Atol holiday protection in Brief

I know we keep banging on about this, but an ATOL protected holiday is more than just a logo on a piece of paper, – ask anyone who booked with Holidays4u.

Those yet to travel were refunded in full and those abroad allowed to continue their holiday and then flown home. Which is more than could be said for anyone booking a non ATOL bonded package – Travel republic springs to mind..

In the last 12 months, 43,637 holidaymakers were flown back from their holiday destinations and 132,820 received refunds for all of their holiday costs when their tour operator went bust.

The Atol scheme began in the early 1970s and was last overhauled in 1995. The new rules will remove the cowboys who are adding separate elements flights – hotel as a package. This confusion is about to stop.

The latest ATOL protection will stop this happening – With it now becoming more commonplace for holidaymakers to book online, many have found to their cost, that they were not protected even though it felt as though they had bought all the elements of the holiday from the same provider as a package for one price.

Under the proposed new rules:

Protection would be extended to “flight plus” holidays. These are trips including a flight where the various elements were bought within a specified short time period

Holiday companies would make it clearer if they were working outside Atol protection. Always ask is this booking atol pretected – NO ATOL no book simple.

Paperwork for holidaymakers would be standardised, including a recognisable certificate for Atol-protected holidays.

As with now, the proposed new rules would not cover do-it-yourself holidays.

But somebody who buys a flight from an airline and then books accommodation directly with a hotel would not be Atol covered.