Sta travel claim- confused, need help!

ckronig

My daughter’s gap year trip was cancelled. We’ve read the help documents and tried to claim but still not getting anywhere...
The trip was paid in full to STA, for a flight with American Airlines and a tour with Bamba. When it was all cancelled she got a credit note from STA. The documents state it’s ABTA protected and she doesn’t have an ATOL certificate which I don’t understand as from what I’ve been reading it should be treated as a package as she had a flight?
She tried to claim through CAA website but they’re asking for an ATOL certificate. She called ABTA but they weren’t interested and suggested contacting Bamba. Bamba sent a helpful email back to her saying that from their point of view the booking is on hold and they don’t have the money. So the money was with STA which no longer exists. So where next? She has travel insurance bought in Feb 2020, and bought the trip with a debit card.
Could someone explain to me the difference between ATOL and ABTA protected? Can we try to claim via CAA even without ATOL certificate? Why isn’t ABTA interested if booking was ABTA protected?
Can anyone help clarify and suggest best course of action? My daughter is really stressed out and I just thought I would give this a go to help her out. Any help
much appreciated!!

sheramber

STA may have booked the trip as an agent for the airline and Bamba
https://www.abta.com/news/sta-travel-limited-ceases-trading-advice-customers

macman

Date of booking, and scheduled date of departure? You can do a chargeback within 6m of the date of departure, but it's not clear when the clock started ticking from your post.

Unfortunately, using a debit card rather than a credit card means that you have no chance of making an S75 claim.

What do the insurers say?

eskbanker

macman said:

Date of booking, and scheduled date of departure? You can do a chargeback within 6m of the date of departure, but it's not clear when the clock started ticking from your post.

Chargeback can only be initiated within 120 days, not six months, and if OP received a post-cancellation credit note from STA, who ceased trading in August, that would strongly imply that departure date was more than 120 days ago....

bagand96

ATOL is the Air Transport Organiser's License.  It protects against the tour operator or airline going bankrupt, by giving refunds for future bookings, or repatriating those who are stranded abroad.   You can claim on ATOL if your agent and trip were ATOL protected.  If your trip is ATOL protected then you get a PDF certificate at the time of booking.  No certificate = not protected = no claim. 

Are you sure there isn't an ATOL certificate with any of the booking emails? It seems that STA did provide some services as an agent only when selling other operator's products, so may not have needed to ATOL bond those trips.  That said, if they sold a holiday with a flight, booked at the same time my understanding is they should have bonded it with ATOL.

ABTA is formerly the Association of British Travel Agents.  It's a trade body.  It does have a small financial protection scheme. Reading the page linked above by @sheramber it seems the ABTA Financial Protection may apply when it is a non-flight package, not payed by debit or credit card. Basically seems an end of the line protection when all other options are out.

I guess the problem you may have is that ABTA will say it's an Air Package contact ATOL, and ATOL will say no certificate = not protected, contact ABTA.

Perhaps a written enquiry to ABTA laying everything out and see what they say?

Alan_Bowen

I suspect the air ticket was issued at the time of booking, unlike every other agent in the UK, STA had deals which allowed them to issue tickets and not pay the airline immediately. If you receive a ticket at the time of booking, ATOL protection is not necessary. Bamba I suspect is a company that appointed STA as their UK agency and STA probably sold the tour on that basis to avoid ATOL protection altogether. If this is correct, the claim is against ABTA, not the CAA ATOL scheme. 

bagand96

Alan_Bowen said:

I suspect the air ticket was issued at the time of booking, unlike every other agent in the UK, STA had deals which allowed them to issue tickets and not pay the airline immediately. If you receive a ticket at the time of booking, ATOL protection is not necessary. Bamba I suspect is a company that appointed STA as their UK agency and STA probably sold the tour on that basis to avoid ATOL protection altogether. If this is correct, the claim is against ABTA, not the CAA ATOL scheme. 

As ever thanks Alan for your insight.  I suspected there was a way STA had circumvented ATOL requirements.

ckronig

Ok thanks everyone for your expert advice. She was due to travel on 18th April 2020. I think she booked in January 2020. If I understand correctly:
- CAA is definitely a no-no and charge back is too late.
- sounds like it’s worth giving ABTA another crack.
- in the meantime, I will try the travel insurer.