Direct holidays-am I protected if balance paid by cheque?

Engadine

Sam_Bee wrote: »

Are you 100% certain of that???

See, i've just received my own ATOL, and had to undergo massive scrutiny to get it. But the whole travel protection scheme is full of contradiction, irregularities and confusion.

The sooner the CAA introduce a blanket £1 per person bonding charge irrelevant of flight, flight inclusive, accommodation only, package, diy, dynamically packaged, THE BETTER!!

Couldn't agree more Sam, I work in travel also. The whole thing is confusing for agents and people who work in travel never mind the general public. The Government and the CAA don't seem to want to do anything about it. Something needs to be done a lot sooner rather than later!!!

Direct Holidays left ABTA rather than them being kicked out. Going through ABTA to get money back etc can be a very lengthy and time consuming procedure. ABTA themselves are currently going through loads of internal issues regarding reducing the board etc

Most tour operators or agents tend to have a maximum charge that they will charge if you pay by credit card. Ask Direct Line if they have one. Don't know where you live but Direct Line do have some agencies around the country if you are near one then perhaps you could do in and pay cash. If not you were going to pay by cheque so if you have a debit card you could use that, there tends not to be a charge for debit cards. If there is it is normally only a couple of pounds

philjohn

Help!!! I am about to pay for a 3 week tailor-made holiday which involves a lot of different elements (flight to NY,4 x 2 night stays, 3 internal Canadian flights, 3 day car hire, 6 day Rocky Mountaineer, 7 day cruise and flight from Anchorage to UK). The holiday company has quoted just over £7k for two of us (30 year anniversary), my problem now is do I pay all on my Capital One Cashback card to get the 4% (£280) back or just pay a deposit with Capital One and the rest by Debit Card? I'm not sure if the holiday co. would charge 2.5% on the whole lot or have an upper limit they would charge. They are ABTA & ATOL bonded, but how do I check their bond numbers? This is a one-off holiday of a lifetime and while I don't want to "spoil the ship for a Ha'peth of tar" I would like to get VFM. Any and all help would be welcome. Thanks.

Apologies to Sam for not replying to a PM on this subject a few weeks ago. New to this computing lark.