The president of the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA) has called on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to repay travel agents who lost out commission on Thomas Cook bookings that never went ahead.
Cook went into liquidation in September 2019, and the CAA embarked on the largest ever pay-out of compensation to consumers through its Atol scheme. By January 9, 320,000 customers – around 95% – had been refunded at a value of more than £310 million.
Agents who had booked Thomas Cook packages for their customers and received the full balance were asked to give the money they earned in commission for selling the holidays to the CAA.
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Speaking at the SPAA’s 90th annual dinner in Glasgow, new president Joanne Dooey – who owns three-branch Scottish travel agency Love To Travel – said: “Agents are not being given their commission for holidays that had been paid in full and who had booked a Thomas Cook holiday. This is not right. The work had been done and this commission should have stayed with the agent if it was a Cook’s holiday.”
Speaking to Travel Weekly, she added: “We shouldn’t have given that money back. My business has been affected and others have been hit worse than me, for thousands and thousands of pounds. The smaller, independent agents, have really suffered from [Cook’s collapse].”
She added that, despite losing their commission payments, agents up and down the country helped customers with refund forms at no cost. “We did what was right for our customers,” added Dooey. “To have done all that work and get nothing is wrong.
“They still should pay that [commission money] back [to agents]. They should look at the bookings that hadn’t travelled and had paid in full. In those instances, we [agents] are a creditor of Cook’s and we should get our fair share.”
Dooey also pointed out that “many third-party operators transferred customers’ holidays to alternative companies, incurring substantial losses in the process”.
A CAA spokesman said: “The Atol scheme is a consumer protection scheme and therefore is not responsible for ensuring travel agents receive commission based on sales of package holidays where the Atol holder has ceased trading.
“Commission payments are commercial arrangements between travel agents and tour operators, therefore it would be inappropriate for the UK Civil Aviation Authority to use funds reserved for the reimbursement of affected consumers to pay the commission of travel agents.”
In her first speech as SPAA president, Dooey also criticised the CAA’s repatriation of non-Atol protected Thomas Cook customers – those who bought flights that were cancelled but not package holidays protected by the Atol scheme, and which carry a levy contributing to the Air Travel Trust Fund.
She called for “total reform” of the system and said that, having looked through her predecessors’ speeches at the SPAA dinners for the last 20 years, all former presidents had called for flight-only airline sales to carry a levy to contribute to the Air Travel Trust fund which is used to pay for repatriation.
“The final bill for the CAA will be at least £400 million,” she said, adding: “What will the Air Travel Trust Fund have left, if anything, and what will happen if there are any future collapses?
“Is it really rocket science for the customer to pay some sort of levy when they fly regardless of whether it is a flight or holiday?”
The Airline Insolvency Review, set up after Monarch’s failure in October 2017, has recommended a 50p levy on flight-only sales to contribute to the fund. Package operators are required to pay a £2.50 levy.
The decision to repatriate all Thomas Cook customers, regardless of whether they booked a package or flight, was made by the government.