Black Friday Travel Protection: Book With a Travel Agent

As the holiday season approaches and the run-up to 2022 begins there are many opportunities to get some awesome deals on all sorts of purchases. From Christmas shopping to the New Year, Cyber Monday tech sales, and, of course, great deals on holidays for 2022, it’s easy to get swept up in Black Friday deals and not give as much attention to your financial protection.

Especially on holiday bookings, you will find some great deals that seem too good to be true, and it’s as important as ever to thoroughly check your financial protection and do your research into the holiday offer itself. For this, ensuring complete financial protection on great travel deals with peace of mind, we highly recommend you book with a good travel agent.

Booking a holiday is exciting and ensuring great financial protection shouldn’t stop this being the case. Booking with an expert travel agent means they can take care of ensuring the best protection while you can enjoy the anticipation of choosing an awesome holiday at a great price.

What Can I Do to Ensure Protection on My Black Friday Booking?

There are also many things that we recommend consumers get in the habit of checking for themselves. Especially during big sales like Black Friday, doing your research can go a long way to confirming your holiday is exactly what it seems before you book.

This includes checking all the details, looking for hidden costs, getting protection in other methods, and researching similar holidays and reviews. And don’t be shy to ask your travel agent any questions you may have, that’s what they’re there for, no matter how small the query, their experience and expert knowledge can give you peace of mind.

Check For Hidden Costs

This is especially important when you’re booking around sales like Black Friday as the front-facing sale price may not include everything necessary to the holiday. Hidden costs will usually come out in a few different ways which can be avoided.

When it comes to big sales like Black Friday, hidden costs, or a lack of certain costs, is where it is important to check the details before booking. Sometimes when a holiday is on sale for a very low price, it means that there will be certain costs missed out altogether, this could include:

• Baggage costs – you may book a package on sale only to realise that it does not include an on-flight baggage allowance and you then need to pay for this separately if possible; and
• Amendments – in and out of travel, products on sale will sometimes not allow refunds, returns, or amendments as part of the sale. In the case of a holiday this means if something should happen, you may not be able to get your money back or change part of your booking.

In these cases, this could cost you more money to fix these issues than if you booked a holiday that included these in the initial price. Hidden prices, whether they are just not included or only introduced to the price later in the booking process, could also include necessary add-ons specific to the holiday, such as:

•  Accommodation upgrades – if the package is showing a price per person, it may be worth checking how much extra an accommodation upgrade will be when you book with a group.
• Currency costs – whether the holiday is sold to you in another currency because of where the company is based, or you need converted currency to take with you, don’t forget to check the price in pounds or the conversion rate with your bank.
• Destination restrictions – whether this is Covid restrictions or otherwise, make sure to check the Foreign Travel Advice page and keep up to date with your travel agent on the destination’s restrictions. This could include extra costs that are not included in the package holiday, which could cause issues if you need to quarantine on arrival.

However the costs are hidden, it’s important to do a thorough check when you’re booking a holiday. Often, these things will be mentioned in the details of the holiday and can be avoided before you even begin the booking process. This is also another great reason to book with a good travel agent, who will be on the lookout for these little things and know what to look for (if you’d like to learn more about how to find a good travel agent to book with, check out our article).

Check Other Providers & Reviews

Much like when you’re avoiding travel fraud, very often other companies and consumers can help you identify red flags (you can find out more about avoiding travel fraud in our article). If a holiday booking looks too good to be true, check out a similar holiday from other providers. Taking into consideration the sale discounts around Black Friday, if the booking you’re checking out is a wildly lower price than similar holidays, that can easily be a sign that something important is missing.

Equally, consumer reviews can be very helpful with this. Whether they’re bad or good reviews, consumer reviews can indicate how genuine a booking price is and whether or not that travel company hides certain costs in their bookings and how well protected the holidays are.

Book A Package Holiday

Above all else, booking a holiday protected by the Package Travel Regulations and/or ATOL (Air Travel Organisers’ License) is the biggest form of financial protection you can get for a holiday. Package holidays are more hassle-free than individual bookings too, with all the elements of your holiday together under one price and organised for you.

A package holiday simply entails a holiday booking that includes more than 1 element under 1 price. The elements could include accommodation, flights, tourism experiences like tours or classes, and car hire. All package holidays (unless they are under 24 hours and don’t include overnight stay) are protected under the Package Travel Regulations (you can find out more about how package holidays are protected in our article).

Plus, if you are booking a package that includes a flight, this will also be protected by the ATOL scheme. Both of these forms of protection offer great peace of mind, ensuring great financial protection for package holiday bookings. All UK-selling travel businesses must be Package Travel Regulations compliant.

Book With a Protected Trust Services (PTS) Member

Booking with a travel expert that you can trust is key to having complete peace of mind and financial protection when you’re booking your next holiday. Whether you’re booking a Black Friday sale holiday or not, at Protected Trust Services (PTS) we ensure that all our travel business members are travel agents and tour operators that you can trust.

All PTS members are Package Travel Regulations compliant, operate under our secure trust account system that keeps your money safe from the moment you book to the moment you come home, and are experienced, expert travel businesses.

When in doubt, a PTS travel business member can help you ensure you’re getting the best protection with the best deal for your holiday, and some PTS members provide excellent Black Friday sales too.

Consumer protection is at the core of what PTS do. With this in mind, all your money is protected when you book with a PTS member in our trust account. Once it is in the trust account, it is not released to the travel business until you’ve had your excellent holiday, but is released efficiently if you require a refund or reimbursement. Plus, all monies are reconciled daily by PTS down to each individual booking, so you can find out where your money is with just a phone call.

So, when you’re ready to book a great holiday in the Black Friday sales, don’t forget to get in contact with a travel business registered with PTS offering complete financial protection and excellent service. Or, if you’d like assistance choosing a delightful PTS member to book with, you can contact PTS directly at 0207 190 9988.

And, if you’d like to learn more about your consumer protection with PTS or how the Package Travel Regulations protect your holiday booking, check out our pages.