Is it worth buying flights and hotel separately rather than using a travel agent?

l.c.elliott

We want to book a holiday to zell am see in Austria next year. I've been advised to book flights and accommodation with an independent travel agent so that we can get the abta and atol protection. But the choices theyve offered are quite limited for our budget and we have to pay upfront rather than if we paid separately, we'd only need to pay for flights upfront and could do buy now pay later on accommodation.

My question is, is it really worth buying a package? What does abta and atol cover than normal travel insurance doesn't?

eskbanker

Some of the issues were covered in your previous thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6613175/travel-insurance-when-booking-flights-and-accommodation-separately

ABTA is the travel agents' trade association and offers a post-travel dispute resolution scheme if you booked with one of their members.

ATOL covers holiday continuation, repatriation, etc, in the event of travel company failure, but this can be purchased with insurance policies.

TELLIT01

It depends on your main drivers - do you want a package which may not provide exactly what you want but will have considerably more protection than DIY, or do you want the freedom to get exactly what you want in terms of accommodation, departure airport and time, etc etc.

We have booked independently for years although we could save money at the same resort by booking a package.  We do want the freedom to choose where we stay along with departure airport, date and time...

zagfles

I've been on probably close to 200 foreign trips in my life, the vast majority not packages, had a few issues but never once did I have a problem where I thought "if only I had ABTA/ATOL protection". 

If you find a suitable package that does what you want and is better value than booking direct, go for it, but don't be scared of booking stuff direct. Sometimes it's less risk, eg hotels are often cancellable last minute and sometimes only charge the first night, and flights are often cheap, and there are always risks which won't be covered by insurance or ABTA/ATOL protection. For instance cancelling for a reason not covered by insurance, insurance will only cover cancellation for limited reasons, and if that happens the less upfront committment the better. 

Beeblebr0x

The sightseeing trips I've booked myself were fully cancellable until the day before. 

NoodleDoodleMan

My question is, is it really worth buying a package? What does abta and atol cover than normal travel insurance doesn't?

There is no absolute yes/no answer to this IMO - it'll depend on how confident you feel about resolving problems if someting major goes wrong, such as hotel messing you about or flight cancellations especially at short notice.

The latter in particular can be a nightmare scenario.

 

twopenny

Never had to put it to the test but there was a point in my travels, maybe the ash cloud, when I got 2 credit cards and started to build my credit allowance so if I got stuck abroad I could get home and deal with claim back from there.


It means that if your flight is cancelled or changed you have to sort the situation out yourself. 
This is a good reason to book direct with the airline so you only have one company to deal with. 
Booking both flights with the same company makes life simpler too
 Third party sellers and you have 2 companies to deal with.
ATOL https://www.atol.org/about-atol/what-does-atol-protection-mean/

Here is a thread on the subject that explains with some interesting extras 
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6005008/protection-when-booking-holiday-separate

MyRealNameToo

NoodleDoodleMan said:

My question is, is it really worth buying a package? What does abta and atol cover than normal travel insurance doesn't?

There is no absolute yes/no answer to this IMO - it'll depend on how confident you feel about resolving problems if someting major goes wrong, such as hotel messing you about or flight cancellations especially at short notice.

The latter in particular can be a nightmare scenario.

 

Obviously one of the difficulties in answering is the fact that each insurance policy is different so what may be uncovered will vary. 

One example would be if your outbound flights are cancelled and you are rebooked on the next day. An insurer will cover the cost of the new flight, if thats not the obligation of the airline, but most won't cover the unused accommodation whereas a package holiday would need to deal with it. 

Similarly there is the "it was a rubbish holiday" issue, your travel insurance won't help you if you turn up to the hotel to find its still a construction site with all 5 of the promised pools being out of order etc whereas package providers will typically act if they hadn't forewarned you. 

Personally often find buying independently gives us at a minimum more flexibility and often a better price. There have been exceptions though, for the Maldives hotels were vastly cheaper from a tour operator than either direct or other intermediaries plus had board options not available direct. 

NoodleDoodleMan

My point about DIY bookings are the diificulties if something goes wrong, typically where a return flight is cancelled especially at short notice.

That happened to us last summer when Easyjet cancelled a homeward flight from Schiphol shortly before scheduled departure leaving us stranded and abandoned airside.

Bigphil1474

If you book the fight and hotel with the same provider at the same time you can still get the packaged holiday cover. Doesn't have to be a travel agent as such. I think that includes the likes of Expedia and Booking.com.

We've literally travelled right round the world and never used a travel agent.

zagfles

NoodleDoodleMan said:

My point about DIY bookings are the diificulties if something goes wrong, typically where a return flight is cancelled especially at short notice.

That happened to us last summer when Easyjet cancelled a homeward flight from Schiphol shortly before scheduled departure leaving us stranded and abandoned airside.

Happened to me quite a few times. Last minute flight cancellations, missed connections etc. Never any difficulty sorting stuff out.