How your tailor-made trip booked online could soon get the same legal protection as a traditional package holiday

Simon Calder, travel correspondent of The Independent, explains the how, why and when

Curtain Bluff (James Callaghan) (James Callaghan)

Holidaymakers putting together tailor-made trips through online travel agents could soon get the same protection as those buying traditional package holidays. European legislators have reached an agreement on new laws to recognise the transformation in travel brought about by the internet.

Q: What consumer protection do I get at the moment?

That depends on how you book your trip. The gold standard is a proper package holiday: a flight and another element, usually a hotel, sold as a single transaction by a tour operator. That could be a big company such as Thomson, Thomas Cook or Kuoni, or a smaller specialist such as Sunvil, Neilson or Kirker. The Package Travel Regulations 1992, a much-underrated set of rules, confer a wide range of protection: everything from the certainty that their money is safe if the travel firm goes bust, to the right to expect the holiday company to fix almost any aspect that isn’t right (apart from the weather).

Many people, of course, prefer to tailor-make their own holiday: buying flights and accommodation as separate elements, usually online. This may meet your needs better than an off-the-peg package, and could also save you money. But you’re in a much weaker position when it all goes wrong.

Q: How do I know if I have bought a package?

If you book flights and accommodation that is supplied in a single transaction by a single provide. It doesn’t matter if you buy direct or through a travel agent.

Q: But my online travel agent says the trip is ATOL protected. So I’m covered, surely?

Only partially. Don’t confuse the coverage you get under the Package Holiday Regulations with ATOL protection. The ATOL scheme is effectively an insurance policy for the risk that the holiday company goes bust. Last year, nearly 11,000 package holidaymakers in that position got full refunds, and were recompensed to the tune of £3.8m. But anyone booking through a reputable tour operator is much more likely to need to call upon the Package Travel Regulations cover. Basically, the holiday firm has to make sure every aspect of your holiday, from when you fly out from the UK until you land on the homeward journey, is provided as promised, If anything goes awry, the organiser must sort things out if it’s not right. At present booking through online travel agents you may get ATOL cover, but nothing more. Its close relation, Flight Plus, is limited financial protection in the event that one of the suppliers of your holiday fails. It is far less helpful that the regulations protecting a package holiday.

Europe wants to impose those same obligations on companies selling DIY holidays, typically online travel agents. If it looks like a package, the thinking goes, it should come with same protection.

Q: What are your rights if it all goes wrong and you’ve booked a DIY holiday?

Well, the extreme case is what’s happened to a number of British travellers who’ve contacted me since the catastrophic earthquake in Nepal - they have DIY trips arranged, typically a flight and a trek, and the airlines have said, effectively, “We’re still flying to Kathmandu, and the fact you don’t want to go there isn’t our problem”. Much more common, though, is where one part of the trip goes awry - either the airline or hotel lets you down. For example at present TAP Portugal is going through a pilots’ strike. If you turn up at Heathrow, Gatwick or Manchester and find your flight to Lisbon is cancelled, then someone who has booked the elements separately is entitled to a refund of the flight, but not the expensive, pre-paid hotel in the Portuguese capital they booked at the same time. From the hotelier’s perspective: “Your room’s ready, and the fact you can get here isn’t our problem.” But if you have booked a city break as a package then you can call the holiday company from the airport and say, “Either sort us out with a different flight or refund the whole holiday.”

Q: So what’s changing?

The European Parliament announced this week a set of proposals that it says will move consumer protection into the internet age - conferring much the same protection on online buyers as traditional package holidaymakers enjoy today. If you buy a tailor-made trip, assembling the flights, hotels and rental car through an online travel agent, you should get the same rights as a traditional package. There are other benefits: if the price of the holiday rises by 8 per cent or more you’ll have the right to cancel with a full refund, for example.

Q: Sounds like good news for consumers - but are there any drawbacks?

Yes. Let’s take a typical case where you buy a flight online. Typically the airline’s website invites you to click through to another company - perhaps a car-rental firm or hotel booking site - so you can fix up the other elements of your trip all at one time. You might feel as though you’re booking with a single organisation, but it may well be that legally you’re not covered. Instead, some much weaker rules, known as Assisted Travel Arrangements, may apply - which will offer you only limited financial protection.

Q: What does the UK travel trade think?

The mainstream holiday companies have long been furious that they have to meet the considerable costs of consumer protection, but their online rivals don’t and therefore gain an unfair advantage. The industry body, Abta, has been calling for “a level playing field” in travel for years - so that online travel agents have to provide the same protection as traditional holiday companies. But some online travel agents say the rate of failures is so low relative to the tens of millions of successful holidays that protection involves a disproportionate burden of bureaucracy. Other companies are providing aspects of consumer protection voluntarily, and see it as a competitive edge; for example Travel Counsellors and Trailfinders provide airline failure insurance free of charge.

Q: When will it all take effect?

Not this summer. Not next summer. The target date is 2017, but past experience suggests it could be even slower. In the meantime, if you want to be sure that you’re fully covered, take pains to buy a proper package holiday. Conversely, if you choose to go DIY because you can save money or get a more tailored trip, then be aware of the shortfall in consumer protection compared with packages.