Lovelle, very sorry to read your predicament, please keep me informed of your progress , you could be the peoples champion.
Al

abta and atol protected rubbish i paid in full jan09 ,flights with thomas cook they are fine ,the tours operators like mine who is abta and atol called you travel.com are not honouring hotels. abta and atol will not refund my hotel payments as you travel.com provider of the hotel is still going total holiday cost £2500.00 ,due to travel 11 may 09 ,abta and atol say you travel.com are responsible . no they want another £1500.00 or they will cancel my booking. abta better pull there finger out if not abta stands for nothing no protection at all.these companies can not get away with it.has anyone at the top got the balls to deal with this.hmmm i dont think so, managers are crumbling on the phones. i have approx 40 e mails and huge phone bill and suffer with medical condition chronic fatigue.so the stress has now made me very ill to lose all this money that was saved for.

i received a letter yesterday from somewhere to stay saying my hotel was safe, all they wanted was my receipts from fd, i also received a e mail from fd/hays stating that they had gone thru my file & although i had booked my own flights elsewhere fd/hays said my flight & transfers were safe ( never booked/flights transfers with fd) i asked fd/hays about the hotel & they told me i had lost it but i could rebook & pay them, when i told fd/hays that somewhere to stay had sent me a letter confirming my hotel they said that they had spoken to somewhere to stay yesterday pm & everthing had changed so i rang somewhere to stay this morning & i told them what fd/hays had said, the receptionist told me it was a load of bull & hays have never been in touch since the whole thing started.
]i sent a e mail to the administrator asking why fd were still taking money from clients then the caa had restricted them from doing so as from 1st april, the administrator asked me to put it all in writing & it will be investigated.
i also sent a e mail to the caa asking why they did not notify the public thru the media as to the financial state of fd, they new long before april that things werent right ,this would have saved a lot of people a lot of money, no reply as yet.

administrators rmt newcastle attn mike potts, can be found on the net

As Lovelle and others have advised all of us should not give up on this but try and chase to get our monies back. Many of us seem to getting told different things and in somecases a load of bullsh*t.

I would suggest that as individuals we will get nowhere fast but if we make a concerted effort together we all may get a favourable result, ie either the holidays we worked hard for and paid for, a full refund. I am very fortunate as I only had to repay a small amount for my accomadation again. I really feel for you guys who have lost fairly substamtial sums

I think the issue seems to be we do not know who to contact, is it ABTA ATOL CAA., the administrators

Does anyone know what the best route to complain would be

Link to the administrators

http://www.r-m-t.co.uk/contactus.php

Stewart

thanks for that stuart x

caz

brian_the_gent

leisurelad...i don't understand your position re:ABTA...without ABTA all the XL customers and now Freddom

customers would have lost all their monies paid !!!ABTA is a godsend for travellers.....

if you order say a new kitchen or fiurniture paying a deposit of possibly thoudands of pounds

and the company goes bust you will not get your money back you'll lose the lot !!!!

so as someone in the travel industry you should be praising ABTA and the financial

safety measures they have in place....also you state your a member of the TTA

surely 80/90 % of your business is done with ABTA tour operators so why not

stick up for them
leisurelad...i don't understand your position re:ABTA...without ABTA all the XL customers and now Freddom

customers would have lost all their monies paid !!!ABTA is a godsend for travellers.....

if you order say a new kitchen or fiurniture paying a deposit of possibly thoudands of pounds

and the company goes bust you will not get your money back you'll lose the lot !!!!

so as someone in the travel industry you should be praising ABTA and the financial

safety measures they have in place....also you state your a member of the TTA

surely 80/90 % of your business is done with ABTA tour operators so why not

stick up for them

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:06 am

ATOL are worth their money but in regards to ABTA itself for dealing with this, you only have to read peoples experiences and it doesn't paint a pretty picture.

As a TTA Member we deal with ATOL protected flights and 99% of these companies are also ABTA members, if they were to go bust then it would be ATOL who we would deal with.
Any split contract bookings that we make, (Thomas Cook flights and say Hotels4U), whilst the money can be released to Thomas Cook, Hotels4u are not paid until the client returns, hence that should our company fail, the money is there in the trust account so that clients can continue as normal with no further expenses incurred.
All TTA members act in this way and if Freedom Direct were TTA members, then 99% of you would travel as normal, only if there has been fraudulent activity by the company that something would go a miss. As all payments we take are by card, all monies are automatically deposited in the trust account which is regulated by the TTA and we have no access to that money, We can only claim the commission once the client has travelled and the operators paid.

We also have to issue a fidelity policy on every passenger booked which costs about £3 per pax which covers the client should there not be the funds available.

The point i am making is that if we were to fail, the TTA would work round the clock to sort the mess out, ABTA seem to be brushing people off with people loosing hundreds of pounds and they don't seem to give a pooh.

Thanks

old saying is vote with your feet......companies ect that ABTA are saying, that by law should honour your bookings.... but dont....then expect second payment.....should not be rewarded for breaking a trust ......take the flights if still there for you....but dont rebook with accommodation....even if you have to book a cellar somewhere....they dont deserve more of your cash....maybe they have recieved your cash and using the confusaion to profit ....even if they are in the wrong you will have a hard time getting original cash back if you repay again....when you repay you are accepting they are not at fault ....

A list should be made of these companies.....they are not complying or trading under ABTA's rules and obligations....and ABTA could be seen as neglecting their duty of care to people who have put their trust in them if they are allowed to trade under an ABTA banner in any way or be used by other companies pertaining to be providing protection by being a member of ABTA

Vote with your feet ....do not use these companies again.....actually ask travel agent to confirm no part of your booking is with one of these companies

Hi, I also booked with FD and paid £2000 on 15/4/09 (day b4 they collapsed) i had only booked for accomadation with them, they in turn had used LowCostBeds to book my hotel. i contacted LCB immediately and some snotty bitch told me they had recieved my Deposit back in January but not my final payment, so unless i paid it again i would lose my booking.so i rang abta who said LCB ... under agency laws..had to honour my booking. so back to LCB who told me what they have told others... that they no longer had a contract with FD so would not be honouring my booking, however i could re-book but it would be more expensive.
I contacted Abta and told them what had been said. i was then told that if LCB were named on my original booking confirmation then they were indeed liable, however if their name did not appear on my documents untill later then under abta policy i could TRY and claim my money back. i asked the guy what my chances were of getting it back and he said "we wouldn't waste our time sending you a claims form if you had no chance" but if and when i receive my money back it doesn't help my situation. i'm still without accomadation for my July holiday and do not fancy risking accomadation only again.
Good news!!!!! (or so i thought)
Then i heard that Hays had took over FD so i contacted them, of course they had my booking but my money had been "lost".
After speaking to my solicitor friend, she seems to think that they would not have been able to take over the company without some kind of contract which states... monies paid to FD for accomadation etc would be claimed back by Hays themselves and not the customer, she finds it unlikely that they could purchase a company and claim final payments for bookings but not be accountable for paid bookings. You cannot buy a company without buying it's debt.

It seems Hays are just as dodgy as FD and i don't think anybody should be taking up their offer.

would think about contacting the HT solicitor .....phone number on HT somewhere....wish you all luck......tweetie

we were due to travel to turkey 17th may with f/d atol 9740 cant get any sense of caa f/d hays its a total sham we rebooked another holiday for same dates to the same resort but different holiday company.Then hays try and tell us our flights still stand with f/d.How come when they went bust and didn,t notify customers that all holidays were lost then low and behold Hays like a genie out of a bottle come along and as if by magic all flights suddenly become available again but you have to pay again for hotel and transfers? Excuse the pun but something fishy there.PS When i phoned Hays to see what the situation was couldn,t believe the guy who i spoke to was the sameone who took our bookin with f/d

I have booked and paid for 10 and my sister has also booked for another 4, to travel on 6 june. I have also been passed from pillar to post by ABTA, Low cost Beds and everyone else involved with this fiasco.
I was first told to claim thru my bank, who told me I had to get a letter from ABTA, who wouldnt do this as LCB are covered by ABTA and should honour the bookings. Our flights have been confirmed - tranfers are a bit dodgy, bcos one day theyre honoured the next theyr not.
Been onto the Ombudsman, consumers direct, trading standards, credit card company and all suggest I take it up with ABTA, who told me yesterday to wait a couple of weeks and see if it sorts itself out. Between us we have paid almost £6000, and the only thing we have confirmed is flights - and that is only confirmed by telephone, despite numerous calls asking for it in writing.

Please someone advise what to do next!!!

i have exhausted all options i think, abta dont want to know, caa/atol dont seem to know what is going on, freedoms website is back trading backed by hays ( another dodgy company) you travel wont honour the booking and i have now repaid or lose the money on the flights. the weird thing about hays is they can take over my booking but can not supply any details about why the hotel was not bonded with freedoms abta number, would they not have to bond every hotel booking? would the hotel not be protected under you travel abta bond? all everyone can say is no but i think everyone is cashing in on the situation. hays got really nasty with me when i starting askiing too many questions and refuse to answer them and mostly hung up. another thing freedom said that my booking lost its atol protection when freedom didnt renew it, how can you lose protection for something you have already paid to protect, something fishy going on. also freedom surely would of been breaking the law when they took my second booking on april 9th, they even supplied a atol protection document and took a atol payment from me when they were ment not to be taking any further payments, surely this is fraud? does anyone know how the law stands on this. i think tomorrow i am going to speak to my solicitor about it.

in my last call to Consumer Advice, i was advised to ask to be put through to ABTA's Arbitration service - apparently they monitor ABTA, however by this time I'd had enough for one day and decided to wait a few more days to see what the outcome was. If the situation does not change tomorrow, I will get onto the Judge - a lawyer who has a column in the Sunday Mail.
I have already sent an email to Watchdog, although they did not reply - I have a horrible feeling that no-one wants to get involved.

im shattered and unwell dealing with as i have chronic fatigue but noticed on my booking summary states insurance £12.00 and misc £4.32 now i didnt pay freedom direct for travel insurance. so not sure what this £12.00 and £4.32 is for.not sure if anybody else has this ? this is tomorrows duty .what insurance because if atol are anything to do with this, and they rejected my refund .flights thomas cook £1000.00. and you travel.com £1500.00 hotel who wont honour booking due to travel 11 may 09 the next step will be watchdog. to expose the lot of them. i will continue until someone holds their hands up. abta get a better legal team are take away these operators membership at least. or is it money money money.

Hi just to let you all know theres an update this morning on Hays travel Website ( I would insert link buts its not letting me)

Dont get too excited, its still the different category nonsense that some of you have had emailed.
Lara x

The latest message just confirms for me that I am in the same situation as I was before Hays got involved. All along my flight has been secure, 1st HT say my whole package was safe, then only the flight and transfers, now it seems its only my flight thats secure. Back to square one. Surely there must be somewhere that all of us can go to in order to get some assisstance, as a previous author says, where has all the money gone - why is no-one helping us??

i have spoken to rmt accounting who are the administrators for freedom and they cant answer where the money has gone. freedom directs owner said in a press release that everyone was covered by ATOL and were finicially protected but most of us are not. why does the law let these companies get away with this. as for hays travel, they refuse to answer questions about the booking made with freedom but they have brought the client data base and the booking and there for have full booking details from freedom. i think they have brought the database just to have all the holidays repaid to them, a nice way to profit from us all. they have told me that they will forward my flight tickets when they get them from thomson, but thomson has told me that they are not letting hays take over the flight part of the booking and my tickets will come direct from thenselfs. do freedom even know what they are doing? has anyone had any dealings with trading standars or cab to get advice?

today i have spoken to consumer direct ( 02476786610) who advise that you would need to persue ATOL. spoke to Atol and they have looked over my paperwork, even though the booking was covered under freedoms 9740 number for some reason the hotel side is not protected. spoke to ABTA head office (02031170500) they say you travel should honour the booking and that they were still in commincation with them, since i have repaid you travel before the hotel price increases agian, i now can only do a charge back with the bank, with out ant letter saying i cant claim the money back, i hold little hope and expect to lose all my money. its so frustrating that companies can rip you off in this way and get away with it. my money like everyone else's money must be somewhere or been moved somewhere by freedom. just makes you wonder if this was not all planned and freedom and hays were all geared up to do this before they collasped. seems the only ones to win is hays now who are getting everyones money again