STA Travel

ritee

My daughter booked a holiday through STA travel to Borneo. It is now in administration and there is no way of contacting them. 

She has put a claim for the £2,000 spent via ATOL. They have contacted her informing that as it’s not a package holiday she is not entitled to her money back !! 

What can we do . This was a gap year trip and she’s saved hard to go. 

Any advice would be gratefully received. 

Thank you 

jaybeetoo

How did how did she pay?  Credit card, debit card, etc?

ritee

Unfortunately by debit card 😬

Westin

She should contact her bank to ask about options. A Visa debit card may have some protection.

Guira

Hello
Please excuse the long message, but we are unsure where to go to next.

How are you?  I was wondering if you might be interested in my son's personal experience of trying to get his money back from the travel industry during these trying times?

My son is 19 years old and deferred his place at University to go travelling for the year.  He had a job at Wickes and saved solidly for 6 months before handing in his notice to go on his travels.  A 3 month tour was booked with STA Travel, commencing on 9 March due to return 28 May.  As well as paying for the tour, my son was advised to take out the premier insurance package via STA with Allianze.

Before travelling my son contacted STA to check that the tour was still going ahead given the COVID situation globally.  He was told that the tour was still going ahead.

My son left on Monday 9th March, by Friday 13th March the tour was cancelled.  As the tour was in Phnom Penh, a number of the tourists took the decision to arrange a flight home (as advised).  My son had paid for a flexi flight but could not get hold of the STA office as the phones were switched off so had to make the decision to purchase a return flight.  He arrived back home on Sunday 14th March.

Less than a week's holiday (consisting mainly of travelling from one place to another) had cost my son in excess of £4,500, not including the cost of visas to countries not visited and equipment bought specifically for the trip.

STA were contacted week commencing 15/03 to ask how he should go about making a claim for compensation.  They only offered a travel credit note which my son would not be able to take up as he was starting University in September of this year (we believe that legally he should have been offered a refund but he was not).  The Insurance Company were also contacted but all they said was that the policy was null and void as there was a global pandemic ..... the policy started on 09/03 and the WHO declared a global pandemic on 11/03.

My son had to then wait 28 days before he could make a claim through ABTA, as both STA and the Insurance company were registered with them.  A number of emails were sent to ABTA all always stating that he did not intend to take a credit note, all always asking when, who and how much would be repaid.  None of the questions were ever answered satisfactorily until in August he received a message stating that the travel company would be making a refund and that they would be in touch, but that it might take some time due to the current circumstances.  Whilst my son was obviously sympathetic to the fact that the global situation was affecting many companies economically, his claim had been made 5 months ago.

STA did get in touch on 14th August stating that a refund of £3,200 could be claimed.  As you can appreciate my son felt that the 5 days experience with the company was not worth in excess of £1,500.  STA asked for receipts to be sent stating items that should be added to the claim.  Whilst preparing this, STA went into administration on Fri 21st August.

My son then received an email from ABTA stating that due to the fact that STA were now in administration they would no longer be involved and that the claim would now need to be made via ATOL and would need to provide an ATOL certification number.  No number was provided from STA.  My son has contacted ATOL to see where he stands and what he now needs to do. Having spoken to ATOL today they have stated that the claim should be processed through ABTA.  We have now submitted another claim to ABTA.  Any help that you are able to provide would be really really appreciated

As we say, we appreciate that none of this is anyone's fault, but as my son says "people have still profited from the £5,000 he paid for a holiday that he didn't receive." My son paid for the holiday via 2 installments as he does not have a credit card

Kind Regards

mattyprice4004

How did he pay those instalments? 

Guira

Apologies to ritee I'm new to this and just realised that I should have created a new thread, and not a new post.
He paid via debit card and not credit card.