ATOL protection covers you before and during your trip. When you purchase a trip that is ATOL protected, you will receive an ATOL Certificate. It will show you who and what is covered, as well as provide guidance on what to do if your travel company stops trading as an ATOL holder. Every time you book a package holiday with a flight, you will pay £2.50 per traveller into a trust fund, which is used to repatriate, refund, or reimburse travellers if their travel operator ceases trading.
ATOL protection will help you to continue your trip by a) ensuring you can stay in your holiday accommodation, if possible; b) reimbursing you for any money you spent to replace parts of your trip, e.g car hire, transfers; c) arranging flights home, depending on the circumstances.
What is the ATOL scheme?
Travelisto acts as an approved agent promoting travel arrangements which may include hotels, transfers, cruises and flights. When booking flight-only or flight-inclusive packages you will receive your ATOL Protected certificate.
Almost every flight-inclusive package we sell is ATOL protected (by the travel organiser known as ‘principal’ which appears in the certificate). If your holiday does not include ATOL protection, we will make sure to indicate this at the time of quoting.
For example, if your holiday contains a 7-night stay in a hotel in Cancun and only a domestic flight from Cancun to Mexico City, but not the international flights from the UK to Mexico, then this holiday is not eligible by the ATOL scheme. Travelisto will indicate so at time of quoting and offer with an alternative way to protect your money.
Now, if the same holiday also contains the international return flights from the UK to Mexico, then it is an eligible ATOL holiday and therefore you will receive a certificate with all of the services covered under the scheme.
Financial Protection
As a consumer, when you buy through Travelisto, your funds are deposited into a Trust account where it remains 100% safe until the time the independent Trustees release the funds to the service supplier. This protects your money against insolvency and fraud. Travelisto is a proud member 6035 of PTS (Protected Trust Services) which provides with the best financial protection system through an independent trust account.
As a member, we are fully compliant with the Package Travel Regulations and the ATOL scheme which protects flight-inclusive holidays. Moreover, stringent financial and risk checks are carried out to guarantee complete financial protection.
Who is Protected Trust Services (PTS)?
Founded over 15 years ago, PTS is a UK organisation providing over 300 independent travel agencies and tour operators the framework to comply with the legal regulations including the ATOL scheme and the Package Travel Regulations. Read more here.
Though there are other methods of financial protection that are approved under the Package Travel Regulations, trust accounts are by far the most secure. With several layers of security between the consumer monies and the company, it provides complete trust between client and business.
What is a Travel Trust Account?
In short, what you’re looking at is an outside trustee separating, storing, and protecting your monies. Since the updated Package Travel Regulations 2018, a trust account must be completely independent to the travel business. Gone are the days where you could internally separate client monies in a client account. Read more on here.
Well managed trust accounts should commit to daily reconciliation. You should be able to track your business monies in real time – similarly to online banking. Protected Trust Services reconciles daily, and this is a key factor. Ensuring complete financial track and trace to all travel business members, consumers, suppliers, and stakeholders, allows for peace of mind and added security. The ability to track your company’s money with a daily reconciliation is something you should definitely confirm before committing to a trust account provider.
Why are you not an ABTA member?
ABTA was founded in 1950 and is the largest travel association in the UK, but not the only one. Other travel associations also provide the same framework for travel business to comply with regulations and coverage. PTS provides Travelisto with financial protection for their clients, as well as safe merchant accounts, compliance to travel regulations and high standards of customer service.
Yet, many of Travelisto’s suppliers such as tour companies, including outside the UK, are member of ABTA which follow their Code of Conduct. Your holiday will enjoy the highest levels of service and satisfaction.
Always ask your Travel Designer about your financial protection
We recommend you always ask your Travel Designer, or advisor, how your money is protected. If you have any queries, we are happy to explain further until you feel reassured.
Also, we will never ask for your card details over the phone and we do not store card information.