knowledge self-packaging Atols
Is it worth doing it for yourself?
Tailor-making a package can earn agents a far greater margin, but it carries far greater risks. Dave Richardson assesses the pros and cons of getting your own Atol
et’s face it, the only way for independents to make money is to tailor-make their own packages – especially when competing with online discounts in the mass market. But isn’t that a big hassle? Don’t you let yourself in for all sorts of red tape and liabilities? And what about the new regulations that everyone’s talking about?
L What is Flight Plus?
Everyone knows consumer protection is a mess. Companies regularly go bust and leave agents to pick up the pieces, sometimes at their own cost. The government has now announced changes to Atols, but they won’t happen until early next year. They will mean that when a customer buys a flight and another holiday component, such as accommodation or car hire, “within a speci- fied short period”, the whole trip will have to be covered by an Atol.
This is known as Flight Plus, but the “specified short period” hasn’t been decided yet – it could be 24 hours. Its aim is to stop companies blatantly flouting the rules, but it will penalise agents and operators as airlines will still be exempt. “Click-throughs” from airline websites to third party accommoda- tion and car hire suppliers won’t be covered.
So do agents need an Atol? Probably, and many agents already have one. The consortia and other umbrella
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groups can help, as some operate a group Atol scheme. TTA Worldchoice operates two models, the “T-Atol” for TTA members, which offers greater flexibil- ity, and a group Atol introduced for Worldchoice members in December. Group operations director Gary Lewis says: “The T-Atol is effectively the member’s own licence, underwritten by the TTA trust fund and rubber-stamped by the CAA. The number of agents using it has gone down because of confusion over public protection. Some don’t think they need it. However, this will change with Flight Plus.
“The group Atol allows Worldchoice members to self-package on a small scale, and is ready for Flight Plus. But it’s a real learning curve to understand what your responsibilities are when you get your own Atol. The downside is the liabilities, but the public want low prices and you must be able to compete with the big operators.”
So what are the liabilities? Even if you’re selling ground transport not covered by Atol – Eurostar for example – you could end up selling a package and being liable for protecting your customers if the supplier goes bust or fails to deliver. You could become a package organiser, with
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