Thursday, September 18, 2008

XL Go X Rated

This just in from a pal in the airline business...

The latest XL related casualty is the closing this morning of....wait for it...Throb Holidays.

Throb specialises in holidays for gay persons...nothing like using a discrete name! At least the passengers had protection (so to speak) through the ATOL scheme.

Throb had of course paid all their money to XL, and now cannot recover those funds. This is the problem with tour operator to tour operator sales. Passenger's remain protected through the bonding scheme, but the tour operator who has paid their money (in this case to XL Leisure, as opposed to the airline) loses it and simply becomes a creditor.

You couldn't make it up....

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that creditors of Throb Holidays would like to hear more about this "bonding scheme."

It could well give them some deserved relief at this time of financial distress.

Ken said...

There are several such niche operators that will no doubt be relieved by the disappearance of Throb. One of them is Man Around, which also brochure holidays under the banner, "Sensations for Women"! I recall many years ago doing charters for Man Around and the passengers were always asked to complete a "Customer Satisfaction Survey"! Oddly such flights were very popular with our stewards!

Anonymous said...

Hmm, 'Fly United' takes on a different aspect!

jams o donnell said...

Well at least the customers were covered. As for the name though.. Throb Holidays????