ATOL linked travel... can I cancel a component?

ThriftyBoy

I recently booked flights and car rental for next year with Easyjet. The car was expensive, but I wanted to get some protection so I booked the flights and car together to benefit from an ATOL certificate. I have subsequently found a more attractive car rental for a huge saving. Can I cancel the old car rental arrangement (it is fully refundable) and still benefit from the ATOL protection, or will I 'unlink' the products and forfeit the ATOL certificate?
Thanks in advance for your helpful feedback!

Westin

You will no longer technically have a package.  Whilst the ATOL levy fee will have been paid I don’t think you can just cancel one element of the package. It’s a case of cancelling the lot which clearly is not what you want. You might be able to amend the car rental (although there might be a fee to do so) reducing down to say just a one day rental and not collecting the car.

For future play, you could just book a cheap hotel with the flight (not necessarily for the full duration of your trip) and not use it, or a car rental for a part duration and possibly not collect it. You would still technically then have a package and ATOL cover.

Above options I think doable for EasyJet Holidays but not all package holiday companies.

For a simple EasyJet flight, so long as it cost more than £100, simply buying using a credit card would probably suffice for most financial cover in case of supplier failure.

ThriftyBoy

Thanks Westin - That was the response that I was expecting, although sadly not what I was hoping for!
I'll explore ways to reduce the value of the existing car booking... although I'm now wondering if the ATOL certificate would also be invalid if there is a change (similarly upset as by a cancelation)?

bagand96

If you could book a “flights + car/hotel” package and get ATOL protection, then just cancel the car/hotel and keep your ATOL protection then that would be a massive loophole to get an ATOL protected flight only. 

Obviously risk is something everyone perceives differently, but my own view would be the chance of easyJet going bust is on the lower side.