ATOL protection

Hi, looking for a bit of advice on ATOL protection. We have recently booked fights with Monarch Airlines for next July & October and have been told that we are not ATOL protected as we paid via PayPal and we are covered under their Buyer Protection Scheme. However, it seems that the PayPal scheme is only valid for 180 days post transaction. As the flights are further away than this, we seem to have no cover against any problems. Is this me being stupid or is there genuinely a gap for consumers who pay via PayPal for flights more than 6 months in advance? Thank you for any advice.

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  • Westin
    Westin Posts: 5,903
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    The method of payment should have no bearing on if you have ATOL protection or not.

    Are you booking whilst in the UK with a UK originating point of departure? If so you should be ATOL covered.

    Do you have your booking confirmation? Was an ATOL certificate attached? It may have said First Aviation rather than Monarch Airlines.

    It is actually quite unique to receive ATOL protection on a flight only sale. This has happened with Monarch as a condition of the last CAA bonding issue a couple of years back. All their ex UK sales were placed via First Aviation (as at ATOL holder) which is itself another company within the Monarch Holdings group.
  • SW17
    SW17 Posts: 848
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    Westin wrote: »
    The method of payment should have no bearing on if you have ATOL protection or not.

    Actually in Monarch's case it does. It is very specifically called out on Monarch's site that bookings paid by PayPal are not ATOL protected.
    For information on PayPal’s Buyer Protection Scheme please refer to your PayPal User Agreement here. PayPal bookings will not be ATOL protected and you will not receive an ATOL Certificate.

    http://www.monarch.co.uk/faq/flights/booking/paypal-faqs

    I don't know why they are exempt from ATOL bonding via this payment method, though of course it saves money for Monarch.

    OP - it is possible there is a gap here for bookings made far in advance, the PayPal terms say that they "may" refuse claims more than 180 days after the transaction and that you should bear this in mind (my bold):
    Open a Dispute within 180 days of the date on which you made the payment for the purchase you would like to dispute. We may refuse to accept any Dispute that you open in relation to that purchase after the expiry of that period (please be aware of this if you agree a delivery time of an item or performance of a service with the Payment Recipient that falls after the expiry of that period).

    It's also possible that if a business the size of Monarch goes under, there would be pressure on PayPal to honour the guarantee, but it does not appear certain.
  • Westin
    Westin Posts: 5,903
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    SW17 wrote: »
    Actually in Monarch's case it does. It is very specifically called out on Monarch's site that bookings paid by PayPal are not ATOL protected.



    http://www.monarch.co.uk/faq/flights/booking/paypal-faqs

    I don't know why they are exempt from ATOL bonding via this payment method, though of course it saves money for Monarch.

    OP - it is possible there is a gap here for bookings made far in advance, the PayPal terms say that they "may" refuse claims more than 180 days after the transaction and that you should bear this in mind (my bold):



    It's also possible that if a business the size of Monarch goes under, there would be pressure on PayPal to honour the guarantee, but it does not appear certain.


    Thats interesting SW17. Thanks for correcting me.

    Seems very strange for Monarch to exclude a payment by PayPal from ATOL protection.

    I thought after the issues of LowCost that the whole matter of protection was confusing for those poor people who booked via other ATOL holders such as lastminute.com. I truly hope that Monarch get over this current situation but should the worse happen I can see this being another mess in terms of their customers not knowing what financial protection they can fall back on.
  • ic
    ic Posts: 3,291
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    This is why I always pay for flights on credit card - its far more clear cut. A relatively minor increase in price for the peace of mind. My card also pays 1% cashback, so helps to discount the increased price.
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