What is a package holiday?
Traditionally a package holiday was what you bought out of a brochure at a travel agency where the elements of the package, hotel accommodation and flights, had already been ‘packaged’ together but with the advent of the internet and no frills airlines those days are long gone.
While many people still purchase a package out of a brochure it is now equally easy or even easier to go online and put together your own package from a menu of services offered by online tour operators and Online Travel Agents (OTAs). It is also the case that you can go into a travel agency and they will effectively put a tailor-made package together for you.
As a consequence the definition of a package is now quite extensive.
First of all you have to have purchased a combination of at least two travel services. These are:
• transport (such as a flight, ferry, coach or train. Hotel transfers are probably not included but might be if they are booked and paid for separately and are a long way from the airport)
• accommodation (such as an hotel, villa, caravan, chalet or apartment)
• car rental
• a tourist service (such as a concert or a sporting event or an excursion) where this is a significant part of the holiday either because of its value or because it is an essential part of the trip.
Then you have to show that it was purchased as a combination i.e. broadly speaking you bought all the elements of the package at the same time or within 24 hours.
The following arrangements, assuming they contain at least two elements, amount to packages:
• If a single trader combines the services at your request or based upon your selection before the contract is concluded.
This would cover a traditional package holiday bought from a tour operator where your contract is with the tour operator.
• You purchased the services from a single point of sale and selected them before you agreed to pay.
If you go into a travel agency or to an OTA and they sell you a flight from an airline and accommodation from a hotel with separate contracts for each this would be a package under this definition.
• You are asked to pay an inclusive or total price for all the services you bought.
It doesn’t matter if your price is broken down into different elements e.g. for the flight and the accommodation. As long as there is a total or inclusive price it is still a package.
• The services were advertised or sold to you as a ‘package’ or similar term.
If the trader calls your combination a ‘package’ then it will count as a package. What is a similar term is open to debate. If you are sold a ‘holiday’ this might count as a similar term. ‘Combined deal’, ‘all-inclusive’ or ‘all-in arrangement’ might be regarded as similar terms.
• A trader sold you one travel service and then transferred your details, including your payment details to another company with which you then booked another travel service within the space of 24 hours.
This is known as a ‘click-through’ arrangement and depends upon your payment details being transferred to the second trader rather than having to input them afresh. This might happen on an airline site where, after you had booked the flight, you were prompted to visit a hotel site and within 24 hours you booked the hotel.