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Hays Travel takes over Freedom bookings
Hays Travel has been appointed by the Civil Aviation Authority to handle bookings made by agents who were members of Thomas Cook’s consortium, Freedom Travel.
Under the agreement, Hays will liaise with Freedom’s customers overseas and make sure payments are made to hoteliers and other suppliers.
It will also take responsibility for refunding forward bookings, including flights with Thomas Cook Airlines.
Hays will take over as the ATOL-holder for Freedom bookings, including those with flights with other airlines.
However, the deal only covers the 155 members of the Freedom consortium, it doesn’t cover bookings made by the 140 homeworkers who were part of Freedom Personal Travel Advisors, trading as Future Travel.
The CAA has written to Freedom’s 155 members suggesting they can join Hays Travel Accredited Body or another accredited body for their future trading. "The CAA will assist in expediting this process."
Freedom Personal Travel Advisors have been applying to join other homeworking groups and consortium to allow them to continue trading. The Travel Network Group has so far recruited around a dozen.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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