Comments on: ATOL protection contribution to increase

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:32:51 +0000

@ Sam

Good point. I think what I have taken from the recent mess for Freedom Direct holidays refunds is pay by credit card and get the money back from them, it’ll be quicker. Saying that some consumers were kept waiting because the credit card companies expected their customer to be paid via ATOL.

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By: Sam Clark

Sam Clark — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:41:44 +0000

From the operator point of view – what is the point of having to jump through hoops, have the requisite funding in place, pay the bonding costs etc… when a customer in the end gets as much protection (or more) from booking direct on a hotel/airline website with their credit card?

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By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:27:35 +0000

@ Alex

From reading the comments on the Freedom direct post I’d have to say that I was surprised at how many people were saying that ATOL and ABTA were directing them to the credit card companies.

I am not sure if the 70% rejected claims is correct or not, seems high to me. It raises a good point though about ATOL protection and what is the point in booking with an ATOL agent if your not going to get your money back as promised.

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By: Alex Bainbridge

Alex Bainbridge — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:23:22 +0000

My favourite comment about the ATOL mess is from Steve Endacott and published via TTG.

Read the comment

“Although the Freedom website proudly displayed the very Atol logo that customers have been told to look for, Atol has rejected 70% of claims.”

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By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:06:51 +0000

@ Nick

I thought so but wanted someone to clarify.

The Mail article read that it was all flights, and that’s obviously not the case.

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