Holiday Protection

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With the recent high profile collapse of several holiday companies and airlines the public have suddenly become aware of a company called ATOL. ATOL stands for the Air Travel Organisers License and is part of the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority). ATOL’s remit is to protect travellers from being out of pocket if a company happens to fail when they have paid for holidays, or even if they are on their holiday when their operator fails the CAA will make plans to allow stranded people to get home.

It’s difficult to imagine anything much more difficult or stressful than finding a wonderful cheap flight and then suddenly finding that even though you paid for a return there’s no way to possibly get home.

When you are going on holiday, one of the first things that you should do is check that the organiser is part of ATOL and that even if the worst happens you will still be able to get home. Most tour operators are aware of the concerns of their customers and will seek to make it obvious that they have ATOL protection, if they don’t, it’s probably best to check, and if they don’t it might be best to make other plans.

Aside from ATOL there are a number of other groups that offer protection to holiday goers in case something goes wrong with their holiday. Another is ABTA (the Association of British Travel Agents) this is the group that is there to ensure that your travel agent acts in a proper and correct fashion and will arbitrate if a situation arises where you feel that you have to complain. If a tour provider is not a member of ABTA you should be wary, and again you might find that you are short of some much needed protection in the unlikely event of something going wrong.

With the current global financial situation the average persons purse strings are tighter than they have been for years, and it is more important than every to get good value holidays, or cheap flights out to your location (even if when you get there you are planning on staying in the lap of luxury). The holiday industry is intensely regulated in order to make sure that a low price does not mean low value, so make sure that you pay close attention to the small print on your travel documents.

Ultimately, it is very possible to get cheap flights and hotels at the moment particularly if you’re willing to travel at very short notice, and it might be worth taking a look at companies like Lastminute.com or Monarch for good deals. Holidays are precious things, so make sure that you get the most of out of yours.