Protection for insolvency of your travel End Supplier

It is wrong to assume that your travel insurance policy provides cover for the financial failure of your airline or any end suppliers. If you have cover for Cancellation, it is worth checking both the exclusions for that section and the General Exclusions of your travel insurance policy carefully to ensure financial failure is not excluded.

Our Product

Please refer to this link for a copy of our wording which sets out in full what is and what is not covered. Our product is intended as a safety-net for where you are not already covered by any other means for insolvency. We have listed below the protections you may already qualify for. You should investigate if any of these protections already apply to you, as you will need to have claimed under those first before you seek to claim under our product.

Other protections you may already have:

Paying by credit or debit card

Credit card
Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act offers some protection if you are paying by credit card, but will only cover values over £100 and no more than £30,000. Some credit card providers will offer cover for values below £100, you should check with your provider to clarify the cover they provide.

Debit card
Debit card transactions are not covered by the Consumer Credit Act, but each bank will have its own terms and conditions which may include some protection for customers. An example of this is known as a ‘chargeback’. This is where you pay for something with your debit card and that order or service has not been adequately completed or is never received. Your bank can charge back its value from the retailer's bank. Each bank has its own terms and conditions in place so you should check what yours are carefully.

Please note if cover is available through your credit or debit card you may only be covered for your original card transaction value, there will be no cover for the increased repatriation costs to bring you home if you are abroad when the insolvency occurs.

Package holidays

Packages including flights
The Civil Aviation Authority runs a scheme called ATOL (Air Travel Organiser’s License) that provides some protection for customers buying their flight as part of a package. For more information you can go to ATOL’s website www.atol.org.uk. ATOL covers the insolvency of the ATOL holder i.e. the Travel Agent or Tour Operator themselves and not the insolvency of any providers of the travel arrangements you have booked through the ATOL holder, so you should discuss your protection with your Travel Agent /Tour Operator as they are responsible for refunding or rebooking you should a provider of your travel arrangements financially fail. You are only covered by ATOL if you receive an ATOL certificate (which your Travel Agent/Tour Operator should give you when booking).

Packages not including flights
Where your holiday does not include a flight but consists of an overnight stay and another element of travel booked through the same company either directly or indirectly (e.g. you are booking your accommodation on a website and that website directs you to another website to book your car hire), then you will have protection rights under the European Package Travel Directive adopted by the UK. You should enquire about your protection with your agent (i.e. the initial accommodation website you used in the example) in respect of any protections they have in place for their insolvency and the insolvency of any End Supplier (i.e. the car hire website in the example) you have booked through them as part of your holiday arrangements.

Purchasing flights only

Specific rules apply; if you buy through a travel agent and receive your ticket within 24 hours, your money is not protected. However if the agent takes longer than this to issue your ticket to you, by law they should hold an ATOL license and issue you with an ATOL certificate to protect you if they become insolvent. The agent is obliged to refund or re-book your flight should the airline they booked you on become insolvent. If you buy your ticket directly from an airline, your money is not protected if that airline fails. If you are unsure of what protection you have it is best to talk to your Travel Agent who can tell you what is in place.