ColinWWW wrote:

Watching interviews on the TV news, what I find absolutely incredible is that people STILL pay for holidays using debit cards. NEVER, EVER buy anything of significant value on a debit card. Always buy holidays etc. on a credit card. When you buy a holiday using a credit card you buy off the credit card company, not the dodgy holiday company. If you don't get the holiday you don't have to pay the bill.

Not everyone has or wants a credit card for various reasons and they have to use a debit card.

If payment is made using a Visa debit card, then as has been mentioned, they can instigate Visa Chargeback in the event a supplier fails to deliver the goods or the goods are faulty. However they need to be aware than this has to be done within 120 days.

Many banks are not aware of this so you may have to be persistent.

Re Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act, you cannot use this against third parties. If you book direct with a tour operator that goes into administration then you are covered. If you use the credit card to pay a travel agent and the tour operator goes bust then you cannot claim under Section 75 as that is a third party. However if the travel agent goes bust then you can.

There is a template letter you can use HERE.

You can also try to claim for consequential losses such as the increased price of replacement flights. The credit card company is not legally obliged to pay consequential losses, but some may.

I successfully claimed for both the lost flights and the difference between the original flights and replacement flights when Globespan went into administration.

luci

@ TWEETIEPIE >>>

"my thoughts are even if it was the responsibility of RCI to get the money back ...you wouldnt see it untill they had gotten it back from ATOL .....and you would need prove kiss was never mentioned to take it further."

I have no trouble waiting for the money I just think RCI should be the ones to do all this for me.

Regarding proof, this is difficult because RCI claim that the call was not recorded (they said they only record calls at random), and the woman who booked the flights swears she did advise my mother about Kiss during the call, so it is a case of her word versus my mothers. Where do i stand relating to this?

They also claimed that Kiss would have been mentioned in the docs they sent us but... the call was made on the 4th, letter received on 6th with NO mention of Kiss, only Viking Airlines, and then the tickets only arrived a few days ago (with Kiss logo on them, but still wouldnt have given us any time to arrange alternative flights).

So again, where do you think I stand?

As for banking chargeback, I spoke to them and they said to send all correspondence etc.. with a covering letter and they'd look into it, but my question is, before I do all that stuff, is my bank or card company (Visa Debit i think but possibly mastercard - it was my mum who booked flights and she is Natwest) likely to see this as RCI's fault?
Because we paid RCI and RCI couldnt have known Kiss would go bust - but my case is that we thought they were booking with Viking Airlines, not Kiss.

So how do you think the bank will assess this?

PS.. Consumer Direct are useless. They're happy to tell you what to do but never explain why. Is there any other way of getting free legal advice, so i know for sure my case against RCI is legally warranted?

Hi Everyone

Just an update, Qwerty travel just contacted me and said that for £43 extra each I can rebook my flights with Monarch Airlines my travel dates have gone from 27th September - 4 October to 2nd October - 9th October. I had to pay £349 now for the flights but they are sending me the paper work to get the £265 back which was paid to Kiss. Not too bad as the flight times are better. Hotel deal stays the same just different dates.

Ed

Ed. Good news for you, really hope you enjoy your holiday.

hi barcelona boy.......think you can only claim a charge back if there is no other way of geting your cash back....and have memories of past posts on HT....when others have gone bust and people were having similar problems.....the visa compamies ect were only accepting charge back claims if refunds werent claimable via ATOL/ABTA....and they were asking for proof that you were not covered by ATOL/ABTA before they accepted a claim....you need to find out if you can claim from ATOL....KISS I believe was ATOL bonded....but Im not sure now if it covers you as you booked via an agent....did you get charged the £2.50 ATOL levy per person on your bill from RCI ...if you did you are probably covered....maybe someone else can shed light on that for us

Whats bothering me is you could loose your holiday if you dont sort out new flights....and that should now be your first priority...I understand how angry you are with RCI ....but there is plenty of time after you sort out your travel plans.......also you could just waste your energy trying to get RCI to claim money back....or even try to prove they didnt mention KISS, ....and they arent going to admit it even if they did without you being able to prove it and they say there is no tape recording....so no proof.......then in the end all that time and energy would have been wasted ...as your only way of getting a refund is with ATOL or the bank.....and you have to start again ...

Leave the argument with RCI till you get the important stuff done....it will still be there when everything else is sorted......tweetie

Hi all,

I booked my holiday to Turkey in May this year to travel on 13th September for 1 week.
I booked through Flightline.co.uk and didn't know my flights were with Kiss until I got the confirmation email after booking.

Once I had realised Kiss flights had gone bust I contacted Flightline straight away. I have to say I couldn't fault them whatsoever. I had never used them before and with them being internet based I was worried that I wouldn't get my holiday or a refund as you hear some horror stories about internet based travel companies!
They basically transferred our flights to Thomas Cook flights for the same dates with as close to our previous flight times as they could. They advised that because I was ATOL protected I wouldn't have to pay any extra for the flights.
When I got my confirmation email through the Thomas Cook flights were double the original price we had paid!
I had also paid for the holiday on my credit card so I would have been covered anyway but who's to say how long the refund would take to come through!
Must say I was very impressed with how flightline handled everything and would definately recommend them!

Thats interesting NicJane

You got a better deal than me, I wonder if someone can confirm that ATOL protected flights are covered for the cost of replacement flights that are more expensive I didn't think they were. It may be the case that your Agent did a deal and got the flights less than listed price or they just covered the extra themselves. Well done anyway.

Nicane113:

Glad they were able to sort you out but i would seriously double check to make sure no other money has been taken as if the new flights are more expensive then clients will have to pay the difference in cost. No agency in their right mind would be able to sustain such losses unless they only had a handful of bookings.
Also, some agencies are reprotecting clients with just the difference in cost to be paid and the agency will reclaim the money back but in order for them to do this then a form has to be signed by you to say that the agent has sourced extra flights and that you are allowing them to make a claim and keep the refund due from the CAA. If they have not done this then something is wrong somewhere and it is especially hard for online agencies to do this as they will need to send the form to you, you sign it and send it back before they can rebook the seats otherwise they are putting themselves liable.

The most common way which alot of agents work is that client repays for new flights, claim for then sent out and to be returned to the agent for them to complete and back up your claim for the original flights. Payment due from the CAA will then go back directly to the client.

You can only claim the cost of the original flights, not the cost of the new ones.

Please double check with them as i feel you might have been missled, i could be wrong but i think that anyone who has been affected then their new flights have been more than what they originally paid. As i say if you have a handfull of bookings then you might be able to take the hit, but for companies that have quite alot, this is simply not possible without causing a "cashflow headache" whilst the agent waits months for the claim to be refunded.

not quite sure why all my posts have been deleted thought i was giving useful info can someone please advise?

Five posts in quick succession, all promoting your company and your Facebook page. Sorry, but we are not a free advertising site.

David

ok i understand this but can i not give advice now !

Yes, please feel free to give general advice as our other travel industry members do, without promoting your own company or services.

David

As long serving members some us agents and individuals come on here on our own free will in our time to give help and advise to people as we care about our customers and what some people go through and also make friends with other users along the way.

I think you have lost respect from a few of us from your silly first posts gloryfying how great your company was.

As i say, we do this in our own free time off our own backs as we have a genuine interest, appears that you only joined here to promote yourself and your company... bit selfish really so any advice, no matter how good it is will no doubt lead to a spamming message to other users saying ... come to me and i will be your best agent ever as i work for .... and this is my face book ...

rant over

i am sorry if that was the way it came across because that was not the intention. i was simply trying to say that by booking with a larger company rather than internet based who simply have call centres you are able to speak to someone like myself I lot quicker and easier which I think for a lot of people involved with the situation would have helped them greatly. I will just say one thing then to hellp the other members, yes you will get a refund. its not really worth me saying any more cause i would refer them to my facebook page as there is loads of info on there but never mind !

Well i to work for a call centre based company advertised through teletext and icelolly and people don't have a problem getting through. We are a small company with about 20 staff and carry around 20,000pax per year and have been going for 8years.
Majority of us are experienced and have been in the business for many years, customers can speak to a manager at any time of day during opening times so please don't knock us.
We had a team in place dealing with customers affected by the collapse and we did the same with goldtrail and the ash cloud, customers had a point of contact and infact, we gained a few extra regulars because of the way it was handled.

There are some real slap dash internet based companies who operate on skeleton staff with a couldn't give a damm attitude. I do not believe in this type of operation.

I understand the reason why you joined, as you are a homeworker you are responsible for your own income so no bookings means no pay and any cancelled booking means you also loose out. I don't blame you but this site is not for that purpose.

Hiya Leisure Lad

I understand what you mean but i feel i have to clarify something. It is not about loss of commission or anything to do with the money, I am not doing this to earn zillions of pounds and don;t ever expect to. I do it because I have a passion for travel, but more importantly I care about my customers and the money does not come into it for me to be honest. Yes I need a salary but i am more concerned that all my clients are okay and all their issues have been resolved. Rant over ! I also understand that all internet based and call centres are not the same i used to work in one too and i know their are some excellant ones out there i was just saying for individiuals to be aware that's all x

Can we return the topic to discussion about Kiss Flights now please.

Many thanks
David

Sorry David - sure will, lets hope this week bring better news

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