings yet no one seems interested in this.
The Government need to urgently draw up strict rules for this industry and ensure they are adhered to. (Rant over).

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please can you help me i booked with fd paid the money into their bank account
my flights are ok but the accomadation on holiday group say they are not liable to honour the booking will i get my money back ihad a contract with fd not on holiday group also should i rebook with them and pay again for the same accomadation thanks

i j bills

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I have e-mailed the television program ‘WatchDog’. If enough of us contact them they might just be interested to make this situation more public and make ABTA, CAA and ATOL aware that this situation is now becoming advertised nationwide and will affect new members of the public when they decide to purchase a holiday under the belief that they will be protected. this could also make those customers with holidays booked aware about the Freedom Direct situation so that they can also begin to take action.

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freedom direct ex-staff member.
yes it is awful that you have lost your job and i do sympathise with you. but martin whatever his name is clearly stated that all monies had been paid on the website and everybody would get there holiday…….. that was a blatant lie he has not paid all the money i for one have lost my holiday which i saved for for over 3yrs to be able to take our children away one of which is disabled and our booking was complicated due to airline etc needing measurements of wheelchair etc etc, and a lot of other people on here have not had it easy either. and as for us slagging fd off i think we have every right as we have been lied to!!! most of us on here have spent a fortune on phone calls and all have to waite for god knows how long for refunds and not in a position to re-book untill they have been recieved. when the company new exactly what they were doing. i had a letter of fd the day they went bust with all my paperwork and it was dated the 16th the day they new it was the end of trading for them.

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I have kept my nose out of this one, that said I will try and give some sort of general advice:

First: It will take time. Any collapse does take quite a long time to get sorted out. people should, however, take heart that on balance, nearly all should get their money back. Telephones will be busy and, and. But if your holiday is covered now, there is no strict time limit that one has to adhere to, so be patient.

Second: Get all your paperwork together. You will need every invoice and confirmation. You will need every bank statement. If you paid by cheque, you will need the actual paying instrument back from your bank. If by credit card, the slip and your statements (actual, not copies) showing the charges going through. You can write to the CAA to get claim forms, it’s just as good as using the telephone.

Third: It may well be that your holiday will not happen – even your honeymoon – so deal with it. These collapses happen (usually) in September when the relevant party see that they have not made enough money to get through the lean months. Sometimes they happen about now when the relevant operator/ agent finds they have not got enough “heads” for their summer programme. Occasionally, (and I am NOT in any way saying this is or may be the case here or even suggesting it may be the case here) it happens through downright crass stupidity – or fraud.

Fourth: You will need to find someone who can dis-entangle what you have booked with whom and most importantly, how. You MAY find that a high street agent will help you (more likely an old fashioned independent rather than a multiple) BUT you will have to ask very nicely and they may either a) charge you a fee or b) you will need to come to an arrangment to book a new holiday with them or c) (best arrangement) they may charge you a fee and agree to refund it when you book a holiday. You cannot *expect* a high street agent to do it as it (the collapse) has nothing to do with them – and you are going to take up a lot of their time – and they are certainly not in the business of bailing out failed companies for free.

Frankly, from reading the posts here, it is clear that Freedom were using various different ways of doing things – including split contracting and each case, each holiday, each honeymoon will need looking at and analysing what has been done, what may be salvaged and what may be lost. Only an experienced hard-core high street agent will be likely to be able to do this, so as to point you in the right direction. I suggest that you make sure that any agent you do approach is ABTA (if, for no other reason, they are likly to be the most experienced) and remember – ask.

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Rachel, well said. Freedom Direct have fleeced a lot of people by the sound of things. They had their ATOL cover pulled 31st March which prevented them from taking new bookings thereafter, yet they carried on without any conscience or regard for the people whose money they took. It’s no wonder that we are irate about the situation when they just walk away from the problems and we are left unable to get a straight answer from anyone. I really feel for you and your family. I hope you can get something sorted soon to get your holiday this year.
Denise, I’m going to look for Watchdog’s e-mail and follow your advice and hope others do too. After all we have nothing to lose as we’ve already lost it !!!!

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really cant believe that freedom direct customers are saying what they are at the end of the day its not there bloody money thats been pinched from them its there company that have pinched from us and whichever staff wrote this no frig all because i have spent all week on the phone to holiday company and abta i booked my holiday 8 months ago and paid full and yet my holiday as not been paid but they got there bloody wages didnt they.all this about all covered load of crap and all holidays have been paid for is a load of crap too and which ever freedom direct staff is saying things try telling your kids they cant go on there holiday shut up love because you know nothing our holidays have been CANCELLED but i bet your wages wasent have a bit of respect for all the 100000 people and you seem to know so much dont you thats probably why the company collapsed because your director is living in a 400.000 house at our cost

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denise i too have emailed watchdog so fingers crossed, if nothing else hopefully making this more public will help others in the future if this is ever to happen again. and hopefully force abta/atol/caa and all other people involed with travel agents to put some thing into place to deal with it straight away with the minimal disruption and upset to the customers. and also give clear guide lines! good luck everyone.

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****NEW INFORMATION AS OF THIS MORNING*****

spoke to the C.A.A this morning and there is going to be new legislation put in place to make a FULL ATOL claim under number 9740 where the following scenario exists

Apparently there are 1000′s of people out there who were sold “package holidays” under ATOL number 9740 only to be told by the C.A.A that because FD had used your card to pay for the flights direct, that you were no longer covered under the ATOL scheme.

I have since been told that CAA are working with ABTA to reverse this and if your booking confirmation has the words “Freedom Direct Package” and has the ATOL protection statement, the you will be fully covered for everything.

CAA told me that their website will be updated today with the relevant information… Seems like someone has been cracking a few heads!!!!!!

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I would ask everyone who can to contact not just watchdog but your MP, ABTA and the CAA have been warning this would happen since 1992 and the government has taken no action, even after 10,000 people were effected by XL.

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Hi,

I too booked and paid in full for a holiday on my confirmation booking it says your travel details Provider: youtravel.com Ltd
Then it says Package provider Freedom Direct Crete air package.
I paid £2700 in total for flights and accomidaton.
It says nothing about ATOL numbers just that “this is an acknowledgement of your booking with Freedom direct holidays Ltd ,we act as agents for your travel provider youtravel.com (ATOL number ) (no number)
I spoke to youtravel who told me they were arranging accomodation only so i should claim through ATOL.
Please please can someone tell me where to go?

Thanks

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I have just come off the phone to youtravel.com who have told me that they are looking for payment from me to secure my accommodation. They said if I pay out again they will issue me with a receipt for the extra money and i will then be able to claim it back from CAA but like amanda i have no atol number on my confirmation just Avro atol number (flight company) and seperate voucher for youtravel accomodation. booking also says pakage provider ‘freedom direct – lanzarote air package’. I have followed in denises footsteps and emailed watchdog, also emailed local MP on Nicks advice. Thanks everyone for your support

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Amanda

It sounds like your flight and accommodation has been booked independently, if you paid by credit card contact them for a refund.

Freedom was never supposed to fail (why the CAA gave them grace period) they are not a new company, just with the change in bonding rules they could not get a bond in time. This meant they could not earn the money, which in turn means they went under. Do not hit on freedom up to a couple weeks before they failed no one could of seen them going under, even after that time it was believed they would continue trading.

Before anyone jumps down my neck about this comment, yes travel companies margins are that tight that 16 days can make a massive difference. This week I have paid a bill for just over £2000 and my gross margin on that was £53.24, so when you shop around to save £10 or £20 pounds it comes out of that gross margin.

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As promised my follow up. Called hotels4u to ask if they had received my paperwork that they had asked for only to be told that as of yesterday my booking had been cancelled and I must pay again if I want to retain it. Phoned ABTA and all they could say was speak with Trading Standards, their advice was small claims court against the tour operator. Kiss your money goodbye because everyone has washed their hands of this and I hope they’re all proud of themselves!!! So much for agency law!!!

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i too spoke to hotels 4 u today i sent them all paper work they asked for then they cancelled my holiday i can say if you cant afford to pay again you will probably lose your money and also the price of apartmets is going up by the day to book again.abta hotels 4 u are all in it together because abta told me they were in talks with hotels 4 u and hotels 4 u told me they are not in talks at all and abta have told them to make people pay again

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We booked a holiday with Freedom Direct with a credit card to travel to Crete on 18/06/09. We paid in two instalments on Feb 26th and March 14th. Our flights are with Easy Jet , apartment vouchers state they have been issued on behalf of HolidayBrokers Accomodation abd Destination Services and transfers are with Taxitransfers.co.uk. CAA said our flights could still be valid but how do i find this out??? Do i claim with CAA or go direct to my credit card company?? Will we get a full refund ?? The apartments have not got a email address but i doubt very much Freedom Direct have paid for them is it worth trying to find out if the bookings still avaliable??

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I booked hotel only through Freedom direct, hotel provider being hotels4u.com…who are also ABTA protected BUT they are not honoring any bookings and say there is a loop-hole in the law that lets them get away with this as they are not a travel agent….then why are they ABTA registered??? ABTA say “yes, we are having problems with hotels4u.com and are hoping to sort something out by the middle of next week” He didn’t sound hopefull so looks like we have lost our deposit of over £300…but we’ve paid for our flights in full direct with Monach…but what use are they with no hotel to stay in??!! Everyone passing the buck as usual what’s the point of going with an ABTA protected agent when it doesn’t count for a thing when you need it to?!

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Rita
I contacted easy jet on 08712442366 who confirmed my flights are fine. However taxitransfers have cancelled by booking. My hotel is also cancelled although this is through hotels4u. Personally I am trying to claim through my card. waiting on forms being sent out so don’t know how successfull this will be.

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just sent a mail to thismorning@itv.com
- its worth a try init. lets hope they do something early next week

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why attack the woman who has lost her job?

you have your holidays

she has an uncertain future

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This was announced on the news tonight:

Hays Travel buys Freedom Direct and are to help Freedom Direct customers.

See http://www.travelweekly.co.uk for more info.

I don’t know where this leaves me now as my family and I have just paid another £810.00 for more accommodation as we travel in 3 weeks.

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If your holiday is worth a lot why dont contact northampton county court (this is were most are done) or online at money claim and start the process of a winding up petition against on of the suppliers….. “hotel4u ” would be a good start once the process has started (or the threat that people are joining ranks to do this) they may panic as once a winding up petition is issued all the bank accounts and assets are frozen they are apart of thomas cook and they will not allow this to happen and i think they would have no option but to honour there deals once you do it to one company the others will follow suit as the cannot allow there accounts and assets frozen…..

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Just had a message on the Freedom Direct Group on Facebook from Natalie, she had her money paid back into her account the day after the collapse ! She has rebooked with Icelolly.

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one lady on the FD group on Facebook has had her money paid back into her account this happened the day after collapse.

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Re Sues post
HAYS have brought Freedom Direct from RMT and i called them this morning and they confirmed this.
However the only people it will benefit is Freedom Direct staff as they are all being offered jobs.
I asked how they would help me as a customer who has a booking in June fully paid for and he said “well we will book you another holiday and you can pay us!
So no help whatsoever to any of us.
Was worth a try though.
At least thoses poor people have not lost their jobs.

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Hi,

I too booked and paid in full for a holiday on my confirmation booking it says your travel details Provider: youtravel.com Ltd
Then it says Package provider Freedom Direct Crete air package.
I paid £2700 in total for flights and accomidaton.
It says nothing about ATOL numbers just that “this is an acknowledgement of your booking with Freedom direct holidays Ltd ,we act as agents for your travel provider youtravel.com (ATOL number ) (no number)
I spoke to youtravel who told me they were arranging accomodation only so i should claim through ATOL.
Please please can someone tell me where to go?

I posted this earlier and have now got in touch with Monarch whom my flights were with and been told that it was a chartered flight and i would not be able to travel on it.
Therefore i assume i have a “freedom direct package” for which i can claim through ATOL?
Can anyone advise me if this is the case as my flights or accomodation are not paid for?

Thanks

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I have had emails from EasyJet and Hays Travel confirming my june holiday is still on. Hays Travel have now taken over Freedom Direct.

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Rachel

Sorry missed your post with regards to assignments. On all ATOL/ABTA claim forms there is a section where you can assign the payment to another company.

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****Further Update****

Log on to http://www.haystravel.co.uk/ – there is a link for FD customers to click on, this will then take you to http://www.freedomdirect.co.uk/clients.phtml

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****As of 11AM this morning Hays have the database of customers from the receivers.****

I foned them again and was asked for £500+ to secure my booking as FD had only paid £150 deposit for the flight. I worked it out, and you know what? Hays would be actually cheaper for the same holiday. OK so its only 10 or 20 quid, that might just cover the fone bill I’m gonna get next month.

Hmmmm seems someone somewhere is making a shed load of cash from this balls up. Told the guy I’ll fone ABTA *again* see what they have say about all of this.

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to annon……. how do you no it was a woman who lost her job? all it stated was freedom direct worker?? an we were not attacking her at all just stating the obvious about the lies.. an yes granted they do have a uncertain future(all though i doubt that now as of the 25th). and again , where are you getting your information from WE DO NOT HAVE OUR HOLIDAYS!!… please try to get your fact straight if you going to come on here and fight fd corner for them.

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I think it would be better to use this blog to help each other and share information that people receive from Hays, ABTA, ATOL, etc ,

Lets leave out the comments about what we already know and the slagging off how FD has got us in this situation. If anyone is unsure about something try reading past comments. I
think it would be beter to post new and helpful info only.

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Rachel, i agree!…We do not have our holidays and it’s the individuals at FD that took our money to pay their wages and keep the MD most likely in a life of leisure! It’s daylight robbery and the police should be called in as surely it’s theft?…or can we all go around taking money from people and promising them a product in return and then just keeping the money? Errr, i don’t think so we would be arrested so why do holiday companies get away with theft???

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I have just been contacted by a reporter from the Steven Nolan show on Radio Ulster. They are going to do a slot on the Freedom Direct issue on tomorrow morning’s radio show between 9am and 10-30am. So please contact http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/nolan/gotastory/ and give your story.
By the way been in contact with Hays who say we must pay again hotels4u etc and then claim back the money from ABTA.

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what we now is hays to publish details on the FAQ page of the website. I like many of you others is getting confused, all i want now is to process this whole mess in the best possible way. If your lookin Hays, this is your opportunity to show your true class. Simple really now, extensive section on freedom direct FAQ page in relation to all us guys and our comments over the last few days. If we need help, email address of freedomdirect cease trading helpdesk, i give my booking number and they give me the best advice. All i want is to either get a holiday or get my money back. Not rocket science really, just good customer service.

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PLEASE DONT GET EXCITED THAT HAYS TRAVEL HAVE TOOK OVER BECAUSE THATS WHAT I DID THOUGHT MY HOLIDAYS WAS OK NOW BUT RANG HAYS TRAVEL TO BE TOLD THEY ARE JUST THERE TO ASSIST PEOPLE WITH THERE BOOKINGS AND THEY ARE WAITING FOR ADVICE FROM ABTA AS TO WHERE PEOPLE STAND WITH THERE BOOKINGS BUT AFTER BEEN ON PHONE TO ABTA ALL LAST WEEK WE ALL KNOW WHERE WE STAND WITH ABTA AND THAT WE CANT CLAIM FROM THEM SO LOOKS LIKE NOTHING AS CHANGED AT ALL HAYS TRAVEL TOLD ME THEY HAVE BOUGHT FREEDOM DIRECT BUT NOT OUR BOOKINGS REALLY DONT BET IT WHERE IS OUR MONEY

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to all…. just wanted to let you all no that hays travel are constantly updating there website to keep all fd customers informed. and the last post was asking people to not contact them if there dates are on or after june 1st unless its absolutely necessary or to pay a balance off.(as they are dealing with the people who are traveling now/may) and freedom direct website is back up and running also. i have recieved email from hays telling me they would contact us by the 30th april with more information. fingers crossed. good luck everybody! if any body has any more information please post it on here, so we can all keep each other up to date. thanks….

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Following another day on the phone with Hotels4u.com (who i found extremely rude today!) and ABTA i can confirm anyone who had booked accommodation only (like myself) will not have it honoured and ABTA have advised the only possible chance of seeing any return of money will be through trading standards/small claims court!
Hays travel will only honour package deals so their e-mail saying your holiday is safe was all lies!
I have e-mailed ABTA and have been told my e-mail has been forwarded to their head office, as i blame them for a shabby set up and for mis-leading the general public into thinking that if you book with an ABTA protected agent then you think you’d be ok!

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REGARDING HAYS BUYING FREEDOM DIRECT I HAVE SPOKE TO HAYS TRAVEL TODAY AND THEY TOLD ME THEY HAVE BOUGHT THEM BUT THEY HAVE NOT BOUGHT OUR BOOKINGS THEY HAVE BOUGHT THE WEB SITE THAT FREEDOM DIRECT HAD AND ALSO PAID MONEY TO GET INFORMATION ABOUT OUR BOOKINGS AND IF YOU READ HAYS WEBSITE IT STATES THEY WILL ASSIST US IN OUR BOOKINGS BUT THEY HAVE NOT GOT OUR MONEY WE PAID SO UNLESS ABTA WHO THEY ARE IN TALKS WITH WILL PAY WE WILL ALL HAVE TO PAY AGAIN ITS NOT TO HELP US CARRY ON WITH OUR HOLIDAYS BUT TO ASSIST US WITH OUR BOOKINGS SO STILL UNSURE IF WE WILL GET OUR HOLIDAYS BECAUSE FREEDOM WENT INTO ADMINISTRATION I PHONED ABTA TODAY AND THEY ARE STILL SAYING THE OPERATORS OF ACCOMODATION SHOULD HONOUR OUR BOOKING BUT WE ALL NO THAT THEY ARE NOT GOING TO DO THAT LOW COST TRAVEL TOLD ME THEY ENDED THERE CONTRACT WITH FREEDOM AT THE BEGINING OF APRIL AND IF THEY STILL HAD A CONTRACT WITH THEM OUR BOOKINGS WOULD BE HONOURED BUT THEY DONT SO THEY DONT HAVE TO HONOUR OUR HOLIDAYS WE ARE ALL BUILDING OUR HOPES UP HOPING WE ARE GOING TO GET OUR HOLIDAYS BUT IF YOU ASK ME EVEN THOUGH HAYS AS BOUGHT FREEDOM DIRECT THINGS HAVE NOT CHANGED FOR US FREEDOMS WEBSITE IS UP AND RUNNING AGAIN AND ITS SAYS FREEDOM DIRECT WITH HAYS I CANT BELIEVE THEY CAN TAKE OUR MONEY AND STILL TRADE WITH THE SAME NAME BUT PLEASE DONT BUILD YOUR HOPE UP BECAUSE ON SPEAKING TO HAYS THEY HAVE NOT BOUGHT OUR BOOKINGS IN WITH THERE DEAL THEY ARE JUST ASSISTING PEOPLE SO IF ABTA OR YOUR SUPPLIER OF HOTEL ARE NOT GOING TO LET US HAVE OUR HOLS THEN WE HAVE ALL LOST OUT AND I THINK ITS DISTGUSTING

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Update: I have made a claim to my credit card company as ABTA, ATOL and CAA have just wiped their hands of this, however my credit card company are not satisfied with the entries to Freedom Direct on my statement as proof of a holiday – I need to get invoices. Like many others I was only email the deposit confirmation, never a full booking invoice, without this the Credit Card company won’t even look at my claim….Now another exercise to try and get this information. By the time I have finished I would have spent more than the holiday cost!!

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***Update – Monday 27th April 2009 21:00***

Hays Travel is now in receipt of all computerised client records from the administrator.

We have now received full client booking information from Thomas Cook for package holidays and flight only bookings.
We are now in a position to give detailed advice and assistance for Freedom Direct clients travelling on Thomas Cook airlines.

We are concentrating our efforts at the moment on Freedom Direct clients who are due to depart before the end of May.

If your departure is on or after the 1st June 2009 we would appreciate it if you only contact us if you have an urgent query.

We are in communication with ABTA & the CAA to gain clarity on their position with regard to this failure. Unfortunately many areas are still ‘grey’. We are very sorry about this. We will keep you updated whenever we can.

Thank you

Nicola Smurthwaite
Customer Services Manager
Hays Travel

Where is the grey area? I paid my money, and want my holiday! FD and the companies I booked with were ABTA /CAAbonded.

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Debbie

Go to http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/, as the bank will have to pay if any proof of payment is available.

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For ALL *****IMPORTANT*********

CAA have updated thier website with more clear information in regards to making a claim. They have also added different SCENARIOS of the bookings FD made and who can calim and how.

Link :
http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1052&pagetype=90&pageid=10633

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Went to re-book my hotel with Hays/Freedom Direct this morning and really nice woman told me to wait until Thursday as ABTA/ATOL in talks with Hotels4u about honouring everyone’s hotel bookings….last glimmer of hope…fingers crossed for thursday!
I also contacted Natwest yesterday as i paid on Maestro debit card…i asked for charge back to my card. They are investigating and talking to Mastercard…who will prob say no, not on debit card and they are not legally oblicated to BUT if they refuse i will take them to the financial ombudsman who view credit & debit cards the same and are in favour of the charge back facility being allowed with a debit card…so that is the final hope for me!

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annemarie… i was just about to post the same thing about abtol/abta in talks we to are advised to ring hays back thursday( not to re-book tho cos we are not in a financial position to do so..). i have been told by natwest as i used solo debit card that i cannot get any money back from them. our hotel provider is holidays 4 u, so by the sounds off it all hotel providers concerned are in talks with hays, although holidays 4 u told us today they have had there solicitors/lawyers in and theyt do not have to help anybody as they have not broke any agreements/laws?? ….. i am stressed to the max and like many others do not who to believe anymore every body says different.. and also dreading my phone bill!

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I have spoken to YouTravel.com today, and the woman I spoke to reinforced what Annemarie above has posted. She said that Hays had not been in touch with YouTravel as yet, and they are adamant the reservation needs to be paid for again. She advises all bookings are still reserved right up until the day before travel. She advised me to WAIT UNTIL THURSDAY before re booking accomadaton as Hays are in talks with ABTA/ A TOL and will announce if they will honour the bookings.

I have spoken to Thomson today who advise I will now be charged for the flights as its so close to departure. Am hoping I can claim through ATOL if we are unable to secure further accomadtion, as Thomson suggested I wouldn’t as flights were available to me. Does anyone know?

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hi all,
i cant beleive how much of a problem this is.
1 paid my full balance at the beggining of feb.
i am flying with thomas cook and my flight is still valid, but my hotel is booked through youtravel.com i phoned them today and they said that if it was to be honoured then i would have to pay £600 again which i cannot afford.
anyone else know what will be happening with the youtravel.com bookings?

i have saved so hard for this and am truly gutted.

any help/advice would be very much appreciated.

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I have just got throught to ATOL. They state I have a split booking which is not covered by ATOL license Flights = Thomson

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My previous post has been removed??? I have been sold a split package Flights Thomson – Accomadation You Travel transfers Local company. Thomson honour flights and I am liable for them, called ABTA as advised by ATOL re accomadation and they state they are NOT PAYING OUT ANY CLAIMS as the tour operator IE you Travel have to provide the accomadation under AGENCY LAW. Iam waiting for a call back form someone at YOU Travel. I hope they can sort out the legal wrangling before 25th May. If YouTravel don’t honor holiday i have lost £2’600

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My advise to everyone in strongly complain to ABTA in writting (email is quicker) and insist that your case is dealt with by a senior manager, insist on a prompt reply, and insist that ABTA pick this mess by means of refunds. They are the criminals who are failing in their duties and powers to advise people correctly on what should be done, they are also very good at passing the buck. Do not take any Sh** from them.

Direct your complaint to Charmaine Edwards (ABTA Claims Manager)

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matt…
waite untill thursday is what we are all being told by hays travel. abta/atol are telling people not to part with any more money. you travel are not being very helpfull to any body going by previous posts on here! i would be very careful in what you decide to do as if you decide to take your flights and book your accomadation yourself then again this is not a package in the eyes of the people concerned ,and if anything else happened you would not be covered?…… so i am waiting till thursday to hear what you travel and hays have decided between them…….. hope this helps a bit.

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Who is the Administrator appointed to deal with Freedom Direct Holidays Ltd.

That will help immensely for those that paid by Credit Card. The law is the law and money back through your card issuer is a dam sight quicker. Blowed if I’ll wait for ATOL making a claim from them will mean you can’t claim back from your card issuer.

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latest update……………… hays just updated at 9pm 2nite they now no what they are doing been advised by the caa what to do in each different case. states everybody will get an email 2morro from them!

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My update: Atol seem to be ignoring my emails, i cant get through to them on the phone (message just says to ring back later), Abta say youtravel should honour my booking and they are breaking the law if they dont. Youtravel say they need me to pay again for the hotel. I spoke to my credit card company again and explained that my flights were being honoured but i had to repay for hotel and transfers and they said that they would send me out a claim form and i would be able to just claim for the parts of the booking that i had not been able to use (ie original hotel and taxi costs). I just need to submit with my claim the email booking confirmation from freedom direct showing breakdown of costs (i too have no postal documents from FD) along with receipts for re-booked accomm/taxis. I am reluctant to pay out any more money for this mess but i have been told by credit card that if flights still active then i would not be able to claim if i chose not to take them. I am thinking now do i wait till Thursday to hear about this hays/abta/atol I can not believe how many times in the space of 1 week we have been up and down wondering are we going are we not going. Why is it so difficult for the powers that be to come up with some straight answers?

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i have had an email from hays travel this morning stating that my booking is classed at a category C, even though on my booking confirmation it is states that it is a freedom direct package and states the atol number 9740.

it also says that my flights and transfers are still valid but i would have to pay for my hotel again, and if i paid freedom direct for my hotel by credit card then i should claim it back direct from my credit card provider??

any advice on what to do about this?

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Matt
I’ve just had the exact same mail as you. If you look on the CAA website under Freedom Direct, I believe that we have a valid claim under scenario 2 ( see important notes) and Scenario 4. You may wanna to double check this though.
This is the claim route that I am going down

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Received from Hays:

This is a general update for information purposes only. You will need to communicate with our staff with regard to the details of your specific booking.
Regrettably we are finding that the situation with Freedom Direct Holidays is complicated, because Freedom Direct transacted business in 3 different ways.
Freedom Direct Holidays booked holidays for clients in the following 3 ways (categories). They either:-
Category (a) acted as agents for other ATOL holders; or
Category (b) booked clients under their own ATOL (9740); or
Category (c) contracted flights, transfers and accommodation, directly with suppliers but did not bond the holiday with the Civil Aviation Authority as an ATOL package
It appears that your booking falls under category (c). Subject to a detailed review of your file in conjunction with yourself and one of our consultants it appears that your flight & transfer are safe and you will not be out of pocket. Unfortunately the amount you have paid for accommodation appears to be lost.
We have liased with your accommodation provider and we can re-book your accommodation for the original price that you paid. Unfortunately you will need to pay for the re-booked accommodation.
If you paid Freedom Direct Holidays Ltd by credit card, a claim to your credit card provider should result in a full refund of the accommodation element of your booking.
For clients in your situation (category c), we have set up a new contact team who are fully trained in the circumstances of your type of booking.

This appears to be no different than what we already knew 10 days ago…
It would appear that Hays are just after more money from those of us who are already out of pocket!!!

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I’ve received the same e-mail…saying i’m under “c” so not covered! My last hope is the charge back rights i spoke about the other day!

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what the hell is a dynamic package!!!! cos thats what i,ve been told i got ,and basically pay again or dont go and loose your money!!! this is absolutely disghusting i,ve just lost all my money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. and FREEDOM DIRECT ARE BACK UP AND RUNNING AND HAVE MY MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (surely when you book and ask for a package they should not be allowed to miss inform you, but they have and got away with it! arggghhhhh.

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Matt, it sounds like you’re covered under ATOL, take a look on CAA website or call hays/freedom (if you can get through!) Good luck!

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Debbie,

Have Hays given you a telephone number for their new contact team covering category C clients please? Basically it seem the message is ABTA / ATOL are out of the equasion so pay again and claim under credit card of forfeit the cost of the flights & transfers. Like many others this is making me feel ill, and I’m not easily going to be in a position to lay my hands on anoth £1’300. NIGHTMARE

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Matt & Allan, I have interpreted the advise on the CAA website differently. I think that category C customer fall into category 2 ??

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I am pretty optimistic that if your original booking was sold as a Freedom direct package that scenario 2 and scenario 4 on the C.A.A. website will apply and we will be able to get our money back eventually. Check your original booking confirmation for the following text which appears right at the very end. This is crucial!!!

YOUR COSTING
Freedom Direct Package Basic Cost = £ xxxx.xx
Discount = £ xxx.xx
Your balance of £xxxx.xx is due xx/xxxx/2009
YOUR PROTECTION
£1 per person of the cost of this air holiday package is paid to the
Civil Aviation Authority to provide ATOL Protection to you. This means
the money paid for these arrangements is fully protected.
Our ATOL number is ATOL 9740. For more information see our booking terms
and conditions.

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So its a package when you book and not a package when things go wrong !! I can have the flight and the transfers…….im still waiting for a reply to find out if i can use the transfers to a different hotel (cheaper) in the same resort.

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Hi AGAIN

I have finally spoken to Hays and they are asking for us to pay for the accomodation again and claim against my credit card. I think we are going to have to roll over and do this as following my conversation with the Administrators ABTA are in a legal batte with the accomodation providers.
Administrators are RMT 0191 2569500
Freedom / Hays existing customers 0191 5106266 (got through quite quickly)

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i think if people flights are ok then the best thing that people can do is pay again for hotel or tranfers or even both in some instances and then claim back the lost monies through the credit card companies, does anyone else agree with me?

hays travel find out tonight for definately if taxitransfers.co.uk will be honouring these so we dont have to pay for them again.

what do you all think the chances are of actually getting the claimed money back from credit cards and how long will it take?

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Catherine.
On the small print on the CAA website under scenario 2 it states:
“IMPORTANT – IF YOU HAVE BEEN ISSUED WITH DOCUMENTS WHICH STATE THAT THE ARRANGEMENTS WERE SOLD UNDER ATOL 9740, OR AN AIRLINE CONFIRMS THAT VALID TICKETS HAVE NOT BEEN ISSUED YOU SHOULD FOLLOW THE ADVICE GIVEN AT SCENARIO 4″
I’m pretty sure this covers some category 3 bookings where the booking confirmation states that it was sold as a Freedom Direct package as is protected under 9740

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A category c customer is someone like me who booked the hotel only through FD (or those who may have booked flights also but not a “package holiday) so we are not covered as ATOL/CAA only cover flights and package holidays…they are nothing to do with hotel only in any shape or form! People like us are meant to be protected under ABTA who just keep telling us that the hotel provider should honour our bookings and if they don’t/won’t then ABTA can’t do anything except suggest we take the hotel provider to court! Very helpful of ABTA….NOT!
If you paid on visa…you CAN claim backthrough a “charge back” facility, just ring your credit card company..they will do this and it’s the law. If, like me, you paid by debit card (maestro) it is not law for the bank to authorise a “carge back” but if the bank refuse to refund you can take them to the financial ombudsman…who are in favour of charge back on debit cards as well as visa. This will take time but it could be a last ditch attempt to ever see any money refunded as ABTA are useless and a waste of space.

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Dear Matt,

Credit Card companies have EQUAL LIABILITY the comsumer credit act 1974 to refund you the lost money. Have a look at ‘The office Of Fair Trading’ website, or google The Consumer Credit Act. Don’t be fobbed off by your credit card company. Ask for a claim form. I am with Barclaycard & persevered until I was put through to the liquidations department in a UK call centre. I have heard that other companies have been more helpful. We are going to have to book the accomodation again, as Barclaycard won’t pay out for the flights but by law they will have to cough up for the accomadation & transfers. Good Luck.

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I too had accomodation only booked ( £1013 paid by debit card ) have just received email from hays saying they are not honouring it .I claimed back through the chargeback scheme , sent my claim form off last wed and got full refund today !!! Thank God for Nationwide who have been most helpful and supportive throughout this nightmare unlike ABTA , RMT , HOLIDAY BOOKERS
Good Luck to everyone , type in chargeback scheme on google and you can get more info , speak to someone high up in disputes team at your bank as not all staff are aware of it

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ps keep the email you get from hays and other correspondence from anywhere ( interestingly my bank asked me to get a letter or email from abta to say I was not covered by them and they REFUSED to even help me with that ) can anybody explain what ABTA do help you with ?

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So can anyone confirm if there original booking with Freedom has gone through after Hays took over?

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On a previous post I suggested that people do try and find a friendly travel agent to help them and that advice still remains.

There are (now) many different ways any one holiday could have been booked. Although it may seem a that one has booked a “package” in many cases this may not be so. The only way to tell what has been booked and, most importantly, how – is by going through each set of invoices for each person. Only then can one suggest to whom one should address any requirement for refund. The other consdieration here is that, without guidance (and I am sorry to say this) some of the more unscrupulous may enedevour to ask you pay again, where they should really be honoring a commitment – indeed, could even wind up getting paid twice (by you!) for the same thing. It is not an easy thing to untangle and many may waste time and effort pursuing a claim with the wrong authority.

That said, at the end of the day, if you have paid by credit card and you are not given what you paid for on that credit card (assuming that the amount os over the £100 limit etc) then you can claim back from them. Credit card companies may in turn, though, bounce people around. Some people here are doing sterling work, but it really is a matter of IN EACH CASE studying how things have been booked. Even then, it is a matter of untangling – and being able to prove – payment.

It seems to me that Freedonm were doing a mixture of bookings with various mixtures of ways of doing them – split contracting – or dynmic packaging to give it is “user friendly” expression is particularly invidious. Indeed, split contracting is a no-no – even the Courts said that if you split contract something that is clearly a package, it’s a package (As one US President said – if it looks like a Duck and quacks like a Duck – It’s a Duck) What’s this all about? Well, let us say that you book a hotel and a flight. I give you one invoice for the flight and then another invoice, from another company, for the hotel. The two no longer “hang” together and I can neatly side-step the EEC Regulations.

Then there is the matter of the hotel bookings. These may be direct with the hotel, Freedom may have a contract with the hotel or they book through a third party (say a website hotel booking outfit). Then there are the transfers, which on the face of it are booked via another web based outfit. A total, unmitigated mess. Hence, as I keep saying, even if it costs you a few bob, do try and get a travel agent to help you.

Do not take issue against Hays Travel. They are a well respected and upright company and I think, very brave to have stepped in, in this way. It will take them a while to get their heads around what has happened and what pieces they are left with. Bear in mind also that in some cases (which is why some people are having to pay again) no bonding may have applied (or may have not been applicable, even) and if the providor of the relevant service has not been paid – well, they are not in the business of working for nothing. That said, it has been known for certain (usually overseas) contractors to be rather cavalier about what they have and have not been paid for. I keep coming back to this simple point about people getting their booking paperwork looked at, much as the prospect of paying someone something may compound peoples anxieties, it will make life a lot easier.

Side issue: This was so very, very simple before the EEC poked its ruddy nose in – and certain “vested interests”. We used to have something called stabiliser, which meant everyone had to be bonded all ways and only ABTA people could sell ABTA operators and vica versa and, and…. No! said the EEC, restraint of trade, not in the public interest – well, maybe it was an old fashioned way of working, but it did work and it did work very well.

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well at last i have the truth…… i fly out on wednesday but my hotel was cancelled by hotels4u who dont give a f**** the rmt dont give a f**** and so it somes down to ABTA but before we get to them i called my hotel and they explained to me that hotels4u had cancelled my booking the day FD and my hotels is now fully booked… the hotel have been fine and done me a good deal in lloret (£95 each all inclusive for 5 nights) i have also contacted my bank who said i cant do a chrge back as my card is maestro but after some time i got them to agree that i can fill in a charge back form which is a start…..but the best is ABTA i have called every day since FD went bust and have been told one story after another so tonight i asked the girt a simple question WHAT IS ABTA and what part to they take in a situation like this her reply after some silance was i have no idea….so i asked again and added for years and years firms have gone bust so what roll do ABTA play when this happens , what do ABTA as a company do , after a long slience she replied i dont know so i asked to speak to her supervisor (john gilmore) if this was a real person , but he would not come to the phone…….it makes you feel that little bit happier that your not the only one who has no fuck*** idea whats going on

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murray h. you have given some good/interesting advice and it seems to me that you no exactly what you are talking about… which travel agent should i try tho a small independent one on the high street or some-body like thompson? i have tried and failed to un ravel this for nearly 2 weeks and like so many others have not got any where. failed miserably and got a massive phone bill to prove it! i have a little longer than some on here as im not supposed to travel untill 30th june. any advice would be appreciated thanks.

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@rachel – You may be best off looking for an independent – nothing wrong with a large mutliple, but they are unlikely to have consultants with the broad depth of (travel) knowledge required to unravel this sort of thing. You can but ask. You may be asked for/ could offer to pay a straight fee – or pay a fee which would be refundable, were you to book something with the agent on a future occassion – you will not get service for free.

People – you cannot DIY a resolution of these problems. I doubt if Solicitors, even, would be able to grasp the principles of bonding and responsibility without lengthy (and so costly) research, into matters which even travel agents take a while to get their heads around.

The obejective of any enquiry would be:

1. To look at copies of all invoices you have relating to your travel event.
2. Based on the above, to receive advice on a) What you can and what you cannot claim for and b) From whom you should be claiming which element – or part – of your holiday.
3. To understand, if your holiday is in the future, which parts may be “live” and which parts “lost” and/ or
4. Which elements you are likely to have to pay again for, on the understanding that there is a procedure, or route map, for claiming the money back.

An agent would not , I do not think, progress the claim for you, but you would want to come away knowing where you stand and who you should be writing to.

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Anybody actually managed a rebooking yet? Ive been on the phone for ever and keep getting cut off after a few rings or its engaged! Are there any other numbers i could try ?? The emails i send only get a automated reply !

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Nice one Kevin! What a surprise (not) that the staff at ABTA don’t even know who they are and what role they are supposed to play!
Can i just confirm to you all again…if you paid by credit card you will get your money back through charge back (it’s law) but it is likely that the payment won’t be refunded until after your due departure date as charge back is for “goods not received” and you can only say you haven’t received them until after the due date…if you get what i mean?! So you will have to pay out for another hotel in the meantime.
Hays offered me my hotel yesterday…if i pay for it all over again…at a higher price! Ha! They said they are honouring the price FD had agreed with me but it worked out £300 more because they said FD were giving me a discount and Hays will only honour origional prices without discount??!! You can imagine my response! The funny thing is when i rang their sales team direct for a price it was £300 less! Hays are definately in it for a quick buck and i’m again disgusted that ABTA are allowing us poor people to be taken advantage of further!
I’m also awaiting ABTA head office to contact me…i won’t hold my breath!

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This situation is an absolute disgrace. I am sick to the back teeth of speaking to the relevant agencys only to come off the phone with no further information. I am at the moment conteplating doing what matt jenkins has suggested and paying again (on my credit card) for my accommodation and transfers and claiming that back off credit card, i think it is my only option, risk losing £500 instead of £1600 and at least my kids still get their holiday. Although i am so reluctant to shell out anymore money. Does anyone think it is worth hanging on to see what hays have to say? i haven’t received my update email from them yet, the one they said i’d get yesterday (i am a may departure). I am currently on hold as i am typing this!!!!!

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[...] The blog post about the collapse of Freedom Direct Holidays over chez Travel Rants has now reached 192 comments. I expect that number will continue to grow and soon be over the 200 mark. [See blog post] [...]

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can anyone help me, sadly my email confirmation is no longer present in my tesco online email account. this was processed last oct-nov. can tesco retrieve this of there email server???? any it experts out there able to help???? or is my email statements which state freedom direct good enough????

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@ lisa :

i am going to repay for my hotel and transfers today and then attempt to claim the money back direct through my credit card.

i am not even going to bother contacting abta again as its just a waste of tim. we all know what backs are like so if you claim it back through your credit card i can assure you that they will fight your corner all the way as it will be them who loses out.

i either pay for this part of my holiday again or end up losing everything so i am just going to pay it.

im not going until the end of june but the hotel im staying at is sold out but they still have my room reserved so im just going to pay.

what do you all think about this??

i wish everyone the best of luck and think the best thing to do is go through the credit card companies and not abta!

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@Lisa
I agree with Matt and I hav done same. Our departure is in may as well and can not wait for all this mess. Kids are excited and we all need a holiday. One way or other we will get our money back and the best apporach is to go through Credit card.

Best of luck

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Rita,

I have got through to Hays quickly on a number given to me by the administrators
Freedom / Hays existing customers 0191 5106266 (got through quite quickly)

Matt,
We are doing exactly what you are doing, as we may as well have a holiday rather than loose £1300 for the flights. Have you shopped around for the hotel? I have found that Travel Republic are actually cheaper than You.Travel. You don’t have to book the hotel again through Hays. I have spoken to Thomson who will issue the tickets directly to me and cut Hays out. Just make sure you pay by credit card again, as once again the holiday is not a package and bonded by ATOL.

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Yes Matt, i would re-book…i have but will still pursue my claim. A little tip for anyone looking for hotel only…i looked mine up on hotels4u.com and it quoted about £2300 but when i went through trip advisor to hotels4u.com it gave a “trip advisor discount” so brought the price down to £1977!

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Catharine, Thankyou for number will try it now. Anyone know if i can still use the transfers if im not rebooking with Hays? im staying in same resort and hopefully in same road.

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** UPDATE FROM ME **

just spoke to my credit card who are refusing to pay a penny, they have said no matter how hard i try i wont get anything off them and that everything should be claimed from abta.

so i rang abta who have told me to rinf back next friday and have warned everyone DON NOT pay any money to hays travel as they are just trying to get more money out of people for nothing.
abta are in the process of speaking to all the individual hotel companies and are trying to get them to honour the booking.

hope this helps.

to be honest after what i said before – ABTA do sound more helpful as ive just spoke to them and hays and all hays travel are trying to do is force people to pay agin.

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WHAT happens tho when you have paid by debit card i have used my solo for my original booking and there is no ” chargeback” on these any body no where i stand?? thanks…

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For those hoping to recover lost accomodation deposit from the credit card company (like myself), I am a little bit concerned because the section 75 might not apply when the money is paid to the travel agent (FDH). See the exception about Travel Agents here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases

I wonder if anyone has sucessfully recovered money in this way when the funds were paid to the travel agent and not to the tour operator/provider.

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i have just spoke to a good friend of mine who works at a bank and he has said that because freedom direct were ABTA covered then there is no chance at all of getting money back from credit cards.
credit cards would have covered us all if freedom direct wernt abta covered but as they were we have to deal with abta.

ABTA are getting some news about freedom direct next thursday as they are waiting to hear from all the individual hotel providers so unfortunately just wait!!

dont trust hays travel though as they were just pestering me again for my credit card details, im not handing them over though.

i am just waiting until the end of next week for abta and am waiting to see if they manage to get some companies to honour the bookings!!

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Your all being fooled by ABTA they are a joke…….
hotels 4u cancelled my hotel and now the hotel is fully booked so how would they be able to honour the deal…….spoke with john gilmore from ABTA at 9 this morning and he told me if the hotels want honour the booking then they are powerless and i will have to claim my money back through the small claims court or credit card… i never paid by credit card so the bank have told me i have to claim from the administrators, but as anybody who has been in business there wont be any funds to claim from as the inland rev etc take the money first…….ABTA are a joke the can do nothing at all the are just an advisory service “AND NOT A VERY GOOD ONE”
the best way to get your money back is to ring your bank and say…. there is a transaction on my account i do not recognise sombody must have cloned my card as i have booked no holiday… and guess what you get your money back.

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I have just spoken to Barclaycard who say one way or another I will get my money back either through them or ABTA for the accomodation. They need a letter from You.Travel to state they were not paid or ABTA. I have spoken to ABTA again who are advising me NOT TO PAY AGAIN YET as their solicitors are in talks with YOU TRAVEL. I have called YOU.TRAVEL and spoken to a really nice sympathetic woman who has stated they will reserve my booking, until next week when ABTA and the travel provider decide what they are going to do. I’m going to wait a bit longer and see what happens. As I am still paying off the holiday on my BARCLAYCARD I have put whats left on my account into dispute, so I only have to make the minimum payments and won’t incur any interest. THANKYOU BARCLAYCARD!

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MATT – If ABTA don’t pay out your credit card HAVE to. it might take time but they have to under the Consumer Credit Act. You WILL get your momey back in the end, its just it might take months & months.

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We were lucky that our holiday wasnt paid in full. Freedom had taken our deposit and paid Jet2 and that showed on our bank statement. We have rang numerous helplines etc with no joy getting through. In the end I rang Hayes freephone number and the nice gentleman gave me a direct dial number to Hayes to resolve within 5 minutes (0870 495 9041). They have matched our original accomodation cost and transfers. However, we still lost approximately £100 as Freedom did get a discounted rate. This is not recoverable.

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Gave up trying to get through to Hays when i heard they were only interested in our rebookings at a higher price ! the transfers that i was told were safe were not paid for ! taxi firm confirmed this for me and sent me a cancellation invoice as proof for a claim. Rebooked with Thomas Cook. Put a claim into cc company and hoping for a result ! Good Luck everyone

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hi to you all,
what a total sickner this has been, like all of you it would appear that my booking in mid feb, paid fully on credit card and totally assumming that it was a package turns out to be a 3 parter, the flights honoured and going ahead,,but after some hurendous phone calls with very bad customer care, lack of knowledge of there subject area, extrememly sarcastic uncaring responses, in my opinion, it would appear the electronic highwayman have well and truly jumped on us the victims and mentally and financially stripped us…and thre not a thing we can do…. we can eventually,,, probably,,, hopefully claim back from the credit company, but until then continue to pay the interest on good we have not recievd, BUT>>>as i was told last week by the team manager of lowcosttravel,roughly translated…….. these days we can expect to be ripped of by the intenet highwayman, afterall everyone gets ripped off. yea iv got the flight for me and my two children, but like so many no transfer, no where to sleep,,,alas they wouldn`t confirm th details of our discussion in a written letter to myself, for the benefits of my claim for my return of my money, either through abta, atol, credit card, post via the royal mail and through my letterbox, definately not in e-mail… tho thy wouldn`t do that either ((((((((see, a am learning)))) but certanly not stating in written format, that they were unwilling to honour there obligated contract with abta and myself, in fact she ended the conversation, it just isnt going to happen, tuesday this week hayes advised that i wait till the 30th………. the peace pipe was being passed back and forth and hopefully a solution close….. yesterday abta… through the royal mail… sent me a detailed account of my booking with freedom direct but without any knowledge of booking reference numbers for all three countrparts… eeeeeerrrr………..not available????????? abta with cega???
oke doke….
it states that each tour operater is responsible for all monies paid to the agent ( freedom direct.), even if they have not recieved them… the letter states, if your tour operater requires you (US) may be requested to provide some documentation in order for them (the tour operater) to make the claim.
TONIGHT,,,. whilst not in close proximity of my mobile..aaarrrrgghhh, freedom direct phone me, yes me, my daughter (10) takes the call and exictdly retorts to me that they want to speak with me re… my booking,upon my return 1minute later,, they chat, and am getting another call 15mins…. 45minutes later i phone them only to hear that its the sales team, have i rebooked , and MY booking remains live and that i can rebook now in order for proceed, please just pay again silence…. the voice stuttering said you did know that freedom has ceased to trade,,,yes im just astonished we having this conversation and reiterated the peace talks that her colleague had suggested would be over on the 30th and a conclusion… tonight she was in contact who were not aware of all this,, can you believe it,, how sad…. in my opinion, i think abta chiefs should break their pow wows and attmpts to enforce there obligation to honour our contracts with them the tour operators, we`v all had enough now abta should break their contracts with said tour operaters, take away, suspend their registration numbers and deny them abta covrage.. until they honour what we have trusted them to do for us……. they the tour operaters are still trading and gtting richer,, taking booking from unsuspecting clients, each contimplating a holiday and luxury to most of us,….. i understand the complicated web that MR freedom direct has woven in order to ensure his monies to fund his luxurious lifestyle… a bet he doesnt have to book with fredom direct.. we each of us work so hard to get a break, all i wanted was to stop the world and get off for one week… i didn`t want another fight with another, come on abta,,, thy hav broken your rules,, to the rest of us…………might i suggest we all holiday in the time share we all own, a meer half a million home in ponteland… fully inclusive,
ive been spreading the abta word, the atol law and the caa guidance.. dont let these modern highwayman win……. may b if we all do it….others wont be hurting like those poor people who were phoned tonight from the hayes sales team, unaware of this horror… how sad… good luck u all x

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i have just looked on the freedolm direct website at the latest update which states the difference between categories a,b and c.
i am a category c as are most of the people on here i see.
my credit card company (halifax) have completely refused to repay any of the money even though i used my credit card.

i have a valid flight but no hotel or transfers,

what shal i do?

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Please would someone with authority form ABTA make some comment. Hays appears to have purchased the database in the administration and are using it to re-sell accommodation which ABTA should be honoring. What do ABTA do, what are they doing? Are they just a shiny worthless badge – in it of the members benefit rather than the consumers? At the moment that is how it’s looking. Not good ABTA.

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I know what ABTA stands for!!! American Brain Tumor Association because I have a bleeding headache dealing with these people.

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my apologies everyone, it seems my e on my keyboard is not always happening in my above entry.
I, like julia, ask that an abta representative can help us all understand. I believed that abta was the seal of approval on any holiday deal, that if abta had awarded a registration to a tour operator, then we were safe, we are constently being advised in all areas of living to check out whos who and whats what and to look for specific badges that hang with this industry. atol and the caa have honoured their contract as a tour operater, i paid my money the same day, the same way as them not obliging. i wasnt aware that the money would then be divided into 3 parts and i have travelled alot before so am not totally niave.
I also believed that an e-mail was as good as a document sent via the royal mail.
i also have tryed the advice of approaching a travel agent, which is whata blieved fd were, to sort this mess, they however suggest and did not believe that abta would budge and that for abtas only advice and persistent tele-scripted speech, to take the tour operaters to the small claims court and to contact trading standards and my mp. I work full time, and have found these peoples opening hours are similar to mine, i dont have the time to spend hours on hold. My credit card company say they will only raise a dispute if am not reciept of the goods, to also ensure that i have in writing from the tour operater that the goods, the accommodation will not be honoured, however, countless e-mails, and phone calls and still no answer or written confirmation.
what to do? i cannot find any concrete legislation that will unravel this web of deciet apart. I have friends who are still awaiting claims from the xl decline. I cant afford private solicitors costs. i cant take extra time to sort this mess, Do i really just need to get over it, accept whats happened, and move on? I booked a holiday for the same reasons as most. is there really no official stance from an official travel industry excutive? I do believe that watchdog are on the case, but to date it would appear that if we want our holiday, we just have to pay twice and once we return, begin the fight to retrieve our own money. what has been happening to those whose holidays were iminent upon the closure of fd?

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xcapewithus, i notice, has ceased trading as from an hour ago……… What happens now??……. Do i just sit and wait…….. By the way they are NOT ABTA……..

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Matt – We are in the same position as you. When is your departure date? At the end of the day we have to pay for our flights regardlessly so I personally feel you should go ahead and re book the hotel. I am waiting until early next week as ABTA is discussings with You.Travel yesterday & today re breaking Agency Law. If nothing resolved ASAP i am paying again as we go in 3 weeks. i have spoken to You.travel who were understanding and promised to reserve my hotel until I speak to them again next week. I have told them I will pay if ABTA and their solicitors don’t resolve anything.

You should escalate a claim through your credit card company – as I have stated to you previously they have Equal liability under consumer law. They will fob you off but you need to persevere. As I have said before, look up the consumer credit act 1974 7 the equal liability section. If still in doubt I suggest you contact the Financial Ombudsman. Barclaycard tried to pass me off when I first contacted them two weeks ago but are now being much more helpful. Don’t forget these card companie & banks want to make money not pay – this may be their reluctance.

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yes! xcapewithus ceased trading!! I am going with them this month and freedom direct in august!! Now both my holidays down the pan!! Is this my unlucky year or what?!

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i have just spoke to ABTA again about the booking with yourtravel.com and they are still waiting to hear the verdict on this.
they told me that under agency laws youtravel.com have to honour the bookings!!

so i am going to give it until the middle of next week and call back then, by the sounds of it ABTA are pushing youtravel.com as hard as they can to honour all our bookings, else it causes abta more problems with peoples claims.

i just cant bring myself to pay hays again as i cant trust them! im being told by abta not to hand over another penny as it would not be safe.

so im just going to wait and contact abta again and follow their instructions as they seem to be dealing direct with the hotel providers!!

no way am i paying over another penny until i understand what is going on.

i travel 23rd june so i had to pay the full balance.

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received automated response from abta telling me they will get back to me within 7-10 days! NO email of hays on the 30th as stated! emailed them and just got automated response from them! tried ringing caa line saying it to busy try again later! tried independant travel agent and offered payment as some-one had said try this, nope dont want to no(not there fault mind dont think i would want to get involved in this mess either!). husband credit card is saying he can have his money put back on the day after we were supposed to travel as that is the only way because then u have not had something you have paid for! the other amount was paid on my debit card and its a solo and not covered under anything.rang hotel company who have sed they will keep my accomadation open for 72 hours before im due to go (at least somebody out there is human) in my opinion hays are not helping either they too rang us and could see exactly what we had paid off my holiday because they told us, but want us to claim that back and re-book ! why when they can see what we have allready paid offered to pay the balance thats left and guess what NO way will they except that they want the full amount minus discount and want to charge for transfers that are free with the hotel!!! somebody is making mega bucks from this mess . dont no how they sleep at night because i can,t..

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[edited swearing - please no profanities] – Darren

Absolutely no help what so ever, im writing this on behalf of my parents who have been passed around more times than the current swine flu, They have had to pay twice to get their holiday, personally i would head hunt the CEO of freedom direct as he just seems to swanned off into the sunset with peoples money, people should drag him through the small claims courts and sue him. How should he get off scott free with peoples hard earned cash. Freedom direct were still taking peoples bookings less than a week before the company collapsed so where did all this cash go? (Into his £400k House?)
As for abta, atol etc these are not worth the paper they are written on so i wouldnt even begin to start asking these as they are passing it onto anybody else.
As for Cath above, it is fair dues that the card people will try to fob you off but it wasnt them who ripped us off in the first place but it would be nice to get our money back which ever way we can. where is MARTIN JONES?

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dont be fooled by hays travel they only want a new booking ihave phoned and e mailed countless times no reply .ihad to pay again as travel date 9 may nobody is interested my flights fine easy jet confirmed immediatelyohoned lowcost no joy pay or stay what catagory am i payed all money to freedom only after realised fd were agents for lowcost i am now hoping my bank will help with the visa chargeback option .go into your bank get them to ring as they have all relevent numbers upshot is barclays sending me a claim form so lmaybe not all is lost

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Have just received an e-mail from ABTA saying even if the hotel provider had not received the money i had paid to FD they should under ABTA rules honour my booking. They said i need to speak to their consumer affairs department and provided the phone number. I have just rang them who said i shouldn’t have been referred to them and they will find out who e-mailed me and get them to send me another e-mail with what i’m to do!! Talk about the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing!! Someone at ABTA…”Get a grip!”

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i took have been affected by freedom and also fall into catagory c despite having their atol 9740 protection. have sent details to caa and they have said i cant claim the money back. my flights appear to be safe as they were booked with thomson, just hope the tickets for them arrive. the hotel was booked with you travel who wont honour it despite what abta says about they should. you travel have said that if you have booked a flight with a company and hotel with another its called a dynamic package and abta have told them that this will not be covered by abta and you travel can not claim the money back from them. i have spent the best part of the week trying to sort this out, hays are only interested in getting money to rebook and refuse to answer any questions other than rebooking. it would seem like hays is doing very nicely out of it at our expense. abta has now said that if you travel wont honour it then are still talking to them about this, i have had to re pay you travel or my hotel was going to be cancelled. im hoping that i can get the money back from my bank. i also made a second booking on 9th april, flights fully paid to jet2 so they are safe, but the hotel was with hotels4u who cancelled the booking and again it falls in cat c with hays. hotels4u should also be honouring this booking according to abta but abta are not really enforcing the laws with the hotel providers and there for carry little weight i think. the only thing i have learn from the whole mess is to only use the larger companies and probally book days before you travel. i have also spoken to the rmt administrators about it but they can not offer very much info about where the money has gone.

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Hi me and my partner were also catagory c customers. I am so angry at the time of booking it was plastered all over the website that they were ABTA and ATOL protected and we even paid a small amount extra for cover. At no point did they say it was for our flights only and not for the rest of our holiday. We have had to pay again so we didn’t lose our holiday. I have contacted my bank Abbey who are sending me out a cliam form but I wanted to know if anyone had made such a claim before ? I’ve read something about 120 day limit but im not sure if this is from when you knew you weren’t getting what you paid for our from when you paid. We booked our holiday in september and paid most of it before christmas does any one know if this wil still count ? Unfortunatly my partner paid the last of what we owed in april but he has a maestro card with RBS and they have said there is nothing they can do.

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Hi folks just phoned FreedomDirect/Hays Travel on 0800 008 7927, and even spoke to a real person.It seem I have flights, but no accomadation,which was booked through Med Hotels.I was informed that this is still a Grey area, and was still being looked at by Abta.To begin with i was informed i would have to pay Hays again for my holiday, which i am not prepared to do.I asked about the e mail that we were suppose to receive yesterday,to be told i wasn’t on their system.I have now got an booking ref for Hays, so at least they can now contact me,which should be within the next few weeks, after their discussions with Abta

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Hays will tell you with regard any hotel booking you had with FD that they will honour your booking but you have to pay the full amount again! So why they use the word “honour” is beyond me?! Please no-one re-book through Hays/FD as their prices are higher than other hotel providers and why would you want to give them the satisfaction of giving them more money when they’ve already had your money once?! I’ve re-booked my hotel but will still pursue the long process with ABTA and the financial ombudsman regarding a charge back claim on my debit card.

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hi everyone, today has finished with a little more information, i have contacted trading standards, my local mp, the local government ombudsman, the evening chronicle, bbc watchdog and after this response,consumer direct,
Trading standards replied very quickly and stated.
Thank you for your enquiry regarding the above mentioned business and the problems you are having trying to sort out the situation with your holiday as Freedom Direct no longer exists.You would need to contact a government funded body called Consumer Direct(CD) who will advise you of the civil law rights that you have under the sale and supply of goods and services act and the packaged holiday regulations.You would need to provide CD of all details about your holiday what was booked destination, hotel flights etc and provide any copy invoice receipts and terms and conditions that apply.You would also need to advise CD who you have been contacting to try and sort the problem out ie your contact with ATOL , ABTA and your credit card company and what they have advised before they can advise you what you can do in the circumstances.CD can be contacted either by telephone on 08454 04 05 06(calls cost 4 p per minute from a BT landline, other networks may vary the charge) or their website address is at http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk. The problems that you have are under civil law matters any you will find that most Trading Standards authorities will not advise on these matters as they will only tend to investigate criminal law matters. I hope this assists you with your enquiry.

my local government ombudsman also replied swiftly and writes:

Thank you for your recent email. Unfortunately The Local Government Ombudsman can only investigate complaints against Local Councils and some other Authorities, as your complaint is about a Tour Operator it is therefore not something that we can consider.
Apart from speaking to your credit card company, contacting your local Citizens Advice Bureau, or contacting Consumer Direct for advice I cannot think of anything else that you can do.
I have now contacted them and outlined the situation. With only four working days left remaining before we depart for our holiday and stay at my destination airport terminal, unless of course i pay again, i remain optimistic but with a particularly misty optic. I am very sad about it all, and completely astonished by the sales pitch freedom and hayes delivered last night, how could they, maybe someone could loan me a tent big enough for 3 it to be a tent with a sea view, on a half board basis?
i hope the evening chronicle and/or watchdog can pick up our stories and all our valid searching questions and put them to the media to prevent others suffering and maybe have their experts in these matters expose the robbery occuring under the safety badges and certificates of ABTA .
anyone viewed the co-joined freedom direct with hayes websites proudly displaying there badges and rosettes that guarentees abta and atol coverage, should it all go wrong…enjoy the bank holiday weekend.
If a recieve anymore responses al post them here. x

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We have just returned from a holiday in Egypt. When we arrived, our accommodation which was booked through Freedom Direct, had been cancelled. We had to pay again for the rooms. On arriving back home, we contacted ABTA, who told us there was nothing they could do. We had paid by cheque, so could not claim off a credit card. We paid extra at the time of booking for this so called ABTA cover. They are a joke. They want reporting to ‘watchdog’ !!!

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@Annemarie – “Honour” in travel agency speak, translation: it’s a bit like filling up your shopping basket, going to the checkout and finding you have forgotten your purse. The checkout person says they will keep the basket intact and you can go away and get your purse. So, the hotel room is held for you, in your name, and will not be released (aka given away) to someone else – but you have to pay for it.
The big issue here, is how these hotels were booked and it sounds like (not having seen any paperwork, this is pure hypothosis) the hotels were booked totally seperate from anything else (by FD and notwithstanding anything you may have been told) Now, *say* the company with which the hotels were booked was a hotel booking company *only* then they would not require bonding in that they do not book packages; as far as the hotel company is concerend (and of course, the hotel) the matter is black and white – they either have the money for the hotel or they don’t. Do not blame Medhotels – they are doing nothing wrong. If FD never got around to paying for your room, then you will have to pay again – this means that you will need to check your credit card to see what you have been charged for. (see my posts re: getting these bookings unfangled).
“Grey area” – translation: Hays (don’t blame Hays, they are trying to sort out an unholy mess and as an agent myself, I can imagine what they are going through; but they need time, I am afraid and you must (all) give them time to sort themselves and so you (all) out. It is a gray area because Hays do not know who got paid and who didn’t and with whom and how, basically and until they do, they will not be able to give a clear answer. This will also need to be viewed in the context of what actually appears on your cerdit card. There may be one “lump” payment to FD in which case “Nightmaresville, Arizona” or there may be several payments for the various bits of your holidays (bit easier, then, as the dog can see the rabbit, as the expression goes).

ABTA is getting the rough end of the stick here. Before the EEC and a few maligned vested interests mucked up a perfectly good system, yes, ABTA dis-entangled any mess – and they did it very well. But ABTA can now only dis-entangle that which is ABTA’s and a lot of the shannanigans at FD, well, let us say, sailed pretty close to the wind. There are a lot more internet based outfits out there who sail so close to the wind, they come out the other side! Hays may be more expensive, but they are a well respected, stable and properly bonded company – so yes, they may charge you more because they have consequently higher costs – what are you going to do? Okay, so one internet “cheap” company has gone all pear shaped – Hays come along and try and get things moving – you don’t like the higher price so say: “I know, I will go and get myself tangled up with another cheap (internet) company!” Let’s try and lose another load of dosh! Will people ever, ever, learn? Lesson number 1: If it looks to good to be true, it usually is. Let us say (and I know I will get some stick for saying this) there is a lot to be said for the good old fashioned shop. Research on the net and then go and find an old fashioned high street agency – deals that are available online are generally available on the high street – at least, there is someone to go and shout at. End of plug.
Flights: Again, depends on what has been booked and how and again how you have been charged. The most financially insecure way of buying an airline ticket is, well, buying it from an airline. That said, without seeing the why’s and how’s and what’s it is difficult to say. IF you are booked on a charter chances are (and I mean “chances are”) you will be Okay – they are most likely to be bonded via the CAA “ATOL” scheme, if scheduled thenn the story is different. Possibly. Which is why I keep saying that all of you could save yourselves and awful lot of grief if you go and get some proper help. Oh! And it may not be ABTA, it may be the CAA or it may be the credit card company, depends on how…… etc etc etc.

Passing thought for all: Hotels give pretty much the same “nett” rate to all people. If I am a hotel owner, I give the tour operator/ the agent/ whoever my “best price” of, say £50 a night. I may give someone special £48 or not so special £52 – but I am not going to give one company £10 a night. Whatever the rate, there will be a few quid leeway. Now, if one company offers that room to you for £60 and another perhaps for £59, that makes sense – but if someone suddenly appears with the same room for £20? Many will think that’s a good deal; few think – Hang on! Why and How can this person offer me a room for £20 when everyone else seems to offer it for around £60? Well, you have now found out how!

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@Anne marie also should be read by @Helen

@Jackie West – I am not too sure what you mean by ABTA cover as there is no such thing per se. Could you look through your travel insurance policy, some do cover airline failure insurance/ supplier failure – few, but some do. The other thing is that I would not be too sure that your hotel did not receive payment – they could have just told you they did not receive payment. I presume that you must have paid your holiday balance to FD quite some time ago, there is a chance that the hotel was actually paid (I do mean “a chance”) you would need to write to the administrators of FD and advise them of this. They should then be able to tell you if the hotel was actually paid – Not too sure this helps as you would then have to provide these convincing proofs to the hotel in Egypt, which may cost more than it is worth.

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@ Murray H
i took was sold supplier failure cover by fd, this was for my 2nd booking with them, they sent what was ment to be the policy, no terms and the policy number does not show up on the system when you ring the helpline number suppied, spoke to hays about this and they could not even explain what was covered by it. they took my final payment on march 10th, did not pay thomson for flights as i spoke to thomson direct, they also didnt pay you travel or hotels4u on the second booking which was only done on march 9th. on both lots of booking comfirmation is clearly states that i have paid the £1 ATOL payment, yet i am not covered for the hotels. the caa looked at my paper work and said i was not covered.
on the booking forms, it clearly states that fd acted as agents booking flights with thomson and hotel rooms with you travel and hotels4u. surely they have done something wrong or illegal saying you were covered by atol and then your not, i was told by hays that i was covered at some point and then i was not covered. i did send hays all the booking confirmation and payment history as they reguested but just had the emails back from them saying im cat c. like most people on here i thought i was covered by ATOL and ABTA. ABTA do say the providers should honour the hotel booking also after looking at the paperwork. maybe if i attach the booking comfirmation to a post, you may be able to clear up for people the confussion as i expect most peoples comfirmation will be like mine.
let me know if this would help as a guide for people

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just found this petition on another forum, maybe if we all sign it up as it needs 500 signature, something will get passed to stop this happening again

This is the link:

petitions.number10.gov.uk/hols-protection/

when you click on to sign up, they ask 4 your email addy, they will then send u an email back to verify your vote, unfortunately this email will 99 times out of 100 end up in your junk folder, this email will be from 10 Downing Street, it will have a link which you must click, it will take you back to their site where it will say thank you your vote has been registered. If you don’t click the link your vote does not get registered.

If you sign up please pass the word around

Best regards to all

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dan
I`ve tried this link it took me to trip adviser and said this link has now been deleted. the other link takes you to a greek travel site?

I have been searching and writing to all sorts of people and organisations to see if I can interest someone with the knowledge now needed to clearly define the ATBA bond terms and conditions to the booking agents. What is Abta exactly? Surely there must be someone or something out there on this mass highway that wont allow us just to take this situation and let these tour operators who can take our monies win this battle.
I now have learned that this bond fee was alledgedly paid for by freedom direct uptil the 13th march 09, So this would ensure, i would presume, the payments via the protection scheme of ABTA to those then on and before the 13h march. Am sorry to those after this date. How do you get in contact with freedom direct administraters to see if theres a chance,, freedom did pay prior to this closure?
a realise it may sound stupid but Would freedom direct have been making fraudulant statements suggesting they had ABTA bond and registration after this date?
Under the ABTA bond prior to this date. would abta not need to pay for the accomodation and taxi transfer if freedom direct have not already done so prior to their collapse, as was suggested in their closing website information.
mr murray has now educated me in the analysis of the word honour and other travel agent jargons, in my opinion, very loosely. I get that now, however do a realy just need to accept I`ve been taken in because the holiday I booked online sounded, looked, everything it should have been and not to good to be true. and that i along with 10,000 others cannot suggest we`ve been had under the ABTA rulings?

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There are two issues which I keep on about: 1) Time and 2) Sorting out the paperwork. Time is required because there is a lot to sort out. I am sorry that some of you do not have time (before your holiday may start) but if you look at a previous post by Hays Travel, you will see that they are starting by trying to untangle those people that are going now-ish, first. If you are not travelling for, say, three or four weeks, then let Hays sort out the urgent stuff. 2) Paperwork is critical and it is a shame, a big shame, that high street agents are not trying to help our Jo Public – the high street could do itself a big favour in this and it’s not like I am advocating them doing it for nothing. ABTA/ Advantage please copy and action.

Get our your invoices. Now, a certain amount of the invoice is likely to be standard pre-printed paperwork. I regret that the (possibly) misleading inclusion of ATOL or ABTA logo’s on the pre-printed stuff could be very naughty. What your invoice says, more precisely, how it says it, indicates where you are at. If the invoices states “booked as agent for XYZ” then we need to address our issues to XYZ, if the invoice lists flights, accommodation etc, all as one with no indication of “booked as agent for” then chances are, it is an inclusive package and thereby covered by the FD ATOL.
Now, there is a further strand to this which may bring hope to some. FD were members of Advantage (a MARKETING grouping of independent agents) and as such paid their bills to *certain* (many of the mainstream ones) tour operators by direct debit. Advantage held a £300,000 bond (with a top up facility) to cover that direct debit which Advantage feel should (that’s “should”) be enough to cover outstanding money paid to FD but not paid to suppliers (aka the actual tour operators). Before everyone goes off hot foot to Advantage (www.advantage4travel.com) NOT my website, please (please….!) Hays Travel will be aware of this BUT need some time to get to the bottom of things.
Now (put very, very, simply) ABTA fits in twixt the (ABTA) agent (here, FD) and the ABTA tour operator. The ATOL (where flights are involved, sold as a package, etc etc) fits in twixt the tour operator and the travel providor, (that is the bloke you see driving the plane or standing behind the hotel reservation desk) in other words, the guy who bolts the bits together with the airline/ hotel, etc.
The main issue seems to be with these hotel booking firms. Flight wise, I think people are pretty much Okay one way or the other, either via ATOL or because FD paid via CAPS, so charters will get paid or because they booked, say, Easyjet and they (or you) paid straight away on your own card, in your own right (effectively). Now, some of these hotel booking companies are ABTA so we have this “ABTA to ABTA” thing – at the risk of being hamstrung, the hotel booking companies should do what they damn well ought to do and that is make sure that the holiday bookings work, without further ado. We have had (in travel) this scenario before, when ABTA (behind the scenes) really had to bang some heads together – and which is porbably going on now. IMHO I do not know why these hotel booking outfits are able to “bask in the glory” of ABTA and then have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into doing the right thing when the chips are down, but that’s another issue. It may be that as the margins are so tight, they simply can’t afford to do it properly, which says a lot about some of these outfits. Again, another story.
Ultimately, yes, with credit card payments the principle is no supply (of goods and/ or services) = refund. The problem lies in partial supply and partial payment. In other words, the flight bit paid to FD (as opposed to say, direct to Easyjet) but hotel not working (partial supply) and in partial payment (deposit paid in cash and balance only on credit card) and, of course, a combination of both!
So, my overall message is allow some time for things to get sorted. There are funds out there and many of you may not have lost as much as you thought. Wait until you know *for definite* what you have lost (if you have lost) rather than going overboard just yet.

If you do want to start something with with HM’s Grateful Government, you can suggest that it is high time they ditched all this EEC Package Travel rubbish and we went back to what we had pre-1992 and Stabiliser…. People may not have liked it, but it worked and it worked very, very well.

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we have been told we just have to pay our deposit for the hotel ‘ wich is 25 pound per person and we still have our holiday .is this right

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MR MURRAY how much time do we have i am traveling 7 days time despite numerous calls to hays nobody bothered to ring back or e mail me as promised could it be because i have already had to pay lowcost again and hays not going to get a booking as for abta i only booked with freedom because of the abta atol badge even when collapse came still wasnt worried as i believed MARTIN JONES saying everybody was covered and a simple phone call would put it right how stupid could i be 40 phone calls numerous e mails later i am so much wiser and i dont believe in santa anymore

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I to have booked an apartment with fd paid balance in full 08.04.09 only to learn about a week later by pure chance while looking at the internet that fd had gone under, i have gone through the same process as people above , my apartment voucher was issued by you travel, they say freedom direct have not payed them so to ensure my booking is honoured i have to pay again. Abta say it is completely down to you travel to honour the booking whether or not fd payed them under abta law so i have to contact abta next tuesday to see if an out come has been resolved between both partners lawyers. Hays travel, i spoke to a very nice agent today who said they would wait until i had spoken to abta on tuesday to see if i wanted to keep my booking by paying again, as i have already paid for my flights i stand to loose over £900 if i have no apartment booked so looks like i have to pay again. consumer direct advised me to letter (recorded delivery) all the documents they already have regarding my booking ie. bank statements customer receipt from fd you travel voucher along with my covering letter outlining what had happened. i booked using visa debit switch card so going on what abta said and hays i tried to claim charge back from my bank halifax bank of scotland, visa have told them for the moment they will not respond to cash back attempts from anyone with anything to do with freedom direct, this may change in the future! i have sought legal advice as well, are ther any oter suggestions out ther i would be glad of any advice.

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@Carl Langley – if you have paid low cost beds again, then your holiday would be, I presume, all sorted. Now, there is no time limit as such on claims, so I would now go and enjoy your time away. I presume that you would be making a claim to get the initial or first payment for your accommodation back and this you can progress once you return. Lowcostbeds are ABTA and ATOL, so you should register your claim by the good old fashioned way of sending a letter to ABTA, by recorded delivery and (at this stage) enclosing a photocopy of your FD invoice. This will “register” your claim – or at least, prompt ABTA to send you that which you need to formerly claim your initial payment.

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@hackett – this suggest that your holiday must be some time off, yet – if you are only paying the deposit (you do not say to whom) – so if it is to Hays then – go ahead and pay your deposit, pay by credit card and use the same credit card as you intend to use to pay the balance. (see my note about “part payment and part supply”, passim.

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Like many people on this site I have spent the past few days continually being passed from pillar to post, without a glimmer of hope that things are getting sorted.

I paid Freedom Direct in full in January be maestro debit card for accomodation only for a holiday in July.

The first I heard that FD had gone under was when I received an email from Hays on 25th April stating ‘Your holiday should not be affected and our customer services team are here to help’. 5 days later I received a 2nd email stating I fell into catagory C and ‘Unfortunately the amount you have paid for accommodation appears to be lost.’.

Since then I have taken days off work trying to sort this mess out. Hays who although polite basically just want me to pay again and think they are doing me a favour by being able to offer the acommodation for the original price I paid!

My main problems though lie with ABTA and Med Hotels. ABTA advise that Med Hotels under agency law must honour the booking. Med Hotels say they will not honour the booking as they have not been paid and would go bust themselves if they did honour the bookings. I go back to ABTA and they just say it is down to Med Hotels. Med Hotels say that ABTA have no money left so they would not be able to claim. So back and forth I go between the two, but never getting anything resolved.

Consumer Direct advise me to contact ABTA and so the circle goes on.

Med Hotels says I can book and pay again, but ABTA say under no circumstance should I pay again.

Why if FD, Med Hotels and Hays are all ABTA bondedI am I having such trouble trying to understand how ABTA works and what it is worth.

Any advice would be appreciated.

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@Murray H
Please advise:
I never received my booking confirmation from Freedom Direct. I have contacted ABTA who can read my booking on screen but can’t (or won’t) forward me a copy. RMT advise me that the database was sold to Hays, so they don’t have the information. Hays tell me, like ABTA, the can see my booking on screen, but have a screen only system and are unable to forward me a copy…….
I have tried my credit card company for a claim and they will not pursue it without the booking confirmation and information from ABTA to say they will not pay it. ABTA will not provide this until I forward them a copy of my booking (although they can see all the details on screen (as above)).
As per a previous comment you left, this is my honeymoon and I am dealing with it. New accommodation has been booked but I would like to try and claim something back to help the replacement costs.
Please are you able to give information as to where I can go to get a copy of my booking confirmation.

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hi again, ended up paying hotel and transfers again! guess what i,m a catagory “c” also even though clearly states my atol bond number 9740 on my invoice and even paid the two pound for it.!! anyhow i,m due to fly next week and didnt want to lose my flights so had no choice really.put in a claim with my bank will let you know how it goes.

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@murray h.

if we do re-book is it safe to jus deal with air line and hotel supplier direct? what im scared off doing is re-booking directly with them and then something happeneing in connection with this situation? so if i re-book i was thinking of doing it independantly and not going through hays as to be perfectly honest i dont want any connection with them once i have travelled because who,s to say that when we get to our destination the hotel could say we have not been paid for your accomadation once they realise hays/freedom are now one company!! at least bking it all separatly there will be no mention of either of these companies, am i correct?? thanks.

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Hi everyone, I’ve just found a travel article on Google. I isn’t helpful in any way but this is the only article I have found so far, which tells of the plight we are in. Note the section about Hays Travel and their assistance promise.
I have pasted the link below, (Hope it works) so you can read it.

http://www.travelshorthand.com/april-failures-what-can-we-learn/

I’m in the process of e-mailing The Sun newspaper and any others I can obtain e-mail addresses for, to try to highlght the awful situation we are all in. Maybe if we can get some media attention, this might not happen again.

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@John et sequiter… IF you pay again, that does not mean that you somehow waive any (future) claim you may have to recover the original money. This second payment should be viewed (in many cases, please bear in mind that I have not seen any paperwork) as a stop-gap measure to make sure the holiday happens. Now, I am rather annoyed about the antics of some of these hotel booking outfits. ABTA are quite right – with the “ABTA to ABTA” bit, as said before, certain hotel booking companies should ruddy well get on with it , as said passim ad nauseam. I believe various people will be getting quite an earful from ABTA over the bank holiday. That said, Medhotels may reveal the real truth which is that they cannot afford to honour all the bookings! BUT the crack from MedHotels (if they did say such) about ABTA “not having any money left” is both misleading and highly irregular; if not downright stupid. Never, in the whole history of ABTA has any person, where proper ABTA members are concerned and where ABTA rules (they are not “laws” ) have been applied and are applicable, has anyone been left out of pocket. Ever.

There is another point. You may try enquiring directly from the apartment or from the hotel which you wish to stay at and see what rate they will offer you as a direct customer – this perhaps only if your booking is not being handled by Hays. You see, if you pay MedHotels(rather than, say, Hays) that is not “paying the hotel”, that is paying MedHotels. That said, MedHotels is part of Thomas Cook so I am wondering if the comments alluded to came from a rather inexperienced clerk, rather than from an experienced Tommy Cook person. Now, if you do enquire, you may get a rate that will cause you a sharp intake of breath, a slap on the head and the need for an urgent gin-and-tonic and a sit-down. But you may not. If you do agree to pay the hotel direct, then at least that element is tied up. Note: I would really only think about this if I was going very shortly. I mean, maybe the hotel goes bust – but here again, pay the hotel in whole, only using *one* credit card.

@Debbie. Wow! This is a new one! Catch 22 – You canot claim until you get an invoice but you cannot get an invoice because…. No, it doesn’t work like that. The administrators must come up with an receipt (at least) for monies paid to FD. The administrator cannot say that they have flogged all the “database” to another party and therfore, are trying to act as administrators to a failed company and their first task was to… er…. sell off all the information! I think that your credit card company are sailing a bit close to the wind as well. Assuming that you made all payments (deposits/ balances) using the same card, then it is a matter of “I paid this, got naff all, I want my money back” The proof of payment , as far as you are concerned (and so the credit card company) is clear as the nose on your face, it is that whopping great big figure saying “FD paid £10 2s and 6d” on your statement – or whatever sum it was. I am very disturbed by what you say, if anyone anywhere pays money for a holiday, in whole or in part, you must get a receipt/ invoice straight away. There is, again, something to be said for the high street agent – but I thought (not much experience of this for, as a travel agent, I would never book anything unless I got either a) a ticket or b) a bonded recipt at the moment I handed over money – can internet companies provide a receipt by return email? I don’t know! From a High Street agent, you get, at least a receipt straight away and as soon as you have that – assuming the agent is ABTA – the ABTA bit kicks in. (Footnote: the Travel Trust do pretty much the same thing – you are making sure that you have documentation from the moment you hand over money – in whatever form)

There is another general tip I wish to give you all. One of the things I first learnt in travel, was “Write it down and get the name of the person you spoke to” -a lot of people have been calling and emailing. No, write out your issue to whomever in the form of a letter. Write it in the evening on a PC and then store it. Next morning, re-read it carefully and edit our all the ranting you probably put in the night before. State you case factually, clearly and without emotion. Now, send it, “signed for” to the company. When dealing with peopl on the telphone, write a synopsis of what is being said as you go, make sure you take the name of the person you speak to, the date and the time. This letter may be a calim to ABTA, or to Hays or to the administartors or to whomsoever you deem it appropriate. By this means, whatever happens, you will have formally “placed your stake in the ground”.

Deeds of Assignment – this was also mentioned earlier. This is a mechanism where, if a claim against a failed company can be clearly identified as being covered by a proper travel company bond (eg ABTA, ATOL ,TTA, etc) Instead of having to pay again, you can sign over the proceeds of your particular claim to the (new) agent, instead.

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@Stevie H Be careful what you say. Have you analysed their Balance Sheet? There are if you make unfounded allegations concerning a company, you could be in very deep trouble! Consider: Most of the world’s airlines makethumping great losses – just because you make a loss does not make you insolvent. The P&L is not the whole story.
@rachel Of course you can book direct. BUT the rate you get from the hotel may be a tad more than what you will get from Hays (or any tour operator) – a tour operator buys, perhaps 80% or the rooms in the hotel for a whole season – you are buying one room for one or two weeks, so you may only get what is called the “rack” rate. Of course, you will be speaking to the hotel owner in person or the actual hotel reservations and may be able to do it the old fashioned way, as we do in business travel, book a hotel room, agree the rate. when you leave, pay the bill. Bit old fashioned, I know, but stunningly simple and works to everyones satisfaction. BUT the rate may stagger you. You can but ask. You may not be able to buy seats on a charter flight “direct from the airline” but you may get the next best thing – that is, a Thomson Flight from Thomson or a Tommy Cook flight from Tommy Cook. You would be able to buy a scheduled airline ticket direct in the usual way, also Easyjet etc. You will need to think about a taxi from the airport to the hotel and you will not have a rep in resort (latter item – may not be an issue, depends on how seasoned you are a traveller and where you are going)
I think people are seeing the wrong side of Hays. They are not “one and the same” as FD, they have taken over the assets (ie forward bookings) of FD and are spending a lot of time, grief and heartache trying to sort it all out. (trust me, I know – been there, done that) and its bad enough having to do battle on the supplier side to make sure it all works; having then to do battle again on the customer side, really makes it a fun time!

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[...] The failure of Freedom Direct heralded something new, that being an internet travel company going down the tubes. Why this is new, is because, unlike days of yore, there is no immediate ability to achieve face to face contact – something which clients who stood to lose their holidays would much prefer to have. If a tour operator went bust, you marched off down to your travel agent and were able to talk to someone. You could get some sort of satisfaction from knowing that a real human was dealing with your plight. An internet travel outfit may be miles away from you, even in another country and there is no “local” shop to go to. True, people used to book direct before the internet, but these were with companies whose name you did see in the “local” shop and this brought a sort of comfort. The plight of some of those caught in the FD collapse is well reflected in the travel-rants blog. [...]

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I spoke to my bank again about visa debit cash charge back(halifax bank of scotland) as i used my visa debit switch card to pay my balance in full they said at first that visa had put a block on any charge back with anything to do with freedom direct then i was told that because hays had taken over freedom direct they could not claim charge back as they could not go to hays it would have to be freedom direct so at the moment while it tells me on the bbc watchdog website and various other websites i am entitled to claim through visa debit charge back the bank/ visa seem to be pulling the shutters down and running away frome the issue. The parting advice i got from the bank was that they could give me 3 helpline numbers guess what, abata caa and wait for it atol. I have contacted abta , cosumer direct,you travel, hays travel who i must say have been most helpful with various information not only their products, the people i have spoken to have been really genuine, i feel i have just about taken every route i can, as i have said before i have flights booked so the apartment i payed for to fd(you travel) looks like i am going to hve to pay for again against abtas advice, can any one shed light on where i go from here esecially with the issue of the bank and visa debit charge back, all advice welcome.

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Hey, i booked a holiday with freedom direct as a “package” but i am apparently under category “C” and my hotel and transfers are not safe. Looking on the atol website I should be able to claim under them. I have tried calling ABTA who just flog me off to the CAA all the time. I think I am going to have to re-book my hotel and transfers and try and claim the money back as I do not want to loose my room.

I paid by a visa debit card and was thinking of claiming through that (visa charge back) because I think it will be quicker than ATOL? But I was wondering if anyone knew if my claim failed with visa whether you can then try and claim with ATOL??? Thanks. Any help is appreciated!

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@murray h… thanks for that its egypt im going to and as stated b4 taking a disabled child so i would need a rep (just incase). so i have looked into getting my flights with the airline i was supposed to be using and waiting for them to get back to me. and was going to book my hotel with you travel.com as these were the original people i had my paperwork from via freedom direct. i have infact rang them and they have sed if i wanted to book direct with them they would infact give it to me at the same price i previously paid. but after reading what steve had wrote im even more worried now, that i might loose even more money. ohhh i just dont no what to do for the best.

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All,

What we need here is a solicitor,
- if we all group together we should be able to get some aswers of ABTA/ATOl/CAA and all the others who have our money.
- why has none of these guys given us honest and accurate info, they know who has paid what and is booked with who!!!!

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I have been reading the website for the last two weeks and have yet to see a positive result.I was sold a package in January,only to find that FD had used my credit card to purchase the flights from Monarch-this discovered on my credit card statement!!;and now as indicated from comments on this forum my booking becomes Non-Air and ABTA/ATOL will not accept a claim!
However I contacted Monarch Schedule (ZB) bookings and they confirmed my flights were indeed live.
The accommodation element was with Thomas Cook ,I had received booking vouchers,and I managed to get through to their litigation/liquidation department who likewise confirmed the bookings were intact! I have also had the ok from the Hotel.
Thinking this was too good to be true,we had a late night phone call from Hays offering to re-book some accommodation since they said flights ok but hotel not!!
The following day,after I had calmed down, I decided to ring them and challenge their statement only to have it completely rescinded.
Even so, the holiday now appears intact,but with the experiences of most other reports ,I really cannot believe we are the only fortunate ones and remain very sceptical since despite the verbal good news no one will provide an e-mail.
The taxi transfer part is still a mystery,no one will say where the money is!!
We are supposed to go next week-wish us luck!!
I still wonder if anyone else has managed to salvage anything.

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@ Rachel…I’m like you..very worried about who i now book my “accommodation only” with as i’ve probably lost what i paid FD and lost all my money for my other holiday (2 weeks time) who i booked with “xcapewithus” who went bust last week! I have re-booked my FD one with Hotels4u.com and am keeping my fingers crossed…i hope they’re ok..they are party of the Thomas Cook group and offer very good deals. The best deals usually come up if you search via the Tripadviser website. I have looked into “supplier failure cover” insurance but there are so many clauses ie. If the travel provider is part of any group like ABTA the failure cover will not cover you!

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@ John..I’m in the same boat, i paid by my maestro debit card. Natwest said they won’t do charge back as not a credit card. I have asked them for a letter (which is on its way to me) stating that they (Natwest) will not honour a charge back. I will then make an official complaint to the Financial Ombudsan (which i have informed Natwest about). The Financial Ombudsman view debit cards the same as credit cards and believe charge back is right for both! It’s my final hope!

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Can anyone shed any light…Why is the name “Freedom Direct” allowed to be used still? From legal pages i’ve browsed through on the net, they all seem to imply, that if a company goes bankrupt/or goes into liquidation then that name cannot be used for a period of time (1 year plus) There do seem to be a few exceptions but these tend to point in the direction of all monies being honoured or if you had been trading under that name yourself previously? Any legal boffs shed some light for me?

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Hi Darren,

My comment wasn’t libelous. It was based on facts from publically available information. Anyone can download accounts from Companie House.

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@lee smith you may of course get a solicitor though you may find that what you need is time rather than anything else. Getting a solictor involved (who would have to be one fully au fait with travel) may be a bit premature.
@rachael being blunt, if I had been the travel agent, I would have had strong reservations about booking Egypt with a disabled child and would have suggested elsewhere. That said, I do not know your exact circumstances and/ or how well travelled you are – so forgive me if you are a well experienced traveller to those parts. Now, if you “re-pay” that does NOT mean that you cannot, later, make a claim for the money you have lost – you are not, sort of “invalidating” any future claim you may have. I suggest you pay special attention to the travel insurance you get and you may need specialist advice for this – whatever the disability of the child, there is sure to be a support group and they will, no doubt, be able to suggest something suitable. You may well need that support more than a rep.
Youtravel I do not wish to comment about. For me (and I may be corrected about this,) it is my understanding that along with the ABTA logo, you should state your ABTA membership number, which I cannot see on the youtravel website. There is a Greek membership number, but I cannot tell you anything about that. (not being a) Greek or b) In Greece. If it was me, I would want to ask them what their ABTA membership number is first. Perhaps someone else – or someone from Youtravel – could assist, here. If you look at the hotels4U website, you will see the number clearly displayed. NOTE: The above is not a comment on liability and/ or security of booking or bonding, it is merely an observation on the showing of ABTA numbers and as @rachael says, they are part of Tommy Cook and so for me, (and this is a personal opinion) I would be comfortable with Hotels4U.
@rachael Oh! For heavens sake! What do you mean – search via tripadvisor ???? A good part of this is because people are paying too much attention to price and not enough attention to anything else. So, if XYZ outfit who may be a good guide with a bit of affiliate booking bolted on, suggest book with Skinemrookem & Bunk …..
“supplier failure cover” – quite right, if you were covered by an ATOL or ABTA bond, then you do not need S Failure cover – the Supplier Failure is to cover you IF nothing else does, which is what I would have thought, people wanted! Note: I am not regulated by the FSA so now cannot sell travel insurance (have sold it for about 30 years before the FSA stuck their nose in, mind – Let me see, the FSA – arn’t they the people who were supposed to regulate our, er… banks) So, you may want to ask a local high street agent about suitable travel insurance.
@peter – Yes! if Monarch charged you (this applies to anyone else) or Easyjet etc charged you direct on your card for your flights, then your flights are as safe as houses. Again, with Hays there may have been some crossed wires (as mentioned passim ad nauseam (again)) bacause they simply have not had the chance to get to grips with things. Likewise if you are holding Thommy Cook vouchers for accommodation – then you are Okay.

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please remove details from bottom of site,I will continue to monitor site for follow up.many thanks.

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@Murray. Yes I have analyzed their balance sheet. As a finacial director myself I am in a good position to understand what the figures mean.

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Maybe I’m one of the lucky ones but I think I have sorted something out from all the confusion. I booked flight, accomodation and taxi trnsfers from FD. Hays have said that flights with Thomas Cook ok but need to rebook accomodation and transfers. Hays have been very helpful and I think are doing a good job of trying to sort things out whilst being abused and shouted at down the phone. Every time I have e-mailed they have replied and I have managed to get through to speak to someone on several occasion. they told me I am atol protected and as I paid for everything with credit card, I can claim this way. I have sent forms to atol and my bank have been helpful too and requested photocopies of documents. I am optimistic that it will al work out ok. I hope I am not disappointed.

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& Murray, please note that my reccommendation of Trip Advisor was to use the LINK from there to Hotels4u as you will then automatically get a 13% discount as opposed to going directly onto the hotels4u webpage

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@ murray. thanks for that and i have been to egypt b4 an many other places and do always get the appropriate ins cover via medical screening. and as for what u stated about via tripadvisor discount… for people like me when u have been fleeced for 3,500 pounds every saving counts and i do not mean to offend anybody here and sorry if i have by making that comment i just thought people could do with some savings if there out there! thanks again for pointing out about the abta number on you travel website as i was only looling for the logo. perhaps i will try hotels 4u.(i got that tip about via tripadvisor off holiday truths.). and as for supplier failure i never asked about it think you made a mistake there.(its annemarie who asked that and also annemarie who stated that hotels 4 u are part of tommy cook). thanks again.

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and it was also annemarie who stated about trip advisor an not me!!! lol im getting balmed for things here i haven,t said and believing it myself… good job we can laugh.:-)

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i,ve just checked on abta website and infact youtravel.com are members. and it gives there number! phewww.

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@ Annemarie, go to the guardian.co,uk / the observer website there is an article headed the credit crunch refund thats all grief and no fun sun 29th march, print this off as it details exactly what you can do regarding the debit chargeback scheme, we should be entitled to the same treatment as people with a credit card ,from what i understand the banks are like all the rest trying to save any hassle for them. Hope this helps you best of luck i think we will need it.

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@ MURRAY,

Please can you advise on the following? We are due to depart in two weeks. I still have to pay again for accomodation with You.Travel and have been advised to wait until next week (Thurs) by ABTA. What happens if I secure accomodation with You.Travel or another accomodation provider with my credit card and then at some point before departure, ABTA enforces YOU.TRAVEL to give me the accomodation – so I end up with two lots of accomodation booked. Will I still be in a position to claim from BARCLAYCARD or will I be in the same position as I am now with my flights – they are available so no claim can be made? I’m getting increasing nervous that I have no accomodation secure and departure date is so close – surely I can’t be expected to wait until the day before I go! Advice appreciated! Thanks

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Mr Murray, a think a can understand your frustration at us, but , a would beg of you, to mayezz write an article where we can make reference to it, maybezz be able to print of a ticky box sheet, a flowchart thingy? a something that helps us ensure that we have done all we can, without you having to get repetitive or bored because we appear to rant on about nothing that you haven`t heard before. The advice you give us is free and for that I remain really grateful. Thank you. Truly. But I keep getting there with your advise and then another block, whats that about? My head hurts. Yes for those who travel this month we are bound to get frustrated with Mr Hays. Come on surely you must get why? You are correct, ok then again, days when we visited Mr travel agent in the real world, we could speak face to face and still get no where any faster, a do remember, very faintly tho, being in my pramulater outside the shop. I have booked and enjoyed my holiday with Hays in the past. I am pleased that Mr Hays has took a business and its employee’s to a place that will thrive as he already does, very well, even in this downturn? am sure that when he announced his interest and declared that he would buy a data base? (data protection?_ are data bases often up for sale? that he would take over all forward booking? Am I really silly to believe I thought that meant us? Yes Mr Hays has done alot of people proud, make a successful business and as he said from humble beginnings. But, again like so many of us suggest it would appear very odd to me and others, that along with the majority of freedom direct sales and administrative staff, two members of senior staff and allegedly? Mr Jones, Mr freedom director, himself, all who have been employed with permanent conracts to the established Mr Hays team. Mr Jones tasked with sales and the overlooking o fhis ex staff team and bookings arrangments (guardian blog) they have very swiftly re-commenced web sites under the double barrel of hays with freedom direct or is it freedom direct with hays. Whilst I realise that it was with pleasure that RMT announced their merger, forgive me for being a smidgen suspicious here or if also a get frustrated with Hays. I just want the best for my family and OK my disabled son also, who thrives in the warmer weather, he receives his physiotherapy from me every day in and out of the poo, the fresh air and outdoor life for just one week, his asthma is controlled and seizures less frequent and he just has the fun along with my older daughter who just for one week gets her mam to herself. Yea we saw an Internet bargain ,£900 for a week, (yea and before you tell me I know that I can claim it back, fingers crossed eventually) why do you make me feel that I chose this without care and attention, yea we bought the cover even though we were atol protected, like so many of us, smacked hand, wont do tat agin either, its only when this happens do you really analyze it all for what you reiterate it was. I researched for abta and atol registration, I paid on a credit card however, you suggest that for that amount I have paid, I can except for this situation we are in but, in defence, just as there are many guises that people wear for all sorts of reasons in this world, this may teach us that things are not always what they seem. And if this was just about offering low cost holidays for Joe public and significant others then the question that Mr Jones borrowed albeit legally, £400th (independent), and advantage has awarded a £300th bond, that abta had awarded Mr Jones his period of grace to sort out his finances. e built up an excellent reputation along his 12 year journey and yes I believed he owned or anaged a real life travel agents in Gosforth. Hands up and take me away if am wrong.. Yes time plus infinity takes you beyond, but with only four working days left are you just saying that I am out of time? Off I went yesterday and again walked through the doors of the real life travel agent, not pre 1992 though, haha, this time to your suggested advantage real life travel agency and heard that freedom can offer and pay for these forward bookings if they were trading or chosen appointee’s or is it as Abta suggested that some tour operators claiming from the caa and abta will get paid twice. Why is it so wrong to believe that the right thing will just be done without a fight. Okay we need to get the rules clarified better and maybe we need someone with your experience to highlight or lead us how to get there. and yes pre 1992 might have been better as you say but 16 years plus later is a long time to be saying that. Why is it that this is the first case with such huge implications for so many people and somewhat directly different from xl as was put in another blog and suggested on other sites. People suffering xl crash are still waiting for their claims to be processes. I also have written to the evening chronicle, newcastle, the guardian both who have published previous articles. I have asked watchdog and consumer advise consumer to suggest anything. Ive written to my mp, the financal ombudsman now. I tried the links give to HM without success. What if I just cant afford to re-pay so then no re-booking can occur? Have I lost the flights claim as my bank suggests? It was withdrawn from one credit card, I believed one payment, but now as the statement clarifys three seperate amounts all payable to freedom direct?

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hi all,
youtravel.com are members of abta there number is W9858 .i,ve paid them again as i travel next week and i,m not waiting for abta to sort it out,they havn,t been that helpful with us since it all happened.i,m still adament i was a package,got the atol number and it even states i,m a package on my invoice but hays reckons i,m are a category c.not a package.!!! dont think any of them know really.if my items were booked seperately then how come i was given a holiday discount of my final price for booking a package!!!

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i really dont get it i recieved email today from hotels 4 u who told me that my accomodation had not been paid for by freedom direct and i would have to pay for accomodation again they also told me they act as an agent for freedom direct which i think was the other way round as i have been told freedom direct acted as agent and they acted as operator can anybody advise me as to who was the agent and who was the operator as they are both sayng they acted as the agent dont understand

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After reading review sites about the XL collapse and the CAA . i dont hold out much hope of any of us getting any refunds for a long long time…………

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Well said Jeannette! I too have e-mailed The Sun, A local Paper, BBC Watchdog and The News Of The World! I will also this week write to my MP and when i receive my letter from Natwest saying they are refusing my charge back claim, i will then put in my official complaint to the financial ombudsman.

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@annemarie – Fair enough, point taken, I will take my wrist as being well and truly slapped!. In defence, Your Honour, I just don’t want people jumping out of the pan into the fire!

@lisawalker. Good, glad you found that. The number is supposed to clearly displayed, though. No doubt youtravel will duly ammend their front page to make this clear.

@Cath – Difficult. Try this: If (anyone) pays again to secure accommodation (should not have to do it with flights) *with the same company* (by that I mean the people or method you used to book with in the first place), then any given person can only be in one place at one moment in time. I would suggest that if you do pay again and then ABTA does act to get Youtravel to honor the bookings, then Youtravel will be obliged to refund you one or the other – after all, they cannot get paid twice for the same thing. There is a general principle here. If you do something, it does not mean that you have then made your bed and must lie in it. If you are entitled to a refund on lost funds, these may be still reclaimed, even though you have paid again. If it was me, I would indeed, not wish to wait until the day before I travel – and I think it is a tad silly to expect you to, as well. What I would like to do, is wait until tomorrow and see what ABTA have achieved over the weekend, specifically, I would want to know if they have done some hard talking and if they have got somewhere in making certain hotel booking firms do, IMHO, what is right.

@Jeanette I am not against people enjoying cheap holidays; I am asking people to pay more attention to who they are buying from and that they do check the “about us” page of any website (or indeed any other agent) they wish to use. Re: Hays and FD. We have had this “people reappearing” bit before. This is a personal opinion: I do feel that if you have failed, you have failed. I do not agree with, for whatever reason, people being taken on again – even if there are excuses such as “helping sort the mess out” or whatever – they are people that have failed and they have clearly failed many of the travelling public, who put their faith in that company – not to mention their hard earned cash. To ask the former directors, or main people, “to assist” (and that freely and voluntarily – as they should do, if they had any sense of honour) – is one thing; but to bring them in, in such a high profile manner, if that is the case, does demonstrate, to my mind, a singular lack of good judgement and sensitivity. It is not a decision that I would wish to seek to defend. As I say, though, IF that is the case.

@rita welch Yes, It will take time – quite a time – before people get such refunds as they are due – but though it takes time, if they are covered, they will get them. You will have a lot of form filling to do and you will have lots of bits of paper to provide, so be prepared for that – but get your appropriate refunds, you will.

Please note that I am working somewaht in the dark in that I have not seen indivdual paperwork and do not know each set of circumstances, save for what people write here, so it is quite hard at times!

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Can anyone help i booked flights only with fd travelling with thomas cook i have just spoken to hays who advised fd only paid deposit for flights and i need to pay the rest again and try and claim back from my debit card is this what happens, thanks im a bit clueless when it comes to this

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to all….. ive just recieved a call from hays advising me that i am actually cat (b)? and saying my flights are safe but not accomadation although fd has payed them a 40.00 deposit! they will take that off the cost of the booking and although fd never paid all my money to the flight company hays can now see exactly how much i did pay fd and are prepared to take all moneies i paid to fd and deduct this off my flights so there is now only a small amount to pay off flights and still alot to pay of accomadation. so i think im going to ring abta in the morning and see what they are advising or rather see where they got over the weekend. i must say the lady who rang me from hays was extremely polite and helpful and i told her i would get back to her tomorrow once ive spoken to abta. (here we go again)@jeanette well said and good on you and people dont always realise that some people have to look for bargains or we would never get a holiday and people like you and me more so ,as god knows we pay more than most people for insurance just to be able to take our disabled children away. so when we see a bargain we jump at it.

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Mr Murray an sorry. but you still have neglected to answer my questions, even generally.I can only presumme that Mr Freedom Direct is the sole benefactor from this situation, at least for the time being, A will continue this in every civilized way this is available to me. I do hope through the internet highway I can get some more positive and promising solutions to these problems. It seems here we cant find it at this time. If by any chance you can I,ll gratefully take them into consideration. Thank you.

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@ Donna..i believe flights are protected by ATOL

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Murray, since you seem to know a bit about the industry, and I appologise if i am asking questions that have previously been asked, can you tell me where (you think) I stand!
I booked a “package holiday” with FD for myself and 9 others, paid deposit with my credit card and balance by debit. On CC statement flights were paid using my CC, not to my knowledge!. I have been in touch with ATOL, who said they couldnt do anything, my CC company, who will only get involved once they receive a letter from ABTA, who will not do this as they say all of my holiday should be covered! Lowcost Beds say they have the booking but I will need to pay another £1960, and Taxi transfers say they have cancelled the booking. I have also in my invoice a statement about the £1 to ATOL each as well as an insurance document for Supplier failure cover??
I dont travel (hopefully) until 6th of June, therefor I have a bit more time – however my sister is also in a similar situation, she booked for another 4 of us – 14 in total who are all due to fly out then.
Do you hold out much hope for us??

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today i ask hays to supply all the information held on their database for my 2 booking as i am entitled to this information under the section of 7 of the data protection act. spoke with someone called paula who refused the request saying that they only have a read only file and can not print this. how can they only have a read only when they have been given full computurised client database from rmt accounting. i will tomorrow speak to data protection about this and see where the law lies. maybe they are refusing to supply the information as they are hiding something from us all, after all the only people that are gear up to profit is them from reselling hotels to us all.

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@donna if i was you i would check ur bank statement first to see who fd paid because in some cases they have paid the airline direct using people credi/debit card and it will say on ur statement wether it was thomas cook or freedom direct? as if they did this its a whole different ball game according to atol/caa. and then i would fone thomas cook direct using ur ref number for the flights and see where u stand from there… hope this helps good luck.

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@ donna also u can only claim back of ur debit card if it was a visa debit card! all other debit cards do not use the charge back facility!

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my hotel was booked through youtravel.com, i was told by someone from abta on friday that if i wanted to make sure i was to get the same hotel then i would have to pay again and then see what was sorted out after.

the thing is, i have repaid hays travel for my hotel/transfers but am wondering that if abta say youtravel.com will be honouring the orininal bookings then will i lose one of the amounts that i have paid? as i would have paid twice for the same thing??

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i cant understand why hays travel or abta will not forward all our booking information i too believe i paid supplier cover and i phoned rock insurance who told me they did do supplier failure cover with rock insurance they also told me that anybody who booked before febuary are covered but must send them invoice but how can we do that if they will not allow us to have access to our own personal details for what reason cant they supply us with this information would love to know i dont think there is a chance of anyone getting a penny back also can someone advise me were abta an agen or were they a tour operator as hotels 4 u advised me that freedom direct were operator and hotels 4 u were agent but it states on my invoice freedom direct were operator

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Dan…let us know how you get on…i think it’s all very suspect!

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dan, I totally agree, when you read articles that suggest during the period of grace awarded by abta, atol and the caa, that from freedom direct accounts £400.000 was loaned to Mr Jones towards his personal mortgage, albeit legally? I do question who would have authorised such a huge withdrawal if the caa were aware of the problems from January 1st regarding renewing abta and atols? surely those authorising were aware of the state of their accounts and possible imminent insolvency request? I don’t now but if I borrow money from my bank, I don’t ask the bank where theyt get it, it just happens, but my bank won,t loan me the money unless I can show I have the funds and ability to pay it back? so, was it our money that was taken? our money in credit card withdrawals directly to them, via debit cards etc etc. our monies that we paid in good faith for 10,000 holidays? Things aren’t adding up here at all. I don’t now aza just asking out loud. Surely together we can solve this riddle. @ matt j, The data protection act does state that information held on any data base can be requested for viewing but this request must be made in writing and can also take even more time. but those are my worries, and I believe abta and my credit card bank had suggested also that we may end up losing the repaid amount altogether. That’s why I believe they advise us not to. Not such a cheap holiday after all then? What I believe we need is to get a written statement from THE somebody who knows, somebody is sitting on the answer and the solution. Is that why abta wont give any written confirmation? or why the accommodation people wont honour? of course if they are waiting fir payments they too would go down, as they have all dais to us. so would it have been R M T, the administrators for freedom direct who would have honoured and paid those persons, the accommodation and taxi transfers through the advantage bond, but since they have been adopted so quickly by Mr Hays, could he be it? Hays are advantage bond holders also, so am I being silly again by thinking they would then honour all forward bookings and then they can make the task of claiming from their advantage insurance bonding scheme. Instead of us having to wade our ways through trees of claims tp be recieved on the 12th of never. OR, better still could Mr Jones, salaried Hays staff. employed on the premise of over seeing Freedom Direct business and staff, be the man with the answer. Perhaps he could shed even more light on what, how and where we stand, or better still what hes done with our money. Incidentally, another question? does that mean he still owes £400,000 to freedom direct business or now hays or has it gone into the big black hole in the sky? Who actually owns the property that swallowed £400.000, nicely out of freedom directs accounts.. Sorry, just another question what amount of money went down with freedom and do those debts just get written off? Are we not entitled to see this in some format? I think am going to study travel law, a must be at least at level 1 nvq by now. Ni nite u all, tomorrows a brand new day. ni nie Mr Jones sleep well.

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well ive spoken to data protection today and they have said even thought hays are refusing, send them a letter asking for the information, bad thing is you have to wait 40days, if they dont respond then data protection people will make them give the information. why is it everything is a waiting game and the only people that seem to be protected are the companies.

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When we arrived in Egypt, our accomodation was cancelled. We had to pay again for the hotel. On arriving home we have been going round in circles with ABTA etc. On looking at our invoices, we have paid an insurance which is listed as ‘Supplier Failure Cover’ which cost an additional £12.00. Can anyone tell me what this means ? This hotel was paid for in full at the end of January 2009.

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Jackie –

Search ‘Rock Insurance’ who Freedom Direct dealt with. Deatails on there web site plus tel number for claim form.

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Hi,
I have spoken this morning with Abta and they have informed me that I should contact my provider which is hotels4u.aparently the Agency Law says that my provider which is hotels4u is covered as well and even if they don’t receive any money from FD they should honour my bookings with FD. I called them and they said that if I want to have my accomodaton I need to repay and then claim from Abta,CAA or my credit card provider.And I must say I am getting sick and tired of this situation and the behaviour of all third parties
involved.
What I will do I will try to claim my money from my card provider-Barclays and rebook other accommodation from other company.
If any has any other idea how we can tackle this pleae post it on this forum!

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well today the situation gets alot worse for me, i spoke to my bank and they have said that i need a negitive referal letter from abta to complete my claim, abta refuse to issue this as they say you travel should honour the booking. i have repaided them already as i was going to lose the hotel. abta head office consumer affairs depatment say the claims department should issue the letter. so without the letter i can not do a chargeback, so how frustrating is when abta say to claim it back from the bank but with out their letter i cant. ive spoken to the finanical onbudsman who say that if i can provide the letter cause abta wont give me the letter, then i can get them to speak to the bank but this will take upto 8 weeks. this is where it takes a weird turn, i spoke to hays to ask what address i need to direct my letter asking for the files they have on my bookings under the data protection act, then im told im not a cat c like i was told, im actually a cat b and therefore am able to claim from atol, i explained that i had faxed my details to atol and they had looked over the paperwork and told me i was not covered by atol. the advisor i spoke to today from hays said that she could see on page 4 of the details she had i had paid the atol payment and was protected. i rang hays on 01915106266. i am now ringing their rebook dept to see why i was not made aware that i was a cat b and not c, and what difference does that make to my booking, will post up my new response. for anyone sick of ringing their 0870 numbers, check on http://saynoto0870.com/search.php to see if their are non 0870 numbers, their are a few.

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the supplier failure insurance sold by freedom is from someone posted earlier by rock insurance, this is the link.
their phone number is 08444820660 or 01293652800 which i got from sayno to 0870 so hopefully might work, if anyone finds out any information from them please post
http://www.rockinsurance.com/products/supplier-failure/

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***Good news for some of us***
Just spoke to Nicholas at the C.A.A / ATOL (eventually) and they have CONFIRMED that if your original booking was sold as a Freedom direct package, then scenario 2 and scenario 4 on the C.A.A. website applies and you will be able to get your money back eventually. Check your original booking confirmation for the following text which appears right at the very end. If you have the following statement, then you are definately covered!!!

YOUR COSTING
Freedom Direct Package Basic Cost = £ xxxx.xx
Discount = £ xxx.xx
Your balance of £xxxx.xx is due xx/xxxx/2009
YOUR PROTECTION
£1 per person of the cost of this air holiday package is paid to the
Civil Aviation Authority to provide ATOL Protection to you. This means
the money paid for these arrangements is fully protected.
Our ATOL number is ATOL 9740. For more information see our booking terms
and conditions.

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fao susanna I have claimed on the chargeback scheme with my bank and have already received a refund , the bank did say they needed a letter from ABTA saying they could not help me but ABTA refused , I sent them the amail from hays travel and they seemed ok with that . Just to rub salt in the wound has anybody received any phone calls from hays asking them to book holidays with them , unbelievably I have had three phone calls from them asking me to rebook , of course I have to pay again !!! I [politely refused and have rebooked with thomson

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@@@ DAN

I have beeb contacted by ATOL today and now advised that they are satified i am a category B and fully ATOL bonded. This is despite being told by soemone at ATOL I fell into Hays category C and was mis sold the holiday. My advise is if the paperwork says £1 per person was paid to ATOL, it is worth contacting ATOL again to ask someone to look at the paperwork again. I have been told today that I can request a full refund and I should be successful under ATOL. Strange that so much can change all the time. Last week I was advised my only hope was ABTA.

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Angela, yes i have had phone calls from Hays wanting me to rebook with them at a higher price than FD ! I have rebooked with Thomas Cook, and keeping fingers crossed for cc refund !

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i have had phone calls from hays asking me to pay again i wouldt dream of paying anymore money to them as they are using same website as freedom direct which says fully and financially protected so if we are protected why are we all having such difficuty getting throw about from pillar to post dare say none of us are going to get a penny back and i dont believe abta are in any talks with the operators i dont believe that for a miniute.i believe theat our money will probably have to be forgotten about as they are all saying contact abta but we ALL know abta are not going to refund our money

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just recieved an email from the judge at sunday mail saying they are running the freedom direct story this week i have to email a photo of myself and family and he will get back to us. perhaps its worth you all emailing him i no lots on the other website,s have done this(holiday truths etc). and he has contacted them also hopefully if enough of us do it they will ahve all the information they need.

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Alan, I have the text above on my holiday confirmation, however, because when FD took my deposit, they paid my flights direct to EasyJet, using my credit card – without my knowledge, ATOL say I am not covered by them, as my flights are secure, and they only deal with flight inclusive holidays – even tho’ thats what I booked!!!
The Judge at the Sunday Mail is running a story in this weeks paper about the whole fiasco, so if anyone else wants to contact them feel free to do so, as the more of us involved in this sorry mess, hopefully we will get more coverage, and some sort of resolve.

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anyone who re book`s with a tour operator is mad as how many of the are secure at this time with the credit crunch etc…. hays called me yesterday to re book, this is the first time anyone has conntected me ” unless i called them first they are all a joke”
I have re booked my trip direct with the hotel (which was cheaper) the flights direct (which was cheaper) the fransfer from airport (which was cheaper).
My bank are doing a charge back even though my card is a maestro card.
You have to insist they do it “as they have never told you in your banking terms and conditions” they you were not covered….(speak with a manager)
All in all booking direct with each different part took maybe a full day finding out were to look but has saved me £155.00 per pearson for our trip……
I should have booked it this way the 1st time as i booked my trip last june to canada the same way and saved hundreds…i will never book with a tour operator or agent again

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well today i had a phone call from ATOL concerning claim could i verify somr details told them lowcost were named as accomodation providers he then told me that i had to claim off abta and gave me adifferent number to contact did this and guess what i am back on the same old merrigoround abta telling me their same old story agency law claim from lowcost then abta:s saviour the good old charge back from my bank >
i asked him what i should do if bank refused he told me i could get aletter from abta stating they were not paying and that the bank had to pay even on my visa debit why did they bother to ring me as i think the only people benefiting from this travesty is my telephone supplier

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Liz
How can ATOL tell you that, when they have told me something completely different?
Nicolas from ATOL thoroughy checked my documents and stated that I had a valid claim as it falls under scenario’s 2 and 4 on the CAA website.
I have since drafted a letter stating this as a fact and mentioning his name, alongside my ATOL claim form. I would seriously get ATOL to check all of your documentation again, and get the names of who you are speaking to. Don’t bother with e-mail, they never reply, keep on trying via the phone but be prepared to wait a while. ( it took me 10 days to speak to someone).

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i’ve got an e-mail from the judge also! They want as many people as possible to contact them…so please everyone, send an e-mail!

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@ Kevin..who is your bank that you claimed charge back from on your maestro debit card? I am having to take Natwest to the Financial Ombudsman as they point blank refuse to give (spoke to 5 different people there as i got passed up the ladder) and my other holiday hotel i had booked with xcapewithus who ceased trading last week!! (i’m so unlucky) and had paid on my maestro card from HSBC, I went to HSBC today and they’ve logged me on their system but obviously nobody knew much about charge back..even the manager!

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will sent e-mail to the judge right away too, I received e-mail from crisis team at caa, they too will investigate all my paperwork and advise. I also received a phone call from my mp today and we discussed at length where, the whats and hows. It was comforting to hear that as a consumer this is a task we should never have been subjected to, had to addresswithout clear instruction and suffer so much anguish with so little concrete, consistent, do able advise at hand. To say that its all very stressful and frustrating tips only the surface of emotions, am dizzy, am tired. I totally agree, why is it the companies are the only persons here protected? I received 2 phone calls from they said freedom direct. and then corrected herself the hays sales team. She suggested the urgency to re-book so has not to be dissappointed. same old realy. It must be really nice to have such braising confidence. Talk about extrating bodily fluids. I to remained numb however, no I shant re-book again with them, or any of the little companys owned by them, nor will i hesitate to point out the reason why people should examine the whole deal. I too will book individually from this day forth and get a deal I want, that is without also running the risk of subdizing anothers mortgage payments. No man is an island, and I now I wont let it lie.

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hi all again.
Just spoke to hays and they have confirmed what i new all along,i,m a PACKAGE!!! category B.i paid the £2.00 atol 9740 bond when i first booked.it is on most peoples first invoice but not the second,so check all invoices.Just got to get ATOL to acknowledge it now and i,m covered for my hotel and transfer repayments.Will let you know how i get on.Youtravel said i was a package and they were right all along.good luck all.

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@ kevin and annemarie… i used maestro/solo and i too am with natwest and have been told no chance with regards to the chargeback! so if u find anymore out please let me no.. thanks.

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My post don’t seem to be coming up here.I have also e mailed the Judge .

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Can everyone affected by the collapse of FD just remember that the people who work for the accommodation suppliers that your accommodation may have been booked through do not deserve to be spoken to like animals. Too many customer are talking to colleagues of mine, and occasionally myself, in an absolutely disgusting manner. It’s not the accommdoation supplier’s fault that FD went under!

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I agree annon that nobody should be spoken to like that,but you also have to realise that most of us have been at this for a while now,with no one being in a position to put us on the right track.We are worried,and frustrated,don’t know who is giving us the correct info.,it is different when you speak to different areas involved.I am a pensioner and can’t afford to lose just over £2,000,and thats just for the two of us, and can’t afford to rebook.So even as i can see your side of things and it must be stressful having to deal with so many folks, PLEASE see it from our side, we have worked and saved hard for our two weeks in the sun which might not happen,of course we can be a bit heated,when nobody is listening.

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i also paid by maestro debit card with yorkshire bank anbody had any luck getting chargeback with maestro card and which banks

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Like many of you I paid with Maestro, I did some digging and discovered that Maestro is controlled by Mastercard. I went to this site http://www.cardpaymentinfo.co.uk/chargebacks.html
and lo and behold it refers to Maestro Chargeback scheme. The site includes a meaty document that does take a bit of wading through but it does refer to chargeback for Maestro and the various scenarios from which a claim can be made. I intend to approach the bank as my “issuer” of the card and see where I get and I’ll take the bits of the document I need as proof. I might be barking up the wrong tree but anythings worth a go rather than ABTA and tour operators sorting out this mess

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Alan, thanks – to be honest, I’m all but done in trying to get someone to give me an honest answer, as I said before ATOL said that document is not valid, as my credit card statement lists Easyjet. My MSP is goint to pursue this for me, as well as the Judge at the Sunday Mail. At the very least, the managment team at FD, should be getting charged with Fraud, as they used my credit card to pay for my flights without my consent – I authorised them to take the deposit, not to then go on and use it to pay Easyjet.

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Well unfortunately I live 2 mins from the Northern Ireland Border on the Eire side. I am currently waiting for details from my bank about getting a chargeback done.
- My deposit was paid part by Lloyds-TSB Mastercard platinum and part by Lloyds-TSB Visa debit.
- Has anyone else paid with Lloyds-TSB,
- sadly due to different postal system, I am currently awaiting my claim form.
Can someone please help to advise on what to do if your confirmation email is no longer available.
I booked last Oct so should be ATOL protected as both transactions were paid to FD on my bank statements.
- Can anyone advise on where I can aquire a copy of my original confirmation.

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@Liz – Can I make one thing clear – if you have been charged on your card by an airline, such as Easyjet or Monarch, directly – then you have nothing to claim, because your flights are all safe and secure – as if you had gone onto the Easyjet or Monarch website and bought those flights yourself. The flights may be on a FD invoice but nonetheless, these are a direct transaction between you and the airline concerned (not FD!). In background, and I am just sorry that you have all had such pisspoor (if you will allow that word, but it seems appropriate) service and explanations, what was gong on was this: FD acted as a “putter together” of flights accommodation and other bits. Now, Easyjet/ Monarch etc are direct sell ailrines so what FD did was to, effectively, go onto the relevant airline site and book you onto the appropriate flights, using your card, as if it was you. This means that all the flights so booked are 100% safe and secure. So, there is considerable hope!

There is of course, a downside to this. You have your flights all nicely tied up – but nowhere to stay! Many of you (again, this is appallingly bad) have been bounced twixt ABTA and certain direct sell hotel companies. These companies are, to mind, not behaving. They have and show ABTA membership – and this means they are supposed to apply the Code of Practice through thick and thin – not just cherry pick the bits they like.

Twixt FD and these hotel booking outfits, the bond was in operation which means that they should ruddy well honour your bookings (as ABTA keeps saying) – I do not know which hotel booking companies may have been on the Advantage CAPS system – perhaps Advantage could tell us, for those payments should be covered under that. Many of you have been asked to pay again (probably because these hotel outfits do not like the prospect of having to shell out another lump of money and so seriously damage their cash flow) and then wait for the inter company ABTA system (for want of a better expression) to kick in. HOWEVER not many of you will have such a large some of money available (again) – and why should you have to pay another load of interest – and use up that remainig credit on your cards which you may well have planned to use for spending money whilst away?

The hotel booking companies do not have that much of a high horse to get on, either,. They signed up for this and for ABTA and for everything that entails – which includes honouring bookings made in good faith. If they are getting fairly short shrift, that is hardly surprising. It may not be their fault FD went under, but they are not exactly covering themselves with glory, clearing up the mess.

Okay, so for many flights are safe. As far as accommodation is concerned, irresepctive of those that should be honouring bookings and not doing so, then a) If you are entitled to the appropriate claim, the you will get it and you cannot “invaildate” that claim by taking action you deem appropriate. The claim is one aspect, rebooking is another. and b) there is no law that says you have to rebook anything with anybody in particular. If you choose to (re) book with Hays, or with a hotel booking company, or with the hotel directly, then that is your choice and your inaliable right. I said previously, that if you book directly with the hotel you may not get as good a rate – but then again as someone found out, they did! Your bargaining chip is a) the hotel could wind up with quite a few empty rooms and b) by you paying directly, the hotel manager will get his money for your stay a darn sight quicker than from any tour operator.

@Jackie West -Whay are you going round in circles, if you had to pay again for the hotel I would have thought that an ABTA claim would be pretty much cut and dried – that said, I have not seen your paperwork. I would need to read the insurance policy, but I suspect that teh supplier failure is a sort of “refunder of the last resort” in the sense that, if you cannot get your money back of anyone else, then they will pay.

Now, my own personal opinion. I do not like hotel booking companies, save for one or two that are owned by the big boys (eg Thommy Cook). If it was me, I would be happy booking through a Thommy Cook or Thomson type company and no other. I otherwise book my own hotels via the good old fashioned way, which we do in business travel. Or I use one of the established and known City Break operators. (I like my tour operators to have been around a while – I know that’s no absolute guarantee, but it helps) Otherwise, I make a reservation on the GDS (in my case Amadeus, which is the Air France/ BD/ BA system), provide a credit card as a guarantee (that I turn up!) and then pay the bill when I go. You see, with a hotel booking outfit, you rely also on the goodwill twixt the booking company and the hotel itself – and there is no “bonding link” twixt the two.

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has anyone heard from abta yet if youtravel.com are going to honour our bookings or not??
they told everyone to ring back tues-wed this week!!

im just abit worried because i have paid and re-booked my transfers and hotel, and i still want to make a claim to my credit card company but they wont do this without a letter from abta.

what shall i do?

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@matt.j

as of yesterday they had not sorted out with you travel, they did agree to give me the negitive referal letter for my bank tho, did take several phone calls and a moan to abta comsumer affairs department, you can contact them on 02031170595. they are ment to be faxing this today at some point and if they do i will post up with what the letter says.

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i would very much appreciate that.
i am just worried about losing the money for my original booking.

i have repaid for my hotel/transfers through hays travel, i just need to get this all sorted asap.

how do abta know how much money each of us have lost to include it in the letter to give to our banks?

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Matt, ABTA have all of our details – when I phoned them over 2 weeks ago, I gave them my booking reference, and they confirmed my details. My sister who has also booked and lost her money – I asked ATOL about her and I only had to give her post code and he could confirm all her details.

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do you think abta will issue me with some paperwork stating what i have lost so i can put my claim in to my credit card company as soon as possible?

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@matt.j

just ring them and ask for the negitive referal letter, this is all my bank wants, i did give the bank the email saying cat c from hays and also the proof from you travel that i had repayed, i didnt go through hays as dont trust em so just paid you travel direct. if abta say no to the letter just ring their comsumer affairs dept on the number i posted eariler as they said they would contact the claims dept about it. aint had my fax yet but they said that it would be faxed at some point but could not give the time as it had to go upstairs to be done. if you bank wont pay you back, speak to the finicial onbudsman as they were quite helpful yesterday and said they would contact the bank for me. when xl went bust, the creditors for xl gave me a letter to give the bank and this didnt not say how much i had lost just i would not get the money back, i then told the bank what i paid to xl and they can comfirm it from your bank accounts. hope this may help and if the fax comes i will delete my personal details and post up what the letter says so people will know what abta have put in the letter

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hi all received all my paperwork back this morning via caa recorded delivery. and it states after reviewing my claim they are unable to authorise any payment back to myself as there was no contract with the failed tour operator. there opinion is that my airline and hotel supplier acted as principals in respect of my booking! i rang them and spoke to a guy who advised that the 8 pound atol protection i had paid for my booking actually went direct to the airline and not through there atol number(freedom directs). so i rang the liquidators and have requseted a claim form from them which they are sending out today! as i paid on my debit card and have no other means of getting this money back but rmt did say today its going to take over a year for my claim to be processed!!!.(i fall into scenario 3 with caa) and catagory b with hays. confused is an understatement!

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I booked accommodation through Freedom Direct early December last year.
I paid a deposit of approx £85- the rest was due the start of this month, therefore my situation isn’t as bad as some people’s on here.
I was wondering if anyone knew whether I would be able to make a claim as I used a debit card, however this account is now closed.
Also would it be Cega that I need to phone?

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@ Murray, I have spoken to ABTA who states that they do not cover accomodation only bookings. They told me to get in touch with Hotels 4 U. They do not want to know. I then spoke to Rock Insurance about the supplier failure cover. They told me to claim off ABTA. After a detailed conversation, they are sending me some claim forms but I do not hold out much hope.

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@Jackie

ABTA do cover hotel only bookings with bonded ABTA members. Hotels 4 U are an ABTA member. Therefore if your Paperwork shows that you have not got a package (and yes they need to see paperwork), then Hotels 4 U, can claim from ABTA. (As long as they did not break the rules, in which case that is Hotels 4 U problem). If Hotels 4 U goes bust then money you pay them is protected by ABTA and you could make a claim from ABTA.

If on the other hand your paperwork shows you got a Package then CAA has a problem, as they are licensed FD.

Contract Law states that FD acting as agent of supplier fails then the supplier is responsible for supplying the goods. If they do not they are breaking the Law.

As to someone saying ABTA has run out of money to protect people it simply not true, ABTA’s reserves are based on the largest company going bust 4 times. Then if they run out they carry a fall back insurance (enough to cover the biggest 2 going bust) and if that gets used up they have a subscription method in place. And all that is without the standard protection that every company carries which in most cases is enough to cover them failing. We are talking billions of pounds in protection out there, but only for licensed holidays.

Also when a company fails the owners of that company will normally be made bankrupt and lose everything as the bonds etc. that pay out place a claim on there personal assets. So saying FD Directors benefit from this is wrong.

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well guess what abta have been up to their usuall standard or rubbish service yet again, yesterday promising to fax the negitive referal letter for my bank so i can do the chargeback, today they are now not going to send this out as they are again using the we are in meetings again, i really start to wonder if abta actually know what they are talking about let along if they know how to solve this.

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I have sent 2 emails to ABTA as requested by them in their recorded telephone message enclosing all paperwork received from Freedom Direct and today have finally got an emailed response from them. All the email said was and I quote:

‘Thank you for your email, in regards to your booking with Med Hotels you should contact our Consumer Affairs department and they will be able to advise you regarding the action you can take against Med Hotels to secure your booking.’

I rang ABTA’s Consumer Affairs Department and guess what they said? ‘Why are you ringing us and who told you to ring?’

I again explained the situation that we booked accomodation only by maestro card and the booking agent was Med Hotels. Their advice is to now officially write to Med Hotels quoting that they are legally obliged under Agency law to honour our booking and then to send a copy of my letter and Med Hotels response to ABTA. This apparantly, so the Consumer Affiars dept of ABTA told me, is so that ABTA can build a case against Med Hotels. Don’t ABTA know there is a major issue already!!

Has anyone received written confirmation yet from Med Hotels that they will/won’t honour your booking or have you all just had verbal confirmation that they will not honour the bookings?

Any comments would be appreciated.
Jo-anne

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regarding jo-anne comment above i have been advised exactly same as you to send all documents via email to abta and recieved same response as you i too was told to conytact consumer affairs and to write to accomodation provider i think they are telling everbody the same just costing us all loads of money in phone calls and i feel the truth is we are not going to get anything back from anywhere i also contacted rmt administrators and they told me i could fill in claim form which would take at least a year and may still get nothing back also i feel after speaking to abta my claim lies with them although they tell me not.abta told me freedom direct were fully financially protected but only for the company that goes bust i explained that freedom direct had gone bust and they said yes but the operator hasent but i booked my holiday with freedom direct not with operator and was not aware untill i recieved my conformation there was anybody else involved in my booking cant uderstand how anybody can state they are fully financially protected if there not.i have been in touch with trading standards who advised me they have recieved email stating abta are responsible but they are going to write to tour operator and see what they have to say i advise everybody to contact trading standards then maybe they will help if they get lots of calls

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Update (honeymoon)
I had found paperwork for Supplier Failure Insurance – so made a claim…after all FD said that everyones money was covered, and Hays confirmed we were Cat. C.

Got a reply today (within 3 weeks as per their promise), but guess what……..I think you guess right “We regret to advise that we are unable to cover your claim, please contact CAA. You will be bonded under ATOL and CAA will be able to help obtain a refund”….

Where do we go from here..already been told by CAA that the way the booking was dealt with we have no claim because they were not bonded!!

Another run around, more stressful days, sleepless nights, expensive phone calls, sore fingers through writing/emailing etc. Whe can’t someone hold up their hands and say “we will help you”……

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I booked accomodation through Freedom-direct . Youtravel are my booking agent. Hays state I need to pay again to secure booking – ABTA advise not to pay. ABTA state they are in discussions to resolve the Youtravel issue by the end of this week. Time is running out for me as I am due to fly later date this month. I booked with Halifax debit card – Halifax have refered me to ABTA. Could anyone advise me whether I can claim lost money through a chargeback scheme or will an ABTA claim be the best route to take.

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hi everyone, hate to say this after reading and catching up with how everyone else did today, but, after spending since the announcement and just about all the whole bank holiday weekend with my head at this screen, researching, reading articles, where ever I could, speaking with the advantage travel agents close to home, I have fast-tracked gaining some speed, with just what can happen when we make a booking. The what happens when people borrow considerable amounts leaving the books short, then able to declare oneself bankrupt ensuing that 10,000 innocent people are without their must needed respite of this crazy world, or just about any reason they choose.
I e-mailed all and everyone else, and yea a know, yawn yawn, at length. I told everyone I had contacted my mp and yesterday we spoke lots and lots. I was able to hand over all 37 pages of bumph from freedom direct and today, dinner time my mp rang me was assured by abta chiefs and caa crisis management team that a letter this evening would be in the post. This letter I could take to my bank and have my funds belonging to me for goods not likely eva to reeive credited back to my credit card. My mp also spoke with the caa atal and abta who very interested also in the previous comments I have suggested, as were legal services, regarding all said all efore activities of former owner. To add fuel to the burners Locosttravel had cancelled my booking and suggested that I had done this. In writing I was ed to believe was the much needed method here, ooooo n-mind, I also learned lowcosttravel.com cancelled their contract with FD two weeks prior to them being led into the hands of their receivers RMT. mmmm, oo n,mind,,, Hays also suggested. through my mp discussion with thwm. that they would offer me a re-booking at the same price as FD had quoted me after my discounts. NOW wasn.t that just so nice and thoughtful of them, of course I immediately took up.. nothing. NOT EVER. I can only say to everyone to gain the interest of your mp. Gont let it go. to many things just dont add up. I don’t think all stop ranting altogether, but my colleagues must be very happy, az am I, by todays result. First coz a will move on, eventually, a think, ha, and secondly we fly at weekend so they will have real peace, but only for a wee, ha @ Mr Murray thank you for your initial deeper understanding into the evolution of the travel industry post 1992, ha, and thus there after when clackers stoped bruising wrists and shattering glass all around, lol, and said benefactor’s disguised as consultants in consumer leisure and a reputable trustworthy travel industry, can gain our trust and monies through complicated regulative enforcement procedures that totally ensure we are safe, by government bondings contingencies, should their mortgages need topping up eva. Yea we saw an opportunity to stop the world at perhaps a lower price quoted but in terms of mental agitation, frustration and how much stress, as that innocent victim, hays with freedom direct or vice versa, you just aint worth my very hard earned cash or future business.. I will keep telling the world. To everyone I will keep reading and wish youz all the very very best. X

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Regarding what debbies as said true point freedom direct said that ALL holidays had been paid for and that everybody was covered but yet where not would like to know why i booked 8 months ago so why did hotel supplier still carry on taking bookings from freedom if not recieved payments for 8 months and why did freedom continue to take my money from bank day before they went bust if they knew i would not be getting my holiday WHY shoould i or anyone else be paying there debts

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I have successfully claimed all my money back , I paid with a debit card and my bank ( nationwide ) have refunded me through the chargeback scheme , keep on at your bank as i did ( quoting consumer credit act 1975 ) give them all paperwork and emails you have recieved from everyone . good luck

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@ kevin
My accomation is from youtravel and i was told the same as you.I booked on a halifax debit card also, i phoned the bank to claim money back on chargeback and was told they are not able to process any claims to do with freedom direct. Did you get told this? Not sure what to do now.

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ABTA

At this time it is a mess. This has never happened before, so I am sorry to say you are out in the cold. ABTA will build a case (to do so the need proof, courts like that sort of thing in writing) but this will take a while. In the mean time they are trying to get people hotels sorted. So when you say they do not know what they are doing your right and wrong. They do, but this is the first time this has happened like this.

ABTA are trying to help but there hands are tied. They had there powers limited by law.

The Government where warned this would happen in 1991, and have had a repeat warning from ABTA every year since. Now following XL this is the second time it has happened and unless the Government listens to ABTA/CAA/FTO etc. it will keep happening.

Hayes, as Murray says they are a good company and are trying there best to help out customers.

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@ Rachel and all those that paid on a maestro debit card via the net.. i took into HSBC on Tuesday my bank statement where the payments had been made, a print out from FD to show that i had paid and a print out from the “Mastercard rules” (Mastercard own Maestro) which clearly states under Appendix B.1.6.10
” Chargebacks- Maestro Debit cards-
Interregional goods or services not delivered (Reason code 4855) E-Commerce Transactions only
The issuer may use this code if the cardholder’s account has been debited for an e-commerce transaction, but the merchant failed to deliver the goods or services.”
If you didn’t pay over the net then you could request a chargeback under “transaction not completed”
I suggest you go into your bank and demand to speak to the most senior person who has full knowledge of chargebacks. Your request must go through their system, they cannot simply say “no, we don’t do it” If you receive a “final” letter from your bank declining your request then you can complain to the financial ombudsman…they will need this letter so the bank has to deal with your request correctly.
I’ll keep you posted!

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Dear All,

Just to let you know ABTA have updated their website –
http://www.abta.com/freedom_direct
considering it’s taken so long to get any response out of them I think it still lacks clarity over what action to take.
I’ve lodged a claim for a refund from my credit card company so I’ll see how that goes – anyone else lodged a claim through RBS?

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The Judge from the Sunday Mail just called me, they are doing a big spread in this weeks paper on FD and ABTA. They are putting mine and 2 other cases in there. She is currently in talks with ABTA, Hotels4u, youtravel and one other regarding the hash they have made of things, she’s calling me back this afternoon with their response! will keep you posted!

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@ Angela – Re Debit charge back from your bank, Nationwide. How long did it take to get a refund from the time you contacted the bank and filled in the form ? I have requested a debit chargeback from BOS and now a week has passed and still no refund.

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Angela
I also bank with Nationwide but they have asked for signed letters from both APTA and the CAA saying that they will not pay out before they will even consider chargeback. Did you you have to provide this? Who did you speak to?

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What a pack of lies from ABTA on TTG! ABTA says:

“But many of Freedom’s suppliers were overseas hoteliers, which have cancelled bookings and customers have been advised to rebook with Hays Travel, which bought Freedom Direct from the administrators, and claim from their credit card company.”

But what about hotels4u and other UK-based suppliers who are also ABTA members and who are point-blank refusing to honour the payments.

Sick and Disgusting

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@ Alan & Phil – speak to someone in the visa charge back at nationwide head off 01793 656323, I had an email from cega at abta saying they couldnt help me ( i did not tell them it was for my bank or else they wont give it you ) I also gave them the email from hays travel telling me that I would have to pay again , I went into my local branch and got a visa claim form sent it off on a wednesday and got the refund into my account exactly a week later .

Good luck

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ps send emails to everbody concerned ie abta , hays cega@abta , rmt and anyone else saying i have paid for a holiday booking ref ………. am I still able to go ? and send nationwide the emails you get back , ask the simple question and they will give you a simple answer – no , that is all the evidence a bank needs

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Few days ago I sent email to Hays to clarify my position and ask them to confirm in writing if I have lost any money so I can claim from by credit card. Today they “replied” by phoning and told me that my accommodation and transfer deposits had been lost. They were able to give me precise figures of how much I should claim from the card, but when I requested to send me that in writing (email), they said they couldn’t! Why not? This sounds very very fishy to me.

They went on to offer me to rebook accommodation at the “same price”. Well, not exactly, it was £300 dearer as they “forgotten” about the discount FD included. They wouldn’t tell you that upfront unless you add up figures for yourself and challenge them.

I then went on to asked if I will be financially protected if I book with them. They say, of course, “we are ABTA members” and ABTA will compensate me if they go bust. They even went on to say that if I rebook my accomodation with them it will be also ATOL bonded – which is utter nonsense, So here it goes, they repeat the same story, like parrots, about ABTA, ATOL, CAA, the things that Freedom Direct used to tell us and like nothing happened with FD – I even had impression that the lady talking to me might be ex FD staff. They just want our money paid once more.

After this conversion and after seeing the freedomdirect.co.uk web site which looks business as usual – I must say I am definitely highly suspicious of Hays and will not be rebooking my accommodation with them. The question which Travel agent / Travel provider can we trust to hand over our money? I actually checked my hotel web site and I am able to directly get almost identical rate as offered to me by Hays. The big difference is that with the direct booking the money will not be taken from my card until the arrival date, and cancellation will cost me only 5%. And Hays wants all of it upfront without any real financial protection.

So given the ABTA shameless handling of this fiasco, I will like many others on this site try to avoid Travel Agents and deal as directly as possible with the service providers.

Unfortunately. by not owning up to the mess created by its few unscrupulous members, ABTA is doing a huge disservices to other hard-working honest travel agents. Any decent ABTA member should protest to ABTA for causing long term damage to the whole travel industry by not helping consumers hit by FD fiasco.

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Well surprise surprise, Ive just had Hays travel on the phone asking if I would like to rebook my holiday, but unfortunatley not at the same price! Can you believe the cheek of these people ( and I dont blame the girls on the phone – they are only doing their job) not only have we already paid for a holiday, but they want us to pay again at a higher price! if it wasnt so bloody awful it would be laughable! Apparantly Lowcost beds are putting the price of the accomodation up – but no-one else is – so she said!!
She then went on to tell me my documents didnt have the £1 ATOl protection – which they do!!!
Would you pay for your shopping then before you took it home pay again at higher prices – I dont think so!

I think I am losing the will to live

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Like many of you, I’ve spent the last two weeks being passed around with every company passing the responsibility on to someone else.

I booked accommodation with Freedom Direct that they booked through Low Cost Beds. I paid the deposit by Credit Card but the balance (and a later booking amendment charge) by Maestro Debit Card.

ABTA told me to contact Low Cost Beds or claim back on my Credit Card (which would only get my deposit back). Low Cost Beds told me they hadn’t received the money from Freedom Direct and wouldn’t honour the booking. Hays (after taking over from Freedom Direct) told me they couldn’t help and to get back on to ABTA.

I feel so angry and it is causing so much stress and worry. I can’t afford to lose this amount of money – it’s nearly a months wages! But it seems like no-one wants to help and I don’t know what to try next.

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@Rachel

I also spoke to manager at HBOS regarding the chargeback scheme and they told me – This only applies to payments on credit card- ( I paid with debit card for deposit and cheque for final payment) . I spoke again to YouTravel as ABTA state they are responsible for the booking whether payment was recieved or not. – but they just refer back to me calling Hays.
Has anyone had any joy from calling YouTravel regarding Accomodation only bookings ?

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With reference to Ann-Maries comments regarding Maestro Charge Back, I couldn’t find the regulations you are referring to. Have you got a link or a web sit I can visit.?

Also is your card a visa debit card or just a maestro, because everything I have read would indicate that there is some protection with Visa Debit Cards but not maestro cards.

I am still going to write to my bank which is the royal Bank of Scotland and see what they say but i aren’t that hopeful.

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What does everyone else think to ABTA’ new statement regarding Freedom Direct.

http://www.abta.com/freedom_direct

The first line of the statement says ‘All customers booked with Freedom Direct can expect to receive a refund of the money paid to the company, or to be provided with the travel arrangements they booked’ which on the face of it looks really positive. This is until you realise that the Hotel Booking Agents (such as Med Hotels) are still refusing to honour the bookings.

Has anyones hotel booking agent caved in to the pressure and said that they would honour the booking?

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@ liz have you checked lowcost website to see how much your booking would cost i had to contact them april 20 to see if they were honouring my booking as i travel 9 may told no so under great protest had to pay again or lose money for flights they charged me 56 pounds more .then out of curiosity checked website could get same accomodation for 72 pound cheaper i phoned spoke to manager got the difference refunded a lso anybody trying to get a charge back on visa debit go to visa debit chargeback you have the same rights as credit card go into your bank make sure you get them to phone they have all the relevent numbers i now have my claim form am just waiting for a disclaimer from abta tosend to bank thank you abta atol caa for no help whatsoever just cost me a shed loud of money in phone calls only to be told claim from accomadation suppliers .who abta know are not going to pay so thanks abunch abta i only booked because fd had your shiney badge i was not aware that a 3rd party was involved as i guess a lot of other poor hard working people were not aware either surely abta should have insisted we were made aware of this before we signed the dotted line any way off on my most expensive holiday ever on saturday guess what its raining sh— roll on next year

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@@@ LIZ

Ask ATOL to check your documents again. We have the £1 paid to ATOL on our documbers. Two weeks ago ATOL told me I had a split packages and wasn’t covered. This week someone else called me from ATOL and they have looked at my documents again and are now advising me that in fact I DO have a good case for a claim against ATOL as my package WAS bonded. Better news for us.

@@@@ KEVIN,

We are due to travel in two weeks time. I have found You.Travel fairly helpful. They are still requesting payment again as their solicitors have a meeting with ABTA next Thurs 14th May. They are waiting for confirmation as to whether they can claim back money from ABTA if they do follow AGENCY LAW. I have been assured that my booking is in place and they wil honour the price. They will hold it until one week before departure.

Just out of curiosity I contacted Travel Republic about accomodation only booking. The travel provider they use is You.travel! Apparently they are one of the main big four accomodation providers to Travel Agents (online – split packaging) I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. I am going to have to pay them next week or loose the hotel. It sounds like they have been the most understanding hotel provider in all this fiasco.

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@Jo-anne. ABTA statement is, like most of their previous statements and publications, misleading and causing more confusion to customers. If you look at the Hays statement at http://www.freedomdirect.co.uk/clients.phtml for Category (c) customers, they say very bluntly:

“Transfer & accommodation providers have not been paid by Freedom Direct & these services will not be provided. ”

Therefore nobody is really putting any pressure any more to the providers. At least you can use this statement from Hays to claim your money back (if you paid by credit card).

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hi everyone i,ve read the abta updated website and i think its still a lot of nonsence not one of us has had our holiday honoured by any hotel even tho we have paid for it. also regarding chargeback spent 2 days on phone to natwest and had a call back yesterday telling me no way can i have a chargeback and my card is a solo debit clearly displaying maestro sign, but according to them its not actually a maestro debit card at all!!! and if im not happy with there answer they told me to contact the financial ombudsman which i have and been waiting for a call back? they are sending me a letter out informing me of there decision as i requested this. but not holding out much hope now at all.

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dont no if any of you are interested but on holiday truths website there is a petition for number 10! its. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/freedomdirect/

ive signed it. worth a try i spose.

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Darren,

Failures of ABTA companies are generally very straight forward. Tour operator failures mean that all future bookings are cancelled and customers are due a refund. This can be via ABTA but also ATOL or customers banks if they have paid by credit or visa debit card. If a travel agent fails then customers should be able to continue with their holiday as they will be in contract with various suppliers, usually tour operators.

Freedom Direct was both a tour operator and a travel agent with the added complication that its invoices were not always clear about how they were acting on individual bookings.

All customers will either receive their travel arrangements or a refund. Which of these options apply will depend on individual circumstances.

As I have said before we would not deny that the area of financial protection in our industry can be very confusing and we have lobbied the Government repeatedly to have a simple, one stop scheme in place to remove this confusion.

We would be more than happy to meet with you and discuss how we deal with claims and the whole area of financial protection as you clearly provide a valuable and valued information service to our customers.

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I have rebooked and repaid my hotel/transfers through hays travel.
my original hotel was with youtravel.com.

i am looking to claim back the lost money through my halifax credit card, if youtravel honour my original booking what will happen?
will i still be able to claim back the lost money as i would have paid for it twice??

ive been told by abta they they are sending a letter to me which will be here in about 3 weeks, do you think the emails from hays and a copy off the freedom direct website will be good enough to put a claim through with halifax??

please give me your opinions as i would like to claim back this money asap as im out of pocket big time at the moment, thanks.

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My suggestions to ABTA are as follows (and I am not aware of their process at the moment, so apologies if this is misguided)

1) As soon as they know that a company is out of business there ought to be a “helpdesk” system for that company placed on the ABTA website. Consumers can be directed to that web based helpdesk

2) The consumer uploads scans (or describes in text) their relevant documentation and questions. They are issued a single tracking number. Then when they follow up with ABTA, they use this reference number. Think of this like a ticketing system at a deli in a supermarket.

3) There is a triage process to fathom out who is responsible for the booking. This triage process seems to be the most tricky at the moment – but also the one where consumers need the most help.

4) The consumer can login and see where they are in the queue. If they know that people travelling in the next 2 weeks are being prioritised – and can see that it is another 5 days before someone can get to their file – it may not be nice to hear for a consumer – but at least they will understand why there is a delay.

Having an automated helpdesk (whether new issues instigated by the consumer – or by ABTA staff is a future discussion) would help everyone see both the scale of the help required – and bring some order to the system. By cutting the “how are you progressing with XYZ” type questions ensures that ABTA staff can focus on solving the problems – rather than information provision.

I expect that ABTA have such a system already (?) – but it would probably be handy if the workings of the process were exposed to consumers via the web. This would reduce anxiety I am sure.

Not a consumer – just an IT guy who works in the travel industry

Alex

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It has taken me an age to read all the posts since my last entry when it all first kicked off.

My update

My flights and transfer were safe – great
Accommodation?? LOST all £610.05 of it. Not a happy bunny.

I have dealt with the fact I am not going on holiday now on 6th June, I told Hays Travel to cancel flights and transfer.

The most bizarre thing is Hays Travel left me a message this week, on my mobile, telling me it was a courtesy call with regards my booking. Its been cancelled!! What on earth is there left to say? They’re are of no use, dont want to know about the costs of this mess.

I am currently in communcation with ABTA, via e-mail, tired of talking now. Latest asking how I paid, which I know will lead to a dead end. Visa Debit Card!!

I really hope ABTA will contact me with some good news soon.

Chin up guys!!

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@sean

At last some-one from abta all we need now is a rep from atol/caa?.

Even if it is 3 weeks to late i agree with alex comments and do feel there is no clear guidance at all and we need re-assurance when things like this happen which we never got all we kept getting was ring ur travel providor they have to honour, then we ring the travel providors they say no we are not ring hays and re-book???

All our phone bills are ridiculous! there should b a helpdesk set up for every step of the way so we all no where we are at, at every stage. and yes thank god for darren and this site because if this never existed dont no where we would all be.

He tried to answer questions in the begging when no-one else wanted to and i personnaly would like to thank darren for all his help and for running this site for us all so thank-you darren very much it is very much appreciated you do a great job.

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i am wanting to sort my claim out with my halifax credit card asap.
i have spoke to abta who are going to send a letter to me but will probably take a couple of weeks.

i was thinking of going into the bank tomorrow to put in my claim without this letter, the paperwork ive got to take in is:

-my credit card statement with the original payment.
-the print off the freedom direct/hays travel website saying that the transfers/accommodation will not be provided.
-the original paperwork off freedom direct with a breakdown of what my payment was for.
-my recent credit card statement showing my re-payment to hays travel.

do you think these 4 things will be enough to back up my claim or will i definately have to wait for this abta letter?

i want to get this sorted as soon as possible, so someone please help me!!!

thank you

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@Matt

I have only got the same ocuments available as you have so am hoping also that they will be enough.

I have no bank to go into as my credit card is M&S online (more phone calls!), i’d be interested to know how you get on with your bank if you don’t mind letting me know.

Are you trying to claim via chargeback or section 75 consumer credit act? Am unsure which is the route to go through and i think your booking sounds the same kind as mine.

I have not yet re-booked my accomodation, was trying to hang on until ABTA had sorted things out with Youtravel, but i fly in 2 weeks (so called!).

Also have you had to prove to your flight company that you have paid in full for the flights?

I am nervous about rebooking with hays as what is to stop the same thing happening again. I have checked how much it would be to book direct with hotel etc but it a heck of a lot more expensive.

I would also like to agree with Rachels comments about Darren and this site. I have been living and breathing these comments for the past 2 weeks, they have been a lifeline through this mess. So thankyou.

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@ matt

i got the letter faxed from Abta yesterday, i have sent this by fax to my bank along with the emails from hays, the updates from hays and abta website, my comfirmation from freedom, payment history and also proof of the new booking for the same hotel. still being looked into so will post once i hear back from the bank.

I cant paste the letter from abta as it was a fax but this is what the letter said for those who are waiting for one.

re- freedom direct holidaysltd, ceased trading on 16/04/2009

as you are aware freedom direct ceased trading on april 16th 2009. it appears that the hotel you booked to stay in has cancelled your booking due to non-payment. this is because the accomadation supplier named on your docummentation you travel.com act as a agent on the hotels behalf, thou putting you in direct contract with the hotel.

i understans that your credit / debit card provider will not make any refund until you have comfirmation from us that you will not receive reembursement from abta. i suggest that you forward a copy of this letter to your crad provider to comfirm that abta’s scheme does not pay claims where a valid contract such as hotels that are still trading.

should you have further enquiries, please do not hestiate to contact us in writing, quoting the above reference number.

thats all the letter says and im not sure whether this will do for the bank or they will think that i still have a valid booking which is not true as it was cancelled. i guess i wont really know till i hear from the bank which as its friday will probally be sometime next week.
hope the letter helps people know what to expect from abta when they send them out to you

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@ lisa

i will let you know what the outcome from the bank is.

i am trying so hard to get one of these letters from abta but they are refusing to fax or email me one, its driving me mad!!

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@Sean -ABTA – you said:

“All customers will either receive their travel arrangements or a refund. Which of these options apply will depend on individual circumstances.”

This is yet another misleading statement from ABTA.

When I asked ABTA claims for a refund due to my cancelled accomodation and transfers, they simply refused it and advised me to either claim from my credit card, or else take legal action against travel providers.

This is the exactly the reason why so many people on this forum are so upset with ABTA. They issue misleading statements alleging that everything is normal and there everyone will get compensated, but in reality a lot of people have lost money, got their travel arrangements completedly disrupted, and are finding very difficult to get any refund.

I’m afraid ABTA is just passing the buck and is generally doing a huge disservice to both customers and the honest travel agents, but not handling this mess properly.

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Firstly can i say that although this is my first contribution this this site,I’ve been an avid reader since the collapse of FD and found the information supplied of great assistance ,so thanks to one and all. I booked,what, like many people no doubt thought, a package holiday back in August of last year.I paid the deposit (over £1100) and received an e-mail confirmation of monies paid,balance etc.

No mention of accomodation booking agents or anything else.Like so many others i spent hours making calls,including to hotel in egypt, trying to unearth who, what ,where and why as i found out the CAA,ABTA RMT etc either didn’t know or were reluctant to pass on any specific information.

Armed with the information i gathered myself eg,who my accomodation agent was(youtravel), airline(thomsons) and who had been paid what,confirming reservations for both were still in place.

I rang Hays again last night to be told that subject to paying £25 per person to secure accomodation(deducted from final balance) my holiday will be honoured with “110%” gurantee on basis of everything agreed,including online discount, back in Aug 08′.

Now i know my circumstance,having only paid deposit,may be different from so many others caught up in this sorry saga but i hope it gives you some hope that things just might turn out ok for most.

Finally,and i can well understand the anguish and frustration of people not knowing about forthcoming holidays, i just ask you all to spare a thought for the people in the travel industry…CAA,ABTA and especially the HAYS staff who are working hard to put things right,after all, its in no bodies benefit to have things like this happen and i’m sure with the good will,patience and determination of all concerned a lot more happy outcomes will emerge.

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@lisa

i was being given the run about and promised to be faxed the letter and then they would not. i eventually went through to their consumers affairs dept, spoke to a manager and eventually got it faxed through. you just have to be persistant with them. just keep asking for the top person to speak to and hopefully they will give you the letter even tho i still dont know by the wording that it will be good enough for the bank as im still waiting my response from them but hopefully im nearlt there to getting my money back as now hopefully only dealing with my bank, fingers crossed

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ABTA’s statement on their website yesterday (7th May) stated ‘Customers who paid by credit or debit card should apply to their card company for a refund’

Armed with this I sent a letter into my bank (RBS) today requesting a charge back on the £1,200 I paid on my debit card. RBS have just rung me to say that a chargeback facility is not available on a maestro card. RBS rang ABTA to ask why they had issued the statement saying people could claim on a debit card. The answer my bank received was that they presumed everyone realised they meant visa debit cards not ordinary debit cards. Why would we realise this?

I have just checked ABTAs site now and the wording has been changed to read Visa debit card.

This doesn’t help me though. I have got a definitive answer from my bank to say there is no chargeback available, which only leaves Med Hotels who are still insisting they do not have to honour the booking.

If anyone can see a way to take this forward I would appreciate if you could get in touch.

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I have also just been told by ABTA that they will issue me with a letter – it could take a week tho’. I will send it off, and hopefully be able to re-book. Unfortunatley there are 14 of us involved in this sorry mess – and I have a sneaky suspicion that the intervention of “the Judge from the Sunday Mail has a lot to do with ABTA’s turn around!
Although I dont actually have my letter yet – maybe I shouldnt speak too soon!

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every time i phoned hays i got a different answer twice i was told my flights were ok and thomas cook were going to claim from caa (actually have an email saying that) other times was told had to pay £420 again as fd only paid part of my flights even though i paid in full what person do you believe, eventually was told today im a category b so im under atol 9740 had to phone tc liquidation and pay that amount so my flights would be safe or lose them now need to go about claimimg back but without any documentation and the caa saying they cant help as im travelling in june and they are dealing with may departures just now dont know wat to do paid by visa debit but bank are saying chargeback not applicable wat do i do would appreciate any suggestions thanks

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I too have written previosly with similar circumstances as everyone else, booked travel accom with fd, youtravel issued the voucher,youtravel not payed by fd so say i will need to pay again, got an e-mail today saying i did not send them enough info, bank statement, fd receipt, their voucher and a covering letter, they say i also need confirmation in writting showing a link with them and fd with their abta number on it the rest of the info is not enough, they have now handed me over to hays travel, deal with them.I have made a claim on the 06/05/09 with my bank to do a visa charge back, my bank Halifax Bank of Scotland call centre were called four times, first it was not a credit ,then visa had put a block on anything to do with freedom direct ,then we can not claim as we can not claim the money from hays travel they have taken over fd, hays have only taken over the data base of bookings anyway as i understand it the bank would claim from the bank dealing with fd. Upshot is i phoned the financial ombudsman to find out if i could claim visa charge back he said yes gave me a complaint ref no and told me to phone back if my bank did not process my claim, the girl at my branch once told of this could not have been any nicer filled out form from the info i gave her over the phone e-mailed it away, still awaiting reply. Why on earth are people in the travel industy, banks , advice services allowed to delay ,drag out and basically bring the shutters down whenever there is a problem, massive one at that, is no one out there going to help or take responsibility, they were quick enough too take our money!!!!!!!

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I have just read a VERY WORRYING post on Holiday Truths. Someone has had a letter from ABTA which said ‘”It appears that the hotel you booked cancelled the booking due to non payment. This is because the accomodation supplier named on your documentation, HOTELS4U only act as an agent on the hotels behalf, thus putting you in direct contract with the hotel”

This is news to me. ABTA have insisted on the many time I have spoken to them that Med Hotels, in my case and not HOTELS4U as above must honour the booking. Are ABTA changing their minds now and saying that our contract is directly with the hotel?

Has anyone else had this reply from ABTA?

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@ Sean @ ABTA

You mention that all customers will either recieve their travel arrangements or a refund. In my case as with many others there is only a couple of weeks before departure. Should we secure our accomodation by paying another fee or wait for the outcome of the ABTA meeting with Youtravel next thursday 14th May.

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@ John

Could you please give the number of the Financial Onbudsman as I paid on Halifax Visa Debit for my youtravel accomodation . I contacted manager at HBOS but they won’t consider any claim on the chargeback scheme until I have a letter from ABTA .

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I booked accommodation only through FD. I was informed by Hays Travel that I would need to rebook and repay to secure my accommodation, which I duly done as travel is imminent. I approached ABTA for reimbursement and received a letter stating that the tour operator ( You Travel) is reponsible for all monies paid. On contacting You Travel I was told it was nothing to do with them and Abta should not have told me so. I emailed back to Abta with this information and am still awaiting reply. Hopefully will receive some information on my return.

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Up-date on story run today by ‘THE JUDGE’ in todays edition of the scottish sunday mail newspaper. i quote “Abta gurentee refunds for all those affected.People with accomodation only bookings which are not being honoured can claim from the credit card firm or bank and we will provide supporting documentation.If they have paid by any other method,we will issue refunds” I hope this clarifies the situation for alot of people.

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I have booked a holiday with fd, paid deposit in december of 08 of £477 . I am flying with thompsons and my accomodation is with Med Hotels departing on the 2nd of july .I have had one e-mail from Hays confirming my booking details.Have e-mailed Hays back and tryed to call them on lots of occasions .I have had no feed back from anyone , is anyone else in a simular situation ,and have you been updated.

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me and the missus had booked an holiday through fd..to begin with we were told we would be ableto claim..sent all relevant paper work to caa however didnt have any proof of flight as fd hadnt sent any at all..so was told didnt have a claim..then the hays news came up so phoned them and was told no probs yourflights with thomas cook are safe pay for your hotel again because you have lost that (med hotels)..we paid for another hotel with them..which was after being told by hays and thomas cook that our flights were safe..they had already sent out the tickets they said..cos weve just moved we had to phone liquidation (thomas cook) who went on to tell us actualy you have only paid £300 of your flight so we wont be sending any tickets..we phoned hays back & have been told they were having a meeting with T/cook on friday and would phone us back with news..this hasnt happened..we are meant to fly o the 24th and it doesnt look like t/cook aregoing to honour the flight..is anybody else in a similar situation..woulld be great to hear from someone who is and have had some news!!! cheers

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@ kevin, the consumer helpline number for financial ombudsman is 08450801800 open8am-6pm mon -fri, hope you get on okay.

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@andy
i too am in the same situation i was told by hayes flights were ok then they werent i only found this out when i phoned and spoke to another hayes advisor, on friday afternoon i got a call from tc liquidation to say i wld need to pay half the money again as fd did not pay them, i did this to secure my flights but now im wondering if this is right tried to phone the caa but unable to get them will need to do some more phoning tomorrow it just seems that everyone has a different answer when i phone dont know what to think.

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thanks donna..if thats the case they are going to want another £800 off us..£800 we cant afford..it appears that all other airline companies are honouring but not thomas cook..this doesnt seem right..we dont know what to think either..i do know what i would like to do to them though..but cant publish that..its not nice we are powerless..my friend is a journalist in devon and im sure he would like to know how a big company like T/cook are treating people..dont know what to do!!!

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I paid by maestro debit card so am unlikely to get refund through “charge back” scheme (but am attempting it!) I have e-mailed ABTA tonight informing them that mine is one of the cases being followed by “The Judge” at Sunday Mail, as ABTA have quoted in paper today that anyone who paid on debit card hence unable to claim through charge back will get their money refunded from ABTA. “The Judge” wants me to inform them this week whether the refund has happened (and i have made this clear in my e-mail to ABTA) so we’ll see what tomorrow brings! (I won’t hold my breath!)

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By the way, i am a cat c…booked “Hotel Only” with FD and hotels4u the “accommodation provider” who never saw any money from FD and wouldn’t honour booking! (usual story!)

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Andy – email the Judge at the Sunday Mail – she is dealing with lots of enquiries and with her help ABTA have agreed that no-one will lose any money!

Its worth a try!

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i have been to the bank over the weekend as i paid for mine by credit card.

the bank is HALIFAX and even though i have a letter from ABTA they are still refusing to pay me my money back.

this country it turning into an utter disgrace!!

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Matt, I too have been onto the Halifax/bank of scotland and they have told me that they wont do a claim just now, I have to contact ABTA or Hays!! After a lot of tooing and froing they have agreed to put it in writing that they will not let me do a claim and hopefully I can then send this either to the financial ombudsman or ABTA.
I agree the whole situation is an utter disgrace

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@ Andy

Do you have the Email address for the Judge at Sunday Mail.

@ all
I have managed to place a claim on my Vias Debit card at HBOS for my deposit payment to Freedom Direct – but I paid the final payment with a cheque from the same account – and I need advice whether I can claim for this lost money .

@ YouTravel customers
ABTA told me today that people will not be recieving letters from them – to use to make Debit/credit card claims if their Accomodation is with Youtravel as discussions are taking place this week. I fly 2 weeks 2morrow so I really need a result in next few days.

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Kevin you can contact the judge at thejudge @thesundaymail.co.uk. How did you manage to get a claim on your visa debit – they wouldnt entertain me at all.

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@ kevin
How did you get HBOS to place your claim as mine was booked on a visa debit card and when i phoned them they refused to do it

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You need to be careful with these part credit card payments. The principal upon which you are relying is that the service (or goods) you took credit for (ie put on your credit card) was not supplied. Now, if you you only *part* paid for that service, such as “deposit by cheque and balance by c/card” then there is only a *partial* non-supply and in the past, this has been a let out for credit card companies not to pay anything.

I do agree that it is a sigrace. The travel business had its house well in order – until the EEC poked it’s ruddy nose in.

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@ liz

i have had a letter off abta saying that i should claim from my credit card and not them.
so what the hell are we meant to do.

this is a joke!!

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Do we know of anyone who actually received positive response that ABTA will pay them back the money they have lost and they cannot recover from their bank?

All ABTA is doing at the moment is telling people to claim from their banks – which although covered by relevant legislation – is immoral and banks might find ways not to pay.

At the end of the day, if our only resource is to claim back from the banks, why do we need ABTA in the first place?

ABTA seems to be just there to make the whole process even more complicated, especially by putting unsubstantiated claims to the public that everyone will be compensated, while in fact they are passing the buck to customers and their banks

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all abta are doing is passing everyone to their banks which is a joke as my bank (halifax) have refused to accept my claim.

i cant get over this it is an absolute joke!!

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@ Murray H

As the choice was to pay deposit only . I used my debit card online to place the booking. When it came to the final payment – I decided to pay them by cheque as I use cheque book frequently for other payments. I will heed your advice though and make future payments with credit card for online purchases.

@ Liz & Rachel

I managed to place a claim under the vIsa Debit Chareback scheme – I called HBOS swichboard – 01422 380880 and asked for Customer Relations Dept. You then have to explain the full situation especially refering to the ABTA statement advising us to caim on our Visa debit cards – and you will be passed to other managers to speak to. I was on phone for 40 minutes though .

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Following the positive article in the Sunday Mail I have just rung ABTA and quoted the following piece from the article:

‘People with accommodation-only bookings which are not being honoured can claim from their credit card firm or bank and we will provide supporting documentation. If they have paid by any other method, we will issue refunds.”

The gentleman I spoke to said this was incorrect and that ABTA are still trying to sort out how people who paid by cash, cheque or debit card can get their money back. He told me to ring back in a few days (which is what they always say)

ABTA still insist that Med Hotels should honour the booking.

I therefore don’t believe that I am any further on than I was before the article in the Sunday Mail was published.

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Following my e-mail to ABTA regarding “The Judge” following my particular case, Hotel only booking (Hotels4u) paid by maestro debit card etc etc, Abta have sent me a letter asking (again) for all letters between hotels4u and myself and FD invoice! I have e-mailed it all to them (again!). I am sure they are just stalling everyone! They also ask that we write and not phone…yeah sure…i will continue to “phone” and e-mail!

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has anyone spoke to halifax about this problem?

i just think its bad that even though i paid by my credit card, halifax are still refusing my claim.

i have all the appropriate paperwork to prove i have a real claim, ive got:
- the original credit card statement with the payment on
- my freedom direct booking confirmation with a breakdown of what the payment was for
- a print off the freedom direct website saying to claim off our credit cards
- my latest credit card statement with the new balance on there which i repaid when i rebooked with hays travel
- a letter from abta saying that i cannot claim from them so i will have to claim from my credit card company.

there is no more paperwork i can actaully have so by the look of it, even though i paid on my credit card im not going to get anything back as everyone keeps refusing it!!

any thoughts would be very much appreciated..

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well i have sent all my details to my bank, alliance and leicester, ive sent comfirmation invoice, full payment details, emails from hays, proof i booked again, abta letter, also a email i got from hotels4u and you travel saying they had no money from freedom and i will need to pay again, i have 2 hotel bookings cause of 2 holidays. fingers crossed i will get my money back, the person i spoke to at the bank said they were looking at it today and she would let me know what the outcome was by the end of the day, i doubt that will happen but i will wait and see. i have also spoke to the finicial onbudsman and if the bank refuse the chargeback, its all set up for them to get involved and i only need to ring them back. will update once i hear from the bank

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Update:
CAA have replied to me today, they have reviewed my documents and have confirmed that my holiday was booked as a package and I can claim refund from them. They have given me 2 options, either I claim for full refund or if have valid flights and no accommodation & transfer, I can calim back the money initianly paid to Freedom Direct for Accommodation & Transfers. But they will not pay for any extra monies incurs for re booking. They also said that it can take up to 12 weeks for the refund.

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@Jo-anne S
I am in the same situation as you – I booked accommodation through Freedom Direct (which they then booked through Low Cost Beds) and paid on my debit card. ABTA just said that Low Cost Beds should honour the booking or that I should claim back on my card. But Low Cost beds wouldn’t honour my booking and I can’t get chargeback on my Maestro Debit card so how can I get my £900 back??

I felt hopeful when I saw The Judges article and ABTA’s comment that they would issue refunds to people in my position. But obviously your experience is that they are not keeping this promise. I will try contacting ABTA again referring to this article and see what they say to me. Please keep me updated on your progress and I’ll let you know if I have any luck!

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Aqeel –

Did your confirmation from FD state:
YOUR COSTING
Freedom Direct Package Basic Cost = £ xxxx.xx
Discount = £ xxx.xx
Your balance of £xxxx.xx is due xx/xxxx/2009
YOUR PROTECTION
£1 per person of the cost of this air holiday package is paid to the
Civil Aviation Authority to provide ATOL Protection to you. This means
the money paid for these arrangements is fully protected.
Our ATOL number is ATOL 9740. For more information see our booking terms
and conditions.

I have this on my documentation and I believe people with this should be covered by the CAA.

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Dear All,
ABTA have issued yet more confusing guidelines on their website http://www.abta.com/freedom_direct
How they can go around making sweeping statements to the press about how everyone will be compensated whilst at the same time issuing the “guidelines” above is beyond me.

It seems like nothing has really moved on in four weeks, ABTA keep claiming the hotels should be honouring the bookings (even though they know they aren’t) and the hotels say they are not because they haven’t been paid.

One tip – try e-mailing your hotel and transfer supplier. It did take I while but I have received e-mail confirmation from
both “taxitransfers” and “hotels4u” that my bookings have been cancelled. I

‘ve forwarded the paperwork over to RBS disputes as additional evidence to support my claim – they may still say no of course.

Good Luck everyone!

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well ive had the best news today, my bank, alliance and leicester have just rang me with regards to both my hotel bookings, they have looked over all my paperwork that i had faxed them and have paid me the money back, they are going to deposit the funds into my account today. i paid using my visa debit card so there is hope for you all to get your money back from the bank or credit card company. i just hope that thomson honour the flights now as not had my tickets yet.
good luck everyone with getting your money back.

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Has anyone had their thomas cook flights confirmed? Hays told me mine were ok and I then paid again for accomodation. They said i was covered by FD atol but I have heard nothing from Atol and I sent claim 2 weeks ago. Still don’t know if I have flights or not. Does anyone have a number for Thomas Cook that they have got through on to ask?

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just to say we lost all our money for our holiday because of the collapse of freedom dirct we have been passed around by all abta say that other companies are involved and that they should honour our holiday they noway we contact abta and atol again they say the same thing not one of the companies are worth a suke no one will take resposabilityso when a firm advertise abta and atol protected it dont mean a thing cause they just say its someone elses problem meanwhile we get shafted i think a trip to my layer is the only way to get tthere fingers out

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@ Phil and all others falls into same cat.

Yes my documents from Freedom Direct states same. I emailed all my docs to claims@caa.co.uk asking if I have a vaild claim or not. I suggest you and all others to send them an email by attaching the docs. They do take couple of weeks to reply tho but atleast we know were we stands and wot cat. falls into.

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Hi all, I have previously posted comments on here regarding my experience and I’ve watched and read how other people have got on over the weeks.
No one seems to be getting anywhere (Myself included). I go on holiday this Saturday, after having to repay for our accommodation, so I’ve gotten off this “Merry Go Round” until I return on 23rd May.
I’m from the Newcastle area and I’ll contact my local newspaper on my return. I will also contact Watchdog again and get in touch with my MP. I may even try one of the national newspapers. “The Sun” usually love a story like this and if enough of us get in touch, they may listen and run the story.
There are so many questions that need to be answered regarding how Freedom Direct were trading, especially towards the end.
A couple that come to mind immediately:
1) Why did they continue to take peoples money after they had been restricted from doing so?
2) Why was The MD allowed to take a £400K loan from customers money to pay for his home?
Also:
3) Why are ABTA and ATOL being allowed to pass the buck when they should be grasping this with both hands and helping people to get reimbursed in the quickest and least painful way?
4) What do they do and what are they there for if not for situations like this?
We have to keep fighting to get this sorted so it doesn’t happen to the next lot of holidaymakers when a company goes bust.
I know one thing for sure, If things aren’t sorted soon, the holiday industry, especially the internet companies, will take a real battering over this and may not recover from it. Their “Insurance” to their customers is ABTA/ATOL and customers believed until now, that “ABTA” and “ATOL” stood for “Security”, but they are now being shown to be totally useless.
If we can keep this in the press, ABTA, ATOL and the credit/debit card companies will be seen to be washing their hands of this and they will eventually have to answer why, but more importantly, people will think twice how they book their holidays

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@ lynda
hi lynda we are in the same predicament as you, my missus is trying this morning to get some news, up till now we are getting passed from one person to another, will let you know how we get on as soon as!! no one is taking responsibilty, for a 1600 holiday we have now paid 2100 and still aint getting anywhere, the latest we heard some flights are being cancelled by thomas cook!!

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I have now been contacted by ABTA via email, telling me that I need to go to the bank and claim from them as I paid by Visa Debit Card and they are also sending me a letter in the post stating this instruction.

Which they volunteered I might add!!

So I will let you know as soon as I have more news.

Fingers crossed, just hope Halifax take me on!!

Hopeful Gem

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ABTA told me last week that they would be sending out a negative referral letter for me to claim from my credit card company. When no letter arrived by yesterday I rang them again and was told that they would not be sending out any negative referral letters to clients that had booked accommodation with Youtravel. Has anyone who has accommodation with Youtravel had one of these letters from ABTA? How am i supposed to claim without it? Any help greatly appreciated

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I also had an email from ABTA, and I asked them to fax it to me which they have done. I paid my deposit by credit card and balance by debit card. I contacted my bank re debit Bank of Scotland/Halifax and they are not interested, and have told me to go back to ABTA. My credit card company have already told me they would only refund my deposit. I contacted Financial Ombudsman who are sending a letter to Credit Card company informing them they have to refund total amount lost. If they do not do this within 8 weeks I have to get back to the Fin Obman and they will take over!
Hope this helps anyone in a similar situation.
Hope my flights are ok – had it confirmed over the phone by Easy Jet.
Re-booked my accom withLowcost beds at a better rate than what Hays travel where offering!
fingers xd we will eventually get our holiday

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i can tell u all that i paid by HALIFAX credit card and even with my referal letter from ABTA they are still rufusing to accept my claim!!

looks like im not getting any money back, gutted!!

anyone else involved with halifax please let me know..thanks

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Further to my posting earlier, I had already contacted Halifax re refund who said they would look into it. Got home today and received a letter from them saying to forward a letter from ABTA stating they refuse to pay and then they will deal with the claim.

So patiently waiting for letter from ABTA so I can start ball rolling YET AGAIN!!! banging head against brick wall springs to mind.

Gemma

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@lynda
after being passed from pillar to post from being told flights were ok then not i phoned tc liquidation on 01733416193 they advised me that fd only paid them part of my mny so i had to pay money again and because i was atol no 9740 i could hopefully claim it back so try them they were helpful to me but still not sure if anyone knows what they are doing, i contacted hbos yesterday to put a chargeback claim thru which is in process so good luck

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Matt, contact the financial ombudsman, they will send a letter to Halifax. They will even get involved if Halifax still refuse to pay out!

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@ gemma and anyone else who abta wont send the letter too

i too had problems with them saying they would not send the letter and then they would, i eventually went through to their comsumer affairs department and demanded to speak to a manager and said i had been promised the letter and then they had taken it back again.
they eventually after much moaning at them to fax mine out, i had 2 booking for hotels, i got both letters faxed and now have had 3 in the post also. i would recommend contacting them, and just dont take no for a answer off them, even if you ring them 5 times a day and chase it up. i posted the consumer affairs number in a previous post on here as aint got number at hand as i have now been paid back by my bank ( allaince and leicester )

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I am due to travel on Tue 19th May. my hotel was booked by youtravel. both them and Hays have tried to get me to repay the accomodation cost. On contacting the hotel direct ,I discovered that youtravel have not actually cancelled my reservation as yet. I will keep in touch with the hotel as I am not sure if youtravel will pull my reservation before Tuesday.
If they do I intend to pay the hotel direct for the booking. Then hopefully claim back off my credit card (barlclaycard) who have been very helpful . As with most people I have been passed about from pillar to post by Abta and the rest . I will keep you posted re my hotel booking. thanks for all the useful information . Just keep going , we all deserve our holiday or a refund lets not give up until they finally give in! Booking with hotels direct is the way forward who needs ABTA protection? We thought we had it and now we know it does not really mean a thing to Joe public. good luck to you all.

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I am due to travel on wed 20th May my hotel was also booked through youtravel.com .I paid in full for hotel on Feb 20th and received a hotel voucher on Feb 21st..
I read by chance in the Daily Mail about freedom direct going into administration,if I had not read that I would have travelled unawares of a problem.Had no contact at all from freedom or Hays travel who have now taken over administration for them.
I contacted youtravel .com who issued me with the voucher,only to be given the runaround,backtracked at every e-mail I sent them.In the end I was told I would have to pay again as Freedom direct had not given me youtravels ABTA number,and I had incorrect paperwork for them to claim from ABTA.I was also told I was not priority as they were still trying to sort clients who were going on holiday the next day.I have heard many excuses but this lot top it all .It is a disgrace and to try and get any reply to e-mails from freedom/Hays travel is a nightmare.wish everyone good luck who is in the same boat.

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I might finally be getting somewhere with ABTA!! I have just spoken to them and they have told me that they will send me a claim form. Apparantly they decided last night that they would issue refunds and then claim from ‘whoever’.

I tried to clarify if this would mean I would get a cheque in the post or just confirmation that my original accomodation booking had been honoured. He couldn’t actually tell me what the process is, but I pointed out that it was important that I knew so that I could rebook if necessary.

I don’t want to speak to soon, as I have had lots of conflicting information, but this does sound more hopeful that any previous message I have had from ABTA.

For info – I booked accomodation only through Freedom Direct who in turn used Med Hotels and I paid on a maestro debit card.

I will wait and see what happens, but fingers crossed!

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Hi All! I spoke to ABTA yesterday, i booked hotel only with FD, provider Hotels4u, I paid by maestro debit card, ABTA said ok they’ll send me a claims form (this was after i informed the bloke that “The Judge” from the Sunday Mail wants me to update her on my claim!) Also just had an e-mail from Abta saying they are sending me a claims form BUT their wording on the e-mail says to fill it in and they will CONSIDER it….are they stalling for time, again? Who knows! It’s sort of a step forward i suppose!

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This is the e-mail:

“Thank you for your email, as you have paid by debit card to Freedom Direct Holidays Ltd we have now been instructed that we can consider a claim for you under the bond of the failed company.

We will despatch a claims form to you today. You should receive it shortly.

Regards

ABTA Claims”

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just requested copies of my paperwork from hays who acccording to their website have all client infomation for freedom direct, after 30 mins of waiting on the phone was advised that they cannot send as they bought the system as read only, after i argued with her a little she told me she wasn’t willing to talk to me as i was being abusive (because i wanted to speak to someone who could help), i asked her to read the comments about them on this forum, but she refused, when she said she,d been helping people all day and i suggested that the only one,s she would help are the ones willing to hand over more money she said i was being abusive!!!!!!!

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I have sent 4 emails to ABTA to ask for advice during the last 2 weeks but still not recieved any reply from them. I am due to fly in 12 days and don’t want to leave my hotel booking until the last minute as I will have 2 young children with me. My Hotel provider is Youtravel. Is there anyone who has Youtravel as their Hotel provider and is due to travel in next few days ? Is ABTA still requesting people to wait before re-booking accomodation whilst they try to resolve the issue with these hotel providers.

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I wish I could think I was getting somewhere with ABTA the e-mail I received back yesterday says——-
We have checked the details of your booking unfortunatly we are as yet unable to advise, with regard to booking connected with youtravel.com.Once we have been informed as to the situation with this company we will contact you.
What does that mean all I want is a claim form to pass on to Barclay card,I am travelling on wednesday 20th May ,so I have had to book the hotel again not with freedom/hays or youtravel .com I hasten to add.I also tried to speak to Hays travel yesterday and can get no further than the receptionist,they will not put me through to anyone who can help,so I e-mailed them as well have not even got the courtesy of a reply.Fast running out of patience

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Just spoken to You.travel regarding honouring accomodation. We have been hanging on understanding that they might honour accomodation under agency law. This is not the case as we have a package covered by the CAA/ATOL. We have to repay and then claim from ATOL. You.Travel can only claim for accomodation ONLY bookings from ABTA. Wish that ABTA had advised me this last week. Very confusing.

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have rung cca today who put me through to atol whom i may add e-mailed me 3 day ago to tell me there was insufficient information for a claim i sent them everything i had i replied the same day to ask what else was needed and still no reply. when i eventually spoke to someone today even they couldn,t tell me what else they needed (what a joke), they also advised they don,t have a consumer complaints dept, was promised a call back today guess what still waiting and they close a 5pm. Since fd went bust i have had no comunnication from anyone, i have had to ring hays utterly useless more interested in me paying again, i have also been told that my flights are still valid even though we have no tickets, i am expected to still turn up at the airport but the flight company say that its not their problem that we have no accomodation, looks like no money back for flights, they say we can cancel the flights but will not be able to claim how do i know that they are paid for if i have no tickets?. seems everyone is in the money except the consumer. its a disgrace that all these companies are taking our money not once but twice and we have no-one willing to take any responsibility towards helping us sort out this sorry mess. also have rung abta who had no record of us having booked any accomodation but our money has been taken by fd abta didn,t seem interested what so ever. an absolute scandal

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just got back from rhodes after a week away, were just about to enjoy our final day, when we were approached by hotel manager demanding 680 euros from us !!! We were totally traumatised and bullied, Our suitcases were taken away and told that if we made any attempt to leave would be arrested and had to phone home ask daughter-in-law to make payment for us on her credit card as we didn,t take any cards with us or much cash as we went all inclusive. Why didnt these f****ers have the decency to notify us bebore we left as they went bust 3 weeks previous, We have never been so humiliated and we were made to stay in the managers room all day and afternoon , until the bill was paid !!! I hope that whoever has booked with freedom direct are notified before they take their holiday as we wouldn,t want them to go through what we went through !!! If anyone has been through what we have and has had all the money refunded please post/notify any comments which could be helpful . Thanks The Griffiths from Cardiff .

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@@@ Update @@@@@

I wish I felt more enthusiastic but I have I just paid Hayes again for my accomodation with YOUTRAVEL as we go 11 days time.

As we had also booked flights with Freedom Direct and we have ATOL protection YOUTRAVEL said we had to pay and claim from the CAA. Upon checking my paperwork unders the costing there in a £4.00 misc charge. I have been advised this is our CAA protection although there is no mention of ATOL. YouTravel will only consider honouring accomodation only bookings.

I am going to try to forget about this site and the nightmare over last four weeks for the time being, and try to make the most of my holiday – afterall I have paid for it twice. I will start worrying agaon when I come home.

Best Wishes everyone!

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in addition to my last e-mail got home from work mesage left on ansa machine from flight company asking did we still want the flights and if not heard from us by 5pm they will assume we didnt and cancel them only get home after 5pm so no chance to respond anyway we only go in 3 weeks how can they legally cancel them without speaking to us, plus how can they cancel them if they havent been paid for (according to them) you would think the flights are ours until we decide otherwise or until check in closes, also told accomadation not their problem. these companies should be made to explain there lack of support or communication.

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Well this is depressing. Have just received a letter back from my credit card company (RBS) stating the following:
“unfortunately, you are not covered by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, as this is an ATOL protected claim”. This is despite me sending them the paperwork from Hays and the guidelines issued by the CAA stating that I’m not elligible to claim from ATOL! I will be contacting the financial ombudsmen tomorrow to see if the paperwork I have sent them is sufficient for them to refund me.

I know that if I could get direct correspondance from the CAA & ABTA, RBS would have to back down eventually, particuarly with a little pressure from the Ombudsmen. But it’s like pulling teeth!
I first e-mailed & faxed the CAA over three weeks ago and am yet to received a reply although from all the guidelines we have been issued with it’s pretty obvious we are not ATOL protected – we are definately a scenario 2.
I also received an e-mail from ABTA over a week ago stating they were sending out a negative referral letter and surprise surprise nothing has appeared.
This is all so stressful!

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@elaine @ jackie doughty

Will you probably wait until the last minute to pay for accomodation ?

After speaking with ABTA today – they state that they are giving advice to people – the last day before their departure date for Youtravel bookings.

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Kevin I wouldnt trust that if I were you,we go next wednesday and have booked again through someone else.I asked youtravel if they would honour the price for the hotel I paid through freedom,they said yes untill they told me what it was.You guessed it it was £50.00 more,youtravel said I had got a discount from freedom and their price was the right one,they also said it states it was a discounted hotel on my paperwork,which it didnt.I managed to book elsewhere for the same as I paid freedom.Still no reply to e-mails to hays travel.My heart goes out to Andrew & Francis Griffiths,that could have been any one of us. all I want from ABTA is a claim form to claim from my credit card my trading standards said thats all I need,but can I get one !!!!!I will need a holiday to get over this holiday.

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@ ella

i understand what you mean about them saying you are not covered under section 75.
its complete rubbush, all of our paperwork states it is covered under atol but fd never passed the money on so it wasnt covered.

@ all

i have the negative referral letter from abta and it is no help when taking it to the bacnk at all.
i was told by halifax that they could issue me with a letter telling me to claim off abta but what help is this when i have a letter off abta telling me to claim off my credit card.

I PAID FOR ALL MY HOLIDAY USING MY CREDIT CARD, I THINK ITS AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE THAT ALL THESE PEOPLE THAT PAID BY DEBIT CARD ARE GETTING THERE MONEY BACK.
WHY DO WE ALWAYS GET TOLD TO USE CREDIT CARDS INSTEAD OF DEBIT CARDS BECAUSE WE WOULD ALWAYS BE COVERED – ITS A JOKE!!!!!

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I was waiting to hear the outcome of Abta’s meeting with Solicitors and Youtravel from yesterday. Thought i would give them till today and guess what, i have rang them today and apparently the meeting is only today now. So i have been asked to ring back later today. Yet another part of this waiting game, and i am getting less and less hopeful of a positive outcome. I have now received my tickets from AVRO who have been great throughout this. So looks like i will be flying next Saturday, just got nowhere to stay when i get there!

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wot if cant get a credit card and u have to pay useing a debit card i was lucky i use some else credit card they need changes to the law on the abta and debits card soo no lose out

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Matt – i think your missing the point here, no matter how we paid for our holiday we should all get our money back – whether its credit, debit or cheque. I paid my deposit by credit card and balance by debit and have been told i will get my deposit back £193, and not my balance £2k. So it depends on who you are dealing with what response you get.
I have just sent all my document to my credit card company in the hope the will refund everything – since i entered the transaction using my credit card – but we’ll wait and see what happens. I have been advised by Financial Ombudsman that credit card company should pay all as I entered the deal with credit card!

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Just received my claim form from ABTA! (I’m cat c, accommodation only paid by maestro debit card)

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@ kevin
I just spoke to ABTA . They are still awaiting results of the talks with youtravel . They said their sight will have an update.There is a possibilty youtravel may still honour our booking. If not ABTA will then be in a position to issue letters to help us claim from credit cards.
I have emailed the reservations dept of our hotel explaining the whole situation .
Basically if I have to repay the hotel bill I want to pay them direct- ( not hays or youtravel)
I have asked them honour the price that I had with F.D, and youtravel . GOOD LUCK.
I will update the site with any progress .

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just recieved letter from caa read as follows

having recieved documetation in support of your claim i inform that the caa is unable to autherise payment there is no sifficient evidence that your holiday was contracted under freedom directs atol. it is therfore our opinion that avro and your accomodation provider acted as principles in respect of your booking. on the basis of this evidence they entered into a contract with you to provide your holiday. this means that you had no contract with fd and therfore cannot legally use money from air travel trust funds to riemburse you. i would advise you to contact the suppliers directly.

i don;t know who the accomodation was booked through and abta have no records either. this is getting ridiculous, all my paper work states fd and as far as i was concerned they provided my holiday and i have not entered into a contract with anyone else.

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rang caa and they say that fd booked our holiday under a differnt atol number and that is why they wont pay when i stated that once i have booked through fd and c card payments to fd then that is my contract they said fd acted as an agent and not a provider, how the hell are we as consumers supposed to know any of this, we have no say in how they use our money nor are we told at the time of booking that they are using a differnt atol number to book the holidays, talk about fair trading what a joke we the consumers ripped of again, dont hold out any hope of getting a single penny back, were are the people that are paid to help consumers when you need them?

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@Matt J: I agree. I paid an extra £13 to pay by credit card which I wasn’t happy about but I did it for the extra security!
I have spoken to the financial ombudsmen this morning and he has informed me that RBS are equally as liaible for the amount as Freedom Direct. They have now raised a complaint against RBS – but it can take up to 8 weeks to get a final response.
In the mean time, a manager has phoned me back from RBS and has agreed to keep the amount “in dispute” for another month which I suppose buys me some time and freezes the interest. She has also refunded the interest I paid last month.
She stated that as far as RBS are concerned I should be able to make a claim through ATOL and ABTA. I’ve referred her back to supporting paperwork detailing the way the bookings have been made negate the protection and the statements from ATOL and ABTA to that effect. She has promised to look over the paperwork and phone me back Monday afternoon. I suspect she will say I need the official correspondance from the CAA and ABTA before they can do anything but she has put something on the record to say that I am chasing those up.
So I guess I’m back to trying to get any communication from the CAA and ABTA, unless the extra pressure from the Ombudsmen pays off.

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i have spoken to hays on several occasions regarding my booking i am finding that if i go to my hotel suplier direct i am getting a beeter deal

i have spoken to my friends who are in a similar position and they too are offered a better deal .
i also rebooked my transfer direct with taxi transfer.co.uk who were a pleasure to deal with,

YOU DONT HAVE TO REBOOK WITH HAYS !!!! Try going to the suppliers direct

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@ liz

i agree that everyone should get their money back no matter how they paid.
i just think its funny when we are told to use our credit cards because we have more protection thats all.
i hope we all get this sorted asap!!

i have re-booked my hotel through hays travel (i did this 3 weeks ago) and have still not received any paperwork, not even a receipt. they keep telling me they are dealing with the people going soonest!!
they were quick enough to take my money though – this whole situation is an awful place for us all to be in!!

good luck to everyone though!

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I’ve just this minute got an e-mailed response from ABTA stating the following
“Thank you for your email, we apologise for the delay in our reply.
From the documentation you have provided it would appear that the booking is a flight package made under the protection of the Civil Aviation Authority. If you contact the Civil Aviation Authority they should be able to provide you with the confirmation to claim from your credit card provider”

This is NOT what I’ve been told for the last three weeks
Does anybody know what they are doing?!!!!

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Today i received a letter from a company working on behalf of CAA stating that they have received my paperwork for a claim (i delivered this by hand to CAA 3 days after the collapse) they are looking into it and i will get my next reply in about 6 weeks ???? Im still none the wiser !

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been in touch with abta, they have no records what so ever of any accomodation being booked they advised us to ring hays which i did further to my previous posting caa advised no claim due to fd not using caa atol number this is a lie hays said they can see our invoice on with atol 9740 £1.00 per person and the caa have access to this info, needless to say i have sent yet another e-mail requesting an explanation what a Joke!!!!!!! nobody wants to pay out for this mess. we are also a catagory b customer, if you get the same response from caa ring hays 08704957266 they can see your info but be warned they told me a lot of customers are NOT covered with the caa atol number 9740 its worth checking

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Update on Claim with CAA
Received letter from Huntswood CAA team this morning and it states:

“We acknowledge receipt of your calim and it has been registered under the ref: FDHL0000**. We aim to review your claim further within four to six weeks from the date of this letter.”
so fingures crossed!

KISS flights have emailed advising us to pick our tickets from the Airport on date of departure. Accommodation re booked with MEDHOTELS at the same price including the discount. hopes no more troubles. Leaving on 19th may. Will keep you guys updated.

@Ella
If you forward ABTA’s email to CAA on claims@caa.co.uk, along with your Freedom direct paperworks. Hope fully they will reply u with the instructions, who and how to make a claim. If your paper work (FD) states it was a package holiday like mines you shuld b able to make a claim thru CAA. I did same and CAA replied back to me in couple of weeks time. Good Luk

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@Rita
I think that I also recived the same kind of letter, so Good Luk!

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I don’t know who to believe anymore. Hays told me they could see ATOL number and I was covered but nowhere on my documents does it say an atol number! I didn’t pay any atol fee and booked flight, accomodation, taxi transfer all separate. Are Hays telling me the truth or is everyone trying to get more money out of us?

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@@ Debbie

The first time the CAA looked at my paperwork they said I wasn’t covered due to split packaging. I then got a call last week and they had had another look and could see I was covered as ATOL 9740 quoted and £1.00 per person was on the paperwork.
I urge anyone to get the CAA to look AGAIN if your paperwork mentions the £1.00 charge and 9740.

@@@ Rita

I have also received this letter from a company called HUNTSWOOD working on behalf of the CAA. I spoke to them yesterday as the woman advised that the CAA had passed my case to them as the CAA believe I have a good case for a claim and HUNTSWOOD are the people who actually process the claims and aim to give me my money back within 4 – 6 weeks, so its good news if you receive this letter!

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@ cath

thank you for that info i have e-mail caa again hpoefully they will look at again

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@@Lynda
I suggest you to send your paperwork to CAA on the email, I mentioned above on my earlier post. Even thu your paper work does not say atol number, it might still have protection as you booked flight inclusive.

@@@CATH
Thats really good news, atleast some relief now that ball has started rolling. I did receive the same letter but did not bother ringing. Anyhowz Good Luck.

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@Aqeel
thanks for advice, have e-mailed all documents, waiting,waiting, waiting…

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Received a letter from RBS today saying unfortunatley i am not covered by section 75 of the consumer credit act,and it is an ATOL protected claim.Just going round in circles again,been there done that. Visa took £41.24p of my money for paying the holiday by credit card.What was that for when they don’t want to know.Also it looks as if i have paid the £1 each for atol protection ..huh.There is another amount here ,which says FD sundry charges £7.96.This is on my booking confirmation from FD..I just don’t know where to go from here.
That must have been a nightmare Andrew and Franciss.

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I am confused.com at the moment. Way back when this errupted I put a claim in with CAA regardless of my booking. Just got a letter saying they are in receipt of my claim and are dealing with it. Also had letter from ABTA saying to go to the bank for my cash back. Fine!!!

Seriously though, what am I supposed to be doing here. I couldnt care less who gives me the money as long as someone does.

Sitting tight is my only option at the moment I think, but am going to make an appointment to speak to the bank.

I have no holiday now but money back is all I want right now then book to go somewhere soon. Hays can go swivel if they think they will get my booking. All they were interested in was taking more money off me not taking any of the bad stuff on board.

Cheers Hays

Gem

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has anyone heard anything from ABTA re:the talks they had last week with youtravel.com and their solicitors.I cannot get any reply from my e-mails to ABTA I go on holiday wednesday have rebooked hotel with different agent just need to get ball rolling in getting money back from credit card,cannot do this without the letter from ABTA.

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@ jackie.

I called ABTA this afternoon regarding the Youtravel meeting last friday. The person I spoke to cannot confirm a meeting has yet taken place – he told me there has been no response from Youtravel whilst trying to arrange a meeting. I was advised to call back end of week.

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i have been told for over 3 weeks to call back the end of a week, they are a joke.

i have managed to get the letter from abta but my credit card are refusing to refund me even with this letter, so dont go thinking this letter will sort all your preblems out.

ive got to phone my credit card company back on friday so il let you all know what is said!!

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Hi, I’ve been following this with interest, as i’ve been affected by the xcapewithus.com going bust, I have 3 rooms booked, 2 paid with credit card, one paid with visa debit card, so i’m interested in hearing anything from anyone who has got any money back from their card payment providers, whether they are CC or DC.
Xcapewithus were not abta, and I booked the accomodation only. The worrying bit for me is the ‘we act as an agent’ bit that some of you seem to have as an obstacle to overcome.
I’ve put in my section 75 claim on the credit card bit, but am getting the run around a bit from debit card as the chargeback idea is obviously a new one to them…

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@ Mark
RBS refused to pay me out under section 75, saying it is an ATOL protected clain and to claim from caa.Yesterday i contacted the Financial Ombudsman on 0845 080 1800.He took a lot of info from me on the phone and will also contact RBS on my behalf.Having said that he didn’t know about FD going bust, but you have to try everything eh.Will keep you posted with any update from him .

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I have just received a letter from credit card company and surprise surprise they will not pay out because Abta should ! So back we go again…..and Abta will say try cc company…..

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I have just discovered this website and cannot believe the confusion we are all in! It appears that I am not on my own in being completely confused and frustrated. On discovering that freedom had gone bust I contacted the CAA and all the companies directly. I was told by Thomson and Thomas cook that our flights stand. I then contacted somewhere to stay.com who freedom had booked the accomadation through who also said that they would honour the accomadation as long as i sent proof of purchase and any paperwork. On contacting the transfer company I was told that they had not been paid so they would not be honouring the transfer. I then received emails from Hays to say that they had taken over administration and would update me within a week.
Hays emailed me again to say I was a category c and that I would have to pay for my accomadation again, however flights and transfers were safe. I phoned and explained that I had been in touch with the accomadation providers and they had told me that the accomadation would be honoured. Hays proceeded to tell me that this was not the case and then tried to charge me more to rebook the accomadation. I refused to do this and got back in touch with somewhere to stay who assured me that my accomadation would stand and that Hays were in the wrong. No wonder my head is spinning !! I have now just checked the website again and they are now saying that if your flights are booked with Thomson you need to contact them direct? and transfers do not stand. Can anybody out there tell me what an earth is going on. I have paid for two holidays on my credit card and do not have a clue what to do next.
I can’t believe the lack of press coverage about this when so many people are in distress. When XL went bust last year it was all over the news however like me most people discovered freedom direct had gone bust by chance!!

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Hi Helen,
so sorry to hear that you and rita are being run around like this

Whilst I can do some basic math’s and can see that, say, 7 million euros worth of accomodation 18 months or so ago would have been about 5 million pounds worth, and that the very same accomodation would now cost getting on for 7 million pounds, so a travel company could find itself a couple of million out of pocket simply due to the exchange rate, ir still doesn’t explain how the bulk of the money, the unpaid hotel bit I mean, seems to have disappeared? Where to?
The same applies to FD as does to xcape.

I’m simply amazed that the fraud dept isn’t involved.
10,000 creditors at about a grand each is 10 million!
That amount would soon hit the headlines if a bank was robbed of that amount…?

Crooks the lot of them Grrrr….

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to be honest guys i dont think alot of us will be getting our money back!!
ive been refused a claim by abta atol and my credit card company so that leaves me with nothing, its an absolute joke!!

im not going to give up but have just lost all faith!!

i dont think the stories in the paper made any difference and no matter how many thousand of us have contacted watchdog they are more bothered about stories such as how long u have to wait on the phone for companies, im sure all of us here have had huge phone bills recently – i just wish somebody was there to help us all but i guess it just shows what a mess this country is really in and how much of a disgrace this is.

sorry for moaning but i have saved up for such a long time and ive had a really hard year and really needed this holiday!

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could anybody let me know if they have recieved a claim form to claim money back from abta.I recieved one couple of days ago i am accomodation only booking and low cost travel refused to honour my booking but last week i recieved email stating that because i paid by debit card i can claim money back from abta is anybody else in same position and recieved claim form from abta

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My sister has received her claim form from ABTA – although she booked package, the flights are being honoured, transfers and accomodation were cancelled – accom with Low cost. ABTA, are aware of all this and sent her the form to claim as her bank would not refund the payment as it was made with a debit card! When she called ABTA they even went on to say it could take up to 6 weeks for her to be refunded. Still looks like they are telling some people one thing and others another!
I paid my deposit by credit card and balance with debit, I have sent claim form to Credit card company and wait with baited breath to see if they will honour the whole amount lost as advised by the financial ombudsman.

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I got a claim form from ABTA and sent it back today. I paid by debit card and the supplier was Med Hotels. I had contacted my MP who said he was writing to the Director of ABTA so I don’t know if that is the reason I got a claim form.

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What I can’t understand is that if Tour operators are failing in the words of the ABTA website to fulfill their “legal obligations” (although ABTA won’t tell me what agency law is being broken. Anyone care to enlighten me?) why these companies don’t have their ABTA memberships taken away. If they are allowed to continue as members when they are apparently breaking the law surely doesn’t give consumers any confidence in ABTA or it’s members.

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I too was forced to pay a 2nd payment for my accommodation which i’m still trying to get back. I booked and have already been on my holiday with Freedom Direct, which I thought was a ‘package’. I didn’t realise at the time but Freedom Direct (ABTA Bonded) booked the flights via Kiss Flights and the accommodation via Youtravel and I received separate vouchers/tickets with covering letters from FD for each. I only paid one payment to FD by debit card over the phone but never received a paper receipt in the post so I only have my bank statement showing 1 debit and not 2 separate payments to 2 different companies.
According to the CAA this was a ‘split contract’. Has anyone else been told this?
As I was due to go on holiday shortly after the FD collapse, I checked with Kiss and Youtravel re validity of the tickets.
Kiss Flights (ATOL Bonded) confirmed they had received payment from FD so I was ok to fly.
Youtravel (ABTA Bonded) confirmed they had NOT received payment and I could not stay at the resort unless I paid them again, so I was forced to pay over another £500, but used my credit card this time thinking it would protect me. Youtravel said the arrangements they had with FD were that the customer stayed at the resort first and then FD would pay Youtravel after the return. It sounds like it was arranged like some sort of invoicing for services received system.
Since I returned in the first week of May, I have been given conflicting advice from ABTA ATOL and the CAA!
ATOL have flatly refused to be involved saying they only deal with flight issues.
CAA have said that Youtravel should never have asked me for a 2nd payment, regardless of whether they had been paid or not. CAA said Youtravel should have honoured my accommodation and that it was up to Youtravel to make a claim for the money they didn’t receive from Freedom Direct under their own ABTA protection.
ABTA tried to throw me back in the direction of ATOL saying incorrectly that I booked a flight inclusive package.
I am continuing to pursue the claim with ABTA as the senior managers of both ABTA and CAA agreed at a meeting on the 22nd April, that ABTA would protect their member Youtravel.
I am still waiting for ABTA to confirm who is going to pay the duplicate accommodation payment back to me (ABTA or Youtravel) and they are stalling on this by saying it’s complicated.
As my bank is A&L and Dan in an earlier post (11th May) had success with this bank reimbursing him, I will now try that option for the payment I made to FD which they have held onto and which the Administrators must have proof of.

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Me AGAIN ! Today i received another letter today from Huntswood agents fo CAA (Atol Crisis Management) with a claim form attached…….only fill this form in if you are claiming for the full cost of the holiday…………..do NOT use flights. I am using flights and i have rebooked accomodation. Credit card company will not pay they say its a ABTA claim ! I want refund for accomodation and transfers that i booked with F.F. what next ??

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I think it might be worth a try everyone completing the Online Watchdog complaints . I have been following the forums on Holiday-truth.com for Freedom Direct – and people on there are contacting Watchdog – but we need numbers to complain.

Jo-anne , good work getting your MP to write to the Director of ABTA. I’ll try this approach on return from my holiday which I need to pay for again as I travel next Wednesday.

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I returned my forms to ABTA last week. Like the previous post I too wrote to my MP, Consumer Direct and to the Sunday Mail although I can’t be sure what influence that had other than to say it all happened very quickly. By the way I paid for accommodation only using Maestro and have since paid again to secure my hotel of choice with Hotels4U.com although I followed instructions and had it noted that I was paying again “under protest” and did tell them that I had wriiten to MP and so on. Trading Standards also sent out letters on my behalf. I’m still not convinced that I’m going to get anything as a claim can easily be rejected, so I wait with baited breath.. Good luck everyone.

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@@@ Rita,

I have had the same letter. I have spoken with Huntswood as I am using my flights too. I have sent them a covering letter explaining I am using flights and want to claim for accomodation & transfers as they have requested. I have sent my new receipt and credit card statement showing my new payment to Hayes.
They state using the flights isn’t a problem – they want to be sure they are not paying you back for flights if you are using them hence the form they sent. The woman said they hoped to have my money back within 6 – 8 weeks. Give them a call to find out for yourself!

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@ catherine

i have looked on the atol website and i come under section 2 as the payments were taken seperately for flights/hotel & transfers.

is this the same for u??

i am just wondering as they say i dont have a claim as it was a seperate booking.

-atol say claim from abta
-abta say claim from credit card
-credit card say claim from atol

i really am stuck in the middle!!

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An update on my situation – Amazingly RBS have agreed to pay me back the money I paid out for hotels and transfers and it’s been credited back into my account today.

When I first tried to make a claim through RBS I was sent a very generic letter about it being an ATOL protected claim as others have on here have received and phoned them up straight away to complain. It was obvious that they had sent me the letter out without bothering to look at my supporting paperwork which really annoyed me. I asked to speak to a manager who after a little persuasion promised to go over my documents and phone me back on Monday of this week.
She phoned me back and said that she had telephoned ABTA herself who informed her that the way my booking was made by FD negated any ATOL protection and that I couldn’t claim through ABTA. That’s when they agreed to the Credit Card chargeback.
Therefore, If anyone else has had a generic letter from RBS I would strongly advise you ask a manager to go over your paperwork in detail and keep arguing your case!
The problem seems to be that different banks are acting in different ways which isn’t acceptable.
I also got the ombudsmen involved and mentioned this to the manager at RBS – don’t know if this had any sway but it’s worth using all the weapons we’ve got!
Good Luck everyone and keep going!

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@@@ Matt J

I have been following your progress and others on this site as we were one of the first ‘bloggers’ 6 weeks ago.

We are also scenario number 2, but we are fortunate because the writing in bold applies to us, as we have atol 9740 stated on the paperwork, hence CAA processing our claim.

From reading your posts I really think you should get some professional advice – maybe Citizens Advice Bureau. Your credit card HAS TO pay out. Not always under the consumer credit act, as credit card companies can also do chargebacks. When I spoke to Barclaycard in the first instance they said they would require a ‘rebuttal letter’ from ABTA / ATOL (states they will not pay out) and then they would process my claim.

I think you should try contacting the Financil Ombudsman? They carry a lot of weight.

Good Luck!

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Ella – can I just make sure your RBS card was a credit card? It’s just RBS told me I could not claim a chargeback, but my RBS card was a maestro debitcard.

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I have just had all my “lost” money refunded by my credit card company – even though I only paid my deposit with my credit card and they originally told me they would only refund the deposit. I got onto the Financial Ombudsman who sent a letter to the bank informing them that unded section 75…..they had to refund the lot and hey presto – so I say do everything you can possibly think of – I contacted the Judge in the Sunday Mail, my MSP as well as The FIN Obman, ATOL, ABTA, CAA and I kept on and on at them until something had to give, so dont give up anyone.
Good luck
ps my sister who also booked at the same time hasnt had her money back yet – but were hopefull, and she paid it all by debit card!

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@Jo-Anne
Sorry for the confusion. It was indeed a Credit Card and the money was refunded under Section 75 of the consumer credit act.

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Does anyone have an email address for ABTA, please ??

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@ Liz

Thats great news !

What method did you use to pay your final balance ?

In my case I paid deposit with Visa debit card and balance with cheque from same account. My bank tell me I must get a letter from ABTA for the deposit but they will not consider any claim for the payment by cheque .

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Catherine, Thanks for the advice, i will get back to Huntswood and try again to claim just for hotel and transfers.

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Hey guys, been keeping up to date with this and trying my best contacting the relevant authorities, but everything is so confusing!
We’ve been asked by youtravel to repay the accomodation fees, however we booked in a group and not everyone has the money to do this. If the repayment was made from one credit card, and then we were to claim, which would be refunded? The new payment, or the old accomodation fee from the original payment?
I’m also confused about who to claim from? As we all booked from different cards (some Visa debit cards, some credit cards and some non-visa debit cards), I’m confused as to who should claim through their bank, or if we should all just claim through ATOL/ABTA?
There are many conflicting opinions within our group, some of us want to repay the £325, while others would rather book again with a different company, however will be unable to until the claim has processed and their original money has been returned.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Rob

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Kevein – I paid £1800 deposit by credit card of which FD paid £1600 to Easy Jet using my credit card – statement shows Easy Jet! Paid Balance of £500 by BOS Debit and £1500 by Clydesdale Bank Maestro – initially Credit Card company said they would refund the difference of the deposit, = £200 – however once the financial ombudsman got involved they changed their mind.

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Is the anyone else out there with an accommodation booking via Youtravel who is still waiting for a letter from ABTA to take to credit card company. I travel tomorrow and have had to book my accommodation through another supplier or lose my flights. But i still can not even get a claim going with credit card company cause ABTA wont issue a letter to help me claim. Any one with any news on this Youtravel situation greatly appreciated?

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@ Dave

I always use this ABTAClaims@cegagroup.com and I always got a reply.

Hope this helps….

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To all people who have paid by Visa Debit Card.

I have just received my money back in to my account (HBOS) through the Visa Charge back. I urge anyone who has paid by this method to (a) go to the bank speak to the manger and fill in the claim form for Visa chargeback (b) Get the letter from ABTA that states they are unable to pay out and a claim should be made through your bank – take this letter to your bank.

Perserver and you will get your money back.

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@ Lisa
I am still waiting for a letter from ABTA for card company. they told me yesterday they cannot send them out yet because they are still in talks with You travel to get them to honour bookings

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Following up my post regarding my claim to ABTA. I received a letter from ABTA today saying that my claim had been investigated and had now been passed to their accounts department for payment. The only money I lost was the charge for using my card some £6.00. As I said previously I paid with Maestro, so all you like me stick at it. Maybe some light at the end of the tunnel!!!

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@Phil,
Did you apply for the chargeback scheme through your bank or through Visa themselves? I went into my Halifax branch and they were adamant that they didn’t do the chargeback scheme, really annoyed me!
I expected Natwest to be really uncooperative due to the issues with Maestro and chargeback but they were so helpful and gave me the forms straight away. Halifax claimed there was no such form!!

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Finally had some news! CAA say I have a split contract but theyre not sure and will look into it more?? If they don’t know how are we supposed to, they’ve been looking at my booking for a month! thomas cook have phoned and written to say I have confirmed flights and I need to send proof of payment. I have rebooked accomodation through Hays who have since written to say I need to rebook accomodation(bit of a worry) All i need to do now is claim accomdation and transfers but from who? No response from Lloyds TSB yet and I submitted claim a month ago. I need a holiday!!

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@Rob,

I went straight in the the HBOS Branch armed with info regarding Visa Debit chargeback that I downloaded from the net. If you paid by Visa debit card then you should get your money back through them – HBOS are part of the visa chargeback scheme and must accept your claim. Speak to the manager of the branch. The branch manager I spoke to did not know about this but she contacted head office who faxed over the claim form (Debit Card – POS (UK & International) Transaction Query Form – non fraudulent) and info regarding this. Don’t take no for an answer from HBOS.

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have booked accomodation for may 28th may in salou and have just found out freedom have collapsed new to computer and dont know what to do help

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If you go to the following link. on this Freedon Direct forum discussion – someone has claimed against Lowcostbeds through Small Claims Court and won . They also recieved refund of their small claims court fee.

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hi all i thought it only appropriate as i was amongst one of the first to write on here when fd went threw, to give u an update……….. thomas cook has honoured my flights we jus had to send them all ther relivant paperwork confirming payments made. had to re-book accomadation with you travel and pay again but they gave it to us for exactly the same price that fd had. fortunately my husbands credit card gave us back the money we paid originally to freedom direct, but the final payment was made via my solo debit card which i have got no chance of claiming back! but i have now recieved a letter from abta asking me to fill in a claim form and also the liquidators?.we are travelling on the 30th june as a family of 8. and just hope when we get there we have a great time as originally planned.

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On the 31st December I booked and paid for a Holiday on the Freedom Direct website I was issued with e-tickets from flythomas cook booking reference EZ4PDE flights Manc to Dalaman 22.50 TCX972K
When Freedom ceased to trade on April 16th I rang Thomas cook directly and as I was in receipt of my e-tickets this was confirmed and I would not need to pay again for flights.

I since paid Hays Travel for Hotel and Transfer part of the Holiday and again Hays confirmed my flight was booked and confirmed.

When arriving at Manchester airport last night at 20.05 hours just under 3 hours before my flight I was informed that the flight time had changed and the plane was on the runway due to depart at 20.00 I had not received notification of this and there was not a flight they can put me on until 27th and with which they are asking me to pay £80.00 again !! and would also need to take a taxi to resort and reclaim when I return this is just money I haven’t got 2 weeks ago I had to pay £134.00 again for Hotel and transfer.

I have rung Hays Travel this morning who have now also informed me that my payment to them for hotel and transfer is 100% non refundable because I was a no show!!! Someone needs to take responsibility for this I have this morning spoken to ABTA where I will make a claim for the first payment for Hotel and transfer to Freedom Direct but they will not be able to claim the flight I will have to do that else where. So be warned check your flight times have not changed as you will be left like me sat at home and not on holiday in Oludeniz with my friend who travelled from Bristol !!

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@ rachel

i too was one of the first people to post on here, i am really glad you have your sorted.

my thomas cook flights are ok but i have had to pay again for hotel and transfes and i did this though hays travel.

i am still waiting for halifax to get back to me about my claim as i paid on my credit card but they are trying to use every reason not to give me my money back.

which credit card company refunded you?

i travel on june 23rd and cant wait, its a hard time for me though as i am sitting my exams from now until i go.

@ all

have any of you managed to get a refund from a hlifax credit card??

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I have had a full refund for hotel and transfers for 10 of us from my credit card company – Clydesdale Bank. My flights are with Easy jet – secure from original booking, and I had to re-book hotel and transfers at original price.
My sister who has booked for 4 of them is still waiting from ABTA after they sent her a claim form to see if she is getting all or any of her money back – she paid by debit card – Yorkshire bank who will not entertain any suggestion of a charge back! We travel on 6th June so fingers cross flights will be ok and she will get her money back!!

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Just to let everyone know, I got a full refund from ABTA paid directly into my bank account today for my accomodation only booking with Freedom. Good luck to you all….

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@ mattyj hope all goes well with your holiday and exams our credit card company is vanquis and all we had to supply was proof which was the original booking confirmation we received from fd they then rand hays and you travel themselves to confirm and applied the money back the same day. good luck.

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Hi

I booked back in March and FD booked the accommodation and flight separately but at the same time. I paid deposit and later on the full amount. Like others, my flight is okay but my hotel has not been paid for to YouTravel who are demanding full re-payment and are refusing to honour contract. I paid using two different Visa Debit cards, one for the deposit (under £100 as the flight was paid separately) the other for the remainder (around £560). Abta are saying to claim off Bank. Other people have said to take it to the small claims but I am not sure of my rights here – although YouTravel have a UK booking address there is a Spanish address mentioned as Tour Operator on Hotel Voucher. In any case, do I have to re-book the same hotel with Hays – have I any obligation to go there now or can I pick another hotel somewhere else? I don’t want a bill from the Hotel if I don’t turn up. Any thoughts appreciated.

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Lynn, Sorry to hear you have lost your holiday after all the trouble you must have gone to sorting out rebooking. You could try the Judge(Scottish Sunday Mail) to help you out .I will be double checking my flights again although i have had confirmation, i just want to be sure. I hope you manage to get all your money returned. Good luck to everyone else thats managed to get refunds…im still trying !

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@lynn my flights time also changed with thomas cook but freedom direct did send me confirmation out the day before they went bust telling me this with paperwork confirming new flight times. so i would ask hays why some customers received this info and not others and my flight is not untill 30th june! at least then they can see there was a problem with flights that fd failed to tell some people instead of just passing the buck and saying your classed as a “no show” that is absolutely disghusting. and if i can help in any way at all ie telling you exactly what my paperwork said?? just ask. good luck.

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@rachel thanks for your message I have already spoke to Hays concerning flights and they are not at all interested Thomas Cook said I should have checked online for the flight times using my booking ref but as I didnt make the booking this was not available to me back in april or now. I phoned thomas cook directly when freedom went bust and explained I had received my e-tickets in december and would they issue me new ones and I was told after quoting the booking reference from the tickets that everything was confirmed with my booking and the tickets from December were valid so would not need to resend them to me directly. So I was totally unaware the flights had changed and TC say they are not responsible as they had notified Freedom direct on january 21st of the time changes and assumed I had been notified by freedom so they are not reponsible. I am being sent all round the wrekin and no one wants to help. Hays travel have called today and given me a refund of part of the payment i made to them on 5th to rebook hotel and transfer with them, but it is little compensation for not having a holiday now. I only really got that because Hays had told me the reason I had to pay again for this part of my package was that the Hotel and transfer arent paid to the companies by them until you get out !!! and I never checked in the transfer company will not refund and the Hotel took one day off the payment I have just been given tonight. I am fed up of listening to music while waiting to speak to ppl at ABTA and ATOL I have sent emails and received no reply. Well I am not leaving it at this if it means small claims court to purse a refund and compensation then thats what it will be. I have a friend out there who took her flight from bristol now holidaying on her own because I never arrived not ideal for her either except she is there in the sun…
There was a flight available today TC wanted me to pay £80.00 pay taxi (£50) to resort as I didnt have a transfer with no guarentee that I still had a room at the hotel when I arrived and said pay for another hotel and claim this back from them when I return……and how long would I have to wait for that, the flight they wanted me to take i could have bought myself online for £75.00 (which included a £15.00 late booking fee) so actually was £60.00 so not a very good customer service and they wont even refund the return ticket even now they know I wont be on it and can resell it. ~All they keep saying is it is Freedom who are responsible for not notifying me of the flight change when I had actually asked for them to send me new confirmation e-tickets when I eventually spoke to someone in april..
I appreciate that they must be un-indated with calls when freedom ceased trading but what annoys me more now is the website being back up trading through Hays Travel and ppl are booking holidays again. If everyone is paying Hays again for Hotels and Transfers how do we really know that our original payments were not paid to the hotels and who has gained here Freedom or Hays!!!! Our 2nd payments could just be lining their pockets !!

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have just returned from a week in Madeira,having had to pay again for the hotel you would have thought it would have been straight forward.Getting to Madeira at 7 in the evening after leaving home at 8 in the morning,delayed flights etc you can imagine the horror when we checked in to find that all accomadation had been cancelled by you travel.They rang the hotel 2 hours before we were due to arrive and only then cancelled the first booking made through freedom.But the hotel cancelled all bookings in our name,so it was a job to get the room,then to top it all they asked us to pay yet again(this would have been the 3rd payment) and we would have to claim it back.By now I am very angry.It took loads of phone calls to the agent before the hotel would honour the booking.Firstly my advice is take all paperwork with you,phone numbers etc,It looks as though you travel do not cancell your freedom booking until 2 hours before you arrive at your hotel,causing so much confusion,it spoilt the holiday and now need to sort out money owing from you travel/freedom.Need another holiday!!!!!!!!!

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@ all

i have rebooked my hotel/transfers through hays travel.

what i am wondering is, is there anyone else who has booked through hays and have you received your new travel documents yet?

i travel on 23rd june and i paid over 3 weeks ago and still have not received any new paperwork and i cant even get through to hays travel on the phone.

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@ jackie we got back on tuesday , I waited until the day before travelling to re book my hotel and right up until then YOUTRAVEL had not cancelled my booking either.My only saving grace was the fact I had kept in touch with the hotel by email so they knew exactly the set up with you travel. I got a lovely welcome, nice room and basket of friut to welcome us . Huge relief as I half expected your scenairo- nightmare.
I got the bit between my teeth and contacted ABTA yesterday they emailed to say the had posted a letter that I requested – stating they will not be refunding me. At last ! if it appears-
I can get on with my claim from Visa…… hoping I can get my £600 from them as they have been helpful.
Why the press , watch dog etc. have not gone to town with ABTA ATOL I cant understand at all- as they just have not protected our holidays at all.
Best of luck everyone hope you get to enjoy your holiday and finally get the money back too!

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@Phil,

is there any way you could post a link to the chargeback form information you downloaded from visa? Halifax are being extremely unco-operative with me and denying all knowledge of a chargeback form, both in branch and on the phone to head office!
This would be a great help

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@ Rob,

The form is supplied by the bank themselves – personally I think they are pulling a fast one. Please see the link below from ‘Which’, I suggest you take a copy in and show it to them (I did). If you still get no joy , tell them that you will report this matter to the Financial Omsbudsmen. As said, If you paid by Visa debit card then they must action your claim – I got my money back through HBOS, so no reason why you should’nt.

If I can help further, please post your comment – good luck.

http://www.which.co.uk/advice/your-rights-when-paying-by-credit-card/chargeback-on-credit-and-visa-debit-cards/index.jsp

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Phil give the Financial Ombudsmen a ring, Im sure it was them who got me sorted so quickly.

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@Phil,
Thanks a lot, I’ll take a print out of that webpage into my bank tomorrow and tell them to stop being so unco-operative. I don’t think it’s their fault that they’re so ignorant and incompetent so giving them actual documentation should point them in the right direction!
Did you take any other documentation with you when you went in?
Thanks for your help and posting the link.

@Liz,
I’ll give the financial ombudsman i ring when I’m in branch to complain if they refuse to help me. Thanks for the suggestion

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Hi

I have been reading eveyones comments for the past few weeks and tried everything! I think the best way to get a refund is through your bank and as I paid by a halifax visa debit card I thought I would struggle. However, today I got my money back. So if there are any Halifax customers here’s what I did.
1) Went to branch and collected a; halifax debit card point of sale transaction query form non-fraudulent
2) Filled it in and went back to the branch and made sure they sent it off
3) They sent me a letter requesting a copy of a letter from ABTA or ATOL stating they would not pay – if you have these send them off with the form
4) I already had a ABTA letter stating they would not pay and I also received a similar letter from ATOL after making a claim – faxed both of these yesterday
5) Account refunded!

Good luck everyone and don’t forget if the bank refuses go to through to the ombudsmen. Dont bother ringing the bank as they do not know about these forms, find out what the form is called for your bank and go into a branch to collect one. I found the name of the halifax form doing searches on the internet.

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@Rob,
The only other paperwork I took in to the branch was the lattter from ABTA stating that they would not pay out.

Zoe’s actions above was similar to mine. Just don’t give up.

Good luck mate.

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@matt.j. I also rebooked through Hays for accomodation and transfers, all I have recieved so far is a receipt. Not travelling till august and still waiting for confirmation of flights through thomas cook. Still waiting for money back through lloyds tsb credit card but they are waiting for some confirmation from abta that they will not pay out.

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That’s some great info still filtering through guys, info that applies to similar situations such as xcape with us going bust.
I’m still having trouble with the debit card side of things, have received a refund from the credit card side ok.
This is a draft of my 2nd letter to the bank in case it helps anyone.

The Manager
Barclays Bank
London Road
Town
County
POST Code

Dear Sir or Madam,

Debit Card number: 4539 **** **** **** Sort: 99 – 11 – 99 Account No: 99912345

Ref: Visa Chargeback

I initially wrote to you on the 09/05/2009, requesting that you initiate a fairly straightforward process known as ‘visa chargeback’ on a purchase I made on 14/04/09 from a company known as ‘Xcape With Us ltd’, for an amount of £394.25. It was for a week’s hotel accommodation.

My claim is made on the grounds that the company has gone into administration, and I enclosed the confirmation correspondence that confirms the default status of the booking i.e. booking not honoured. I re-enclose this confirmation, and further confirmation of the administrator’s details.

I appear to have been met with a level of evasion that I was not expecting, although I suspect that this is not for sinister reasons, but one of lack of knowledge of the rules. (I.e. My debit card has not been fraudulently used by another person).

My understanding is that ALL of the major UK banks have voluntarily agreed to scheme rules as laid down by VISA, for the ‘honour’ of being able to use their (visa’s) logo on their (bank’s) debit cards.
The VISA scheme rules allow for the customer, that’s me in this instance, to reverse a transaction should one or more of a set of particular circumstances arise.
In my case my goods have not arrived, and will not arrive, because the company has ceased trading.
The rules allow you, the Bank, to claim a refund off of the merchants Bank, as that Bank has (probably) not ceased trading. For a consumer, this is neither here nor there.
I enclose consumer advice from ‘Which’ that backs up my stance.

I am about to depart on a two week holiday from 5th June 09, and I expect my account to be credited with £394.25 by my return, with a minimal amount of fuss and bother from the Bank. Should this not be the case, then unfortunately I will have to involve the financial ombudsman.

Yours faithfully,

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It’s been a while since i updated my situation, but I went down the route of claiming through ATOL as Freedom Direct had sold me a package under ATOL 9740. It took a while for the CAA to verify this and they had to check my documents twice, but i finally received a letter from CAA and Huntswood who state that I should get my money back between 8 and 12 weeks. I, like so many,have had to pay for accomodation and taxi transfers again as my flights with EasyJet had already been paid via my debit card by Freedom Direct. This is what caused the confusion with my booking initially being classed at Catergory C by Hays, even though it was really a Catergory B. By the way, I rebooked my accomodation and taxi transfers by contacting the hotel and taxi company directly. I will NEVER use a travel agent /broker again
Good luck to eveyone…

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Some good news from all of this – I’ve just received a refund from Halifax credit card, for the accommodation part of my holiday (with YouTravel). They initially refused, but I phoned the financial Ombudsman who wrote to them and low and behold ……. I can start looking forward to my holiday now. Thanks for the advice. Good luck to the rest of you.

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I received phonecall from globespan(airline) telling me about freedom direct on 1/5/09 I did not know anything about it. they said flights were paid for, but to check with Haystravel about my hotel and transfers, as they had taken on freedom direct legacy. My holiday was due to go on the 12/5/09. I phoned Hays travel and was told my holiday was still avalable but I would have to pay my hotel and transfers again at a cost of £843 we did this and went on holiday I am now in the process of trying to claim the £843 from my credit card company and I am using section 75. As I got this information from this website. hope this might help anyone who is still due to go on holiday. I am grateful to globespan for giving me this information in the first place.

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hi everyone,got back off holiday last week and after all the stress before hand it was a well needed break! lloyds tsb have given me a refund using the visa debit card chargeback service.Although i had to provide them with an atol decline letter beforehand.so dont give up guys you will get your money back one way or the other,i didnt think so at first but i kept on at all of them till one gave in!!!! have a nice holiday and hope you all get your money back.

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Hi everybody, good news from some of you !! I tried to claim on cc and was refused because they say atol should pay ! I then had a letter from Huntswood CAA Agents asking for more info….still waiting for reply. I came under cat C. I am using the original flights .Rebooked acc and transfers. Anyone been paid out by Huntswood yet?? Will i end up starting cc claim again ???

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Hi. just to update you all: I have received a full refund from ABTA. I was cat c, i paid by maestro debit card for hotel only (placed with hotels4u) i sent my ABTA claim form off together with a copy of e-mails i had sent and received from hotels4u stating they would not honour my booking and a copy of my FD invoice!
Good luck to everone else x

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It is interesting that as of today Hays travel has removed all freedom-direct links/information/branding from their main web site. The old freedom info is now only available from here:
http://www.haystravel.co.uk/clients.phtml

According to TravelWeekly, “Hays Travel managing director John Hays admitted the brand name had been “badly hit” by the confusion among consumers trying to claim their money back.”

There was also interesting story in times couple of days ago:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article6451618.ece

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Update on my case:
Hotels4u wouldn’t honour bokoing (surprise surprise), so had to pay again, but claiming this back thro’ CC, so now that money ‘is in dispute’. Should get it back.
Now the flights:
After being told that my flights were fine, I checked on the FD/HAYS website found that as a Cat C my flights should be fine, last week I checked again and the situation had changed, and I was to check with Thomas Cook (my flight provider).
I did this and the guy has yet to get back to me.
Yesterday I got a nice wee surprise in the mail….. a bill for the cost of my flights! After trying the number and leaving a message (no call back yet!) I found another number for them and the girl was really good, explaining that the computer just spits these out as a matter for the course. She also said that as I was now NOT a FD customer but a DIRECT customer, my flights should be fine and did I have an ATOL number, now the only one I have is the one on their cheeky letter looking for £500+, after being told this, she said that THEY (thomas cook) would claim the money back from ATOL/ABTA (whoever I don’t care, I’m not forking out any more).
Just glad I’m not flying out soon.

After watching the news last night, I’m just wondering whats gonna happen now that the 53% share holder of Thomas Cook from Germany has went into administration? They may say that it won’t effect the TC brand…. we’ll see.

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UPDATE – Arrived back from holiday. YOU.TRAVEL.COM see to be a lot bigger than I thought as they has a rep at our hotel in Turkey 7 days a week and we were invited to a welcome meeting and about 10 other families turned up, this was reassuring for us as I was apprehensive about being hit with a bill from the hotel at the end of the holiday. Still waiting for Huntswood to processs my claim, I’m feeling hopeful that I will recieve a refund with the 6 weeks they state?!

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Just an update on my previous posts. I have today received a letter from ABTA to say that they are processing my claim and I will receive a full refund of the £1,200 I paid.

It has taken 2 months of worry since the collapse of Freedom Direct, but finally sorted.

For information I paid by maestro card.

Good luck to everyone else.

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Hello everyone, just a quick update from me also.

After contacting ABTA they sent me a letter basically telling me to go to my bank and claim.

HALIFAX were great they did not argue and have now got all my money back.

Also from me joining the group on Facebook a lady from the BBC contacted me about my experience and has asked me to appear on Consumer show called ‘Your Money’ highlighting the issues we have all had and us believing our holidays were protected when they weren’t.

Good luck everyone

Gem

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Just returned from 12 day Crete holiday and a letter arrived while we were away to say that cc are now going to pay us our refund ……. aletter from the Daily Mail Judge seemed to do the trick. Good luck everybody.

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has anyone heard from Huntswood yet?

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Just an update still waiting for my credit card company to honour [Section 75 of the credit card act of 1974] I sent a second letter on 5/6/09 but I am still waiting for a positive reply, this has now been over 5 weeks and I am getting sick of being messed around. think I will now have to go to the ombusman or the B.B.C. watchdog. as I know that other credit card companies have paid their customers without messing them about. will let you know the outcome.

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I apologise darren but I think it is getting to everyone now when the bills come in and you dont seem to be getting anywhere with your credit card company . What I have decided to do is wait one more week for a response to my letter then I will involve the ombusman will let you know what happens.Thankyou for your help.

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I also am having trouble getting moneies back from credit card company, am fed up with all their excuses so have now involved the ombudsman, lets hope we can sort it out soon.

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Guys, are you aware that you can ‘dispute’ a credit card transaction, and whilst it’s still under dispute it becomes interest free?
Every little helps?

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hello everyone here is my update returned from our holiday on the 15th had a lovely time all went smoothly(thank god!). thomas cook honoured our flights and also gave us lots of freebie vouchers to use onboard and also extra baggage allowance at no extra charge and pre-booked our seats so we could all sit together as there was 8 of us. as stated previously our deposit was paid with credit card which we had back before we went away. when we arrived home the remaining amount that i had paid by my debit card for the accomadation was awaiting us in a the form of a cheque. so all in all i think i am one of the lucky ones but dont ever want to go through that ever again and in future will only book with larger companies ie thomas cook or thompson i no it costs a bit extra but worth it after going through this i think.good luck to everybody who has been affected by this.

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UPDATE ***

I have been chasing Huntswood weekly since 8th June. It turns out they were missing one piece of my paperwork which has caused a further 5 week delay. Good news though. They state they have now processed my claim and I should have the money paid into my bank by Friday. I will then be ina position to pay off Barclaycard who have been very supportive and frozen the amount on my card so no interest charges.

Good to read others getting their money back – I think we are the lucky ones. I will be glad to put closure on this experience.

I think you have just got to keep on and on at these insitutions until you get your money back.

Best Wishes Catharine

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Yippee … Barclaycard- Visa have refunded my hotel payment!
I was getting really annoyed with them as they kept coming back asking for more information. I faxed a letter last Tuesday – threatening to go to the financial ombudsman.
That done the trick. By Saturday I had a letter full refund given.
Don’t give up if you do the same it might just work for you too.
Best of luck

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My husband and I actually got to our Hotel in Cyprus before we realised something was wrong! Had to pay again at the resort but god knows what we would have done if we hadn’t had the money to do that. Paid on CC so awaiting the outcome of a refund. Also felt that someone should pay for the stress it caused us but that will never happen I suppose.

Edit by moderator: There’s no evidence to suggest that the company mentioned in the original comment is part of Freedom Direct Holidays or has gone bust. I have therefore edited this comment for this reason.

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I paid my holiday by visa debit card through Abbey. Eventually got my money back via the charge back scheme. Booked another holiday with the money I received. Just got back from holiday to find my account seriously in the red. Phoned Abbey who stated that as they cannot get the money back from the administrators they have no option but to retrieve the money from me as they cannot be at a loss. I never got a letter to say that this was going to happen. They are standing their ground on this and say I must put in appeal. In the meantime I will not have enough money for my direct debits so these will not be honoured. can someone please advise if this has happened to them and how legal this is. I will phone the financial ombudsman tomorrow but need some peace of mind tonight.

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@ Denise

I also recieved a letter from my bank HBOS stating :

Unfortunately the retailers bank has declined your claim as they require further evidence that a service has not been provided by Freedom Direct . Therefore we require a rejection letter from ABTA stating that the hotel you booked has cancelled your booking due to non-payment. The letter must also state that you will not recieve reinbursement from ABTA . If we do not hear from you within seven days, we will have no alternative but to debit your account for the amount on 29th July 2009

I called ABTA who stated the letter they previously sent to me – which was faxed to them is sufficient and they are getting lots of enquiries from HBOS customers about this. ABTA state they can only send me the same letter sent previously. I should recieve this in next few days.

Will keep you informed.

Kevin

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I also have the same problem with Barclaycard,they would not accept the letter ABTA issued,I called the administrators for Freedom Direct who said the ABTA letter should be enough.After weeks of to and fro from Barclaycard I have gone to the ombudsman,just hope he has better luck than me.

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@kevin

In a way you are lucky your bank has notified you. Abbey just withdrew my money without notification. I knew nothing about it until I received my statement. I have spoken with the financial ombudsman today who is going to send a letter but they have 8 weeks to resolve the dispute before the ombudsman can make a desicion. In the meantime I have lost the £2,200 which Abbey had credited me and I had respent on my holiday. May I add that £600 of it was credited on 24 April so it took 10 weeks for them to decide no we will take it back.

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After no joy with Atol or ABTA I contacted Thomsons who told me they had no record of me at all. Apparently I was told that after the collapse of FD, Thomsons were provided with a spreadsheet with all names and contact details of people who were booked with Thomsons through FD. At least 50% were missing though – including mine. ABTA still refuse to pay up!!!!

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I gave tesco credit card until today to get in contact with me about my refund of £843 as I have waited since my last letter to them was dated 5 june but decided to phone them again as a last ditch atempt to get my money back when I phoned I told them I would give them one week to sort it out or I would contact the ombusman. 20mins later I recieved a phone call with an apology for all the inconvenience and telling me my money would be refunded today and would be in my account tomorrow a result at last hope other people can get the same result thanks for all the feedback its been helpful.

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@Denise

Yes I recieved my letter with 5 days notice before they say they will debit my account . I recieved a more detailed letter from ABTA this morning which I have faxed to HBOS head office . I’ll let you know if this is successful.

I hope your issue will soon be resolved.
I’m sure the action taken by the Ombudsman will help you get this money back into your account.

Best of luck

Kevin

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Had to pay again for my hotel and airport transfer as Freedom Direct didnt pass on my money to them (paid upfront the total amount very early on!). Discovered Freedom Direct only passed on a holding amount to Thomas Cook for my flights, so had to pay another £800 there too! When I got back and started to claim, my debit card provider (Lloyds bank) told me as it was greater then 120 days I had no chance with visa chargeback scheme!
Just been told by Huntswood (agents acting on behalf of CAA) that my claim cannot be considered as Freedom Direct booked my holiday in such a way as to bypass the ATOL protection……gutted and confused! Lesson learnt I guess, but any advice welcome

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i have still not received any monies back either had to send in several claim forms I paid by Barclays Visa Debit card and have also pursued them for a claim, it appears ABTA and ATOL dont want to know. I paid twice 2 for hotels and transfers but also when turned up at airport for flight which Thomas cook confirmed they had resheduled the time and I was not notifield so am also now trying to get the flight money back. As a result of this I booked another flight and had to find accom and transfer too as I was a no show at the hotel then there was no room for me either. It resulted in my friend spending a week on her own at the resort she flew from a different aiport as I arrived a week later all very sad and very angry still over this.

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@Jason

Would you have an email address or phone # for Huntswood.

Everyone beware just been to see the bank manager and he said the bank has taken back the money as they have received a letter stating that the Freedom Direct holidays are still valid and not cancelled. Therefore we are not eligible for a return of funds. Going back to Abta, Caa etc for more documentation although the bank manager says we may need a solicitor.

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@Jason

I think you may have got wrong info there. The 120 days only start from when the holiday was due and not from when it was paid, Maybe be worth looking into to get the correct advice. Besides you should tell them you are claiming back the repayment and not the original payment.

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@ denise.

Sorry to hear of your tale.
If your bank manager is ‘friendly and helpful’ it might be worth an ask as to where this ‘holidays still valid’ letter has come from. It certainly sounds as if you need to start gathering evidence of their purported incompetence.

I would also ask for a print off of the Visa Chargeback rules (which are Visa’s rules that the bank belong to, not the bank making up their own rules to suit) that says that the bank can re-charge you if the administrators decline the chargeback.

My understanding is that it is the CUSTOMERS RIGHT under the Visa rules to initiate a transaction reversal, ie the chargeback process.

Your local CAB will have a list of solicitors that do an initial half hour meeting for free, go armed with a list of written down questions, try not to let the sol waffle too much and waste time, ask direct questions about what form number you would need at the court to start off a small claims action, if it were me I would try and get the matter in front of a judge as quickly as possible so that question marks over interest charges and the like are on record as early as possible, but the main reason to get the matter into court is to get the bank to produce documentary evidence that backs up their stance of taking the money back with no notice.

Bet you wish you’d closed the a/c now upon receiving the £2,200 eh?

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@ Mark

Thanks for that, some useful info. I think I have to wait the 8 weeks to give them time to look into it and then the financial ombudsman will take over and yes I am gathering all the letters etc. Bank manager is not much use he says that he has no say over the disputes department and he cannot help. I have sent in a letter of appeal to the bank and I will keep you posted how it fairs.

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I was told by Thomsons (whom my flight was booked with) that after the collapse of FD, ABTA sent them a spreadsheet with the names of people who had book flights with Thomsons via FD, but apparently loads of names and addresses were missing (including mine). This was incompetence by ABTA. Despite numerous calls and letters neither ABTA nor ATOL want to know about me losing over £700. I have just today received my money back in full from Lloyds TSB – even though I paid by Debit Card. They just require a letter from ABTA confirming that they cannot help you. Good luck to everyone who tries.

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Abbey have decided to put the money back into my account again. I think the letter from the abudsman done the trick.

Everyone just keep an eye on your account incase the same thing happens although I think Abbey were chancing their arm.

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any advice

i booked flights only with fd which they paid thomas cook part of so i had to pay half again which i thought icould claim back but according to caa icannot as fd did not send me a letter to confirm the atol no but when they went into administration hayes advised me of my atol no 9740 but as i have no written evidence i cannot get this back which i think is really unfair i also tried the bank as i paid by visa debit but they advised me as i was flight onlythey do not cover that i am at a loss as i dont want tolose the money whyshould i any advice would be great

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I have just received my £2500 from Huntswood. I guess i was just lucky to have had the ATOL number on my receipt.

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The CCA have just refunded us! Thank the Lord!

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I put my claim in with Huntswood as far back as 8th June. I have re-sent them documentation and finally telephoned them because they kept asking for more paperwork. I advised them that they had been sent everything that i had which was all e:mail paperwork, they then asked me just to confirm that i had no other form of receipt. I did this at the end of August but have still heard nothing. Am doing a chaser letter today but how long has it taken everyone else to get their claims sorted please?

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Do you have a contact number for Huntswood, I spoke to RMT today who are the administrators for the Freedom Direct collapse, and they advised me to speak to them regarding my claim. I only found a redirecting link to the CAA website. I have had no luck getting through on the CAA’s number. constantly on hold. We have been sending requested documentation to both ATOL and Huntswood for months now with no luck of hearing anything is being done. Any advice welcome. In a couple of months it will be a year of sending more and more copies of the same requested info to these people!! sooo frustrated!!

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