Summer holiday

Good news for anyone who booked a holiday with the failed holiday group Low Cost holidays: they’re each going to get a compensation of £7.98 each. They’re another here today, gone tomorrow company who have run out of other people’s money to spend and then wound up the company.

I am not sure if people check the small print and even the large print regarding holiday bookings, particularly with regard to protection. If your holiday is bonded with ATOL and ABTA, you are generally protected. If it isn’t, oh dear.

People always like to grab a bargain when they see one. An offer that appears to be too good to be true. The trouble is that when it appears too good to be true, it usually is. A friend of a friend has arrived in Portugal and discovered to their horror that staying at their hotel will cost them over a grand, which they thought they had already paid. To make matters worse, they will need to fork out, between the family, another £200 to fly home. So, their low cost holiday is now, officially, a high cost holiday and there’s nothing they can do about it.

As we take more and more holidays, I suspect we get a little casual over the dos and don’ts. How many people bother with travel insurance these days? I suspect most people do, but an awful lot don’t bother or it just didn’t occur to them. I know of someone who went to Thailand on a gap year, got involved in a smash with his hired motorcycle and had to be airlifted home with life-changing injuries. And he wasn’t insured. His parents have used their life savings to bring him back and remortgaged their home. It will never happen to me.

It will never happen to me, but it might if I use a Mickey Mouse operator like Low Cost holidays or don’t get insured. It’s an almighty gamble, unless you are familiar with the up to date financial situations of travel companies and, let’s face it, we’re not.

Here’s some advice:

1) Get insured.
2) Don’t go abroad with a company not registered with at least one of ATOL and ABTA.
3) If a holiday is very cheap there is usually a reason.

That £7.98 will come as a slap in the face to those whose holidays have been ruined and although it’s probably their own fault, they have my sincere sympathy. They’ve been ripped off, pure and simple.