Received a letter today from Huntswood (on behalf of the CAA), to say that they received my claim on 29/7. They state that they aim to review my claim within four to six weeks.

** fingers crossed and hope for the best **

thats good news hopefully ill hear something soon

hi can any one help me please. i am due to pay the ba;ance of my low deposit to o t b tomorrow for a holiday next may. i phoned them and asked if i could stop this payment but they said i would have to pay it as they have alredy paid gold trail and i would have trouble just getting the low deposit back. would it be better if i paid this balance on my credit card and claim it back throught the acrd or continue with my debit card and claim the whole lot back from the caa.

i cant understand that why are they making you pay for a holiday that you are not able to go on if you pay the rest goldtrail wont get it they have gone bust!!!im sure someone will advise it just doesnt seem logical

It seems a little strange to me that you are being asked to pay this money. You are a creditor having paid money for goods that will not/cannot be supplied. Have you already made a claim? If not why not?

My approach would be to request an explanation in writing for the requirement to pay this money. As a creditor, you will, if you make the payment, immediately submit a claim as a creditor for its return. You cannot be threatened with the loss of the holiday if you do not pay as that has gone. If OTB have already agreed to transfer you to another holiday using the monies paid as deposit then as it is a low deposit scheme they would be correct to ask for payment of the balance.

You could perhaps write also to the CAA who are handling claims and ask them.

fwh

Sounds like OTB gave a low deposit deal but had to pay Goldtrail the full deposit. So now OTB want the rest to cover their loss even though they know your money won't get you anything. Your contract with them presumably requires you to pay the outstanding part by a certain date and won't have thought of the situation of the Tour Op collapsing in the interim.

An interesting legal position, I'd be tempted to tell them to file their own claim with the CAA or the administrators! May be worth discussing with your card company who might not be happy with this sort of arrangement since under some circumstances they could become liable.

Hello all, hope this is the place to post this - apologies if it isn't!

My husband and I traveled to Kos from EMA with Viking (nice flight times...cheapish...the usual from what I can gather) we traveled out on 14/7 and all was well apart from the obligatory 2.5 hour delay (+1hour on the plane at the stand). We had booked return flights directly with Viking and used Alpharooms for the accommodation so we weren't at all worried, when, 2 days later Goldtrail went kaput.

No calls or emails from Viking.

Eating breakfast at the hotel before we booked a taxi to the airport for our return leg (remember - nice flight times!) one of the other hotel guests, who had been affected by Goldtrail, thought he'd seen our EMA flight on the ABTA website. The hotel manager let us use his pc and sure enough, there was our flight on the ABTA - Goldtrail information page! Our 14.15 flight to EMA was now replaced with a Monarch flight at 02.50 the next day.....to LGW!!!!! with a 4-5 hour bus journey back to EMA. Not happy is putting it mildly and the replacement flight was certainly not acceptable to us so as we both had to go to work the next day, we paid £120 each to book an earlier flight to BHX with Thomson (which was then delayed)

It now appears our flight never actually existed anyway! Viking, for some bizarre reason, do not fly back from Kos to EMA - only from EMA to Kos.

Things going around in my head are -
How did this happen when we weren't with Goldtrail.
How could we be allowed to book a flight that didn't exist
NO COMMUNICATION!!!!

Any Ideas??

hi!

I have had a phone call returned today from huntswood to say i will recieve my refund next week!!!!!!I am over the moon - i booked flight only with goldtrail direct and used my credit card - they wouldnt refund and directed me to the caa. I booked on the wed and they went bust on the fri!! Two years ago I had flights booked with Excel through travel republic (who were very helpful) and also used a credit card... same story, credit card will not refund and it took 9 months fror me to get my money back (£350)

This time I had had to deposit £750 (6 seats) and am very happy this has been resolved much faster!!! I would urge people to ring huntswood as last time round if you didnt phone your claim seemed to move nowhere in the que. I know im counting my chickens as I have nothing in writing - or in the bank!!! - but hopefully I should have my money soon.

good luck to all others!! Its become a running joke now that my friends wait to see who I am booking with, then they book elsewhere!!!

Jenny

i have recieved a response from the caa saying they have recieved my completed claim from OTB will let you know when i get my refund x

CAA refuses to pay out on Goldtrail claims
http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2010/09/23/34754/caa+refuses+to+pay+out+on+goldtrail+claims.html

David

omg i hope not

I can quite understand why are aren't paying out for companies that didn't hold an Atol. Both TR and OTB have seperate independant supplier failure cover.

I have had my goldtrail refund last friday!!! woo hoo - good luck to all waiting, I am very impressed, 2 months is a lot better than the 9 months i had to wait when excel went last time!

Goldtrail, Kiss and Sun4U cost CAA £40m

The collapse of Goldtrail, Kiss Flights and Sun4U will cost the Air Travel Trust (ATT) between £40m and £45m, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.

Following a meeting yesterday of the Air Travel Insolvency Protection Advisory Committee, which advises the CAA on financial protection, the ATT said it will be paying out to 112,000 Goldtrail passengers at a cost of £20m, 64,000 Kiss Flights passengers (costing £20m) and 4,200 Sun4U customers (£1m).

The CAA says no bond was provided by Goldtrail "as the company had traded for many years" but Sun4U had a £0.4m bond, now called in, and Kiss had a £1m bond, also now called in.

The ATT says it has sufficient resources to meet the claims.

With permission from Travelmole

Received our refund this week

crispy did you send the claim direct or did you have to send it to an agent first the caa have had ours since 6th sept via OTB

sandy.. you need to ring them, think you should of had it by now, your claim could be at the bottom of a large pile! I always find speaking to them speeds things along. if you leave a message on their answerphone they do ring you back with an update or your progress! good luck, jenny

i rang yesterday most unhelpful really said it could take 3-6months or even a year but wouldnt even look to see what was happening with it!!! it took 6 weeks for OTB to send it to them and they wrote to me 6th september to say they had it

the caa pass it on to huntswood - have they done that yet?? so sorry its taking so long - it puts you off booking too far in advance in case it happens again to someone else! jenny