Holiday plans are being rearranged for more than 70,000 people after the Flight Options travel group ceased trading, the third UK company to do so in just over a month.

About 13,000 customers are already thought to be abroad, most having travelled with Kiss Flights, the largest company in the group. The others have bookings with the company into next month and beyond.

The Civil Aviation Authority said holidaymakers in Greece, Egypt, Turkey and the Canary Islands would get home as normal. Those with Flight Options bookings up to 6pm tomorrow would still be able to leave and after that, the CAA believed, other operators would step in.

The authority said it would ensure that all those protected under the Air Travel Operators Licensing (Atol) scheme would get full refunds.

Flight Options launched in 1995 as a small tour operator on various routes across the Mediterranean, and bought a string of travel firms.

A statement on its website read: "As of 1700hrs on 17 August the Flight Options group of companies have ceased trading. The Civil Aviation Authority have been informed and we are awaiting further advice on the situation."

About 130,000 people are thought to have been affected by the failure last month of Goldtrail Travel, and another 10,000 were hit by the collapse last week of Sun4U. Last year the Scottish holiday provider and airline Globespan failed. Kiss Flights catered for many of the same routes as Goldtrail.

Bob Atkinson, an analyst at travelsupermarket.com, said: "Unfortunately for some, it may be the case that some unlucky holidaymakers will be affected all over again. At this stage it is unclear how many passengers will be protected by the Atol scheme and we are waiting for advice from the CAA. This is sadly yet another collapse in what could become a rash of company failures this autumn."

STRIKE plans that would have closed six of Britain's major airports were averted last night after nine hours of talks to resolve a bitter pay dispute.

Union leaders called off the threat of industrial action later this month after a "much improved" offer was tabled.

Members of the Unite union will be urged to accept the deal - details of which were not revealed last night - after a pay rise of up to 1.5 per cent had earlier been rejected by engineers, security staff and firefighters.

Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports would have been affected by the action, which was announced last week.

It would have involved more than 6,000 security staff at the six airports and had been expected to target the bank holiday weekend at the end of August.

Both sides had agreed to talks at the headquarters of conciliation service Acas in London in a bid to avert the strike, which would have affected one of the busiest weekends at the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe.

Brendan Gold, national secretary of Unite, said: "We've reached a settlement which we are prepared to recommend to our members.

"We will be undertaking a ballot of our members, and that will commence over the next couple of days, and last for probably about three weeks.

"But that recommendation for acceptance we hope our members will listen to, and we are very pleased to be able to reassure the travelling public that we, for our side, have worked tirelessly to achieve a settlement."

A spokesman for BAA said: "We are pleased that the basis of an agreement has been reached on pay that is fair to staff but which also reflects the difficult economic climate.

"Our priority is to work with our people to improve the service we provide passengers and airlines, and we look forward to doing that in the busy weeks ahead."

The talks followed a vote by Unite members in favour of industrial action in protest at a one per cent pay offer.

The Spanish owners of BAA had offered an additional 0.5 per cent but this was conditional on changes to the firm's sickness agreement, said the union.

Unite had argued that its members deserved a bigger pay rise as they had accepted a wage freeze last year and co-operated with changes to their pension scheme.

Around half of the 6,000 workers balloted by Unite voted, with 74.1 per cent of those who did opting for strike action.

Mr Gold said details of the new pay deal would be released later today once its members had been informed.

Along with the three Scottish airports, Heathrow, Stansted and Southampton would also have bee shut during the strike.

More than 300,000 people flow through the affected airports every day

Peter Harwood, chief conciliator at Acas, said the talks had been "challenging" but was pleased that the basis of a deal had been agreed.

He added: "The details of the deal are confidential until the parties report back to their respective constituencies."

Travel industry expert Bob Atkinson, of travelsupermarket.com, said: "Thankfully, both the BAA and Unite have been able to resolve this dispute knowing that there would be outrage amongst UK travellers if strike action had gone ahead.

"Consumers have already had to contend with a range of challenging travel problems in 2010 - from airports closed due to snow at the turn of the year to airspace shut down and the problems of making claims from airlines after the volcanic ash eruption, together with the BA cabin crew strikes.

"Customers now need reassurance that they will not see problems further down the road and it is time that the split-up of the BAA monopoly at London and in Scotland is resolved once and for all."

Last Updated: 17 August 2010 12:46 AM
Source: The Scotsman
Location: Edinburgh

Holidaymakers are facing serious disruption to their travel plans this August after the collapse of another holiday company and the renewed threat of strikes at six UK airports.

BAA vote to strike

Fire-fighters, engineers, security and support staff at six of the UKs main airports voted in favour of strike action in a dispute over pay, Unite union announced yesterday.

Unite balloted staff at the airport operator BAA, which owns Heathrow, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Of the 3,054 Unite members who took part in the ballot, 74% voted said yes to strike action.

However a spokesperson for BAA said: Fewer than half of those people eligible to vote have done so and we do not believe this result provides a clear mandate for strike action.

We regret the uncertainty this vote has already caused our passengers and airline customers. We hope that the union will engage with us quickly to conclude an agreement, BAA added.

Unite said BAAs current pay offer worth up to a maximum of 1.5% falls far short of employee expectations.

Brian Boyd, Unite national officer for civil aviation, said: Last year BAAs employees accepted a pay freeze to help the company because they understood the difficult financial operating environment within civil aviation. A pay offer of 1% plus the withdrawal of two payments worth over 1,000 is simply confrontational.

Unite has said it will meet with key representatives on Monday to decide what form of industrial action union members will take.

More trade union disputes
Unite is also currently locked in a dispute with British Airways that has already resulted in 22 days of strikes this year and cost the airline over 150 million.

And Prospect union, which represents around 100 managerial, technical and support staff at BAA airports, has also announced its members have voted in favour of industrial action.

Meanwhile, London underground workers have also voted in favour of strike action in a dispute over jobs and safety.

Bob Crow, General Secretary of the RMT union, said: RMT members have sent a clear message in this ballot that they will not sit by while the tracks are turned into a death trap and our tube stations and platforms are left unstaffed and at the mercy of muggers, vandals and other criminal elements.

Sun4u goes bust

The Birmingham based holiday firm Sun4u ceased trading on the 11 August, as a result of sustained poor trading and the disruption caused by the volcanic ash crisis in April.

Passengers are advised on the website to contact claims handlers for the Association of British Travel Agents' (Abta) for advice.

by Victoria Bischoff on Aug 13, 2010 at 09:08

Source: http://www.citywire.co.uk/money/travel-chaos-baa-staff-vote-to-strike-and-travel-firm-goes-bust/a421917/2

August 6, 2010 According to Adam Lacerda, a veteran of the timeshare industry, that might be the case. If true, it apparently prompted the self-proclaimed Robin Hood (whose cup runneth over with ingenuity and determined attitude) to start a Travel Club in 2009 that includes services allowing existing TS owners to relinquish an obligation to their timeshare or vacation ownership

In a recent PR distributed through www.prnewswire.com Lacerda tells readers: The reason I founded this company was simple there was no one in the timeshare industry dedicated to helping the consumer caught in a timeshare nightmare.
I listened to countless clients who told stories of misrepresentation and deceitful sales practices, and after working and being very successful in the industry I knew all too well what they were telling me was true.

In that PR it seems that Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men (and women) are soaring high above the timeshare field where (to mix metaphors) like Mighty Mouse (Here I come, to save the day) he and his team of consultants are swooping down and taking on all those evil-doer TS developers, including Wyndham.

Lacerda warns TS developers that When you take the top performers in the industry working for the good of the consumer, versus the developer working to meet sales quotas no matter what, then look out, because good things are going to happen.

And Robin Hood has personal first hand experience of those evil-doings as in his PR he claims to have witnessed a world of lies and corruption while working in the industry. For the most part, no one cares about the client and they will say anything they can to get the sale.

As published on Linkedin.com (one of the most visited websites in the world) the only timeshare experience the crusader seems to have listed is to be working in sales at Wyndham Worldwide and according to that information, as of this writing, Robin Currently holds this position.

According to Facebook Lacerda is joined in this venture by Ashley Klinger Lacerda. Jointly they may also be operating another online anti-timeshare ownership venture that is also a travel club; the Registrant and hosting service is provided by Michelle Mate of SEA Server, Inc. based out of N. Myrtle Beach, SC.

Robin loves PRs, too, and is getting them out on a regular basis. According to him his ventures are the future of vacation ownership which is a rather odd statement to make since he is so anti-timeshare.

Equally curious is that Robin has also made it to Complaintsboard.com where one poster claims, referring to one of Robins companies, This company is a scam. The poster alleges We have been beat out of thousands of dollars followed by the usual rants of lawyer-up, contacting local police, BBB, etc.

But what is really interesting about those allegations are the follow up comments posted, including more slams on Wyndham whereby a Samantha Derby claims that Robin Hoods company helped me and all my family fix all of the bad situations Wyndham reps put us in over the years and helped me cancel my contracts and got all my money back, and they did not take a penny from me ending with the assertion These people are saints.

However the same Samantha Derby former Wyndham Sucker also posted that we are happy current owners of points through Wyndham and right after that post is someone going by the name of NicoleLee (Nicole Astin) who says that Lacerdas company helped me and my family save so much money. Wyndham did nothing but lie to us during the sales presentation

Now why Samantha claimed that Robin did not take a penny from me is anyones guess because Robins company also claims We have the capabilities to protect timeshare owners from developers and we guarantee our work or the client gets their money back. Period. Thats our promise. (emphasis mine)

Wherever the truth lies one thing may be clear and that is that Wyndham might have someone on the line at this very moment who perhaps shouldnt be there. And if Adam Lacerda is still working at one of their sales centers maybe someone needs to have a chat with the anti-timeshare warrior because his extracurricular activities might not be in the best interest of a fine company like Wyndham Worldwide.

Scoop

source: http://www.insidethegate.com/2010/08/are-wyndham-sales-reps-lying/