YOUR PROTECTION

Your holiday protection - ATOL, ABTA and other schemes
The Package Travel, Package Holiday and Package Tour Regulations 1992 (the “Regulations”) operate to protect UK consumers who buy package holidays from losing their money if their tour operator becomes insolvent and goes out of business.  The regulations deal with both air-packages (package holidays that include a flight for travel outside the UK) and non-air packages (combinations of other products on our site but NOT including a flight, for example a Eurostar ticket and a hotel).  

Air packages and ATOL
In most cases the protection required under the Regulations for air-packages will take the form of an ATOL (Air Travel Organisers’ Licence), part of a scheme managed by the Civil Aviation Authority.  All standalone charter flights are also protected under the ATOL scheme.
If you buy a package holiday you should always check what protection the tour operator offers and ensure that you get a receipt confirming that you are protected.   This receipt may be an email or it may come in paper form but it should always include the tour operators ATOL number and confirm that you are protected.   ATOL or similar protection should always be added to your booking by the tour operator and there should be nothing extra to pay.
If you build a holiday via the lastminute.com website by combining a flight with a hotel (also known as “dynamic packaging”) you will be protected by lastminute.com’s ATOL 3970, provided that the parts of the package are combined for purchase as a single transaction and relate to the same period of travel.
For more information you can visit the Civil Aviation Authority’s website or contact your tour operator. 

Non-air packages and ABTA
With respect to non-air packages that have been pre-packaged by us or that you build yourself via the lastminute.com website (subject to the requirements below), we subscribe to the ABTA scheme managed by the Travel Association (number E7760).  This will protect the money you paid for your non-air package if we become insolvent and go out of business.  At present, non-air packages are available in the following combinations:  hotel+theatre, hotel+theatre+restaurant, hotel+music tickets and train (eurostar)+hotel.
For non-air packages that are packaged by a third party and are sold via our website you should be protected by the party that put the package together.  As with ATOL protection you should always check what protection you are being offered and ensure that you get an appropriate receipt confirming that protection.
If you build your own non-air package it will be protected by our ABTA subscription provided that the package is purchased as a single transaction and relates to the same period of use or travel.  For more information about ABTA you can visit the ABTA website here.