$8,900 recovered after a tour operator collapsed with the holiday unflown

Our clients booked a package holiday for $8,900, paying a $2,000 deposit by debit card in October and the $6,900 balance by debit card in February. The operator entered administration in May, six weeks before departure.

The administrators wrote asking customers to register as unsecured creditors. Our clients did so and waited, which is what almost everybody does and what almost everybody is told to do.

They contacted us in August, four months later, having heard nothing further. By then the chargeback window on the October deposit was close to expiring.

The immediate priority was timing. We treated it as urgent, submitted both chargebacks within four working days of the first call, and dealt with the ATOL position afterwards rather than first.

Chargeback for travel generally runs from the intended travel date rather than the payment date, which meant both payments were in fact comfortably in time. That was not obvious to the clients and had not been explained to them by anyone.

Because both payments were on a debit card, Section 75 was unavailable — a common and unwelcome surprise for people who assume all card payments carry the same protection. Chargeback was therefore the primary route, with the ATOL claim run alongside rather than as an alternative.

Both chargebacks were accepted. The $2,000 deposit was credited seven weeks after submission and the $6,900 balance five weeks after that, recovering the full $8,900.

Because the card claims succeeded in full, the ATOL claim was withdrawn and the creditor registration was not pursued. Recovering the same loss twice is not permitted and we would not attempt it.

The most useful thing we did was answer the phone in August and file within four days. Another eight weeks and the deposit would have been irrecoverable.