LowCost Holiday Company Gone

lasno

Low Cost Holidays have gone into administration
http://www.travelextra.ie/low-cost-goes-administration/

spain33

Hi, I recently booked a holiday with Low Cost Holidays but found out today they have gone into liquidation. What does this mean for the holiday? Is it completely gone or is there something that usually happens in these situations to allow us to travel? I know I can claim it back with insurance etc but am afraid to book something new until that would be sorted and that takes months. Hope someone knows! Thanks

chasm

http://www.lowcosttravelgroup.com/

Customers Due to Travel

Customers who have booked a Holiday combination (Flight plus Hotel)

If you have booked a combination flights and accommodation (+ other services, e.g. transfer, car-hire, etc) your contract for the flights will be direct with the airline and payment will have been made to them in most cases at time of booking. If you are in receipt of your flight ticket from the airline you will be able to check-in and travel as normal. If you have not received your flight confirmation details, you should contact the airline directly to determine the status of your flight reservation. If the airline informs you that your reservation is not confirmed then you will need to rebook your flights with another provider and make a claim using the options outlined below:

Your hotel reservation will not be valid so you will have to re-book your hotel accommodation and any other services that you may have reserved via Lowcostholidays.com (e.g. transfer, car-hire, airport parking etc) with another company. You can reclaim lost amounts against:

I. Your Travel Insurance provider (if you have travel Insurance)

II.Govern de les illes Balears (www.caib.es) who is the regulator of the Spanish Travel Agency.

III.Your credit card provider for services not received.

It would be advisable for you to keep all receipts of expenses incurred in order to claim a refund or compensation.

You should also register your claim at lowcosttravelspain@smith.williamson.co.uk

Customers who have booked a Holiday combination (Hotel Only)

Your reservation will be cancelled by the hotel supplier and you will need to rebook your accommodation.

You can submit your claim for the amounts paid to Lowcostholidays.com using any of the following options

I.Your Travel Insurance provider (if you have travel Insurance)

II.Your credit card provider for services not received.

It would be advisable for you to keep all receipts of expenses incurred in order to claim a refund or compensation.

You should also register your claim at lowcosttravelspain@smith.williamson.co.uk

spain33

Thanks. I see that has gone up on the website since I checked last! Some of that is jargon to me though

0ph0rce0

spain33 wrote: »

Thanks. I see that has gone up on the website since I checked last! Some of that is jargon to me though

If you have your flight details then your flights are fine.

If you haven't then get in touch with who the flight was with to make sure the booking is still there.

Your Hotel, Transfers, Parking if you booked are gone and need to be re-booked with another travel agent or direct with the hotel. (You need to claim the money back for these through insurance, credit card etc...) and log the claim with lowcosttravelspain@smith.williamson.co.uk

Tippex

spain33 wrote: »

Thanks. I see that has gone up on the website since I checked last! Some of that is jargon to me though

Hi Spain sorry to hear you are affected.
Happy to have a chat with you and run through your options. drop me a pm

picturehangup

These people were awful to deal with.
I thought that I had flights and accommodation booked, but when I got the voucher, it was only accommodation.
I then decided I wanted to cancel, but they would not let me cancel,as the date of departure was within 28 days.
I was certain there was a problem with their website, and I was told that it would be investigated, and that an email would be sent to me with a report of findings from their IT department.
Then I decided, what the heck, rather than be down 997 euro, for a two-bed apartment for five nights, that I would book flights with Ryanair, which I did.
Having had a whinge on consumer section of boards, someone kindly enlightened me as to what had transpired today, and all made sense. Decided to call hotel where we were to visit, and they tell me they cannot honour the booking.
It seems now I will have to pay locally AGAIN, and then claim the costs via my visa debit card or insurance when I return home.
An absolute scandal. The operators should and could have been straight with me.

uck51js9zml2yt

I lost €750
I spoke to my hotel in Portugal who said they only pay when people actually arrive.
I need to call the hotel again in the morning to see how much I'll have to pay to keep my booking.

picturehangup

My hotel was in Portugal as well.

spain33

Thanks everyone. It's so annoying, especially since I have no idea about this kind of thing. I have emailed the hotel and hopefully they will honour the booking. If my flights are still there, do I have to use them? Could I abandon all and just book elsewhere or just stay at home? Would I lose the flight money if I chose not to use them when they have been paid for by company?

Tippex

spain33 wrote: »

Thanks everyone. It's so annoying, especially since I have no idea about this kind of thing. I have emailed the hotel and hopefully they will honour the booking. If my flights are still there, do I have to use them? Could I abandon all and just book elsewhere or just stay at home? Would I lose the flight money if I chose not to use them when they have been paid for by company?

Did you book the whole holiday with them? Have you got the confirmations of the flights?
Keep an eye here for the Commission for Aviation regulators guidance http://www.aviationreg.ie/news/lowcostbeds-trading-announcement.740.html

spain33

Booked everything with them. I got an email from them with confirmation but didn't get anything from airline.

hawkelady

Hi, I booked a holiday with abbey travel , I received my vouchers today via email , they have the low cost holidays logo on them. Will abbey travel honour this as I booked through them. I'm so confused

Tippex

hawkelady wrote: »

Hi, I booked a holiday with abbey travel , I received my vouchers today via email , they have the low cost holidays logo on them. Will abbey travel honour this as I booked through them. I'm so confused

Thats the beauty of dealing with an agent it is up to them to offer what you booked or offer an alternative. Give them a call in the morning but be aware they will likely be dealing with a huge amount of queries and may not have all the answers.

d9oiu2wk07blr5

Just a heads up for anyone who's booked a holiday or a hotel with this company, they've ceased trading as and from today.

http://www.lowcostholidays.ie/

ted1

Lisa Dead Taxidermist wrote: »

Just a heads up for anyone who's booked a holiday or a hotel with this company, they've ceased trading as and from today.

http://www.lowcostholidays.ie/

I Persume that they are a licenced bonded travel agent, if so then all bookings will be safe ( money wise )

uck51js9zml2yt

theres already a tread on this.

Itslulu

I was due to go to Spain on Wednesday with my daughter. Have to ring hotel but it's not looking good and I don't have money to pay hotel again. Was going to book with Cassidy travel but these were few euro cheaper and bigger company so thought I'd be grand :-(

spain33

Itslulu wrote: »

I was due to go to Spain on Wednesday with my daughter. Have to ring hotel but it's not looking good and I don't have money to pay hotel again. Was going to book with Cassidy travel but these were few euro cheaper and bigger company so thought I'd be grand :-(

It's horrible. I contacted my hotel last night and they have told me that they never received my booking. So it looks like worse than them closing now, were they ever legitimate?? I phoned the day after I made my booking hoping to amend it and was told that the hotel had already been paid. What lies.

uck51js9zml2yt

I contacted the CC company to do chargeback, so hopefully!

I was also in touch with the hotel and had to email them details of my booking. They will get back to me with details of how much I need to pay them.



Question Re: travel insurance.

I changed companies between the booking (final payment ) and the administration of LCC. Who do I claim from? Is it the Insurance Company I was with when I paid or my current one?

Tippex

Aarav Petite Creature wrote: »

I contacted the CC company to do chargeback, so hopefully!

I was also in touch with the hotel and had to email them details of my booking. They will get back to me with details of how much I need to pay them.



Question Re: travel insurance.

I changed companies between the booking (final payment ) and the administration of LCC. Who do I claim from? Is it the Insurance Company I was with when I paid or my current one?

You will only be able to claim from one source so if you do a charge back you will not be able to claim on your travel insurance.

On the travel insurance you need to see if they cover the holiday company ceasing to trade not all of them do. I think it would be the policy that was in force at the time of booking but not 100% on that.

spain33

My hotel is not an option now and to be honest there's nothing else apart from places I would rather not stay, can I cancel my flights without losing out or am I tied to them?

Tippex

spain33 wrote: »

Booked everything with them. I got an email from them with confirmation but didn't get anything from airline.

Since it was all booked with them you should do 2 things contact your bank and do a chargeback if paid by card and also keep an eye on the link i posted earlier and they will advise next steps.

uck51js9zml2yt

spain33 wrote: »

My hotel is not an option now and to be honest there's nothing else apart from places I would rather not stay, can I cancel my flights without losing out or am I tied to them?

You'd need to contact your insurance company.

ideb

As "Tippex" said, your best port of call is the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR). Keep an eye on their website. Looks like they will have a busy week. Just to explain, CAR are the licensing authority for the travel industry. In the past, all Travel Agents selling tickets for travel originating in Ireland had to provide a bond to protect consumers in the event of the Company going out of business. The rules have changed due to new EU Directives. Hopefully, anyone that booked travel with Low Cost Holidays will still be protected.

However, I have noticed lately that a few companies are using Spain as a base and it makes me a bit suspicious. Tippex, You seem to know a bit about the legislation end of things. Without hijacking this thread, I would be interested in knowing if the changes have lead to consumers having less protection now due to the new EU rules applying. I'm a bit out of the loop on the new rules around the licensing and bonding. Do you know if there has been anything done to address the “sufficient evidence of security” part of things? If not, it will be interesting to see how this situation pans out.

Shedite27

I went through something similar with another company a few years back that went into liquidation. We had paid about €1000 for the hotel through the company, found out it was bankrupt, had to book the hotel again (for about €1200 this time) and could claim back the original €1000 from AIB credit card services. It was about 2 months before we got the original money back, so had to cover twice the cost of the hotel short term, but it all worked out in the end.

Moral of the story, always book through your credit card.

ideb

Have just noticed that CAR have said that the company is licenced by and bonded with the Commission, so anyone who booked for flights originating in Ireland should be protected? Apparently, they don't have an ATOL licence so anyone booking from the UK is in trouble. Article in UK Sun newspaper. Sorry, can't post link.

myshirt

Can you claim back if you booked through visa debit?

Tippex

myshirt wrote: »

Can you claim back if you booked through visa debit?

Yes you can. Get on to your bank.

Tippex

Yep it definitely seems to be a bit of a mess and will take a little while to unravel.

The number of passengers that this is going to affect is close to 150k europe wide.

The structure of lowcost will make it all the more difficult. I would stay away from reading to much details for the UK sites as what happens there will to some extent be irrelevant as it is a different entity.

The most concrete information relevant to irish passengers will be through the aviation regulator http://www.aviationreg.ie/news/lowcostbeds-trading-announcement.740.html.

As for the question of the new directives they don't actually come into force until 2018 and tbh I don't know if they will be adopted as the industry has given massive push back to them. The problem that the new directives is trying to address is to bring in rules that apply right across europe (doesn't happen now) Essentially the bond is an insurance policy based on a percentage of your previous years turnover and projected turnover (at a basic level).

Having seen this happen previously (on a tiny scale to this) the regulator will look for another local travel agency (will need to be one that has a relatively large team as operationally this is high season for travel companies) to take over the management of the bookings (who this will be is anyones guess atm). It is going to be down to the sheer volume of bookings affected as to how long this whole exercise is going to take.

henke

My parents booked a holiday with them for September for flights and accommodation to Portugal. We did get the airline tickets to so I know the flights are booked. Now they hadn't travel insurance got yet so claiming there doesn't seem to be an option. I've emailed the hotel to see the story but looks like it would need to be rebooked. They paid with Visa Debit.

What options to they have here? Go to the bank and try and get a chargeback for the hotel and transfers? Thanks.