Won a holiday-company now gone bust

hazyjo

Crossing fingers and toes for you!

Jx

AtomicOctogirl

Hi,

The same thing happened to me a few years ago - I won a holiday through a Sunday newspaper - the travel company went bust (nobody bothered to notify me so I didn't find out until a fortnight before i was due to leave). I sought advice on here and contacted the company that regulates holidays (ABTA maybe?) they looked into and were very helpful. In the end I got a cheque for around £500.Not the full value of the holiday but certainly better than nothing.

Good luck - I know how awful the feeling is.

RedCardinal

Hope you get something jbissy. As you have the certificate it sounds more hopefull.

jbissy

I phoned ATOL today & there's nothing they can do. If someone other than the holiday company had paid for the holiday then they would get compensation but if the company itself was offering the holiday for free then no compensation is due. I'm pretty sure the magazine it was advertised in didn't pay. I guess I could raise it with the administrators but I doubt it would be worth it. Looks like it's just bad luck & not much we can do but accept it and move on. Going to tell the kids shortly & dreading it.
Thanks again everyone for your help & good wishes:)

hazyjo

Try other avenues first. Local paper?

Jx

jbissy

What'd you mean hazyjo? Do you think there's a chance a paper will take pity on us? x

hazyjo

They love a story like that. Some local travel agent may offer you something (for good publicity)? Or the paper may take on the battle?

Jx

jbissy

Might be worth a try, can't hurt, they can only say no. Thanks for the suggestion x

hazyjo

Did you have travel insurance in place already? If not, maybe a policy, bank account or credit card you already have covers you?

They may pay out...

Jx

jbissy

I do have travel insurance through my bank, called them but they won't cover it either as we didn't pay anything. Not really surprised but always worth trying x