I booked flights with a fraudulent company. Would travel insurance help?

swindon87

Hello,

I recently booked flights with a company called Travel Jockey, who also trade under the names Ezee Flight, Famous Holidays and Fare Shoppe . They are not ATOL protected or part of the ABTA. They are a company based in India with a UK address. We only realised this after parting with our money and we should have known better. They did provide us with an ATOL number but we later realised not all their companies were listed under this number.

We paid £785 on credit card and £785 debit for the two flights, under the same booking. We we're issued a booking reference and e-ticket number but they have messed us about a lot, we waiting two weeks for the e-tickets due to a "glitch in the system". At one booked the booking was cancelled and had to be issued again. When speaking to the airline (TAP Air Portugal) they have informed us that these tickets can be cancelled and fully refunded at any point after booking.

This is where the scam comes in. We started digging through the bad reviews on Trust Pilot (although rated "Excellent"), many people have been left stranded at the airport as their tickets were cancelled just before or on the day of the flight! We want to try prevent this from happening as much as we can or just get out money back as soon as possible, in order for us to book a new flight. We will be travelling this December.

Is there a travel insurance that would cover us if the inevitable was to happen?

What we have done so far is:
Started the application process for Section 75 of the Credit Act (Virgin Money)
Requested a chargeback from the bank (Monzo)
Reported the company to Trading Standards
Reported the company to Action Fraud
Reported the potential fraud to the TAP Air Portugal

Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you!

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/traveljockey.co.uk
https://www.traveljockey.co.uk

Caz3121

If you currently have a ticketed reservation then I cannot see any charge backs / S75 working based on being concerned what may or may not happen in the future.
Based on the fare rules of the ticket and the agent service fees, have you worked out if you would get anything back if you chose to cancel?
Was there a reason you could not book directly with the airline?

soolin

I can't answer most of your questions and will leave that for the regulars on here who know their stuff, but one question- do you have any insurance in place already, either a standalone policy or via a bank ? My concern is that no insurance is going to cover you for something you were aware of before you paid their premium, and if you did declare this as a potential issue before taking insurance then I suspect you might not get insured.

swindon87

Caz3121 wrote: »

If you currently have a ticketed reservation then I cannot see any charge backs / S75 working based on being concerned what may or may not happen in the future.
Based on the fare rules of the ticket and the agent service fees, have you worked out if you would get anything back if you chose to cancel?
Was there a reason you could not book directly with the airline?

This is also what Citizen Advice have said. Because there had not been a breach of contract yet, it would be difficult to retrieve our money back at present.

The flights are 100% non-refundable and we would like to lose as little money as possible. Ideally the outcome we want is that we go on the flight without any problems outbound or returning or we get out money back and book new flights. Some customer have managed to go on holiday but once abroad their return flights has been cancelled. This is something else we are worried about.

I rarely book flights directly with the airline as it tend to be much more expensive unless they have a sale. The airline was charging £1,300 for the same flight. I have gone on countless flights and never had an issue with any travel agencies used. Obviously from now on I will make sure I do meticulous research on the company and not book with company that doesn't have ATOL protection.

bradders1983

No advice as such, but my pet hate has just cropped up.

It is "lose", and not "loose". Sorry, it sets my teeth on edge seeing that.

Carry on.

swindon87

bradders1983 wrote: »

No advice as such, but my pet hate has just cropped up.

It is "lose", and not "loose". Sorry, it sets my teeth on edge seeing that.

Carry on.

Thank you for identifying this!

Alan_Bowen

I have just had a look at Travel Jockey, 10 seconds on that website would have put me off, but there is an actual UK registered company, although the sole director admits to living in India. It has a share capital of £1, was warned that it was about to be struck off the register for failing to return forms 8 months ago and is now 2 months late in producing accounts, so for anyone else coming across this company, presumably through a search engine, please avoid it like the plague.

If you get to leave the UK before the ticket is cancelled, then you should be OK, those most at risk are those who book at the last minute as agents have to pay for all tickets issued at least monthly, and in the UK it is now twice monthly and once paid for, you should be alright.

If the worst comes to fruition and you are stranded with the need to buy a new ticket, you would have a claim against your card issuer for the cost of replacement tickets, section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act are the magical words to use but presumably some tickets are used as otherwise IATA who control the sale of air tickets worldwide, would have taken action against them now.

Good luck and let this be a warning to everyone else

leylandsunaddict

That website would make me run a mile!

Unless/until they renege on what you have booked you have no claim against anyone. Neither Atol or Abta could have helped either. Atol only covers financial failure. Some of what they sell is Atol protected because they book through companies that do hold an Atol, and it is that company that covers.

You don't get etickets because they only exist in the airlines system. You would get a confirmation/eticket receipt. Do you have your PNR so you can go into manage my booking on the airlines website and check on it's status?

eDicky

swindon87 wrote: »

When speaking to the airline (TAP Air Portugal) they have informed us that these tickets can be cancelled and fully refunded at any point after booking.

swindon87 wrote: »

The flights are 100% non-refundable and we would like to lose as little money as possible.

What's the explanation for these two apparently conflicting statements?

couriervanman

OP next time try Kayak/Skyscanner/Travelsupermarket etc etc etc.......why on earth do people use anything else

k3lvc

OK I'm going to ask a really stupid (or maybe genius) question here - assuming the tickets are in the OP's name, he/she has e-tickets for them and they're refundable then why not just contact airline and ask for refund ?? Does the booking agent somehow have a hold over what actions can be carried out on the ticket ?