Thomas Cook: Belfast customer says she is still owed £740

Fern Morton said it was her son Ritchie's dream to go to New York

A Belfast woman who ended up double booking a holiday to New York after Thomas Cook collapsed said she was distraught trying to chase a refund.

Fern Morton, 39, said she paid £740 towards her package holiday.

Thomas Cook collapsed on 23 September, after failing to obtain rescue funds from its banks.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said two-thirds of valid claims it received will be paid on time. It has refunded more than £160m in claims to date.

A refund process was opened on 7 October for customers covered by Atol-protected insurance.

Some 150,000 travellers were repatriated to the UK during a two-week operation run by the CAA.

• 'We’re sorry for Thomas Cook refund delay'

• 'Thomas Cook crash almost ruined my engagement'

Ms Morton, who had been due to fly to New York with a large family group, told BBC News NI she contacted the CAA after Thomas Cook collapsed.

"Our holiday was booked for a special birthday for my son who is autistic," she said.

She put in her claim form to the CAA and rebooked her holiday to New York on the same dates with another travel agency.

But by the end of November, Ms Morton said she had not received any correspondence from the CAA.

Ms Morton then learned her initial booking was, in fact, made through Thomas Cook Retail, who was acting as a retail agent for travel agency World Travel Centre.

This meant the holiday was not affected by the collapse.

As a result of this, she was advised by the CAA to liaise with the World Travel Centre directly.

But it said it was not responsible for refunding payments made by Ms Morton to Thomas Cook.

Booking cancelled

The travel agent told Ms Morton it had made efforts to contact her to advise that their original holiday was Atol-protected and it could go ahead as planned.

But the company said the family did not get back to them about this.

When Ms Morton then realised she had a double booking, she cancelled her first holiday she had booked with Thomas Cook.

Glenn Lowry, of the World Travel Centre, told BBC News NI he refunded Ms Morton's family £250, which was all the money the company had received from Thomas Cook.

But Ms Morton said she was still personally owed £740 from Thomas Cook.

She said her next step is to contact Abta, the UK travel trade association for tour operators and travel agents, to push for a refund.

Some 300,000 Thomas Cook claims have been received so far, 215,000 of which have been confirmed as valid.

However, this figure includes about 90,000 direct debit customers in October whose money was automatically returned.

The CAA did not respond to a request for comment on Ms Morton's case.