Teletext Holidays parent Truly Travel and Alpha Holidays, trading as Alpha Rooms, have ceased membership of The Travel Network Group.
Gary Lewis, chief executive of TTNG which incorporates the Travel Trust Association, said: “We can confirm that Truly Travel and Alpha Holidays are no longer members of Travel Trust Association. We are currently working with the company to support all their existing customers.
“For the past 19 months, like many other travel businesses, Truly Travel has been severely impacted financially by the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, including large amounts of refunds processed for customers, redundancies, and more recently the Competition and Markets Authority investigation and court action against the company.”
Truly Travel no longer holds an Atol and has moved to an online retail travel agent model. All its Atol bookings have been re-contracted to TTA Travel, the fulfilment travel company for Travel Trust Association.
The closure of Truly Travel’s membership with TTA does not impact customers who have a flight-inclusive holiday booked. This is financially protected by the Atol scheme and the trust account model of the TTA.
Truly Travel faces legal action from the CMA after allegedly failing to provide refunds to package customers within 14 days during the pandemic. Truly told TTG two weeks ago that it had repaid £10.8 million but had £1.2 million outstanding.
Customers of Alpha Holidays with accommodation only bookings are invited to submit a claim as outlined on Alpha Holidays’ website.
‘Protected’
Lewis added: “A communication was sent to all consumers and Truly Travel suppliers, reassuring them that holidays will go ahead as planned and that bookings are now financially protected through TTA Travel.’
“We understand that many Truly Travel consumers will be worried by this news, however, we would like to reassure them that the Atol protection of these bookings and the trust account model that we operate at TTA enables consumers to continue with their holidays as planned.”
A TTNG team has been put into operation to respond to queries from Truly Travel customers.
