Goldtrail should never have been allowed to trade or hold an Atol working on such tiny margins. The Caa should have kept a far closer eye on Goldtrail.

Goldtrail called in administrators Begbies Traynor on Friday – hours after paying £1.3 million to cover its flying with a “handful of airlines”.

Joint administrator Jamie Taylor said it was “unusual” for such a payment to be made just as a company was going into administration.

Tiny margins:

Goldtrail made an operating profit margin of just 0.82% during its last financial year according to accounts filed last month.

The operating profit was £445,000 for the year ending in September 2009 on sales of £54.4 million. Pre-tax profit was £452,767 in 2009 down from £495,688 the previous year.

Sales ranged from £17.2 million to £54.4 million in the past five years.

Meanwhile, Goldtrail’s collapse could cost the CAA up to £20 million to refund and repatriate the operator’s customers. The operator’s administrator Begbies Traynor is putting the likely cost to the CAA between £15 million and £20 million.

Goldtrail was not required to hold a bond as a condition of its Atol licence, and all costs will have to come out of the Air Travel Trust, which had a deficit of £31.8 million for the year ending in March 2010.

This is a Consumer travel advice & issues post by Cheaperholidays.com - Cheap holidays from the UK -

Goldtrail ran on ridiculously tiny margins

We have to teamed up with lowcostholidays to offer your, superb travel deals and an easy to use alternative for those cheap holiday offers.

Book low cost deals to the Caribbean, Florida, Canaries, Mediterranean, Spain, Italy, Mexico, to name just a few.

Lowcostholidays.com offers an unbeatable service to enable you to put together your perfect holiday at the lowest market price available.

We check out all the travel operators on this site personally, so you can be assured that cheap means good quality and value, with ATOL protection for your peace of mind.

Low cost holidays are ATOL BONDED and offer a huge variety of travel options so you can get the best deal possible –
All holiday companies selling air holiday packages and flights in the UK are required by law to hold a licence called an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (“ATOL”), which is granted after the company has met the CAA’s licensing requirements.

In the event of an ATOL holder’s failure, the ATOL Scheme ensures customers who booked and contracted with the ATOL holder for an air holiday package or a flight, do not lose the money paid over or are not stranded abroad.

Low cost holidays is able to offer you not only the lowest priced flights and cheapest accommodation but also an extensive range of other holiday options including transfers, insurance, airport parking and car hire.

lowcostholidays.com has been around for 6 years and well over 1 million people have travelled with us. We are backed by one of the UK’s most stable banks, and have been members of ABTA since our launch and offer ATOL protection.

Booking your holiday – the price you see is the price you get!

This is a Consumer travel advice & issues post by Cheaperholidays.com - Cheap holidays from the UK -

Lowcostholidays – cheap travel ATOL bonded

The figures are more telling than the actual result as trumpeted by Unite. Out of 11,000 cabin crew, who are members of the Unite union, Just 3,419 voted to reject and 1,686 to accept the offer.

But 5895 Unite cabin crew members either abstained or could not be bothered to vote.

Which makes the rejection of the BA offer completely ridiculous, if Unite intend to hold further strikes based on this poor turnout that would stand democracy on its head…

The rejection means that Unite is likely to ballot members on further strike action but any further walkouts will not take place until after the summer.

This is a Consumer travel advice & issues post by Cheaperholidays.com - Cheap holidays from the UK -

Unite ballot – Cabin crew reject BA offer

It should come as no surprise, that an agency owned by Goldtrail Holidays has today failed.

Quickstep Leisure operated as a retailing arm for Goldtrail, which collapsed on Friday with 16,000 customers overseas, with the bulk of its business being selling the operator’s holidays.

Quickstep was based in New Malden and also operated under the trading name of Quickstep Travel.

All retail claims following the failure of Quickstep will be handled by CEGA, Abta’s claims handling partner.

The ABTA Claims enquiries office – For Goldtrail and Quick step travel -can be contacted on tel 01202 596 699 or email abtaclaims@cegagroup.com

This is a Consumer travel advice & issues post by Cheaperholidays.com - Cheap holidays from the UK -

Goldtrail agency collapses Quick step travel

After we reported last year that goldtrail holidays were on shaky ground, it still comes as a shock when Goldtrail were forced in administration. But enough of that, what can you do as a travel consumer to minimize your losses.

If you booked an ATOL bonded package holiday with a travel agent or you booked direct with goldtrail, then you will get a full refund from the CAA.

Plus you will be flown home if abroad, but if in the rare case your asked to pay extra for your accomodation whilst abroad, then this will be refunded to you by the CAA.

However if you booked flights and then booked accommodation, the flights will be refunded but the accommodation will not.. In this case we suggest that you contact your credit or debit card provider for a charge back refund.

Its worth noting, that you could if you can afford it, buy more flights safe in the knowledge that you will be getting a refund from the CAA but the cost will be extortionate..

As holiday makers who booked with the non ATOL bonded “ON THE BEACH” found out..

Travel agents that booked flights and accommodation to avoid the ATOL regualtions, will be coming unstuck as the Caa will start investigating them, over this latest high profile collapse.

This is a Consumer travel advice & issues post by Cheaperholidays.com - Cheap holidays from the UK -

Goldtrail holidays consumer advice

You may have noticed that we have added Thomson and First choice deals to our pages, so if you fancy a package deal to Majorca or the Caribbean you will see the latest Thomson and First choice hot offers to wet your appetite.

With Bulgaria on offer at Sunny Beach, Bourgas Region for 7 days – 19 Jul to 26 Jul just £260.00 pp

Or Turkey staying in Marmaris, Turkey – Dalaman 7 days – 26 Aug to 2 Sep just £291.00 pp. For more late deals go to – Cheap holidays abroad.

This is a Consumer travel advice & issues post by Cheaperholidays.com - Cheap holidays from the UK -

First choice and Thomson deals now showing

Now that the England fiasco has finished, the holiday deals on offer are amazing, with tour operators desperate to offload unsold holiday packages.

“We knew that many customers were waiting to see how far England progressed before they committed to a holiday in the sun and the huge disappointment of England’s defeat meant that they did not waste any time.

“There are some amazing deals to be had this summer but now that England are out of the World Cup, these will be quickly snapped up.”

The latest prices from our very own Lowcostholidays include a seven-night all-inclusive holiday in July at a three-star hotel in Majorca from £275 including flights, and seven nights in Ibiza at the three-star Club Cala Tarida hotel on an all-inclusive basis from £265, including flights from Gatwick.

Meanwhile, Premier Holidays has said it will continue to capitalise in an upturn in interest in South Africa following the World Cup.

John Parker, contracts manager for South Africa, said: “South Africa is presenting value as never before. We are already up 28% for post-World Cup travel and expect this figure to grow significantly.

This is a Consumer travel advice & issues post by Cheaperholidays.com - Cheap holidays from the UK -

Amazing deals now that England are out

In a last desperate attempt to save face the Ba cabin crew union, has resorted to giving Ba further deadlines to resume talks and end the dispute.

But Ba Cabin crew are rapidly losing faith and money as the cost of striking starts to punch a hole in their finances.

Unite said that it was giving BA until 29 June to “demonstrate that it is willing to negotiate a solution to the fresh issues between the parties – or will ballot its members for strike action”.

It said the new issues under dispute were threefold: BA’s use of other employees to cover as cabin crew; the removal of travel perks from crew who went on strike; and “vindictive, disproportionate and unnecessary disciplinary action” taken by BA against some of its crew members.

“Once again, we say to BA: Do not seek conflict,” said Brian Boyd, Unite national officer for civil aviation.

“Drop the tough talk and work with us to deliver the change needed for the future and preserve the standards associated with this great airline.”

This is a Consumer travel advice & issues post by Cheaperholidays.com - Cheap holidays from the UK -

Unite Ba deadline 29th June

If you don’t know what a DIY holiday is, its where you book the flights and the accommodation separately as opposed to a traditonal package deal, this is generally a far cheaper option. But this can cause protection issues, which we will come to later.

Diy holiday example.

Self catering for say 3 adults Spain, based on a 1 bed apartment.

Accommodation cost £120 for the week or £40 pp plus flights at say £90 each.

So for £130 pp you have a week in Spain at a resort destination and Accommodation of your choice..

So for you the travel consumer, the benefits of a DIY holiday are 2 fold -

1. One is the flexibility of the duration, the accommodation and the board basis, anything from a city break to a huge choice of flexible durations abroad.
2. Secondly you have the cost saving over a traditional package holiday.

These are the major benefits of a DIY holiday, the cost savings and the flexibility plus the choice of accommodation but of course you do have to add transfers and or car hire, but that just adds to the flexibility.

Now the Risks.

If you book with a non ATOL bonded low cost carrier and most are not atol bonded and they go bust – it could be expensive.

Its important that you book flights together with other holiday arrangements with a travel company that holds an ATOL (Air Travel Organiser’s Licence), and you receive an invoice for these from this company, it is responsible for arranging alternative flights for you so that your holiday can continue. If you are abroad, it should make arrangements to bring you home at the end of your trip.

If you have bought just flights, from a non ATOL travel provider..

• If you book your flights with say low cost carrier easyjets and they happen to go bust whilst your abroad, you would have to pay for new flights to get home.
• If they go bust before you fly, you will still have paid for your accommodation, outcome ruined holiday..

Airlines are not included within the ATOL Scheme, so if you booked direct with an airline you will not be covered. If you paid directly to the airline by credit card you might be protected by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. For a Chargeback..

You should check with your card issuer for further advice. If you booked airline ticket through a travel agent you should speak to the agent. Some travel insurance covers airline insolvency, so if you took out a policy you should check whether this provides cover.

Paying by credit card — even if it is only the deposit — offers some protection. The card company will pay up if your airline collapses or cancels your flight.

But the ticket must cost between £100 and £30,000. The same applies if your hotel or car hire company goes bust or bookings are cancelled.

This protection applies both to purchases in the UK and overseas.
However, with the tickets of many low-cost airlines selling for under £100, you could still lose out.

Even if you bought several tickets at the same time, pushing the amount over £100, the limit applies to each item’s price.
You can also claim back the cost if you paid by a Visa debit card, through the charge-back system.

This is a Consumer travel advice & issues post by Cheaperholidays.com - Cheap holidays from the UK -

Benefits and risks of a DIY holiday

How novel – Greece is promoting itself again by creating a free beach by the River Thames, the idea by the Greek National Tourist Organisation is an effort to recreate a Mediterranean holiday atmosphere in central London.

More than 400 tonnes of sand will be used to create the Huge beach – The entrance to the beach is on the South Bank’s riverside walkway by Gabriel’s Wharf – The free beach will be limited to 400 people at a time.
complete with sun-beds parasols, a volleyball court and beach bar.

The Greek Beach by the Thames will be open for ten days from June 18 between 10.00 and 19.00.

Specific days will be dedicated to food and drink, traditional music and dance from specific destinations – June 19 (Rhodes), June 20 and 25 (Crete) and June 26 (Halkidiki).

England’s beach soccer team will be playing and a specialized sand sculptor will be on hand together with a DJ. A prize draw will be held every day at 17.00 to win holidays to Greece.

GNTO director Sophia Panagiotaki said: ‘We are looking forward to inviting everyone to experience a creative mix of Greek and international beach culture on the South Bank and we hope it will inspire families and friends to come and try the real thing on a holiday to our beautiful mainland and Greek islands.”

This is a Consumer travel advice & issues post by Cheaperholidays.com - Cheap holidays from the UK -

Greeks on the beach in London