Pay holiday by credit card versus using a travel agent/tour operator

bayloom

I know if I use a travel agent or tour operator I will be covered by ATOL/ABTA should anything go wrong like the hotel closes down or goes bankrupt or same with the airline.  But if I book hotel and flights independently using my credit card for the whole party travelling, will I still be able to claim under section75 if these things occur?  Just trying to work out which is more economical but also safest.

DullGreyGuy

Depends on who you book with... for S75 to apply there must be a direct link between the debtor (you), the creditor (your bank) and the supplier (hotel, airline etc) and there cannot be other parties involved. 

Many people will buy via travel agents which immediately breaks the links because you ar paying the agent who pays the hotel so there is no link between the creditor and the supplier.

The other consideration is with a package holiday you can reclaim everything if, for example, the flights were cancelled and there were no other suitable flights. Under S75 you can only claim for the direct losses so you could get the flight money back but not the hotel as the hotel hasn't breached its contract and your problem not theirs that you cannot get to them. 

Obviously this can be partially offset buy not booking advanced rooms and so you can cancel up to the last minute but thats going to cost more than a room that you pay in advance for and have no right to cancel

NoodleDoodleMan

The advantage of a package holiday with the likes of TUI or Jet2 is that they are responsible for sorting out issues with flights, transfers and hotels etc. if anything goes wrong, whereas if you are DIY you have to action the problem.

DIY are fine as long as long as nothing goes wrong........and then some travel operators are not as "customer friendly" as you would wish.