Hi MariaH ... for details of what is and isn't covered under ATOL bonding, please click here.

For those risks not covered under ATOL bonding, there may be cover provided by your credit card company or travel insurer. However, airline failure cover is not a common component of all travel insurance policies, you may require a very specific Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance (SAFI) policy.

David

There is an interesting article in todays Times Online here - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article4632359.ece

Some useful information and tips.

fwh

Poll highlights confusion over airline failure protection

More than half of holidaymakers wrongly believe that booking a scheduled flight directly with an airline means they are financially protected in the event of failure.

A poll of 1,000 TUI UK travellers found that 90% said that having their holiday financially protected was important to them.

But there was confusion over what is protected.

Despite a government commitment to encourage scheduled airlines to communicate that flight-only bookings are not protected by the ATOL scheme, over 50% of passengers wrongly believed that having paid upfront for their flights in good faith, their money would be protected if the airline went bankrupt, Thomson said.

The operator's commercial director David Burling said: "The collapse of Zoom highlights that it is time the government puts in place a proper system of financial protection for its citizens.

"The EU wants all consumers to be protected whilst on holiday; however only approximately a third of UK holiday makers travel on a package which is financially protected, which means continued lack of government action leaves the remaining two thirds at risk.

"Until action is taken, the only sure way for UK citizens to holiday knowing their money is financially protected is to travel on an ATOL bonded package holiday."

With permission from Travelmole

Thanks for the replies but most of these seem refer to scheduled rather than charter flights. Digging a bit deeper into the T&Cs of Monarch/Avro who our next flight is booked with, it looks like it is ATOL bonded. It's all somewhat unclear though and worrying for those of us who are moving towards independant travel.

If you have booked a flight with Avro than they are covered by an ATOL licence. If you book a scheduled flight direct with Monarch Scheduled Service then you are not.

Kind Regards
Stewart

atol are as much use as a a... pocket in a vest, they give you the oportunity to check if a company has one of their 1600 up to date licences (if you can supply their atol number), but fail to compile a list of companies safe to book with.thats what the public want.

I know this probably seems a strange question, when its in the past but.... I make a lot of flight only bookings, often using different companies for the outbound/return legs, and reading the various posts I am very confused. I want to make sure that I'm fully aware for future bookings.

At the end of August I went to Mallorca, the return flight was with First Choice (outbound was Thomsonfly). At the end of my First Choice email confirmation it states that "the holidays and flights on this invoice are ATOL protected". I didn't book it as part of a package, (it was just a one-way flight) and reading these posts it sounds as though that means it wasn't covered. I guess I'm missing something somewhere, but would I have been covered or not?

Louise

It may be that they were charter flights - these seem to be protected - scheduled aren't

John

It is all very confusing for us customers - if you are buying a seat-only flight on a charter flight, does it become scheduled? Many XL flights have both seat-only passengers and those on package holidays - what the difference is, seems to be a very grey area.

Double checking my invoice from Monarch/Avro (I don't understand that relationship, either) it says the flight is ATOL bonded in this case - this is printed on with the flight details and not just part of the headed paper. I'm just glad I didn't book this one with XL!

I am also a bit confused by ATOL protection. I was under the impression that the airline pays a bond to ATOL, which is then held in case of the company folding. On my last few package holiday bookings, I have had to make a £1.00 per person payment to ATOL (which is non-refundable in the event of you cancelling the holiday). Can anyone tell me why this extra charge is now being asked for?

The bonding scheme changed to a £1 pp fee from the previous system whereby a tour operator had to lodge a large bond/deposit for the bonding.

ABTA pushed the Government to extend the protection plan to all UK flights with everybody paying £1 and being covered whether they flew charter, scheduled, package holiday, DIY or other. The Government decided that this was not necessary. The rest is history.....

Thanks for that information Traveller. ABTA's idea seemed to be a good one ..... especially with hindsight!

You can get Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance for £5 a set from http://www.protectmyholiday.com

I just bought it to cover our scheduled Monarch flights for next summer.

Not backed by AIG Insurance is it!

No