Lowcostholidays collapses – your rights as 140,000 hit by travel chaos

DealFinder2016

So I paid for the hotel/flights/transfers in a single transaction. On the paperwork I filled in for Barclays I took off the amount for the flights. Thomas Cook have confirmed that have received full payment for the flights, and yes we still intend to use them on August 29th.
I have just rang Thomas Cook and the person I spoke to in customer service said, the flights are paid for, if you get the £1250 refunded for the flights, call us back and check but the chances are this is your money now.
I guess I'm not the only person this is going to happen to, so I wanted to check what other people had done. Thanks Glen.

Veggiesupreme

We have been back off our holiday about two weeks now. Before we went, we had to rebook our hotel which had gone up by about £900 from what we originally paid.

I had originally requested the amount back that we had originally paid on our credit card (which has been refunded back), but after reading up I realised we should be able to claim back additional costs/consequential loss.

I've just heard today that the credit card company will refund the extra we had to find. Massive relief....It would have been good to know earlier, as quite stressful not knowing that we would get it and having to find the extra money (as we couldn't stand to cancel the holiday). Credit card company obviously didn't offer up information about claiming the extra and one customer service advisor said we couldn't. So worth pursuing with your card company if its cost you more than your original booking!

thekingoflangley

Am in the same boat but one stage ahead.

Received a full chargeback including the money for the flights.

I called the Nationwide yesterday and told them I wasn't claiming for the flights (just hotel and transfers) as per the documentation I had emailed through.

Obviously, I don't want to have the whole chargeback taken back by LCH due to the flights still being valid or be accused of fraud for claiming chargeback on the flights knowing they are still valid.

Nationwide are due to get back to me by tomorrow with an update. Will let you know what they say.

harrispb

I took out insurance and paid an additional premium for SuperPlus cover which provided cover for THIRD PARTY SUPPLIER INSOLVENCY.

The policy documentation clearly states "WE WILL PAY YOU UP TO THE AMOUNT SHOWN IN THE POLICY SCHEDULE FOR ANY IRRECOVERABLE UNUSED COSTS AND CHARGES RELATING TO THIRD PARTY COMPANIES THAT BECOME INSOLVENT WITHIN YOUR BOOKING, SUCH AS ACCOMMODATION PROVIDERS, HOTELS, CAR HIRE, FERRIES, COACHES, WHICH YOU HAVE PAID OR ARE CONTRACTED TO PAY.

I completed the claims forms etc and received this response:

Having reviewed your claim, we note that you had to cancel your holiday as a result of the holiday company gone into administration. May we please refer you to your policy wording.......... In view of the above condition of the policy, the reason! you are claiming for cancellation falls outside the wording and we regret to advise you that we are unable to consider your claim on this occasion.
!
The cancellation/curtailment policy wording was contained in the email but the insurer made no mention of the Third Party Insolvency cover which I had paid for so I replied and explained that it appeared that they had not realised I had taken the SUPERPLUS level of cover.

The insurer's FINAL RESPONSE

Your policy includes Section L: Third Party Supplier Insolvency, which states : We will pay You up to the amount shown in the Policy Schedule for any irrecoverable unused costs and
charges relating to third party companies that become insolvent within Your booking, such as accommodation
providers, hotels, car hire, ferries, coaches, which You have paid or are contracted to pay.
!
We have been instructed by your insurer, Mapfre Assistencia, that ‘accommodation provider’ is defined as ‘the operator of an accommodation establishment’ and that Low Cost Holidays were not the operator of any accommodation establishment. Accordingly, they take the view that such claims are not covered by this policy.[/B]
!
We realise that this may not be the answer you were hoping for, so you may wish to follow the Complaints Procedure found in your policy wording.

I believe I am being fobbed off by the insurer and cannot understand why they would list accommodation providers (lowcostholidays) and hotels as separate examples within the policy wording and then refuse my claim as they are saying lowcostholidays were not the operator if the accommodation establishment.

PLEASE HELP

Lincoln_Imp

Just heard from my lad ..Lloyds bank have refunded him via Visa chargeback

N4t4lie

JoJo3 wrote: »

Brilliant news, N4t4lie! Lots of positive stories now coming through for those who paid with PayPal - let's hope that those of us with banks (who are still dragging their feet) are successful too. I need to become more patient!

I certainly need to think carefully in future about how to pay for large purchases to avoid this happening again. Curious as to who has had the greatest success - PayPal, chargeback or section 75?????

Personal opinion from all of this, was reading about previous holiday company collapses and this is the first time a forum has been full of positive stories about getting refunds. Even ATOL take two months plus to pay out by the looks of it.

Frankly all of this has exposed just how the ATOL scheme can have a big flaw in it and that travel insurance is bit of a rip off in this situation. So golden rule form here, credit card first (if the fees are reasonable and it's over £100 per element, then again you can use chargeback on a CC too), PayPal if available and getting back from the holiday within 180 days of payment (unless they are frantically rewriting their T&Cs after this) and then debit card. I have a bit more peace of mind on what to do now if the worst happens. Oh and never travel without a credit card with enough left on it to cover a surprise bill.

If PayPal keep covering under their Buyer Guarantee and you can use them to avoid the excessive credit card fees, or you have to pay by cash from your bank account, then PayPal has my vote. We're not quite there yet, but I think they will endeavour to get through them all in 30 days from the initial claim.

N4t4lie

harrispb wrote: »

I took out insurance and paid an additional premium for SuperPlus cover which provided cover for THIRD PARTY SUPPLIER INSOLVENCY.

The policy documentation clearly states "WE WILL PAY YOU UP TO THE AMOUNT SHOWN IN THE POLICY SCHEDULE FOR ANY IRRECOVERABLE UNUSED COSTS AND CHARGES RELATING TO THIRD PARTY COMPANIES THAT BECOME INSOLVENT WITHIN YOUR BOOKING, SUCH AS ACCOMMODATION PROVIDERS, HOTELS, CAR HIRE, FERRIES, COACHES, WHICH YOU HAVE PAID OR ARE CONTRACTED TO PAY.

-Edited-

PLEASE HELP

I think it's time for you to raise a complaint with the Ombudsmen (the details should have been sent to you with the complaint reply), if that is all your policy says and the list is 'such as' as opposed to clearly stated as to what was covered and what is not like my (useless) insolvency insurance was then they should pay out. Mine was listed as 'End Supplier Failure' not 'Third Party Failure', I think you have a case there as I would assume I was covered too under that ambiguous statement. Go get 'um.

N4t4lie

thekingoflangley wrote: »

Am in the same boat but one stage ahead.

Received a full chargeback including the money for the flights.

I called the Nationwide yesterday and told them I wasn't claiming for the flights (just hotel and transfers) as per the documentation I had emailed through.

Obviously, I don't want to have the whole chargeback taken back by LCH due to the flights still being valid or be accused of fraud for claiming chargeback on the flights knowing they are still valid.

Nationwide are due to get back to me by tomorrow with an update. Will let you know what they say.

Try emailing MSE on their news address and see if they can step in and advise on this, it's happening to a fair few people, if you can legally keep it, bonus, but as you say, do you have a right to use your flight still as it wasn't your error?

gardner1

Lincoln_Imp wrote: »

Just heard from my lad ..Lloyds bank have refunded him via Visa chargeback

is this the first Lloyds refund mentioned on here.....hopefully the first of many

JoJo3

Update from First Direct. Waiting time extended. They've been given a deadline to sort valid chargeback payments with Visa - 2 months from 25th July - so hopefully we'll have our money back by 25th Sep. However, we were reminded to wait another 60 days afterwards in case LCH dispute claims. That takes us up to November. So we will not be booking a holiday for 2017 anytime soon after missing this one. However, a positive response which hopefully means we'll receive our money but not our holiday. I need to look forward and put this experience behind me! Just hope that banks begin to work for their customers in a similar fashion in future as everyone seems to have had differing experiences and mixed messages.

.... and 2000 claims to get through apparently.