DIY Holidays

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Recent high profile collapses in holiday companies have shown that your rights can vary dramatically depending on whether you book the various elements of your holiday yourself or whether you go through a company and get a package deal.

Generally speaking, with a package holiday you will be protected if any aspect of your package goes wrong – for example if the airline goes bust or the hotel suddenly closes down with no warning. Package holidays are overseen by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform and will make sure that those who have gone on a package holiday will be brought home by different airlines at no extra cost to themselves.

If you package holiday happens to include a flight then you and your money are protected by the ATOL scheme. ATOL is part of the Civil Aviation Authority, so if you’re taking a flight make sure that the company that you are with is ATOL protected. ATOL may also protect you if you book a package holiday that doesn’t include a flight. You’re travel company is obliged to inform you if you are ATOL protected and should also give you proof, make sure that you get written proof and take it with you on your holiday so if something does go wrong you can show other operators or agents.

If you happen to book a flight directly with an airline, and the airline goes bust then you don’t benefit from any ATOL protection. Your travel insurance may cover you if something goes wrong, but it may not, so make sure that you check the terms and conditions of your policy closely and when you are purchasing insurance make sure that it includes cover for Scheduled Airline Failure.

Package holidays offer you a lot of protection with less hassle than buying all the parts of your holiday yourself, but they may also offer less flexibility. If you sort out your flights, accommodation and transfers yourself you can tailor your holiday to exactly what you want in the way that a package holiday may not be able to. Finding cheap flights is easy through companies such as Monarch, and it is, perhaps, even easier to find a good hotel through online companies like lastminute.com that offer a large selection of hotels, reviewed by the people that have actually stayed there.

It is important, however, if you are going to buy the elements of your holiday yourself, that you get a good travel insurance policy that will protect you if something goes wrong with any of the components of your holiday. Whatever you do, do not forget your travel insurance because, even though nine times out of ten something won’t go wrong, but you can be certain that when it does go wrong it will be expensive, far more expensive than the cost of getting insurance nine, or even ninety-nine times, and not using it.