I have two trips booked with JY this year - America's Golden West in May, and Classic Cities of Italy in September. I am a little puzzled as to why I have received an ATOL protection certificate for the Italian holiday, but not the American. Apparently, in the unlikely event of JY / Travelsphere ceasing trading, the certificate will enable me to get home!

I've been on ten JY holidays to date, and this is the first time I've ever seen such a certificate, and so when I paid off the final balance for America's Golden West, I asked for what I believed to be a missing document to be sent to me (and it never arrived).

The exact wording on it is:

"[ATOL Certificate[/b]

This confirms that your money is protected by the ATOL scheme and that you can get home if your travel company collapses."

I'm rather confused...

Thanks in advance to anyone who can give me a little peace of mind!

If you would like to email your booking reference to btaylor@justyou.co.uk I will have a look into this for you.

I have been advised -

ATOL Certificates were introduced 1st October, I can only think that the customer booked the America holiday before this time.

For existing bookings made before the 1st October customers will only receive an ATOL Certificate if certain holiday details are changed by us, in this instance a new ATOL license will automatically be generated and sent to the customer. These changes include:

change of flight number

change of UK departure airport

change of departure/return date

change of duration

change of destination

change of tour name

change of customer name

change of number of customers

Wherever an amendment invoice is created a new ATOL license will be generated posted out with it.

I hope this helps,

Kindest,

Ben

Thanks for your reply. I had booked both holidays during September last year, and I think that the ATOL license must have been generated by a change of departure airport to Italy, whereas the arrangements for America's Golden West have effectively remained unchanged.

However, especially with the U.S. being a long-haul destination, it doesn't seem entirely fair that some customers who had booked after 1st October 2012 would have been issued an ATOL certificate, whereas "early birds" such as myself would not have been - not that we're likely to need them!

I really appreciate that an explanation has been offered, and am sending my booking reference to your Email address for further investigation.

Best regards,

Steve

Hi Ben,

Thanks for your reply. I had booked both holidays during September last year, and I think that the ATOL license must have been generated by a change of departure airport to Italy, whereas the arrangements for America's Golden West have effectively remained unchanged.

However, especially with the U.S. being a long-haul destination, it doesn't seem entirely fair that some customers who had booked after 1st October 2012 would have been issued an ATOL certificate, whereas "early birds" such as myself would not have been - not that we're likely to need them!

I really appreciate that an explanation has been offered, and am sending my booking reference to your Email address for further investigation.

Best regards,

Steve

Hi Steve,

Giving you the ATOL Certificate was a government regulation brought in on 1 October 2012. Whether this was prompted by an EU regulation or not, I don't know, but it not getting one with an earlier booking was not an omission by JY. We always were protected, but now need a piece of paper to prove it.

Hope this helps

Sylvia

I do not think you need a paper copy in case of any 'disasters'. You just have to make sure the company is ATOL bonded, which Just You is. Stop worrying and enjoy your holidays. Think positive and nothing will happen!

Jaya

I received a 'phone call from JY yesterday which more or less qualifies Sylvia's reply. Although I won't retrospectively get that slip of paper, it doesn't matter at all, although clients who have booked a holiday after 1st October are encouraged by JY to take it with them.

Apparently, I am not the only customer to have queried the new ATOL Certificate. My thanks to Ben and his team for their clarification and I hope that this thread will serve to give peace of mind to others who may be in a similar position.