Atol protection

BARGE18

I've been looking at booking with Thomas cook airlines and noticed in the small print at the very bottom of their pages that after November 2015 they say that if you book tickets with TC Airlines for travel on TC airlines, then you are NOT ATOL protected.

I am very surprised by this in todays market - does anyone know what you can do to get protection rather than simply choosing another airline?

Thanks

PeacefulWaters

Book a package instead of flight only.

Alan_Bowen

Thomas Cook removed ATOL protection for flight only sales about 6 years ago when they were in dire financial straits. It is only doing what maintream scheduled airlines do and provide no financial protection against the collapse of an airline. If you pay direct to the airline by credit card your money is protected if TC fail, but that seems very unlikely in its current situation.

Choosing another airline won't change the situation unless you book through some agents who choose themselves to protect against airline failure and you can buy insurance against failure yourself but it will not be ATOL protection and most insurers will only pay out if there is no other protection available, which if you pay by credit card there will be.

bagand96

You say its surprising, but it is standard that flight only is not covered by ATOL. Its the same for British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair, Jet2, TUI, Virgin, Flybe etc...

ATOL protection is for package holidays. The tour operators used to cover their flight only sales through their ATOL anyway, as you were in effect buying a charter flight. These days theyve moved more in line with scheduled airlines - no ATOL protection on a flight only sale.

heatherw_01

ATOL is usually only for package bookings so this is very normal