DIY holiday

citygirlblue

I'm looking at booking my own flight and hotel on separate websites. I know doing this is a bit of a risk. My worry is, if my flight gets cancelled/heavily delayed or my hotel goes bust, would I get my money back if I buy insurance with cancellation cover? Expedia are ATOL covered - is ATOL better than cancellation insurance? Thanks. 

marcia_

 citygirlblue said:

I'm looking at booking my own flight and hotel on separate websites. I know doing this is a bit of a risk. My worry is, if my flight gets cancelled/heavily delayed or my hotel goes bust, would I get my money back if I buy insurance with cancellation cover? Expedia are ATOL covered - is ATOL better than cancellation insurance? Thanks. 

 You should always have travel insurance even if there is atol protection 

eskbanker

citygirlblue said:

Expedia are ATOL covered - is ATOL better than cancellation insurance?

Short answer: no.

Longer answer: ATOL is simply a form of protection against airline failure, and will only apply to certain combinations of product sales, i.e. some Expedia bookings will have ATOL protection and others won't.  Even if your booking is ATOL protected, that doesn't cover you for cancellation or any of the other aspects covered by travel insurance, so don't skimp on the latter!

Edit: a couple of further observations - if you're making separate bookings for flights and accommodation, it makes decent travel insurance a must in order to link arrangements together.  For example, you might find yourself in the situation where a flight is delayed or cancelled and the accommodation provider wouldn't be under any obligation to cancel or change that booking.

If you're making a flight-only booking then it's often a false economy to use an agent rather than booking directly with the airline, even though the initial headline price may appear tempting.

Robertsnuffles55

citygirlblue said:

I'm looking at booking my own flight and hotel on separate websites. I know doing this is a bit of a risk. My worry is, if my flight gets cancelled/heavily delayed or my hotel goes bust, would I get my money back if I buy insurance with cancellation cover? Expedia are ATOL covered - is ATOL better than cancellation insurance? Thanks. 

I had a horrible experience a couple of years ago flying back from Albania, where I used skyscanner, and ended up booking flights with a 3rd party. They never emailed me that my flight was cancelled and I ended up only finding out when I got to the Airport. needless to say I ended up having to buy a very expensive flight at the airport. hope that helps. 

NoodleDoodleMan

DIY holidays are fine (I've organised several) - until something (God forbid) goes wrong, that's when bookings through the major package outfits like TUI and Jet2 prove their worth.

We were in Malta in 2010 on a Thomas Cook deal when the Icelandic volcano eruption caused havoc - TC kept us in the hotel on the same board basis for 4 nights and then chartered an Air Malta aircraft to fly all back to UK.

Meanwhile DIY guests had to sort out accommodation and make return arrangements.

Caz3121

Robertsnuffles55 said:

I had a horrible experience a couple of years ago flying back from Albania, where I used skyscanner, and ended up booking flights with a 3rd party. They never emailed me that my flight was cancelled and I ended up only finding out when I got to the Airport. needless to say I ended up having to buy a very expensive flight at the airport. hope that helps. 

A good lesson - irrespective on whether you book with a third party or direct with the airline to check your booking regularly on the airline website. Even checking in online would have shown any changes and given time to try to sort things out in advance. I have a flight next year and already check the booking on a regular basis.

twopenny

Yes to booking direct with the airline. Easy to check , you should get notification of any changes but it pays to do that yourself first. Also if something does go wrong there is every chance that the airline will get you back.

Ditto hotels. If you've booked direct and have confirmation that should be fine. I also then if I know some rooms are preferable to others, requested to have those if it's possible. You can find out with a question/answer on the reviews on TripAdvisor.

I have also spent time building up my credit allowance on credit cards because that gives you options if there's a problem. So far there never has been.

But tons of people book each aspect of a trip themselves.

brianposter

When booking flights, booking direct with the airline is recommended.

DullGreyGuy

citygirlblue said:

I'm looking at booking my own flight and hotel on separate websites. I know doing this is a bit of a risk. My worry is, if my flight gets cancelled/heavily delayed or my hotel goes bust, would I get my money back if I buy insurance with cancellation cover? Expedia are ATOL covered - is ATOL better than cancellation insurance? Thanks. 

For companies going bust you need "end supplier failure" cover, most insurers have stopped offering this. 

Heavily delayed is annoying but unless it's a very short holiday you may just lose a day or two not the whole holiday. Ensure if it happens you get in contact with the hotel as some will cancel your stay as a no show otherwise... and by "contact" I dont mean sending an email that may not be seen for 2 days if its late on a Friday night. 

brianposter said:

When booking flights, booking direct with the airline is recommended.

Direct or with a good proper agent. Last major disruption we had was for the wife and a friend who were going to Paris for the day. They'd booked Air France separately, her friend with the airline direct, my wife via an agent. 3 hours before the flight Air France cancelled all flights from LHR to CDG. Called our agent, took 20 minutes but they confirmed she was rebooked onto BA at AF's expense, would leave 5 minutes later but land at the original time. As my wife got on the plane her friend was still on hold trying to get through to AF

heatherw_01

I have booked flight and hotel separate for hundreds of trips over 20 years.
No issues.
I use reputable companies and have travel insurance that covers the things you mentioned, for all trips.

NoodleDoodleMan

heatherw_01 said:

I have booked flight and hotel separate for hundreds of trips over 20 years.
No issues.
I use reputable companies and have travel insurance that covers the things you mentioned, for all trips.

Presumably you've never had a flight cancelled with late notice and subsequently abandoned by the airline ?