Swiss travel agencies help affected customers after FTI insolvency
Published: Friday, Jun 7th 2024, 13:20
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Following the bankruptcy of Europe's third-largest travel provider FTI Touristik GmbH, Swiss travel agencies are helping affected customers to enjoy their summer vacation after all. For all departures after July 4, the travel agencies are offering alternatives and taking over the advance payment without any red tape.
"They ensure that all travelers can safely start their vacations," the Swiss Travel Association (SRV) announced in a letter on Friday. "All FTI travel packages up to and including departure on July 4, 2024 can be canceled free of charge." Travel agencies currently have their hands full canceling last-minute FTI bookings and offering and reserving suitable alternatives.
Customers who have already been to a vacation destination with FTI should expect to have to pay for certain services of their package tour again on site, such as the hotel, the SRV continued. "If the FTI trip was booked through a Swiss travel agency, travelers should be sure to keep all receipts and hand them over to the travel agency on their return. They will ensure that the customer receives a refund for all additional costs incurred."
Swiss FTI not yet bankrupt
However, the Swiss subsidiary FTI Touristik AG is not yet bankrupt - in contrast to the German parent company FTI Touristik GmbH, which filed for insolvency at Munich Local Court on Monday.
For legal reasons, it was therefore necessary to wait and see if and when the Swiss company FTI Touristik AG would have to file for insolvency, the SRV wrote: "As soon as this is the case, the travel industry's customer money insurers will become active. The procedure of submitting all relevant documents will also be taken over by the travel agency (...) and the refund will be claimed on behalf of the customer."
Around 10,000 customers in Switzerland have been affected by the bankruptcy of FTI, Europe's third-largest travel group. This was estimated by the President of the Swiss Travel Association (SRV), Martin Wittwer, in an interview with the news agency AWP.
Competition offers alternative vacations
In order to offer FTI customers in limbo an alternative, numerous tour operators are offering flexible deals, wrote the tourism portal "Travelnews": At Tui, package tours with charter flights can now be canceled free of charge up to four days before departure.
With the provider Alltours, all classic package tours with departure by July 15 up to and including June 15 can be booked on option. The option can be extended up to four days before departure, wrote "Travelnews": "This means that no deposit is due during this period and the booking can be canceled without any problems."
Dertour (with the Kuoni brand) and ITS would offer all new bookings from June 6 to 17 for the destinations Egypt, Greece, Canary Islands, Majorca, Turkey and Tunisia the possibility of a free cancellation up to three days before departure if the originally booked FTI trip should take place. This means that FTI customers do not have to wait until their original trip has been canceled before making a new booking, wrote "Travelnews".
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