A post over on the website caught our eye with one of the users raising the question of whether or not people really need to worry about ATOL protection when it comes to booking their holiday.

That in turn raised a question our end.

Do consumers actually know what ATOL protection is and understand why it’s in place?

By law, a travel company in the UK that sells air holidays and flights is required to hold an Air Travel Organisers Licence (or ATOL); a form of protection introduced by the government in the early 1970s as the popularity of overseas holidays started to increase.

ATOL protection was originally created to cover package holidays, but now applies to all overseas air holidays where a flight and accommodation are booked together – a change that came into play back in 2012.

Certain other things, such as flights where you don’t receive your tickets immediately, are also covered.

The ATOL scheme is designed to provide protection to travels in the event of a travel company running into problems that prevent it from fulfilling its commitments to its customers.

Every time a person books a holiday through a recognised travel company that has its own ATOL number, that company pays a total of £2.50 into a fund that is overseen by the Civil Aviation Authority.

That fund is then used to help customers complete their holiday or get a refund should a travel company collapse.

But how do you know if you are covered?

If you are booking with a UK travel company, the ATOL logo and number should feature on the company website, whilst you can also use an online ATOL checker to double check if you are unsure.

Since 2012, any UK travel company also has to provide you with a ATOL certificate when you make a booking and make a payment - thereby providing evidence that you have protection in place.

If you aren’t provided with an ATOL certificate then you should question why that is the case, as it means you are either booking with a company based outside the UK and thereby not covered by the ATOL scheme or the company is operating outside the law in not being regulated.

In both cases, the booking is being made at your own risk as you won’t be covered by the ATOL scheme in the event of a failure.

Should the worst come to the worse, the ATOL scheme will seek to provide a refund within six to eight weeks of a claim being submitted, although a large number of claims at one time, or a complicated claim can mean longer delays.