Civil Aviation Authority Reviews 

What a joke, this shower keep drip feeding me with questions to claim a refund on my Atol protected package deal booked via fleetway travel who went bust. They have had all the documents and yet still keep asking for the same things, Delaying tactics are dam right ignorant? . Am I being too harsh, am I allowed to write this, well I don't care until proved different, When I deal with things I am diligent, I deal effectively and My clients are precious! SERVICE nil out of 10,

The CAA issues operating licences to unscrupulous companies like iglu / iglu cruise. The atol only covers if the holiday company goes bust. The atol offers no protection against companies (like iglu) that operate against the package holiday regulations. Companies that break the regulations (like iglu) still have a licence to operate and rip off more customers.

There are many customers (see the news or newspapers) in the same boat regarding the travel company iglu and not being unable to get refunds for cancelled cruises. Refunds that the package travel regulations say should happen within 14 days.

The atol is a joke if untrustworthy rule breaking companies are accepted on the scheme and provided with a tour operating licence.

The same happened to me. I paid for my Fleetway holiday 11 months ago & then had to claim through CAA. I submitted all the requested forms & then 3 weeks later, received an email to say I had to claim through my credit card. None of us can afford to lose our holiday money when it is not our fault but these companies certainly let us all down.

I’m horrified to read all of the dreadful reviews about the CAA . The CAA is supposed to be a reputable organisation.
However with regards to the recent claims due to companies that have gone into liquidation during the covert crisis, I can honestly say the CAA is not meeting its obligations and is fobbing off claims for anybody who has lost their money due to holiday company (in this case Fleetway Travel ) going into liquidation.
The CAA has , out of the blue , subbed out my claim to a third party a company called “CEGA “ .
Reluctant to pass on all my personal details to this company I thought I would check them out on Trustpilot.

After most of the reviews which were dreadful and giving CEGA only one star, I decided That I am not prepared to enter into lengthy correspondence with this company.

I have sent an email to the CAA asking them to look into this and if they are referring claims , then find a reputable agent to act on their behalf.
Watch this space, I will be reporting back on their reply.
If I did not get a satisfactory response I intend to gather names of all other dissatisfied clients and take the matter further.
The CAA needs to be investigated as to why they are making it so difficult to make such a simple claim.
Why are they delegating claims to this company , When it has such a bad reputation?
It is we, the public, who are once again being made to suffer

It is much better than C.A.A of Poland, you can arrange your seating in advance.

I booked and paid for a package holiday with Fleetway Travel Limited, using my trusty JL credit card, back in February. However, Fleetway subsequently entered Administration in July and so the holiday did not happen. I immediately submitted a Section 75 claim against John Lewis Finance, and then provided all the additional documents they asked me for through their portal. However, I have today (17 August) received a letter through the post dated 7 August from a Ms Priya Khanna, Senior Manager Operations at John Lewis Finance, saying that I need to send them a personalised rejection letter on ATOL headed notepaper stating that ATOL are unable to refund the amount of the holiday; and furthermore that they "are unable to accept"the generic email letter already issued by ATOL to Fleetway Travel customers whose holidays have been lost. Ms Khanna's letter concludes by saying that if they do not her from me in 14 days (bearing in mind that her letter was already 10 days old by the time I received it through the post) then they will "be unable to proceed with your dispute under MasterCard Regulations and will assume that the matter has been resolved".

It is clear that John Lewis Finance (which is part of HSBC Bank, one of the largest and most valuable banks in the world) is attempting to avoid its legal duty to refund the cost of the holiday under its joint and several liability, enshrined in law by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, by trying to push its customers to claim against ATOL instead. As if this isn't bad enough, when I then contacted ATOL they referred me to their generic email letter from "Marion Sautereau, ATOL Crisis Management" sent to all of Fleetway Travel's customers instructing me to make a claim against my credit card company (ie John Lewis Finance) instead of claiming against ATOL. I spoke with someone on the ATOL helpline to inform them about this conflicting set of instructions and how each organisation seems to be trying to avoid their own legal duty to compensate customers, and to point out that Marion Sautereau of ATOL Crisis Management cant even put her correct telephone number on the bottom of her own letter, so we shouldn't have too much faith in her ability to manage any crisis.

The chap on the Civil Aviation Authority helpline was as helpful as he could be, taking details of my claim and said he would email his own "email team"on my behalf, otherwise it would take several weeks before I receive any reply. Time will tell whether, or if, I receive the personalised rejection letter on ATOL headed notepaper that John Lewis Finance are insisting upon, but he did say that they are now receiving thousands of requests for these "personalised" letters as John Lewis Finance is one of a small number of credit card companies who will not accept the generic letter. It seems clear to me that this is simply to try to avoid having to refund the money as they are legally obliged, because John Lewis Finance already have all the documents to prove that I paid Fleetway for the holiday with my JL credit card and that Fleetway are now in Administration so the holiday wont be happening.

What a shambles, and very disappointing from both organisations.

I have never submitted a negative review for any company before, but the "pass the parcel" attitude shown by the Civil Aviation Authority and the arrogance shown by John Lewis Finance and their appalling handling of this perfectly legitimate claim has left me feeling bitterly disappointed.

This organisation is a shambles.
They make it very difficult as they require information which is very difficult to obtain such as a letter from the bank showing the payment and account details of both the payee and payer. They would not accept a bank statement which showed my account details at the top and the payees name and account number on the entries. Trying to get a bespoke letter from a bank to these ends is very difficult and protracted

I was advised by my local MP caseworker to contact the CAA to raise a complaint about BA's conduct recently failing to refund me and fobbing me off with a voucher I don't seem able to use. I have already raised a complaint with Gov.UK on the CMA site, who are investigating bad consumer behavior during Covid-19, but it seems the PACT system for complain is not applicable and only arbitration is offered as a solution. Very disappointed that the CAA don't seem to be able to take action against an airline that has furloughed thousands of staff at the taxpayers cost, to then sack many, put others in limbo, including Pilots and trick their Customers into taking WORTHLESS vouchers, using MY MONEY to cashflow their company. Please do something about BA's current behavior as the UK FLAG CARRIER!

As a follow up to this story, I was contacted by BA's Auditors to complete a lengthy assessment of my experience. So maybe I helped in a small way to get justice for many people cheated. Strangely Willy Walsh left BA shortly thereafter. Coincidence?

I've spent the last 3 frustrating, time consuming and unsuccessful months trying to get a refund from an Atol-backed travel company that have just gone into administration. I now have the Atol claim form, but reading the small print I'm supposed to make the following declaration:

"I confirm that neither I nor anyone else intending to make use of the ATOL protected booking has insurance cover against tour operator/ATOL holder failure. I hereby acknowledge that I understand that dishonestly entering information and/or making a claim which is, or might be, untrue or misleading, and intend by doing so to make a gain for myself or another person, or to cause loss or the risk of loss to the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust, I may commit the offence of fraud under section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006, the maximum penalty for which is 10 years imprisonment or an unlimited fine, or both".

This is the first I've heard of this condition since booking. There must be lots of travel insurances with cancellation/operator failure cover included as standard, as mine is. I've no intention of claiming twice, but the fact that I have that cover seems to exclude me from claiming from Atol, or I'd be making a fraudulent declaration.
Naturally the small print in my travel insurance states their own conditions, one of them being that they won't consider a claim unless I can provide proof that I've put in a claim to Atol first! So I'm in a Catch 22 situation. I wanted 10 days holiday abroad, not 10 years in Wandsworth prison.

The worst organisation I have ever come across

Automated phone gives only option of emailing passenger complaints
to check on complaints sent to them only to receive back an automated email saying they don't reply from the email given on the phone

Disgusted by your handling of my straight forward Thomas Cook claim but to then hand it over to right path/ protect claims who are either incompetent or crooks has left me raging ... You as as company need to do better background checks on who you employ to help you out .. citizens advice said to get odbudsman and local MP involved

This company is utter rubbish but very good at passing the buck i have a thomas cook claim for over 4 months now to told by the it is now being handled by another part of this outfit called protect claims who are about as good as caa in fact useless i would like a reply from the caa to this post but if they do it will be the first i have had since my claim but they will pass the buck to some other useless part of this outfit.

106 days later and I've finally been paid in full but have still received no communication whatsoever from Protect Claims. Apparently I was told I was paid on 23 December but money was not forthcoming. I phoned every week for an update and eventually was told to email atol refunds. Five days later I was asked to verify my bank account details and within a day it was in my account on 20 Jan. Seems to me I've been lied to but despite asking for an explanation I've still heard nothing or received any email from protect claims. Not sure I'd ever book an atol protected holiday again, I could have claimed on my credit card. It has been six weeks of stress and worry but finally it's over and I hope the many others out there who are still waiting get a resolution soon.

A Disgrace...…
Insult to injury for trying to claim a refund the CAA chief executive should hang his head in shame for this shambles
I truly hope another airline never goes in administration as this process by CAA and our claim handling company Protect Claims is an abhorrent joke!
They have failed the consumer on all levels of compassion and professionalism
Instead they are unprofessional on all levels, incompetence misery and rudeness prevail
ATOL LOAD OF RUBBISH

Waste of space...uneducated undertrained their knowledge consists of passing you over to a variety of watless affiliated companies seems like they have a scripted manifesto to read from then...sorry we cant do..sorry it's not our department...sorry but...and the saga continues...100% agree with the reviews below..Do Not Count on CAA to do anything within the set time...other than resend your documentation proofs 3 times over..you will get a response on the 57th-59th day saying..yep you guessed it...sorry but..if there was a minus star rating it still wouldn't be good enough...

Still awaiting my refund!! You can’t get a honest response from any of them, come across as they couldn’t care less!! Was entitled to the automatic direct debit refund was told to wait to make a claim as I would get the automatic refund. Never happened. Claimed later than everyone else on the 15th October 2019, told 60 days- 60 days came and went, no contact from CAA, 23/12/19 received email from protect claims asking for documents, sent back 26/12/19 - 27/12/19 from protect claims day 1 of 60 days?? Absolute joke of a company, they now ignore me on twitter, call centre advisor need to be trained in customer service and are rude!! 10/01/20 still no refund or holiday!! CAA you really the worst company and are an absolute disgrace!! You have ruined Christmas for my family and ruined my holiday!! Wants shutting down!! ATOL protected? ATOL rubbish!!

I completed the online claim form as soon as Thomas cook collapsed. I was asked for more info just before the 60 day deadline so i sent it. I called CAA middle of December and told that my money should be in my account in about two weeks. I called them again today and was asked ( Did you use less than 2 megabytes in your last email reply?) Did you use your claim number in the title of your email?) I confirmed that this was all done but she couldn't find my email so she suggested sending it again. I asked how much longer do i have to wait for my money. She said she cannot give timeframes. Clearly more delaying tactics.

Useless
81 days now since claim

Absolute joke handling refunds for Thomas Cook. Should be shut down or at least heavily fined...

They have handed my claim on a shoddy company called Rightpath Solutions (Reg 09382290), but first waited the full 60 days to do so. They are now delaying my claim as best as possible because i'm unwilling to send all my personal info to a company i know nothing about and does not advise how they handle and protect my data. They also stated i submitted using the wrong portal, and then gave me forms to fill out for claiming flights back only and not the full ATOL holiday i booked.

So I have no chance of seeing the money I needed and was told we would have for christmas. Because we were advised this would be refunded in 60 days, we booked another holiday to replace it, now we are left with hardly anything.

Thank you so so much.

Absolute Joke and these are incharge of our skies
My Kids Christmas now destroyed thanks to this incompetent organisation and after lossing holiday
I am so so angry about this