XL air failed a few months ago at the height of the holiday season leaving many of it's clients stranded abroad without a flight home. This has not gone unnoticed by the holidaying public who are now understandably nervous about shopping for their own flights on the internet. Up until this incident, the internet was squeezing the gap between airline and client, and it was the agents who were being squeezed out. What the internet-browsing holiday makers had failed to appreciate is that an agency brings with it safeguards and insurances that a direct customer does not get...
This Summer's collapse has helped to fully illustrate the dangers of holidaying without the safeguards of an ABTA/ ATOL membership, or without adequate holiday insurance offering a rescue package to stranded clients.
A surge in agency holiday take-up is now expected along with a decline in direct client-ordering from airlines via the internet. This is an understandable reaction, but internet shopping with the right safeguards can still get you a good 'safe' deal.
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