Booking flights

ali99

Hi - I just wanted to check something. After XL went bankrupt last year, I remember Martin saying to remember to book flights with a credit card, but was there also something else about not being covered for flights if your travel agent goes bust? Or am I imagining that? We want to book BA flights to Florida for October and they are slightly cheaper if I book them through goAmerica rather than via the BA site - but if goAmerica went bust would I still have my flights? Should I just pay a bit more and book direct with BA? Or I could book through the airmiles site and pay the same as with BA but get some airmiles as well - airmiles wouldn't go bust would they? Usually I shop around for the cheapest price but I would hate to lose my flights.

Any advice very welcome

Thanks

Ali

richardw

Who are goAmerica? are they ABTA or ATOL protected?

ali99

They are part of bon voyage travel and yes they are both atol and abta registered. I booked my ba tickets through them last year and all was fine, I just wondered what happens if they go bust but BA doesn't, do I still have my tickets??

richardw

Perhaps depends if BA has received the money from the agent and your booking has been ticketed. If you pay an agent in full you should expect ticketing then and not 2 weeks before travel.

karenmay33

your credit card will only insure holiday purchases over £100... so if you choose to fly ryanair use the electron card saving £10 per head on return flights

Blue264

ali99 wrote: »

Hi - I just wanted to check something. After XL went bankrupt last year, I remember Martin saying to remember to book flights with a credit card, but was there also something else about not being covered for flights if your travel agent goes bust? Or am I imagining that?

Just to expand on Richardw's post...I don't have a definitive answer on this with regards to leisure travel so I can only speak from my experience of booking flights for clients in business travel.

When you book budget airlines such as Ryanair, Flybe and Easyjet, it's like booking a Travelodge...the airline takes full payment at the time of booking.
But when you book tickets with another airline such as BA and the major airlines through an agent, each ticket type has a designated ticketing date nominated by the respective airline and this is the date that the agent actually pays the airline for the ticket.

As an example... If you were to book a BA ticket through an agent for 26th February, the ticketing date may be as close to the departure time as 24th February (this does vary), and to be on the safe side, the agent will ticket the booking (make full and final payment for it) 48hrs prior to that, i.e. 22nd February.

The plus side of this is that the seats are held for you until the latest reasonable time before payment is due so that you can make changes or cancel the booking without incurring charges.
The downside of this is that if the agent goes into administration before the flights are paid for on the ticketing date, the airline has every legal right to release the seats and resell them.

So, if your travel agent goes into administration, your first step should be to get your flight booking details from the agent and call the airline to see if the reservations have been ticketed and if not, do you still have time to make personal payment for them.
Granted, this may mean that you pay for the flights twice, but at least, if you have paid the agent on your credit card, you can reclaim the payment to the agent and your flights will be confirmed directly by the airline.

I hope that goes some way to explaining a rather complex issue. It is a bit of a minefield.

richardw

Blue264 wrote: »

The plus side of this is that the seats are held for you until the latest reasonable time before payment is due so that you can make changes or cancel the booking without incurring charges.

or the agent may charge you for making changes or cancelling.

If you book a flight through an agent not all 'Manage my booking' features on https://www.ba.com are available.

Blue264

richardw wrote: »

or the agent may charge you for making changes or cancelling.

If you book a flight through an agent not all 'Manage my booking' features on www.ba.com are available.

Thanks for that. I'm guessing that may be a major difference between business and leisure agents. Honestly can't say for sure as I have never worked in leisure travel except for on hotel reception / admin.