Travel agent going bust on flight-only only booking?

simonschus

Hi everybody,

I booked flights only through a travel agent a few weeks ago (although the travel agent is ATOL-protected, this wouldn't cover my journey as I only booked flights - hotel, car hire, entertainment were not required).

The flights are all ticketed and confirmed with the airline.

What would happen if the travel agent suddenly went bust though? The flights are already ticketed and I can see them on the airline's webpage... would I still be able to fly? Or would the ticket be cancelled by the airline?

I guess another way of phrasing this is as follows: As I've seen on my bookings with various travel agents in the past, including this latest booking from a few weeks ago, the booking states that the travel agent is an "Agent of the Airlines(s)". Does this mean that the travel agent pays takes my payment and then passes it straight onto the airline, taking a bit of commission? If this is the case, then does that mean I can get the flight regardless of whether the travel agent goes bust?

I've not been able to find any details on this specific scenario as everything I've found relates to if the airline fails, or if the travel agency fails on an ATOL-protected package which isn't the case in this instance.

Any ideas?

Simon

peachyprice

Did you pay for the flights in full or did you pay a deposit?

simonschus

Hi there,

I paid the full amount at the time of booking with the travel agent.

Simon.

bagand96

Who's the agent and who's the airline? The relationships vary massively.

simonschus

Hi bagand96,

I've used Travel Agents in three instances for flights this year:

One was opodo.co.uk with British Airways
The second was AirFastTickets.co.uk with Air Canada
The third was TravelUp.com with Virgin Atlantic

In each instance, cheap and cheerful. I have no reason to expect these to go insolvent, apart from maybe one of them, so I'm just asking out of interest given that I couldn't find a quick answer elsewhere.

In all instances, the full amount was taken immediately from my credit card (each flight was > £100) and I've found the tickets on TravelPort and the airline webpages.

I wouldn't have thought that the specific travel agent was too important as long as they were acting as legitimate agents of the airline (which they all were). I would have presumed that there was a fairly standard behind-the-scenes process of the flights being ticketed and money being passed onto the airline at some point, irrespective of the agency.

Simon

jpsartre

Get travel insurance, that's the sort of situations it's for.

bagand96

It depends whether the agents pay the airlines straight away or whether they sit on your money and pay the airline at a later date. If it's at a later date and the airline is still owed money when an agent folds then you could have problems.

However, given yours are scheduled airlines and they have issued tickets then I suspect they've been payed (most won't issue an e ticket until they are) so you should be fine.

I've booked through agents before and been billed directly by the airline, my credit card statement said British Airways London despite booking with expedia.

Just out of interest were the agents that much cheaper than the airline direct? No problem using agents just it can get complicated if there are schedule changes etc, it's often easier to deal direct with the airline.

jpsartre

simonschus wrote: »

I wouldn't have thought that the specific travel agent was too important as long as they were acting as legitimate agents of the airline (which they all were).

They are nothing of the sort. Opodo probably has the most complaints of any 3rd party site (along with their sister site eDreams) although Airfasttickets seems to making a run recently for that dubious title. I would strongly recommend you do some research next time you book, there are way more dodgy 3rd party sites out there than reputable one's and there are pretty much daily posts from people getting burned on various travel forums.

simonschus

Hi jpsartre,

Thanks for your idea I have travel insurance already sorted as it comes with my AMEX. However, I'm just interested in what would happen if the travel agent went bust/insolvent.

Would the ticket be valid even if the travel agent went bust? If yes, then the travel insurance wouldn't even need using. If not then that is when the Section 75 and travel insurance could come into play (assuming it has the relevant clause).

James

simonschus

Hi jpsartre,

Thanks for your suggestion . I did some research in advance of each of the bookings - for a period of weeks - and I thought that the price saving:risk ratio was legitimate (which I still do given that I have already taken some of these flights without any problem). As such, any burn at my end would not be due to naivety but due to an active decision. As yet, I have yet to be burned but that doesn't mean I won't be in the future hence why I'm doing research now to consider what would happen if one went insolvent.

As an aside, for everybody... when I did my research I definitely saw posts about various people being burned by relatively cheap travel agents. I was of the opinion that a lot of those posts described flyers being burnt when they sought to make changes to their itineraries or cancel - this is something that I do not have to do which was the primary reason that my price:risk ratio was balanced towards booking with these cheaper alternatives. Obviously, there remains some risk which I am willing to accept for the price reduction. Others may not be willing for such a risk (e.g. those travelling with families who need wish to be more confidence in their travel plans).

Moving back to the topic at hand, I was wondering if anybody had any other thoughts about what would happen if say one of the travel agents did go insolvent?

bagand96 - the way you explicated your understanding is what I thought too (though I wasn't sure if that was wishful thinking at my end). My credit card was charged by the travel agency (not the airline). On each of the airline websites, the tickets are listed as being paid using 'cash' which would make sense if the agency passed on the payment to the airline at some point.

Simon

tamiami

Airfasttickets seems to be in some kind of trouble.


http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2014/06/23/48397/airfasttickets+in+discussions+with+iata+after+14m+default.html