Financial protection

ATOL protection

What is protected, what is not, and what actually happens to your money and your trip if we were to fail.

Last updated 20 August 2026

Our licence

The Sports & Events Club holds an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence — ATOL 12517, issued and regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority. Holding one means the CAA has reviewed our finances and that customer money for flight-inclusive bookings is protected by the ATOL scheme.

What is protected

ATOL protects flight-inclusive packages — where you book a flight together with accommodation, an event ticket or other travel service from us in one transaction. If you book a match ticket, a hotel and a flight together, that booking is ATOL protected.

When you book one, we issue you an ATOL Certificate. It arrives with your confirmation and it lists what is protected and who to contact. It is available at any time from your booking in your account. Keep it — it is the document you would present to the CAA.

What is not protected by ATOL

Being straight about this matters more than sounding reassuring:

Event tickets bought on their own are not a flight-inclusive package.
Hotel-only bookings are not ATOL protected.
A ticket and hotel with no flight is not ATOL protected.

These bookings are instead protected through our Travel Trust Association membership, number X0558: the money you pay is held in a trust account and is not released until your booking has been delivered. Different mechanism, same aim — your money does not disappear with the company.

If a booking is not ATOL protected we will not issue an ATOL Certificate for it, and you should not be sent one. If you think you have received the wrong document, call us on 020 3355 4400.

If we fail

The ATOL scheme means you will not lose the money you paid, and you will not be stranded abroad.

If you have not travelled yet, you claim a refund from the CAA using your ATOL Certificate.
If you are already away, the CAA arranges for your trip to continue and for you to return home as planned.

The CAA’s claims process is at caa.co.uk. In some cases the CAA may authorise another ATOL holder to deliver your booking, and your acceptance of that is treated as agreement to a new contract with them.

The wording the CAA requires

All the flight-inclusive holidays on this website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. When you pay you will be supplied with an ATOL Certificate. Please ask for it and check to ensure that everything you booked (flights, hotels and other services) is listed on it. Please see our booking conditions for further information, or for more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to www.caa.co.uk.