Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Kiss Flights Kissed Death Leaving Holidaymakers with little Flight Options
Kiss Flights, a travel firm and an arm of Flight Options, kissed death, after the shocking plunge of burgeoning travel operators - Goldtrail Travel and Sun4U. Travel operators, insurers and custodians in the Aviation Sector, the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority), are swiftly back into action to subside the soaring blood pressure of angry customers.
According to CAA, around 13,000 travellers, who have booked their tickets through Kiss Flights, are holidaying in Egypt, Greece, the Canary Islands, Portugal, Spain and Turkey; though the fear of being stranded on the foreign destinations remains high, yet there is a silver lining in the cloud as the CAA assures them of repatriation as per ATOL (Air Travel Organisers' Licensing).
Sources also mention that there are another 60,000 travellers, who have booked their holidays with Kiss Flights, are eagerly waiting to start their much awaited vacation. The news, Kiss Flights stopped trading, have shocked the travellers, who are upset that their holidays are bungled this time not by Airline strike or by volcanic ash but by travel operators.
In the series of travel firms’ downfall, ATOL has surfaced repeatedly and to know whether the traveller is ATOL protected or not the invoice or the receipt should be checked. If the traveller gets flights booked through a company like Flight Options - the parent company of Kiss Flights - which is an ATOL protected company, the person is entitled for protection on particular elements as promised by ATOL. ATOL primarily offers protection on flight element only.
If the traveller had booked accommodation with other tour operators, those will remain unaffected by Kiss Flights’ failure. The CAA announces that those who are supposed to fly before 1800 hrs BST on 18th August should go ahead for a normal departure. For the rest who have their holiday bookings after 1800 BST on Wednesday 18 August 2010 are advised to claim a refund. Since the company busted in the peak summer, CAA is making all arrangements to help customers carry on with their holiday trips.
Temporarily a bit of panic surfaced when the news of the IGI Insurance refused to offer protection to Viking airlines unless it fulfilled the set criteria for receiving insurance. As Kiss Flights bought flights with Viking and if Viking was excluded or denied insurance cover, the clients could be affected too. This presumption had triggered an alarm among Kiss Flights' administrators that it would be denied protection as well. But assurance came from the IGI and Rock Insurance that Kiss Flights remains protected.
Speculators say that most of Kiss’ travellers were clients with Goldtrail which has recently folded its business and it is said that Goldtrail had sold its tickets below the cost price of the tickets. Some sources said that Goldtrail sold return tickets at around GBP 109 to its customers who when got back to claim a refund found that a return flight ticket to Turkey cost around GBP 200, which could have actually risen as high as GBP 275 meaning Goldtrail had sold by almost GBP 80 less than the original price. But the demise of Goldtrail is gladdening news for all as it is primarily responsible for the damage caused in the travel industry.
Experts attribute this crisis to Goldtrail's business strategy, which not only forced it to wind up its own business but also putting other tour operators into difficulty of managing minimum profits. It had created an unrealistic picture of the tourist destination i.e Turkey, where, over the last year, prices have shot up and on reaching Turkey, tourists found accommodation and other necessities to be costly which means Turkey would lose repeat customers.
Kiss Flights also dealt with flights in some of Goldtrail’s routes. With the collapse of Goltrail, sources say, some of Goldtrail's clients turned towards Kiss Flights, which expanded flights to meet customer demands. Unfortunately, with the collapse of Kiss Flights, these clients are disappointed twice in their hope to fly to their dream destinations. The demise of Kiss Flights perhaps is the tip of the iceberg, pointing to the fact that some kind of Government interventions are necessary to support travel companies survive and also to restore people’s faith in travel industry.
CAA has announced that those Kiss-clients, who are already overseas, may complete their holiday trips and need not worry as they would be helped in flying back to UK. And those who are supposed to tie their seat belts after 18th August have been asked to refrain from starting their trip and advised to seek alternative arrangements. With travel firms like Avor getting into full swing to help Kiss Flights’ travellers re-book their holidays, there is still hope that things would not be that bad as one had imagined. Still getting a refund is always time consuming, so many will have little option to plan alternative travel destinations.
Disclaimer: These are observations made by the author on the basis of information available on the internet. The author is not aware of the veracity of the figures and information mentioned in the sources.
According to CAA, around 13,000 travellers, who have booked their tickets through Kiss Flights, are holidaying in Egypt, Greece, the Canary Islands, Portugal, Spain and Turkey; though the fear of being stranded on the foreign destinations remains high, yet there is a silver lining in the cloud as the CAA assures them of repatriation as per ATOL (Air Travel Organisers' Licensing).
Sources also mention that there are another 60,000 travellers, who have booked their holidays with Kiss Flights, are eagerly waiting to start their much awaited vacation. The news, Kiss Flights stopped trading, have shocked the travellers, who are upset that their holidays are bungled this time not by Airline strike or by volcanic ash but by travel operators.
In the series of travel firms’ downfall, ATOL has surfaced repeatedly and to know whether the traveller is ATOL protected or not the invoice or the receipt should be checked. If the traveller gets flights booked through a company like Flight Options - the parent company of Kiss Flights - which is an ATOL protected company, the person is entitled for protection on particular elements as promised by ATOL. ATOL primarily offers protection on flight element only.
If the traveller had booked accommodation with other tour operators, those will remain unaffected by Kiss Flights’ failure. The CAA announces that those who are supposed to fly before 1800 hrs BST on 18th August should go ahead for a normal departure. For the rest who have their holiday bookings after 1800 BST on Wednesday 18 August 2010 are advised to claim a refund. Since the company busted in the peak summer, CAA is making all arrangements to help customers carry on with their holiday trips.
Temporarily a bit of panic surfaced when the news of the IGI Insurance refused to offer protection to Viking airlines unless it fulfilled the set criteria for receiving insurance. As Kiss Flights bought flights with Viking and if Viking was excluded or denied insurance cover, the clients could be affected too. This presumption had triggered an alarm among Kiss Flights' administrators that it would be denied protection as well. But assurance came from the IGI and Rock Insurance that Kiss Flights remains protected.
Speculators say that most of Kiss’ travellers were clients with Goldtrail which has recently folded its business and it is said that Goldtrail had sold its tickets below the cost price of the tickets. Some sources said that Goldtrail sold return tickets at around GBP 109 to its customers who when got back to claim a refund found that a return flight ticket to Turkey cost around GBP 200, which could have actually risen as high as GBP 275 meaning Goldtrail had sold by almost GBP 80 less than the original price. But the demise of Goldtrail is gladdening news for all as it is primarily responsible for the damage caused in the travel industry.
Experts attribute this crisis to Goldtrail's business strategy, which not only forced it to wind up its own business but also putting other tour operators into difficulty of managing minimum profits. It had created an unrealistic picture of the tourist destination i.e Turkey, where, over the last year, prices have shot up and on reaching Turkey, tourists found accommodation and other necessities to be costly which means Turkey would lose repeat customers.
Kiss Flights also dealt with flights in some of Goldtrail’s routes. With the collapse of Goltrail, sources say, some of Goldtrail's clients turned towards Kiss Flights, which expanded flights to meet customer demands. Unfortunately, with the collapse of Kiss Flights, these clients are disappointed twice in their hope to fly to their dream destinations. The demise of Kiss Flights perhaps is the tip of the iceberg, pointing to the fact that some kind of Government interventions are necessary to support travel companies survive and also to restore people’s faith in travel industry.
CAA has announced that those Kiss-clients, who are already overseas, may complete their holiday trips and need not worry as they would be helped in flying back to UK. And those who are supposed to tie their seat belts after 18th August have been asked to refrain from starting their trip and advised to seek alternative arrangements. With travel firms like Avor getting into full swing to help Kiss Flights’ travellers re-book their holidays, there is still hope that things would not be that bad as one had imagined. Still getting a refund is always time consuming, so many will have little option to plan alternative travel destinations.
Disclaimer: These are observations made by the author on the basis of information available on the internet. The author is not aware of the veracity of the figures and information mentioned in the sources.
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