On The Beach ceases membership of ABTA

bagand96

NoodleDoodleMan said:

"There's nothing wrong with booking with Online Travel Agencies (OTA's)."

Until something goes wrong and they renege on refunds.

The separate flights, accommodation and transfers deals they cobble together are not regular packages as offered by TUI and Jet2 etc. Indeed any punter could (an do) similar DIY deals.

That's what I said!

NoodleDoodleMan

TELLIT01 said:

elsien said:

Penguin_ said:

I went with OTB to Majorca & when we arrived at the hotel, we were limited in terms of on site restaurants we could eat at & weren't allowed in 2 of them as they were reserved for TUI customers.

That would be the hotel’s rules and nothing to do with OTB. 

Just as a general comment, not specifically OTB, people post on here about avoiding the cheap 3rd party sellers, only using companies such as Jet2 and Tui.
But when Jet2 and Tui just don’t do the options you’re looking for then it’s either use a third party or book direct and lose the package protection. This year has demonstrated that the package protection is still worth something. 

Not if you have booked through On The Beach.  The complaints have been that customers have booked a package through OTB for that very reason but OTB have not given the refunds.

Are OTB selling proper packages ?

elsien

I had the ATOL certificate for a package when I used them last year. 

NoodleDoodleMan

I have an ATOL certificate for a TUI flight and accommodation booking later this year - but it's not a regular package holiday, each element was booked separately.

bagand96

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Are OTB selling proper packages ?

Define "proper package"....  I guess you're talking about "Single Contract" vs "Multi Contract" packages?

According to the Package and Linked Travel Regulations 2018, consumers have the same rights whether they book Single Contract (TUI, Jet2 etc) or Multi Contract (OTB, Lastminute etc).

The problem is how companies are interpreting the law, OTB are interpreting it very differently to many others in the industry, and indeed ABTA, more than likely because they stand to lose £millions on non-refundable flight bookings.

NoodleDoodleMan

This is ABTA's definition.

https://www.abta.com/help-and-complaints/frequently-asked-questions/what-package-holiday

The point I was trying to make is that ATOL certificates are not exclusive to regular package holidays.