Travel Republic confirms ATOL application

Travel Republic confirmed today that it has applied for an ATOL licence for the first time to comply with the new Flight Plus regulations that came into force last month.

The online travel agency, which won a lengthy legal battle with the Civil Aviation Authority over its sale of non-licensed trips, issued a statement today saying he had applied for an ATOL "to ensure we are fully compliant with the new regulations".

Chief executive Kane Pirie, who led the battle against the CAA and has consistently spoken out against ATOL reform, refused to say why Travel Republic had chosen not to go down the route of acting as an agent for the consumer to avoid the need for a licence.

The online retailer sold 75% of its shares to Dubai-based dnata last December, but Emirates' subsidiary said the decision to apply for an ATOL was taken by Travel Republic.

With permission from Travelmole

We have been let down by Travel Republic and their ambiguous, misleading website.

We booked 2 rooms back in the spring in a resort with 2 separate hotels in El Gouna, Egypt for this August. It has taken this long to find out that they sub contracted the booking to 2 different suppliers, who have then booked us a room in each of the different hotels in the resort - kids in one, adults in the other!

Their website has no clear distinction in the booking categories to show which is one and which is the other, so the error is in their literature, not one we have made ourselves.

Now apparently if we want to move from one hotel to the other, to actually be with our kids, this is classed as a chargeable upgrade!

We have been to-ing and fro-ing all week and we keep getting fobbed off.

Anyone have any ideas how to take this company on?

Hi and welcome to HT!

I shall merge your post with our Travel Republic topic which should catch the attention of Steve from Travel Republic who assists our members.

luci

Wow, to be fair to TR, once Steve (employee of TR on this forum) got involved our situation was resolved completely within 30 minutes.
Sometimes dealing with call centres is like pulling teeth. It shouldn't be so difficult.
We are the customer and without us they wouldn't be in business.

THANK YOU STEVE, AWESOME JOB.
Now my wife will get off my back and I can switch off again. :-)

well done Steve

wizard

Great news jaycee31. Glad Steve was able to help and so quickly too. Thanks for updating us.

We have an active Egypt forum where you may find some useful information for your holiday and where you can post any questions. I hope you stick around and enjoy HT.

luci

Many thanks yet again to Steve from Travel Republic for once again sorting out my complicated flight bookings - you never let me down - bless you for that. I will try to promise you that one day I will endeavour to make a simple straight forward normal booking with TR ------------ but cannot guarantee!
All best and thanks again. xx

Good to hear that Steve is still around and helping members. He really is an asset to the company.

luci

Hi All,

Before I start, please forgive me if this has already been discussed.

I'm heading for Sharm in around 6 weeks, and have found a fairly attractive deal on TR. What I can't understand is why they continue to charge customers a Debit Card Fee, despite the OFT ruling. I don't mind paying a 'Fee' when justified, but charging me anything more than actual processing costs for using my Debit Card is nothing short of daylight robbery. I would be interested to hear members thoughts (and hopefully TR's reasons) on their continued charging in light of the ruling.

Sections which they seem to be quite blatantly ignoring include:

1.16 The OFT's view is that retailers should make headline prices meaningful for comparison purposes by not imposing surcharges for debit cards, which we consider are currently the standard online payment mechanism. Any costs the retailer incurs for processing debit card payments should be treated as part of the cost of doing business and should be included in the headline price.

1.22 The OFT's view is that retailers should therefore:

• provide clear information on the surcharges/discounts that apply to different payment mechanisms, when first displaying prices on a website. For example a clear link ('1 click') to a list of payment surcharges, where it is clear to consumers that they need to click on the link to obtain information on additional charges [Pointing us to dig through FAQ's/T&C's is not acceptable]

• on all subsequent web pages, in close proximity to the total price, provide clear information on the surcharges/discounts that apply to different payment mechanisms or a clear link ('1 click') to a list of surcharges/discounts that apply to different payment mechanisms

• provide clear information on the existence of payment surcharges which apply to other payment mechanisms within any adverts (including print, television, outdoor or other media channels) which refer to prices

1.23 For those retailers who are unwilling to make voluntary changes, or where commitments are not implemented within a reasonable timeframe, we will consider enforcement action. In due course we will also consider whether further enforcement action in other sectors is necessary.

6.37 The OFT therefore proposes that retailers make headline prices achievable for a reasonable proportion of consumers by not surcharging for debit card payments, that is including in the headline price the processing costs that relate to debit cards.

Along with yours, I very much hope that TR are reading and give us the courtesy of a response,

Many thanks, K22

this ruling came out in July 2012 and most airlines have taken some action, some of which applies from 1st August and some further measures will apply from 1st december.
i think that that is a very quick reaction to the OFT ruling.
companies like TR who deal with all different airlines will have to check all those different airlines and amend their conditions to reflect what each company will be charging before they can change their website.
it takes time!

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the response.

From the sounds of it, you are of the understanding that the travel agent/tour operator is charged the same booking fee as a customer customer booking directly for each flight? I would be very surprised if this is actually the case...

Thanks, K22

Hi Steve

Just to let you know, I sent you a PM on Friday as requested with our Booking References so you can make sure the hotel is informed of our Late Arrival.

Plus our other requests as mentioned in my previous PM.

Many thanks for your offer of assistance with this.

Regards
Shell

Hi Steve

Bumping up, sorry..... but I can see my PM is still in my Outbox as not having been read.

I've sent the details you asked me to send regarding my holiday accommodation booking so you can pass it on for us as you suggested.

If it's a problem, please let me know and I will find another way to contact the hotel directly as we don't want our rooms being cancelled due to our late arrival.

Thanks
Shell

I usually give the hotel a quick ring or send an e-mail 10 - 14 days before arrival if I have any concerns. Bear in mind it is not worth doing this any earlier as before that they may only have details of the numbers booked and not the actual names of the guests.

Yes, that's what I would do too but I've read that the hotel we're going to don't always answer their emails or they sometimes bounce back.... Plus, it's Ramadan at the moment and a lot of the staff are not working as often.

Steve asked me to send my details to him directly and he would pass on our arrival times etc so they would keep our rooms open for us. We won't get to the hotel until after midnight on the day of our arrival.

Cheers
From Shell in sunny Cyprus

I would guess Steve may be on holiday himself just now as he is always very prompt at responding to calls for help. I know what you mean about hotels not always checking e-mails as I've had the same problem in Tunisia. If you prefer to telephone you can do so from about 3-5p a minute using access numbers as shown in this link:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-overseas-calls#landline

Hi all, this is my first time posting so please be nice :).

I've just recently booked a holiday with travel republic and got all of my email conformations through but reading a few reviews has scared me a bit. This will be my first holiday away without my parents (daunting I know), it's bad enough knowing how to get on a plane but if I was to find out that my accommodation was not booked, would wound me terribly.

Travel republic confirmed that med hotels would be booking the accommodation and I'm due to fly out 27th August 2012. Is there anyway Steve could possibly find out whether my accommodation has been booked?

Thanks for the help in advance

Rosie x

Hi and welcome to HT!

Although mistakes can be made, they are very much the exception and I'm sure your accommodation will be fine.

What is the name of the accommodation and the resort? Someone might be able to give you the email address so that you can email them and perhaps make a request such as a high floor, etc. However don't bother emailing until at least 2 weeks before arrival as the hotels don't get the actual guests' names until then.

If you do email them and don't get a reply, don't panic. There have been numerous posts from people who didn't get a reply, but their request was granted on arrival. Some hotels are better at replying than others.

Hope you have a great time and please come back to let us know how it went.

luci

Ohh, speed reply. Thank you for the quick response.

I'm staying at the blue sea costa teguise gardens in lanzarote.
Hopefully no amendments will be made last minute as everything is planned carefully. I'm gonna take what you said on board, if anyone can provide the email for that resort would be brilliant! I'll defo report back to you t and tell you how my travels went

Rosie x