IF you have booked a holiday protected by Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (ATOL) or made other travel arrangements through a travel agent or tour operator this month you may have some new documentation to go along with your confirmation invoice.
This new piece of paper is an ATOL certificate, introduced by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on 1 October and intended to remove some of the public confusion around financial protection for travel arrangements. Recent Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) research found that a third of the public are unsure what protection is in place when they book a holiday. That’s perhaps not unsurprising given the complexities of the laws governing the subject.
While the certificates are a welcome step forward in giving consumers a clear indication of when cover is in place for an ATOL arrangement, unfortunately they are unlikely to end public confusion.
The reason for this is that an ATOL certificate will only be issued if you book an ATOL-protected holiday and there are millions of travel arrangements and holidays sold that do not have ATOL protection. These arrangements may be protected by another security scheme or they may not be legally required to have any protection.
All tour operators selling package holidays with flights have, for many years, had to have an ATOL and from 1 April this year, so have travel agents selling a flight plus accommodation and/or car hire. If an ATOL holder goes out of business the CAA will bring you to home and pay for your accommodation if you are in resort and arrange for a refund if you have yet to travel.
One of the glaring omissions from the ATOL scheme is holidays booked through airlines.
Under the existing scheme any holiday booked through an airline website is not legally required to be protected by ATOL.
ABTA estimates that 38 per cent of flight-based holidays are still not protected by ATOL because of this and consumers will not receive a certificate when they book this type of holiday. ABTA has been lobbying the Government for years to bring airlines into ATOL and growing public awareness of this state of affairs should increase the pressure on the Government to make all flight-based holidays protected in the same way. ATOL also stops short at flight-based package holidays, yet other laws (the “Package Travel Regulations”) require all package holidays to have protection. Land or sea-based holidays are covered by other schemes of financial protection, such as ABTA’s.
For example, most major cruise firms are ABTA members, so if one went out of business and there was no flight, it would be ABTA that would pay for your accommodation costs, bring you home and refund you if you have yet to travel. To show just how big this market is, ABTA holds bonds protecting an estimated 3.7 million holidays backed by an insurance scheme.
ATOL is also purely and solely a financial protection scheme which comes into action if an ATOL holder goes out of business. The CAA does not intervene with disputes or provide assistance in the event something goes wrong with your holiday – ABTA does. So even if the ATOL logo is in place it is important to also look for Membership of a trade body such as ABTA if you want assurances the firm is properly regulated.
All ABTA members have to follow a strict Code of Conduct;.
This code ensures high standards of service, fair terms of trading and is intended to halt problems. If you do have a problem before, during or after your holiday, ABTA runs a fast and low-cost dispute resolution scheme. In most cases this is cheaper and faster than using the small claims court, which is usually your only option when dealing with a non-ABTA member.
So what should consumers do to ensure they are protected? Always check what is protected with your travel agent or firm before booking – thus avoiding being stranded and/or hundreds of pounds out of pocket. ABTA also publishes guidance on abta.com: Your Protection Checklist.
• Mark Tanzer is chief executive of ABTA
