Tom Harper River Cruise Bankruptcy

[CruisingAlong4Now]

OK. It appears as if this company has closed its doors. Since they are not the direct provider of the services, are they considered a travel agent? If so, is their bankruptcy excluded under most insurance policies?

[sirwired]

I think they would be considered a Tour Operator (and therefore covered), not a Travel Agent.

 

A travel agent is someone who does nothing but pass on the booking (and aren't even supposed to collect the money at all, except for their own fee if they charge one.) The exclusion is keep the insurance company from having to untangle the mess while trying to figure out if a bankrupt "travel agency" is in cahoots with a "customer" trying to file a fraudulent claim.

 

Technically, few cruises are operated by the company you book with; most ships are owned by subsidiaries of the "mother company". (This was actually relevant in a Supreme Court case against Costa; they tried to argue that a suit was served incorrectly since it was sent to Costa's US operations (which handles all bookings), even though the cruise contract was with the mother company in Italy (which, in turn, is owned by CCL, but that wasn't relevant to the case.) Costa lost.)

[cruiseco]

It may not actually matter with some insurers. For example, this is from a Travelex plan:

 

"Financial Insolvency means complete suspension of operations due to insolvency, with or without the filing of a bankruptcy petition, whether voluntary or involuntary, by a tour operator, cruise line, airline, rental car company, hotel, condominium, railroad, motor coach company, or other supplier of travel services other than the person, organization, agency or firm from whom you directly purchased or paid for your Covered Trip provided the Financial Insolvency occurs more than 14 days following your effective date for the Trip Cancellation Benefits. There is no coverage for the complete suspension of operations for losses caused by fraud or negligent misrepresentation by the supplier of travel services."

 

So if you bought your trip directly from Tom Harper it wouldn't matter if they're a travel provider or an agent. Under this plan you're not covered either way.

[sirwired]

Hmmm... While I see what you are saying, I think what they mean is what Travelguard changed their language to (they used to use identical language to Travelex)...

 

This is what Travelguard says now: "There is no coverage for the Financial Default of any person, organization, agency, or firm from whom you purchased travel arrangements supplied by others."

 

I think in both instances "person, organization, agency, or firm" is expressly meant to cover 3rd-party agents, not exclude people that happened to buy from BankruptTourOperator.com, instead of getting, say, Expedia to do it. (I think that if they meant "supplier" they would have included it in the list.) It doesn't really make any sense to exclude people that simply didn't make the booking with an agent, since the money is still pulled from the credit card directly by the supplier either way; the agent is just the place that files the booking paperwork.