STA travel - trying to claim refund

ChickenLicken12

Mu daughter was due to fly out to Argentina on 2nd July for a month of language and tango lessons; a post A level and post cancer treatment adventure. She planned, booked and paid for it herself and was excited. Then, like so many, the visit was cancelled due to Covid.
She asked for a refund of all travel paid for and booked and did all the calls and comms herself.
Airline tickets were refunded (BA) and she was awaiting the refund for the accommodation.
She kept ringing to ask for the accommodation refund and the last email said they were escalating the refund to get it processed mor quickly  - that was on 10th August.
And then of course, the company folded.
Now she doesn't know what to do, so has come to mum for help! And I'm not doing too well having read the dopcumentation.
I am trying to work out how we claim the refund due, as it is very confusing. Do we go via ABTA or ATOL? It was a package holiday (that is on the documents) but the flights have already been refunded due to Covid just not the accommodation and languiage course so do I still go via ATOL as that's what ABTA say. Have aproached the company who the language course and accommadtion is booked with and they say go back to STA ...
What a mess ...
And travel insurance ran out on 13th June which we didn;t renew because the holiday had already been cancelled and the refund wheels were churning!
She didn;t pay by credit card either ... as she doesn;t have one and actually booked and then paid for the holiday and then told me she was going ...Miss Independent!!
Thanks for any advice ..
 

bagand96

ABTA and ATOL have quite a comprehensive help page regarding STA Travel.

ABTA: https://www.abta.com/news/sta-travel-limited-ceases-trading-advice-customers
ATOL: https://www.caa.co.uk/ATOL-Failures/STA-Travel-Limited/

The first thing to establish is who is actually "Protecting" the trip.  Do you have an ATOL certificate?  If so, that will name who is protecting the trip, it might be STA travel themselves, in which case you should be able to claim from ATOL.  It might be another company, as STA Travel did sell travel arrangements with other companies.

Another avenue might be a chargeback, I assume she booked via a debit card? In which case the bank should be able to perform a chargeback (well a partial chargeback) on the original transaction.

ChickenLicken12

Thanks .. that’s where the confusion lies .. not sure if it’s ATOL or ABTA because we’ve already had the airline refund as the original cancellation was due to COVID.. I’ll have to check her emails to find the Certificate and go from there and if not will contact her bank as she paid by debit as you said ... thanks 

Alan_Bowen

If the flights and accommodation were booked at the same time, the claim for the accommodation refund is from the CAA ATOL scheme, if the accommodation was booked at a later date and not added to the flights under an ATOL Certificate marked 'package holiday' in the bottom right hand corner, then the claim is from ABTA

ChickenLicken12

Thank you. That’s all clear. 

I’ve found the ATOL certificate .. so time to get on with paperwork now. 

Thank you for your help 

Voyager2002

So sorry for her disappointment: hope that she manages to do something similar before too long.

t8769

How can I tell if my flight was ATOL covered, or not. I didn't receive a confirmation invoice.
Just the ticket and itinerary.
The Atol website says that it is unlikely that a flight only paid at time of booking was covered by them. 


This was on my ticket:

When you buy an ATOL protected air holiday package or flights from STA Travel you will receive a Confirmation Invoice from us (or via our authorised agent through which you booked) confirming your arrangements and your protection under our Air Travel ABTA J663X | ATOL 3206 | Company Registration No. 1263330 England | VAT no, GB577 0182 31 | Trading as STA Travel Ltd, 6 Wrights Lane, London W8 6TA Printed Date: 21-Jul-20 Page: 2 of 4 Please quote Your STA Travel Booking Number: 4358829 on all correspondence. Document prepared for customer: xxxx  Organiser`s Licence number (3206). In the unlikely event of our insolvency, th CAA will ensure that you are not stranded abroad and will arrange to refund any money you have paid to us for an advance booking, For further information visit the ATOL website at www.atol.org.uk .

caranorm

Hey sorry to jump in on this, we are having issues with getting a refund from abta with regards to sta and i wondered if anyone could help, we have bank statements booking itinerary but unfortunately nothing that states the full amount of the trip (i know how did i not think of this till now) however abta are requesting it and i'm getting the impression that they are not going to help us out if we dont have this bit of proof! PLEASE ANY HELP VERY WELCOME!! we are out a huge amount of money!!!

Alan_Bowen

t8796, you can tell if you were ATOL protected as you would have received an ATOL Certificate at the time. Flights only have to be ATOL protected if you do not receive an airline ticket at the same time as you paid, if you did, no ATOL protection is required as the airline is obliged to honour the ticket, and offer a refund if it is cancelled!
Caranorm, it is very unusual not to have received an invoice as every agent issues one at the time of booking, not least to ensure you pay the right amount. Did you book the day before they failed for example, when possibly things were going wrong? ABTA always asks for a copy invoice to reduce the risk of fraudulent claims, the CAA had reportedly 80,000 false claims after the collapse of Thomas Cook, so although I am sure you are not making such a claim, you can see their point of view. If you are certain you have no invoice ask if they would accept a Statutory Declaration setting out how and when the booking was made and payment collected?