Have you got ATOL protection? Let’s hope so with the latest news from Iceland’s notorious volcano

The old volcano is at it again – worrying us all with her ‘will she/won’t she’ games.

As I’m writing this we’re waiting to hear whether she’s going to blow or not.

Iceland’s Met Office has raised the risk level to the aviation industry to orange – the fourth level on a five-level scale.

Police and the country’s civil protection service have also closed roads and started an evacuation of highland areas north of the volcano as a precaution.

Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano is well known for the 2010 ash cloud which wreaked havoc across Europe.

These are her stats:

For those who had booked their complete holiday through a Travel Agent, they were given refunds or flown any which way to get to their cruise or destination because they were covered by the agents ATOL license.

For those that hadn’t booked their complete package in one place, by doing so they forfeited the bonus of being covered by someones ATOL license.  This meant that when their flight was cancelled, it was no ones responsibility but their own to try to get to where they needed to be before that cruise left the embarkation port.  And with flights being completely cancelled for 4 days in a row it was unlikely to happen.  The cruise left without them and having no ATOL protection meant no refund for the flights OR the cruise (or any hotel stays or transfers they had booked too).

Back in 2010 when this happened, agents received a huge amount of calls from people who needed help but the truth is, if you’re not covered under our ATOL license, there’s nothing we can do to help as much as we’d love to.  All we can do is advise but your money simply isn’t protected.

So are we heading this way again? Have you got a holiday booked for in the next few weeks? Have you got ATOL protection?  Are you now worried that you’re not going to be protected and lose all of the money you paid for your holiday?

With Bardarbunga up to her old tricks, I’m hoping lessons may have been learnt from the episode 4 years ago and more people have ensured that they’re booking with a reputable agent with an ATOL license rather than booking the components of their holiday themselves or going with an unlicensed agent to save a few quid.