Well im one of those people who have lost their flight due to the collapse of Goldtrail thankfully I booked my accomdation through someone else and have re-booked flights .......however I get a little annoyed when apprently this is the customers fault because we all wanted cheaper holidays and with the economic crisis as it is why shouldn't we !!!!

All these 'safe' travel companies you talk about hardly care either as maybe you can explain to me why i managed to book flights yesterday morning for under £200 and yet last night the same flights are now almost £400 if thats not cashing in on people's misfortune I don't know what is !!!!!!

Oh another point Goldtrail were ATOL and ABTA approved .....

Beki100 , i do realise that Goldtrail were abta and atol approved but myself as a travel agent never liked booking Goldtrail as a company because complaint levels were always high , and administration was always poor, as a previous post mentioned the writing has been on the wall for some time now.

Whilst I do feel for these people who have lost their money , the truth of the matter is these people who want their £299 all inclusive holidays in August are one of the main reasons why these smaller companies fail . In some industries the high volume , low margin philosophy works but my personal opinion is ,it does n't in travel . And until then , when both the budget tour operators and also the consumer realises this then I am afraid Goldtravel won t be the last , and as for the (always strung out)ecomonic crisis argument what about these safe companies who still have staff to pay , shop rents etc to pay , why should they reduce their prices so therefore their margins because Joe Bloggs is skint and wants a cheap holiday ?

As for the price hike ,although I don t always agree , part of me understands why tour operators do put their prices up , its called supply and demand (which you will find in any business not just travel),you don t find a red rose reduced on the 13th February do you ?? I don t think its just the Goldtrail collapse , it is after all the first weekend of the school holidays.

I understand what you saying but as a customer whose has never had any problems before with Goldtrail how am I supposed to know that at any minute they are gonna go bust ???

I paid what I think is a reasonable price for a flight which was just over £200 for July and have now booked with a 'reputable' company for under £200 which 10hrs later had risen to almost £400 which is think is highly unfair ....when normally flight prices tend to go down the nearer the date you wish to fly, Having spoke to the CAA they even said companies will do this because they know people will be desperate to re-book flights after a collapse.

My reference to ATOL / ABTA approved was to a earlier post which had said why don't people book with approved companies when in fact we had.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but whats done is done and i'm sure there will be some Travel Agents with very smug faces this weekend but also they should think of lots of people who will devestated that they've lost their holidays

Bit more about Visa chargeback its true that they go to the companys bank for your money but Goldtrail were taking money 20 mins before they went bust so that money must be in their bank , i used Visa charge back when freedom direct went bust last year and got my money back it took 2 weeks .

kerry25 said:-

the truth of the matter is these people who want their £299 all inclusive holidays in August are one of the main reasons why these smaller companies fail

How can you blame customers for a companies collapse they can only buy what the company offers

Re: Huge Abba Fan

"Thats why it proves time and time again to go into a travel agent, book with a ABTA bonded tour operator and when it goes bust/volcanic ash problems etc, go back to the travel agent and try and change to a different holiday or get money back"

As we got caught out with the Freedom Direct collapse last year, we did go to a reputable Travel Agent who unfortunately booked us a package with Goldtrail who was also ABTA bonded. We assumed we had been booked with a large travel company. Our Travel Agent is ABTA bonded but they told us our holiday would not now go ahead and that we would have to personally claim for a refund. They offered to book us another holiday but at our own expense.

I have to agree with a lot of what kerry says. I used to work in travel upto a couple of years ago, sometimes helping with complaints, and Goldtrail were certainly one of the worst companies for complaints. I remember one of our staff booking with them and my friend and I just said "well don't come to us to write your complaint letter lol".
Holidays are very cut throat at the moment and lots of companies are struggling. There is a very, very fine line between cutting margins to gain bookings (and hopefully repeat customers when the recession ends) and keeping your head above water!

also there is a fine line between being fair and doubling your flight prices because a Travel company has collapsed !!!

Like I said before £200 for a flight in July is reasonable its not like i paid £10

i didnt pay for cheap low cost flights with OTB I booked decent monarch flights at a cost of 500.00 rather than the cheapest only to find OTB Via goldtrail stuck me on the cheapest middle of the night flight after id paid!!!!
my first and last experience of booking this way so when i originally booked i thought i was getting exactly what i had paid for!! and the flight they stuck me on was approx 150.00 cheaper there response was we have the right to change carrier!!!and bloody pocket the difference this was my ongoing complaint that is irrelevant now
i think its unfair to more or less say you get what you pay for !!! i certainly didnt and neither did the poor people stranded or due to go

Just to answer my own Question from earlier on,I have been advised of the following :

"Most credit card companies only protect their cardholders against the failure of the company with whom the card transaction has been made and not the companies to whom the money is passed onto"

So this means that if you have booked direct with Goldtrail ,the credit card company is the quicker route to take.

If ,like most people it is through web agents such as On The Beach, Sunshine,Holidays 4 u ,etc.. the only route is to complete the CAA claim form as instructed by your agent.

Hope this helps

Hi , I'm getting a bit confused,we have booked our hotel through Hotels4U ,will that mean that it has been booked through Goldtrail? And therefore we have lost the booking?

annemac101 ring hotels4u up and check

Check your accomodation receipt if it doesn't make any reference to Goldtrail then you will be ok .. my flight was with Goldtrail booked direct but i booked the hotel with another operator so its not affected .

Like I said, people like to cut corners and buy cheap and wont go through a large tour operator. Its like when people use Ryanair and moan about the extra costs such as credit card booking fee, luggage fee etc. What do you expect when you buy cheap. When something is on offer for say £25 such as a flight, do you really suspect there is no catch???.

I do feel sorry for those who have lost money, of course, but now this may open eyes and see why it pays to go a little dearer for own peace of mind. Sorry

From what Sandyboy said he did not cut corners or book cheap ... and nor did I like i've said a few times over £200 for a flight only is not cheap !!!!!

Its all very well saying don't cut corners or go on the cheap but a company that has been trading 14 yrs can not be classed a some fly by night ( if you pardon the pun ! ) dodgy travel operator ....

In fairness alot people booked through reputable tour operators and didn't even realise that were actually booked with Goldtrail !

Th**sons is a very well known and reputable company however not all their flights are ATOL protected so what do you do take a chance or never fly with anyone just in case this happens again ?????

Then its the foreign office who get sl.. off for not helping???
I'm sorry and I know its only my opinion but I still would not go independent and also stay safe and go with a large tour operator and pay slightly more.
On the news over the last 2 days (and have been mentioned on Watchdog about standards of hotels), it has been said that Goldtrail were always critisied as to why they could offer such cheap holidays.

We are deeply saddened at the demise of Goldtrail. We have used them three times and had a great holiday everytime. My thoughts are with those who are caught up in it all, I hope that you are all treated better than what we were when XL went down. We had booked through Freedom Direct who were excellent in dealing with our case until they went into liquidation and that is when our problems started, because the CAA wouldn't answer our letters or e-mails. If you tried to phone them you were kept waiting for ten to fifteen minutes and then they cut you off. When they finally did make contact, it was to ask for the same paperwork we had sent in ten months before. It took another two months before we got our money back.

Les

huge*abba*fan wrote:

Like I said, people like to cut corners and buy cheap and wont go through a large tour operator. Its like when people use Ryanair and moan about the extra costs such as credit card booking fee, luggage fee etc. What do you expect when you buy cheap. When something is on offer for say £25 such as a flight, do you really suspect there is no catch???.

I do feel sorry for those who have lost money, of course, but now this may open eyes and see why it pays to go a little dearer for own peace of mind. Sorry

The same people who you say "cut corners" are usually the same people who spend many hours researching their holidays and try to shave off a few quid,nothing wrong with that and in the same way that the "lazyiest" amongst us go the old fashioned route of popping into a travel agent on a Saturday afternoon,spend 10 minutes looking at a brochure showing a pool, pay 30% extra for the holiday then do nothing but complain when they get there because it isnt what they wanted.
I know that part of the holiday fun for me is doing the research before hand and getting that sense of achievment that I have saved a few quid so I can have that little extra to spend on my holiday.
This time I have been burnt but in a weird sort of way,I had a pretty fun yet stressful day Yesterday trying to re-organise flights..
I slept well last night knowing I have alternative flights, (£100 cheaper than the originals) a claim form on its way to the CAA,and a holday that is still 30% cheaper than any high street travel agent could manage....each to their own

Oska

I was pleased to read your post - they do say every cloud has a silver lining! Unfortunately I normally fall into pooh and come up smelling of pooh!

Could I ask where you got your CAA claim form as they don't seem to have made it available yet on their website?

In any event - I hope you have a brilliant time on your travels.

Bobbyboo