The mess the CAA and ABTA have jointly managed to make of the collapse of Freedom Direct seems to get worse and worse.
Many customers trying to get their money back from the CAA were pointed towards ABTA, who then pointed them towards their credit card companies. This has angered the credit card companies and it does beg the question, what is the point of ABTA protection? Also, why is ABTA bonding so expensive if they are going to hide behind the credit card companies in the event of any failure?
ABTA are now saying they are the customer protector of last resort, but this seems to be news to the credit card companies. There is even talk of credit card companies threatening to stop working with the travel industry. This is unlikely, given how much money they make from travel, but it is not inconceivable that the credit card companies will toughen up the terms offered to travel companies and make it very difficult for travel start-ups to get any terms whatsoever.
The whole mess of financial protection for consumers needs to be sorted and sorted soon.
