Yeah just really happy with the outcome. Have booked to go back in 3 weeks time with Thomas Cook this time.

Happy Holiday's

Just to bring everyone up to speed, the trnc goverment run national airline kthy/cyprus turkish airlines has gone broke.
i have a friend who works for them and they have just been laid off.
the news is that atlas jet a turkey based airline has gone into some kind of partnership with kthy and were honouring some of the kthy flights.
atlas jet if i remember rightly left quite a few holiday makers stranded a few years ago, so not the best choice.
pegasus airlines are a turkish based airline and they do both flights to turkey from the uk and to northern cyprus. i have used them over the last three years and are reasonably reliable. so avoid atlas jet and use pegasus they are also cheaper!

They may have laid off their staff and stopped trading but as far as my insurance and the debit card chargeback scheme are concerned they will not pay out until they register for insolvency/bankrupcy.

Thats terrible! :
i will try and see what i can fine out for you!
they basically have been broke for a number of years but the goverment/and turkey have been bailing them out with funding. they announced that they were over a few months back. then there was a possible deal with pegasus airlines put forward but pegasus then pulled out. atlas jet stepped in i think kthy is now owned by them. something like 49% kthy and 51% atlasjet. so i don't know if it may not be worth explaining this to your credit card people/insurance people and making some sort of claim against atlasjet? they took over the majority share from kthy so they should have to take on their bad debts as well i would have thought?? i can't see that kthy will ever file for bancruptcy as they were never a private company. they are/were goverment owned and run.
sorry i can't be of more help but will ask around and see if i can find out anything more for you.

There is something that is confusing me comewhat with all this, and that is that different CC companies are paying out in different way's. By this I mean when KTHY flights were suspended I was in Turkey so had to purchase ne easyjet flights. Could not claim on my insurance as KTHY no bankrupt. So put in a claim with CC company for the return leg of journey for monies lost. The CC company refunded the total flight cost from KTHY for both outbound and inbound flights. I am not complaining it means I am not out of pocket at all for the whole nightmare.

Another person on here was saying that her CC company refunded her flights from KTHY even though one leg of journey had been taken, plus the cost of additional flights purchased... (I think I got that right, read back to clarify)

My gripe is, is that we all paid by CC but are getting a different 'service' from CC companies... I am curious as to why? Surely we are covered by same legislation... I somehow wish I new more about what is right re claiming under CC... What Act or Act's do they go off or do some creditcards have 'special' cover depending on provider...

ruth

your last few words are probably close to the truth. The law sets out mimimum requirements (and bear in mind some of the cards mentioned may have been issued by companies outside the UK and subject to different law). The companies will be using the Visa or Mastercard services under licence and those organisations can add extra rules on top of the law. And after all that the individual company can be more generous.

One of the little known Visa rules is that debit cards carrying their name have to provide a level of consumer protection which is very close to what UK law says has to be provided with credit cards. Journalists are always quick to point out that the law gives less protection on debit cards but miss that bit and I'm sure many cardholders have lost out.

Hi Steve, thanks for your reply. What are the minimum requirements and do I presume that I what I have been given, it is curiosity now more than anything. Is there anywhere I can look online do you know?

You have made an interesting point re debit cards carrying the visa logo as Natewst have recently changed my 'switch/solo' cards to cards that carry the visa logo but are a debit card. I have always previously paid on my visa but am I right in thinking that I am covered just the same as if I use my visa? OR do you (consumer) use CC as they used to handling 'claims' under Act?

Since the KTHY incident I would not have given this a thought but I feel increasingly consumer behaviour re purchasing will change given recent events...

Thanks
Ruth

Hi Ruth,
I posted before as I used my Visa debit (Barclays) and have been trying to claim on the charge back scheme for 5 flights not supplied by Kibris since July and I have received nothing for my efforts yet!!!!!!! So I would say use your credit card not debit card when booking flights.

ruth

the best way to find out is Google "consumer credit act" and look up references to section 75. This makes the CC company (if you and it are in the UK) liable for losses incurred if a supplier goes bust or goods etc. are faulty and the supplier won't sort the problem out. And as we know KTHY just dried up and has never officialy gone bust! There are transaction limits of £100 to £30,000. Sect 75 was amended to include foreign transactions so early documents may not mention that.

The Visa debit card protection is similar but they add a time limit for claims which I think is 75 days, this can cause a problem with flights and holidays booked several months in advance as the time limit is up before you discover the problem! That caught me out with a Nationwide debit card when I had a problem with MyTravel, they said the ciurcumstances were covered but it was well over 100 days before I realised MyTravel had sold me a ticket on a non existant flight so I was out of time.

I just heard the kthy/cta is going to be relaunched by the goverment shortly. They just won't let go!

ps, the Turkish army didn't invade Cyprus, they interviened because Greece tried to over take the island and rid it of Turkish Cypriots who were a minority. Both sides of the island now agree on that.

You have 120 days to claim using Visa Chargeback.

luci