Comment | ATOLs, agents and travel protection – the confusion continues

The confusion surrounding travel protection is brought into sharp focus by the collapse of Silverjet.

The airline’s passengers would have believed they were protected against any collapse and travel agents would have believed they were not – scheduled airlines are not normally covered by an ATOL.

However, in a quirk revealed exclusively by Travel Weekly, sales of Silverjet through the trade were covered by an ATOL, so passengers who booked through an agent were covered. Passengers who booked direct with the airline were not.
 
Confused? No wonder. Booking a holiday should be a simple process – you choose a destination and then arrange travel to and fro, accommodation and any other ancillaries that may be required and your holiday is covered if anything goes wrong.

But dynamically packaged holidays are not protected and neither are scheduled flights.

This week’s news that the Civil Aviation Authority is banning the display of ATOL logos by non-licence holders is welcome. It is a step towards ending the confusion surrounding travel protection.

But thanks to loopholes in the regulations that govern the travel industry, confusion will remain, and will continue to do so until the Package Travel Regulations are amended, hopefully in 2010.

Travel agents must be clear with customers when it comes to protection: inform them if any part of a holiday is not protected and use the ATOL logo only if you hold an ATOL licence.

It is a tough one for travel agents. The government has made life difficult. The answer is for the entire industry to adhere to one protection scheme.

Get your facts right

The case of the Barnish family, who successfully sued Thomson failed German market, highlights the need for agents to give customers the correct information on hotels. Get it wrong and you could end up in legal hot water.

So, review your marketing materials and ensure your customers get what they paid for. Operators will also need to review brochures to ensure all reviews are up to date and correct.