Goldtrail

[archieb]

Hi Folks,

This is the mail I got fro my booking company this morning....looks like they are ATOL protected, so should get money back.

We are sorry to have to inform you that your airline Goldtrail has entered administration.

We have a dedicated team of people calling all of our affected customers who are due to depart August and onwards. However our phone lines are very busy and this will take a while.

You can rebook flights on our website www.??????????????.co.uk. Because you travel in August or onwards, in our experience it may be best to wait a while. You may find in the short term flight providers will increase prices for replacements seats as availability is limited. Within a few days prices should return to normal as extra capacity is made available. If however if this is not possible or you are unable to cover the new flight cost we request that you read the below section on cancelling your booking.

Customers who now wish to cancel in full

Your flight money is safe- All flights booked through Goldtrail are ATOL protected and therefore any monies On the Beach have paid to them on your behalf will be refunded in due course by the CAA. They will shortly issue details on how to make a claim and we will post that information on this page. If you paid a supplier failure cover charge at your time of booking then in the rare eventuality that the CAA will not refund your claim then On the Beach will refund all flight monies owed to you.

Your hotel/transfers- In our experience hotel/transfer providers are normally cooperative in these situations. Whilst we can’t make any guarantees that they will be able to amend or refund your booking, most will help as much as possible.

The most important thing is that if you now wish to cancel your hotel/transfer booking you tell us immediately. If you have now taken the decision to cancel your booking in full please complete this simple form http://tinyurl.com/................
will then contact you in 10 days regarding your hotel/transfer booking refund.

[smc4761]

What I find worrying is that if Goldtrail can go under whose next. Goldtrail are not some tiny independent company they are a fairly big player especially in the Turkey market for holidays. At times some of the holiday reports on them were poor however they took millions of satisfied customers over the years to Turkey, me being one of them. If it had nor been for Goldtrail I probably would never have went to Turkey, as the big boys TC and Thomsons are so expensive

More worryong is that leaves even fewer companies in the Turkey holiday market and we are then left with very little competition whcih means only 1 thing prices going up

Why is this happening especially when you consider that Turkey is one of the most popular destinations this year and is expected to be for the next few years. Surely Goldtrails business must have went up although I appreciate that they are working with very little profit margins

Feel sorry for all who have booked, I know how you feel. I was going with Freedom Direct a few years ago when they went bust, only 2 weeks before my holiday. My flights were safe, ironically it was Goldtrail flights although I had to pay accomadaton again. You should get your money back hopefully this will not take too long

Stewart

[pat175]

I booked my holiday they used gold trail flights so my accommodation should still be safe.Bit I have tried phoning the company since 7this morning with no answer. Very frustrating waiting to now what's going to happen. I'm due to fly out next Tuesday 20th

[kerry&sue]

hi all firstly really really sorry to anyone who will be affected by this ,i have just recieved a phone call from my brother who was due to fly out on the 6th september from east midlands airport this has been planned for the past two years as it is is honeymoon he feels really really guilty because he sorted the whole trip for forty people flying on two seperate flights on the monday night,the really really sad news he told me was that another two people wanted to go so he phoned and goldtrail happily took the booking and full payment on wednesday night now call me naive but surely goldtrail must of known that they wouldnt be able to honour that booking that really stinks to me,so my brother new wife and forty guests paid approx £300 per person,but on a purely selfish note myself my wife and two friends are going on the same day hopefully with jet2 unless the same happens to them god forbid

[geordiedave1964]

got booked £500 extra to get the family on holiday which is fair enough i suppose but was gutted to find out that thomsons website does not atol protect this flight so god only knows what will happen if they go into adminastration. i would have expected them to be covered at least i paid by credit card for some insurance . but this morning when i found goldtrail had got into bother i phoned my credit card company who said phone on monday which wasnt what i wanted to hear.

[Narky marky]

Sorry for all those who will miss out, but in our instance every cloud as a silver lining.

Managed to book some more flights, got an extra day out of it and £100 pound cheaper then what we paid first time around. We are flying out Thursday dinner time now
Ten of us in total but not all on same flight going out. One family flying tea time so will have an Efes ready on the bar when they arrive.

Narky marky.

[shellyb]

this is happening to many times. they should be done for fraud.How many people were they still taking money off even when they knew they hadnt paid the hotels/transfers etc thats stealing.feel so sorry for every one who booked with these robbers. i hope they get there money back.something should be done by the goverment to stop this happening.

[madmackem]

Well the Mackems September holiday is stuffed, it's only 3 weeks ago the the b******s took my money. flights with goldtrail but hotel and transfer seperate.Like others I have been trying all day to contact T***** R******* with no sucscess. Rebooked flights with other company at an inflated price, and then 20 minutes later got a email saying that they had had to cancel the booking as Tho**** had put the prices up again , this really should not be allowed. While I'm having a rant, why when a company goes bust like this should you have to do the running round looking for other flights surely the people you book with should make it a priority to find you other flights and then contact you not the other way round. Bad customer service if you as me.

Elaine and Peter











88

[Jozzyd]

Went with my friend yesterday and her travel agent transferred her Goltrail holiday to a different company, they are now going to different apartments but have still got their holiday. The extra charge was £27.50. The only query we had was she has to provide the travel agent with her credut card statement which shows her actual payment to the travel agent. Not sure how that works but i hope it mght give hope to someone

[john G]

Hi Jozzyd, Had she paid for the holiday in full? - if she had i'm amazed that a travel agent would do that as Goldtrail had already collapsed on Saturday, so any money paid has now dissapeared, so there'd be nothing to transfer from. Glad she got sorted anyway - we are over £2200 pound out of pocket until refunds are available.

[Jozzyd]

Hi John G, yes the holiday was paid in full in January. I was amazed they were fantastic, it is a small company too. I don't know how they have managed to do it??

[john G]

Just read another story like yours, Jozzyd, on a different forum and that was the same - apparently some travel agents are honouring the payments made and claiming back the money themselves. Thats really good to hear, it should be a legal requirement though - customers who have paid good money in faith shouldn't have to deal with all this crap about claiming refunds from credit cards, ACC, etc.

John

[Jozzyd]

I think the agents must be claiming the refunds on customer's behalf if that makes sense. I hope you can still go on Holiday John, we always book independently so we would have been in a right pickle.

[john G]

Hi Jozzyd, Yeh we're still going, that wasn't an option - the £2200 was the price of the 8 new flights we had to folk out for. Just hope it doesn't take too long to get the money we paid for the first lot of flights.

We too book everything independantly and to be honest I think this might be the last time we do. Your always panicking about the next news story - luckily we just missed xl, and scotravel, but I suppose your luck has to run out sooner or later.

John

[THEMEZZAS]

What a nightmare!
We are coming out next Saturday and have had to pay almost what we had already paid for the cost of our holiday again to rebook flight.
At least we are still coming though.
Can't wait and I am sure it will be worth it.
I just feel sorry for people who havent been able to afford the extra cost and have had their holidays cancelled.

[bighands]

After all the hard times of the last 18months being self employed we decided this year to save hard for our holiday.

booked the flights, booked aparts and trans through ICR (thank you John cracking job).

Woke up to the news sat morn that goldtrail hat gone pop, what a feeling to realise that your holiday has gone down the spout.
flights were booked and payed for by cheque as we were paying in cash to save charges (every little helps) so not covered by c c.

We will get refund through ATOL but when?, Wont be befor we go in three weeks, prob wont be this year.

So thought better get some more flights booked on c c (the opposite of what we wanted to do cause now we get charged for using c c and have to pay them off in prob 3 payments so we get charged interest as well.)

found flights on a website that will remain annon and booked them, just over £2500 for 2 families of 4 everything inc baggage, that was around 10.30 sat morn, at 5 oclock the same flights were £3500, This morn nearly £2900
Where is the consistancy in pricing which poor person will end up having there pants pulled down [b]ITS NOT ON [b]

If we do get a refund we are still around £300 out of pocket with interest and more expensive flights.

THANK YOU GOLDTRAIL FOR MAKING OUR HOLIDAYS A STRESS FREE OCCASION IN THESE FINACIALLY TIGHT TIMES

Just needed to blow a bit of hot air off at least we will still be there in 3 weeks some folk wont be as lucky.

[pat175]

Was going tues 20th now going fri23rd I re booked flights 2900 pounds. I will get 1600 pounds back.So gold trail cost me another 1300.But I'm still coming my grandchildren were crying all last night.

[Tobyjug]

well i was flying on 31st for 124 nights not any longer dont even know what to do now paid with credit card with on the beach abta and atot but can i rebook a holi with T**** C**** or what?

Hi Geordiedave, i booked a holiday for my grandaughter through on the beach and they have been on the phone today to my grandaughter telling her not to make any claims until they here from them again, what they are saying is the hotel is still booked and they are trying to organise another flight for them. Best of luck mate.

[skilly]

I am so sorry for the people who have been affected by the collapse of Goldtrail.
We booked through 'On The Beach' and our flights were booked as a package by OTB with Custom Flights, who went bust before Christmas last year.
We were offered alternative flights with H4U, flying with Onur air. We accepted these straight away even though the times had changed.
We are still going through the claims procedure with the CAA ( although it has now been passed to the ATT, due to the CAA saying OTB had acted illegally in selling the flights as part of a package)
We have been assured by the CAA that the flights will be paid for but I am getting really worried about it as nothing has happened yet. We go in September and are supposed to be staying in Prestige Appts. I have always looked forward to my hol to Icmeler, buying clothes getting excited, but this time I am not so sure we will even get there, it has really put me off going abroad.....

[chasmarie]

Unfortunately, we booked our flights through Goldtrail, and have now had to re-book. We were due to fly from Teesside on 29th July, but now have to fly from Manchester instead. Atol registered so have been told by the CAA that we have to download and complete a claim form, submit with all documentation and we should be refunded within 6 weeks??? Hope everyone else has managed to sort things out. Looking forward to 29th and a cold Efes even more now!!!